Issue(s): Avengers #238
Cover Date: Dec 83
Title: "Unlimited Vision!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker
Mike Carlin - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Starfox is bored while on duty overseeing the Vision's intert body, so he starts a monologue on his frustrations. He joined the Avengers for adventure, and he doesn't like the periods of waiting in between missions.

It turns out that the Vision has actually been conscious and able to listen for some time ("Captain America's war stories were most informative -- and the She-Hulk's stories were quite amusing... if a bit tawdry!"), and he's now able to talk.

Starfox decides to help out by connecting Vision to ISAAC, the world computer from the moon of Titan.

This doesn't quite have the intended effect. The Vision suddenly becomes at one with ISAAC as well as the Avengers' computer network. The first thing he does is locate Moonstone and Blackout, who have been hiding at an old Egghead safe house.

In the subsequent fight...

...the Scarlet Witch invokes a hex that causes Blackout's dark force to "melt", and Blackout tries to flee, drawing himself and Moonstone into the Darkforce dimension. There's never any dialogue from her, but Milgrom does a great job of depicting how creeped out Captain Marvel is when it happens:

The issue ends with the Vision displaying a little bit of megalomania that has the rest of the team somewhat nervous.

However, before he can address their concerns, the team gets a call from Tigra on the West Coast. It seems that the ghost of Spider-Woman is lurking around Jessica Drew's body in the hospital.

In addition to some nice developments for the Vision, continued great handling of Moonstone's manipulative nature, and a more plausible explanation of Blackout's powers, there's also plenty of nice downtime moments.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - set up for a number of stories about an out-of-control Vision.

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Vision was injured while fighting Annihilus in Avengers #233.
  
• The Vision also liked Captain Marvel's stories about New Orleans. Vision once visited New Orleans with the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #152.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

What's with the Scarlet Witch's hair? It's been a pre-Donna Reed style since 1964.

Eros is not listed in Characters Appearing

It's perhaps notable (not in terms of Historical Significance) that Stern takes this opportunity to completely rewrite Blackout's origin, making him far more mentally unstable than he was in Nova and suggesting that his inability to understand his own origin drove him around the bend.

It's a nice twist on the way most "accidental origin" super-characters (at least at this time) seem to fully and unthinkingly accept their good fortune instead of having their minds blown. Giving Moonstone a mentally unstable sidekick to manipulate was a good step forward for her as well, allowing her to build her threat level while retaining her characteristic shortsightedness and pettiness.

I'm not as sure what to make of the Vision plotline that kicks off here, however, which the Blackout bit is clearly meant to parallel -- someone gets expanded power and awareness, and becomes delusional and unstable -- but the Avengers' initial reactions are well-written, and the underlying idea of a genuinely altruistic character becoming drunk on power is a good theme. I don't know if the Vision was the best character for it, though, and the end result is the beginning of the end for the character. Vizh will lose his slot in the Avengers and settle into domesticity, which eventually makes it easy for John Byrne to dismantle him. In many ways, this arc costs Vision his status as the centerpiece of the Avengers, something he's had since the late 1960s, and he becomes permanently marginalized.

Added Starfox. Thanks OrangeDuke.

I know it's his superpower, but comics have the strangest characters become The Lady's Man of the group. Starfox basically looks like Ginger Quicksilver.