Orkey's stuff, part 1: Avengers #57, the origin of the Vision and...well, go read it!

Yes, this is going to be a different post! Why? Might be more serious than others, but the issue to review demanded this seriousness, to be honest.
So without further introductions, let me give you our first piece of work from our guest analist and guest comics reviewer (who has decided to lend me a hand), David a.k.a Orkey, Avengers #57's review!

"Okay, folks, now that you've learned how the Black Panther got involved with out (sic) Avenging Assemblers, it's time to look in on the dramatic debut of the avengers' most enigmatic member of all. We think the title speaks for itself...
Behold The Vision!"
( Marvel Treasury Edition #7's introduction to the reprint of Avengers #57)

Avengers #57 tells a story about humanity. Roy Thomas and John Buscema shows us a few relationships and how our characters confront them as they change. Each relationship is unique and each is the same. Such richness in material was puddy in the hands of Roy and Big John. Of course, they introduced maybe the last great Silver Age hero, the Vision.

The story opens with our first relationship. What does Jan want and how does she go about getting it? If she was a child, she would had just spoken up. Tell Hank what she wants. Children are little wonders in the way they simply declare "More candy" or "I don't feel like it" or "Why?". Adults tend to forget such direct communications. Jan wants Hank to propose marriage and instead of saying"Let's get married", she is quietly upset when he says nothing except how his research germs need him now. Jan confronts her desire by being angry with Pym for not ..reading her mind?

Their relationship will advance despite Jan weariness of Hank's sense of duty to his research. Love will find a way. For our next relationship, love will find a separate way. Black Widow and Hawkeye are on the fritz. Like with Dr. Pym, the sense of duty rears its head- Hawkeye is clear that Avengering comes first and busy SHIELD agent, Natasha is clear that it has been weeks since they shared a dinner. Something has to give. She knows a change will come when she informs Hawkeye that she will be gone when he returns. Does Hawkeye know "gone" means breaking-up? A confrontation for another story.

T'Challa is gone. The young monarch has left his kingdom to find his purpose in life. He feels his duty to his subjects is not fulfilling him. He wants more. But what does this mean? He has been an Avenger and superheroing is not filling up his emptiness. He is on his way to discovering his purpose in life when he stops a street crime. The innercity neighborhood is buzzing about the famous Avenger saving their day, instead of saving the world from a threat.

The Black Panther will relate to his world, his kingdom and his community differently from now on. Change comes to him, too. He feels he must serve the people, who sometimes are not seen. All these big questions are knocking on each Avenger's door. Purpose in life? How to relate to others? Sense of duty to something greater than themselves?

The Vision does not knock when he makes his intro. He scares the bejesus out of Jan not once, but twice. She cannot believe this strange being has entered her penthouse apartment. And how "it" phases through her locked door. .

The Vision is a babe in the woods. He is a blank state. Well, almost. His only directive is "kill the Avengers". This sense of duty sums up his identity. While the other characters are able to chose duty over love or question what their duty is?, the artificial man is unsure if he even has his own will. Can he make a choice? goes hand in hand with another big question, "Who am I?".

To say the Vision is alienated from his society is putting it mildly. He is alienated from everything life has to offer. Readers should be able to relate with him as he demands answers. He feels Ultron is the one to give them. His only lead is the one he recalls sending him on his deadly mission in the first place. It is a pity that the first relationship Vision recalls is an unhealthy one with his "father". Thankfully, this relationship is like the other characters' because it is in a state of flux. The life of the Vision begins as he finds himself safe among a fellowship of heroes. He starts to grow as a man.

Relationships with the opposite sex, relationships with your community, balancing duty and desire, and relating to yourself are what makes us human. Our relationships are personal and yet very universal. We do share experiences in life.


The Vision...he is very much a human and his tale is a tale of humanity. Of us. This is the last relationship Roy and John showed us- the reader, the writer, the artist .. and the story.