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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Question for Marvellites:

Okay. I think I've got a reasonable grasp on the Vision, what with the cartoon and some online explanations. I at least get the whole "Made from the original android human torch by Ultron" thing. I vaguely follow the "had Wonder Man's brain template, then not, then Iron Lad's" or something like that. (Do correct me if I'm wrong though. I admit my Marvel history is very, very shaky.)

I don't follow the whole making babies that are now somehow in their late teens despite Marvel's stretched timeline, but I'm not going there.

Ever.

I don't want to know. I do think it's funny that thanks to this Hank Pym beats out Scott Summers. Scott's got a grandkid. Hank's got great grandkids. Sorta. That amuses me.

But can someone explain the Ultimates Vision to me? I know it's a girl robot with boobs, which is weird in and of itself. But why is it a girl robot with boobs? Where did it come from?

And most importantly, will there be hot robot/human lesbianism? I'm just curious.

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posted by kalinara @ 6:06 AM  

14 Comments:

  • At September 20, 2006 6:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Well, the Vision is a character that is most comparative to DC's Martian Manhunter. He is a core to the Avengers, but never really done right in solo action. He was not made from the Oeiginal Human Torch.

    As for the Ultimate version, throw out the rules. I am convinced that they just sit around and think up "cool" things to do. Vision as a hot robot, COOL. Then they did it. I am surprised that more "males" have not been gender switched to make a hot version of a character.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 7:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Several years ago "The Vision of Loveliness" was printed in a Marvel Bullpen Bulletins page for the sole purpose of provenance so no one else could use the idea. She was a female version of Vision with a large rack and, as the notes on the picture revealed, wore stilleto heeled boots because they were "sexy".

     

  • At September 20, 2006 8:58 AM, Blogger Matthew E said…

    Well, the Vision is a character that is most comparative to DC's Martian Manhunter.

    You think so? Maybe. I think I could make a case that he's more comparable to the Red Tornado.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 9:15 AM, Blogger CalvinPitt said…

    Ultimate Vision is a sort of early-warning system made a long time ago by an alien race, to warn other races abut Ultimate Gah'Lak'Tus. It lands on the planet, tells them what'c coming, and then sort of takes in all knowledge of the people, since they'll never survive (ala Brainiac in the Superman cartoon).

    Then it gets sent off before the destruction comes, to warn the next sentient race in the way. It landed in Siberia in 1908 (it's their version of the Tunguska explosion). The Russians/Soviets found it, did all sorts of experiments on humans with the tech, and generally screwed Earth over so that by the time Nick Fury found it, we only had a few months till Gah'Lak'Tus' arrival, instead of several decades.

    Some of that is probably off, I'm doing recall from the glances through Ultimate Nightmare, Secret, and Extinction.

    As for why it's a robot woman? Because they thought it would be kewl?

     

  • At September 20, 2006 9:35 AM, Blogger joncormier said…

    Um I think the kids we're explained by the Scarlet Witch's "hysterical woman" character trait. That she convinced herself she was pregnant and became so through magic, so the kids are now like an alternate reality or magic or something?? My Marvel history isn't exactly better than yours and I'm not going to look up the details because I'm lazy.

    Yeah, Ultimate Vision hooks up with the newly designed female android version of Ultimate Rawhide Kid.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 10:13 AM, Blogger R.Nav said…

    Okay, the previous explination of Vision as an early warning system for Galactus attacks is correct so no need to repeat it here.

    However, what isn't explained is why Vision rebuilt himself as a Sexbot 9000. I say HIMSELF because he was a "male" (or sexless) robot all the way up to his discovery in siberia, up to the point where Shield is rebuilding him, etc.. until one panel at the beginning of the Vision Micro-Series where Reed Richards fixes Vision enough so his auto-repair function can kick in then *PLINK* hotbot.

    The best part about it? NO ONE SEEMS TO NOTICE! That, or it's like "Shh! Dude, shut up or she'll cover them!"

