Biography - Page 3
The Avengers soon became involved in a complicated game of chess between several incarnations of Kang the Conqueror in order to control Mantis and her newly-revealed destiny as the Celestial Madonna. Vision and the Avengers were transported to Limbo and forced to fight the Legion of the Unliving, which included allegedly undead versions of Wonder Man and the original Human Torch. During the struggle, Vision was seriously damaged by one of the Legion, exposing his inner workings. The Human Torch was surprised to recognize the Vision's internal structure and declared Vision's body was actually his own! When Kang and his Legion were eventually dispatched by Immortus, Kang's ultimate counterpart, the Lord of Limbo offered Vision the chance to see his own origins first hand. Jumping at the opportunity, Vision was guided by a synchro-staff through the ages and witnessed the events that led to the original Human Torch being transformed into the Vision. Vision was satisfied with learning his own history and origins for the first time, recognizing now why Ant-Man and the Sentinels considered him vintage-made. He also reasoned that his paralysis when faced with water or quicksand in the past was a residual claustrophobia from the memories of the Human Torch, who was often smothered or entombed in such materials.
[Note: Although technically accurate, the Vision's revelation in these issues didn't cover the whole story. This was deliberate on Immortus' part, due to his long-term goals for manipulating the Scarlet Witch. Specifically, the synchro-staff and the Unliving Legionnaire version of the Human Torch were likely Space Phantoms, playing the roles assigned them by Immortus.]
After emerging from the timestream, Vision found his way to Wanda, who had been possessed by the Dread Dormammu in his absence. Vision's declarations of love were enough to shake Wanda from Dormammu's control before she killed him, and together they escaped his clutches. Returning to Avengers Mansion, Vision confessed the full depth of his feelings for Wanda and apologized for the distance between them of late. More confident than ever in his status as a man and not just a robot, Vision proposed to Wanda, and she quickly accepted. They were married by Immortus alongside Mantis and the Cotati Swordsman at the temple for the Priests of Pama in Vietnam. [Celestial Madonna saga]
Vision and Wanda honeymooned on the island of Rurutu in French Polynesia. Wanda helped Vizh overcome his inhibitions and apparently change clothes for the first time in his life to a pair of bathing trunks. After swimming in the waters, they made love on the beaches outside their tiny getaway. [Avengers (1st series) #137] Vision made his first mistake of the marriage, however, when he suggested they end the honeymoon early. Vision's logical mind was concerned with how the general public would accept their marriage after reacting so negatively to their love, and wanted to return and resolve the issue for his peace of mind. Although Wanda agreed, even the emotionally inexperienced Vision soon realized his error when every one of their friends responded with some shock and surprise at their quick return. [Avengers (1st series) #139-140]
Despite this faux pas, Vision and the Scarlet Witch quickly readjusted to life among the Avengers. The team went through several adventures before a membership shake-up prompted them to announce a new roster to the public. In a shocking twist, however, Wonder Man suddenly 
appeared at the Avengers' press conference, having somehow returned from the grave to accuse the Vision, repeating "He did it... he is the one... the one who stole my mind." over and over. [Avengers (1st series) #151] It soon became clear that Wonder Man wasn't in his right mind. Although he seemingly lived and walked, his consciousness was virtually a blank slate. Through witchcraft, Wanda was able to determine Wonder Man was a voodoo zuvembie, and tracked his whereabouts back to Le Mort Bayou outside of New Orleans. The Avengers battled and defeated the voodoo priest, Black Talon, but learned nothing more about why Simon Williams had been restored. Throughout it all, Vision quietly seethed as he felt his individual identity slipping away with every breath Wonder Man took. [Avengers (1st series) #152]
Vision's self-worth plummeted further after Wonder Man just "shook off" being a zombie and returned to full awareness after an encounter with the Living Laser. With the man whose mind he "stole" now fully up and around and ready to reclaim his life, Vision felt like even more of a fraud. [Avengers Annual (1st series) #6] After the active Avengers were captured by Attuma and forced via slave collars to attack Hydrobase, they were imprisoned by Doctor Doom. With some teamwork, they managed to free Vision, and the team expected him to free them in turn. Instead, Vision left the Avengers without a backwards glance and presented himself to Doom. Using logic, Vision was able to convince Doom to enter an alliance with the Avengers against Attuma. He didn't free his teammates because their more emotional responses would have led to further conflict with Doom instead of peace. When Doctor Doom freed his new allies, Vision coldly rejected his teammates' suspicions about his sudden departure, retreating further into his own shell as a logical, emotionless machine. Inside, however, Vision remained in deep turmoil over his
identity. When Wonder Man arrived with reinforcements during the attack on Attuma, he and Vision fell into perfect step with each other, striking down the mighty Tyrak with synchronized blows. Wonder Man only saw a foe beaten with the help of a comrade, but Vision saw it as a mirror mocking his every step, calling him nothing but a reflection. He was so livid afterwards, he couldn't even speak to Wanda. [Avengers (1st series) #154-156]
The final straw came when the Avengers were confronted by the so-called "ghost in stone." The previous body of Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, had been turned to stone by the Enchantress. The Defenders had rescued Dane's mind, sending it back in time to fight in the Crusades, but the statue remained. One of the Avengers' foes animated the statue with a whisper of Dane's mind still inside it. The statue believed it WAS Dane and the Avengers had abandoned him to be a statue forever. Vision empathized deeply with the statue's plight and tried to reason with it, even after it fought through Wanda, Simon and the other Avengers. The statue of Dane Whitman couldn't handle the truth, however, and broke its stone body to pieces battering the Vision's diamond hard form. [Avengers (1st series) #157]
In the aftermath, Vision overheard Wonder Man telling the injured Scarlet Witch to lean on him, with a tone of affection Vision so often tried to use with Wanda, but failed due to his perfectly modulated vocal processors. The message was clear to Vision's ears: Wonder Man was just like Vision, only better. In that moment, Vision snapped, accusing Wonder Man of pursuing his wife 
while at the same time bemoaning that he (Vision) wasn't a real man in the first place. A fight broke out and the two men beat on each other until they exhausted themselves. Iron Man finally stepped in as chairman in the end, and told Vision to stop acting like a child or else he'd be suspended from the team. [Avengers (1st series) #158]
Further discussion was temporarily put on hold by the menace of Graviton but, when the Avengers returned to the mansion, they found the Grim Reaper waiting. Eric Williams was responsible for hiring Black Talon to revive Simon as a zuvembie, but was as shocked as anyone when he heard reports that Wonder Man was genuinely alive again. The deranged Reaper decided to find out if Vision or Wonder Man was "really" his brother, and planned to execute the other as an imposter. In a kangaroo court scenario, the Grim Reaper used energy induction bonds to keep the Avengers in line while hearing evidence for which man was truly Simon Williams. During the proceedings, Vision came to accept his individuality, that he was not Simon Williams, but a unique being in his own right. Recognizing how far the synthezoid and the ionic man had both come from the original Simon Williams, Vision declared perhaps it was truly he and Wonder Man who were brothers. He threw himself at the Grim Reaper's mercy, willing to accept death so that Wonder Man would not be forced to die again. Ultimately, however, Wonder Man overcame the Grim Reaper's bonds and reluctantly beat his brother into submission. Vision and Wonder Man quietly put aside their differences after this incident. [Avengers (1st series) #160]
Shortly after, the Avengers were confronted by Ultron-8. The evil robot was prepared for his foes, using his encephalo-beam to put several members into comas. For the Vision, Ultron had arranged a special radiation keyed to his internal structure which deactivated the synthezoid. [Avengers (1st series) #161] Vision lay inactive for several days until the Avengers faced the supremely powerful Count Nefaria. Unable to make a difference directly, Yellowjacket retreated from battle to work on rapidly restoring Vizh in his regeneration tank. Vision recovered and leapt into battle with the ionically-charged crimelord. However, Vision discovered his normal trick of 
reaching into his opponents to disrupt them wouldn't work against Nefaria's supercharged flesh and Nefaria's energy density let him strike Vision even while intangible. Changing tactics, Vision glided high over the island of Manhattan before shifting to his maximum density. Thor and Wanda pummeled Nefaria until Vision struck home like a meteor, over 90 tons of mass straight on top of the count, finally knocking him out. [Avengers (1st series) #165-166]
In their spare time, Vision and Simon started getting to know each other and share interests. They enjoyed a game of chess together and each other's company. [Avengers (1st series) 
#170] During the hunt for Korvac, Vision was forced to reunite with his unpleasant brother-in-law, Quicksilver. Pietro was disparaging towards Jocasta, a female robot with the brain wave patterns of the Wasp and who also was created by and rebelled against Ultron. The Vision defended his fellow mechanoid and the animosity between the two former friends over Vision's marriage to Wanda clearly lingered. [Avengers (1st series) #175] When Henry Peter Gyrich demanded the team limit their roster to a specific set of seven, Vision and Wanda were chosen, but Wonder Man was not. Despite their past conflicts, Vision bid a fond farewell to Wonder Man and told him he was always welcome back among the Avengers. [Avengers (1st series) #181]
