Published on March 1st, 1989
Disney+, the new streaming service, has their first Marvel TV show that they're currently running. It's called WandaVision and features two of the dumber, lesser known Marvel heroes, The Scarlett Witch and Vision. I reviewed the famous "Skree/Krull War" Avengers storyline from the 70's last year and was kind of shocked that Vision and The Scarlett Witch were kind of prominent characters in The Avengers. They're definitely not now, although that'll probably change because the TV show is out. The only book I ever remember ever reading that featured either of those characters was Tom King's Vision book, and in that Vision wasn't even married to The Scarlett Witch anymore. The funny thing in all of this is that Vision was killed off in the Marvel movies and yet there's a TV show with him in it now. The TV show is said to be loosely based on John Byrne's "Vision Quest" storyline from 1989 in The West Coast Avengers book. I figured I'd check it out since I am enjoying the TV show. One big problem is that the majority of reviews of "Vision Quest" say that it fucking sucks and is awful and ruined whatever "good" continuity The Avengers had. So maybe I shouldn't be reading it? John Byrne wrote and penciled the storyline and this issue was apparently is first one on The West Coast Avengers. That book ran from 1984 to 1994 with 102 issues. Funny that I never read it, especially since I was reading comic books for probably the last five years of that run. Considering it's filled with a bunch of B-superheroes like Hawkeye and Wonder Man, that's not too surprising. It lasted a long time, though, right? I guess The Avengers was such a best seller they gave it a second book. Or maybe the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 got everyone excited about California so Marvel decided to set a book there. Either way, this issue, The West Coast Avengers #42 is part one of "Vision Quest." It starts with The Scarlett Witch waking up and realizing her husband, Vision, isn't in bed and is missing. Eventually we learn that someone hacked into the computer network and deleted any trace of Vision. It's not much of a mystery, since on the last page we realize that Mockingbird was the one that deleted Vision's history. There is actually a lot more that happens in this issue, including a fight with a fake Ultron, but most of it is an elaborate, confusing backstory of how Ultron created Vision. The Human Torch was originally a robot but then died and Vision was created from his robot corpse but also with "the brain patterns of Simon Williams...Wonder Man!" Okay. The one thing that struck me when reading that old "Kree/Skrull War" storyline was how super confusing and intricate the backstory and plots were in comic books in the old days. If you just randomly picked up this issue you'd be, like me, totally fucking lost. Do I really need to know the plot of like a thousand previous books to enjoy this? Comic books aren't as bad these days, though the reward of being a long term reader now probably isn't as great. At least now it's a lot easier to catch up and find old issues online. Back then you were either digging in back issue boxes in flea markets to find old issues or you were just lost. I will say that the wordiness of old comic books is completely different than it is now; books back then had a lot of description and felt worth the money. Nowadays I can read a comic book in like a minute and not miss a thing. John Byrne is a pretty famous figure in comic books, although I doubt I've ever read much or anything from him. Supposedly he's a cantankerous, old bastard these days, though his art was pretty to look at back then. I'm not sure where this storyline is going but for now it's an enjoyable, old school romp. **1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment