Issue(s): Vision #1, Vision #2, Vision #3, Vision #4
Cover Date: Nov 94 - Feb 95
Title: "Dreams and madmen" / "Impaired Vision" / "Visionary dreams" / "Changing Visions"
Credits:
Bob Harras - Writer
Manny Clark - Penciler
Al Vey & Mike Machlan / Mike Machlan / Mike Machlan, Steve Alexandrov, Charles Barnett III, Johnny Greene, & Rich Perrotta - Inker
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
Bob Harras vomits all over the pages for four issues. Or maybe that's my vomit. Anyway, this miniseries has some merit in that it ends with the Vision kinda-sorta getting a personality again, but it takes a lot of nonsense to get there. The villains are Gatherers, in case you haven't gotten enough of them in Harras' Avengers series. And the majority of the story has Vision, Jocasta (the Gatherer version), and Ultron acting like they are characters in Humphrey Bogart films.

And the explanation for that is pretty weak. The main villain, the alternate universe Vision, wants his real body back (he and the Vision swapped bodies and then his new body was damaged).

He's got a virus or something for that, and he first tests the virus on Ultron and Jocasta, which somehow causes their personalities to revert to Bogart versions. G-Vision specifically says that he was watching too many Bogart films when it came to Jocasta; it's less clear why Ultron is acting like a "town drunk".

But then when it comes to the Vision, it's said that he's acting like a Bogart character as a kind of self-defense mechanism thanks to the influence of the Wonder Man (aka Simon Williams, the actor) portion of his personality mixed with that of Alex Lipton (a former police officer). So the explanation is all over the place, and it really seems like just something to fill the middle chapters of this series. And it is entertaining in and of itself; it just makes no sense as part of the bigger picture.

On top of that, the Vision keeps having dreams of what we're told is the Scarlet Witch (even though it looks nothing like her) and their phantom children.

Vision is later drawn to Laura Lipton, the love of his Alex Lipton personality template.

The end result, after G-Vision's plan is thwarted, is that the Vision's personalities are integrated.

But this also causes the Vision to resign from the Avengers so that he can find himself. He's last seen flying away with Ultron and Jocasta (the latter of whom is never to be seen again).

The best part of the series is when the Vision gets a dig in at Hank Pym.

The worst is what's happened to Ultron, normally the Avengers' best and most terrifying villain.

The art in the series gets increasingly sloppy.

And issue #4 has five inkers.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP place this between Avengers #383-384. The Vision goes missing for a period of "four weeks"during the course of this story. The Vision leaves the Avengers for a while after this (until Avengers #391, although he'll appear in other books in the meantime).

References:

• The real Vision and the Gatherer version swapped bodies in Avengers #360.
  
• Gatherer Vision then got the real Vision's body damaged in Avengers #363 (and he's been presumed dead since then).
  
• This Jocasta is from an alternate timeline, as seen in Avengers #373.
  
• Crystal told Vision in Avengers #367 that feelings have a habit of sneaking up on people.
  
• We learned in Avengers #57-58 that the Vision's personality template was originally based on Wonder Man.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The penciler is trying to copy Jim Lee. He fails bad.

The next time Vision shows up, he's got his original, pre-Avengers 255 personality back.
The Vision's being able to carry both Ultron and Jocasta was criticized at the time. Vision is usually written as unable to carry anything that weighs that much when flying. (He's been depicted as being able to carry small objects, like the Serpent Crown or a Halloween costume.) However, he was once able to lift Wanda out of an energy cage- but weirdly he was unable to lift Wanda again in later stories.

There might have been a good story here, but the art ruined it.

I feel like complaining whenever I see Vision carry objects while flying too. His low-density means of taking to the air has unique repercussions. I also subscribe to fnordian notion that a hero with just one power shouldn't be outshined at it by another hero who has that power as part of a set. Since Vision has super strength, solar beams, a mind that can interface with computers, and the ability to increase his density on top of intangibility, let Shadowcat (whose deal is intangibility) be the one who can extend it to other things.

I'm sure this is minor problem for this emesis-born mini, though.