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kmurphymedia 's review for:
Vision
by Tom King
I hadn't planned on blasting through this all in one sitting, but... oops.
As someone who hasn't ever been wowed by Marvel comics, The Vision is an incredible read that blows away most other graphic novels I've read, and I feel like a big part of that is because of how universal it makes its themes and story. The specifics require all the background, of course- Ultron, Scarlet Witch, the Avengers, and so on- but to take a step back, or one closer, shows that this has a tremendous amount in common with science fiction concepts that go back to Shelley's Frankenstein. Vision's attempts to live a normal life with a normal family- when they are anything but- are as much a classical desire for humanity as anything in Asimov, or the incessant quest of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Simply put, The Vision is a welcome addition to explorations of a long-standing idea.
The manner in which this is done is noteworthy as well, and only possible in an image-based medium. Our eyes are drawn to specific parts of certain panels, or even to specific panels on a page; the juxtaposition of shattered and unbroken is made very apparent, though it may not be noticed at first; the narration, juggled with dialogue, gives the feeling of a character speaking in direct aside to us, foreshadowing the tragedies to come.
And come they do. This one's a brutal heartbreaker. There's some kind of hope at the end, but even that is tainted by an expectation of future sorrow in the wake of all the pain that has been experienced up to this point, the source of which extends back decades, back to when Vision was created by Ultron, and which echoes throughout the series.
I'm won over by the ambition here and how well it was executed. This interpretation of a classic scifi idea brings some new elements that give it a unique feel and flavor, and it singlehandedly has convinced me to look into more from Marvel's comics, especially King's work.
As someone who hasn't ever been wowed by Marvel comics, The Vision is an incredible read that blows away most other graphic novels I've read, and I feel like a big part of that is because of how universal it makes its themes and story. The specifics require all the background, of course- Ultron, Scarlet Witch, the Avengers, and so on- but to take a step back, or one closer, shows that this has a tremendous amount in common with science fiction concepts that go back to Shelley's Frankenstein. Vision's attempts to live a normal life with a normal family- when they are anything but- are as much a classical desire for humanity as anything in Asimov, or the incessant quest of Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Simply put, The Vision is a welcome addition to explorations of a long-standing idea.
The manner in which this is done is noteworthy as well, and only possible in an image-based medium. Our eyes are drawn to specific parts of certain panels, or even to specific panels on a page; the juxtaposition of shattered and unbroken is made very apparent, though it may not be noticed at first; the narration, juggled with dialogue, gives the feeling of a character speaking in direct aside to us, foreshadowing the tragedies to come.
And come they do. This one's a brutal heartbreaker. There's some kind of hope at the end, but even that is tainted by an expectation of future sorrow in the wake of all the pain that has been experienced up to this point, the source of which extends back decades, back to when Vision was created by Ultron, and which echoes throughout the series.
I'm won over by the ambition here and how well it was executed. This interpretation of a classic scifi idea brings some new elements that give it a unique feel and flavor, and it singlehandedly has convinced me to look into more from Marvel's comics, especially King's work.