Vision and Wanda hit a rough patch in their marriage shortly thereafter. Wanda received evidence that her parents weren't who she thought they were, and took a leave of absence with Pietro to investigate the truth. When Wanda was possessed by the Elder God called Chthon at her birthplace in Transia, Quicksilver radioed the Avengers for help. Henry Peter Gyrich cited government regulations to make the team stay behind and, when Captain America went over his head to the president, Gyrich still insisted Vision remain on monitor duty, since he was on top of 
the duty roster. The normally emotionless Vision nearly took Gyrich's head clean off and only Captain America managed to restrain him. Although he recognized the logic of avoiding further delay, Vision would not soon forget Gyrich's interference in keeping him from his wife. [Avengers (1st series) #182-187]
Wanda recovered from her ordeal with Chthon, but the announcement that Pietro and his wife Crystal were expecting a baby touched her in a different way. She asked for time away from Vision and the Avengers, implicitly to consider whether children was something she wanted one day for herself. Although Wanda's leave request was the last domino that finally brought down Gyrich's tyranny in Congressional hearings, Vision was still hurt that Wanda wanted to consider their future on her own, without him. [Avengers (1st series) #188-192] The fact that he could not give Wanda children even if she wanted them was not lost on the synthetic man. Vision's 
melancholy caused him to withdraw into his "I am only a machine" defense mechanism again, a fact noted by his mechanical teammate Jocasta, who tried and failed to reach out to him during his turmoil. [Avengers (1st series) #194] In the end, however, Wanda returned to the team after deciding that children ultimately were not what she wanted out of life, and she and Vision reconciled. [Avengers (1st series) #200]
For the next several months, Vision and the Scarlet Witch remained with the Avengers mostly out of habit. They recognized their lives were rather unfulfilled during a roster shake-up ordered by Captain America and offered to step down from active duty to accommodate the new six member roster restrictions. Seeking to establish their life as a couple outside of their lives as Avengers, Vizh and Wanda left Avengers Mansion to find themselves. [Avengers (1st series) #211]
Vision and Wanda bought a house in the small town of Leonia, New Jersey. Their domestic bliss was interrupted repeatedly, first by the evil spirit Samhain and then by Wanda's adopted father Robert Frank, who got them involved in a custody battle for his radioactive firstborn, Nuklo. An old foe named Isbisa intended to steal Nuklo's radioactive power for nefarious purposes. During the 
conflict, Vision attempted to disable Isbisa with a phased hand through the chest, but the radioactive fire inside Isbisa slagged Vision's arm. Going into shock, Vision was forced to amputate and cauterize his own arm with his solar eye beams, and barely survived to the end of the battle before passing out due to the pain. [Vision & the Scarlet Witch (1st series) #1-2]
In the hospital, Vision's brother Wonder Man was called in for an experimental procedure. The doctors had devised a means of using the exotic ionic energies in Simon's frame to rekindle the Vision's dwindling synthetic "lifeforce." Unfortunately, the Grim Reaper arrived to interrupt the procedure, now intending to murder both Vision and Wonder Man as "imposters" of his real brother. Vision was trapped in a dream-like state as his synthetic brain struggled to process the immense physical pain he suffered, but he forced his way back to consciousness as he recognized Simon was in danger. Shortly afterwards, his in-laws in the Inhumans were able to fully recreate and reattach his amputated arm using their advanced technology and knowledge of unusual genetics. [Vision & the Scarlet Witch (1st series) #3-4]
In a curious encounter, Vision and Wanda were attacked by her old enemy, the feeble sorcerer Necrodamus. The mage desired a more physically powerful form than his weak and wizened frame, and so he held Wanda's life in peril until Vision agreed to swap bodies with him for his wife's freedom. Necrodamus was true to his word and released Wanda once he possessed Vision's body, but then he incinerated his original body with Vision's solar blasts, seemingly killing Vision in the process. As Spider-Man and the Scarlet Witch fought Necrodamus in his new synthetic body, however, an unseen force prevented the villain from striking out at Wanda. The Vision reasserted control over his own body and drove Necrodamus out. The synthezoid mused it must have been some unpredictable result of Wanda's hex bolts striking his possessed body which caused his original programming to reactivate, but Wanda considered it proof her husband possessed an ephemeral soul somewhere within his wires and circuits. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #130]