    *PLINK* is now the official sound effect for boobs suddenly appearing on a robot. Please make note.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 10:22 AM, Blogger R.Nav said…

    P.S. 616 Vision's backstory is broken. He's been retconned about as often as X-men have died.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 11:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I've always loved the "recycled" nature of the 616 Vision, with Ultron using the "shell" of the original Human Torch...and I'm not sure what the status of that angle is. John Byrne ripped it out, someone else put it back in, and since then the character has "died" (yeah, just like Red Tornado has at least a dozen times), so I have no idea what the official story is.

    The Ultimate Vision? Couldn't care less. A few of the Ultimates books hold my interest (chief among them Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man), but the rest? Same old, same old.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 11:44 AM, Blogger Richard said…

    Sleestak, "the Vision of Loveliness" was a satirical piece done by a female Marvel staffer for a comics zine to heap scorn on sexist character design. In addition to the high heels, I recall it also featured prominent dispay of bare cleavage a la Power Girl (but not as sensible) and the artist's notes specified that the character's lips had to be big and pouty because looking exactly like a blow-up doll was extra-sexy. It was agitprop, not a copyright grab.

    kalinara, when you feel ready, the only way to make sense of the Vision's backstory is to read a series by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco called Avengers Forever -- which is no great problem as it's a cracking good story and probably the last good Avengers story published by Marvel. It's also an experiment in anti-retconning a badly broken continuity. The premise of the attempt is that nothing gets thrown out, as such -- even the things that blatantly contradict each other -- rather, we're shown the way these things fit together may not have been what we were led to assume. The writing is good enough that it could stand up as a readable, entertaining story even if you didn't know all the continuity it was trying to fix.

    And it does sorta kinda resolve that whole Human Torch thing.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 12:09 PM, Blogger SallyP said…

    I was rather fond of the OLD Vision, and by old, I mean waaaaay back when the Avengers was done by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Since then, things have gotten a tad...convoluted. Brian Bendis killed off Vision in Avengers Disassembled, but then somehow he's back in Young Avengers in a way that I do not completely understand, but nevermind. But the Ultimate Vision is just a new twist...in the Ultimate Universe you can do anything! Like make Nightcrawler into a rotten little homophobe, Thor a mental patient, and Xavier into a manipulive creep. Oh wait!

     

  • At September 20, 2006 2:35 PM, Blogger Brandon Bragg said…

    "...will there be hot robot/human lesbianism?"

    You have to read 2000AD for that I'm afraid.

     

  • At September 20, 2006 7:24 PM, Blogger Seth T. Hahne said…

    Sure, you finally ask a Marvel question and I can't answer because I haven't picked up more than a handful of Avengers books over the course of my twenty-five years of reading/collecting. For some reason it was rare that I could convince myself that the stories could be interesting. I think I have issues with team books. Fantastic Four and Power Pack were nearly acceptable because there're only four of them - which is nearly manageable (plus, it's more about family and less about team). X-Men was a brief exception in that I read it until it split into several teams and there were ninety-four X-Men to keep track of. Blaargh.

    I tried to start Ultimates, which was fine to start... but by the second season of it, there were too many characters for it to really do much development of any of them.

    I think this is why when I do tip my toe into DC waters, I've always steered clear of JSA, JLA, Teen Titans, and the Legion. Just 'cuz man, even though they have some cool people on the roster, there's just too many of 'em.

    *goes back to rocking chair and continues being ornery off in a corner where it won't bother anyone*

     

  • At September 20, 2006 10:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Ultimate Vision was made into a woman because.

    Thats it. Thats there entire reason. No autobot esque scanning or anything, I mean if it was rebuilding itself and saw a human woman then went "Ok thats what they look like here" I'd be fine.

    But no they gave the Vision a feminine design after showing he was originally a sexless robot.

    It's crazy.

    But at least Hank is a granddad.

     

  • At September 22, 2006 5:43 AM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Huh. I could have sworn I'd posted responses here. Egads.

    Sorry about the lateness guys!

    Anyway. Thanks for the info! I'm still incredibly confused. But that's comics for you! :-P

     

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