Biography - Page 4
Despite the difficulty they had staying out of trouble, Vision and Wanda still desired nothing more than a quiet life. They rejected the Beast's offer to join his new Defenders roster. [Defenders (1st series) #123-124] Still, the couple were reserve Avengers, and responded when called in for 
emergencies. Midtown Manhattan was disrupted by an invisible Null Force barrier expanding out from the Baxter Building. Unable to penetrate the barrier by the means at their disposal, Wasp and the Avengers called upon the Vision to phase through the barrier using his powers. Although he was successful, passing through the field disrupted the electronic systems in Vision's body, causing him to collapse just a few yards inside the barrier. [Avengers (1st series) #233]
When the danger had passed and the barrier dropped, the Avengers collected their fallen comrade. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four examined Vision's systems and determined nothing was critically damaged -- Vision would come back online himself once his self-repair diagnoses completed themselves. Still, in the interim Vision was set up in a medical monitoring suite inside Avengers Mansion. Wanda returned to active duty with the team while awaiting word on her husband's condition. [Avengers (1st series) #234]
Within a few days, Vision became conscious again, although he still was unable to move. In true stoic fashion, Vision neglected to inform his comrades that his sight, hearing and speech had been restored, and he merely lay motionless, listening to the stories and one-sided conversations his teammates had with him during his "coma." He finally spoke up during a diatribe by Avenger-in-training Starfox about the boredom of medical monitor duty. A bit embarrassed by his self-
important grumbling, Eros decided to help Vision with his self-repairs by connecting him to ISAAC, the Integral Synaptic Anti-Anionic Computer that maintained the Eternal colony on Titan that Starfox hailed from. With the Vision's consent, a hyperspace link was established between Titan and Avengers Mansion, linking the electronic minds of Vision and ISAAC.
The results were immediate. ISAAC's vast memory and knowledge banks allowed Vision to integrate himself with the Mansion's relatively less advanced electronic network, letting him not only control the Mansion's security systems and monitor all transmissions, but also interact with his teammates through a holographic projection of himself while his body continued healing. Eager to prove himself after his recent stint as an invalid, Vision used the new resources at his disposal to quickly track down the Avengers' recently escaped opponents Moonstone and 
Blackout, leading the team through his remote hologram to their location. [Avengers (1st series) #238]
The changes Vision underwent were deeper than anyone first realized, however. The Null Force barrier had actually disrupted Vision's control crystal, a piece of his anatomy he had previously been unaware of. The control crystal was the source of the Ultron Imperative code previously used by his creator to force Vision into attending his reconstruction. It also kept Vision's emotional range carefully modulated. Contact with ISAAC further corrupted the crystal, and with it Vision's programming. Now more human and empathic than ever before, Vision also began experiencing powerful mood swings and an unprecedented escalation of his ego. Though this made Vision unstable and unpredictable, because he retained his underlying good intentions and dedication to logic, his friends, teammates and wife initially didn't understand how "off" his behavior truly was. [Avengers (1st series) #254]
Vision wanted to play a larger role in the Avengers and in changing the world for the better. When his body finally came back online, Vision immediately announced his intentions to return to the active roster, without discussing his plans with his wife. He logically believed the Avengers needed 
all available members on-hand due to an immensely powerful energy source he detected probing the Earth several times while he was integrated with ISAAC. Sure enough, the energy signature returned during the team's membership debates, emanating from a strange structure that materialized across the street in Central Park. The team was investigating when the structure suddenly vanished, and nearly the entire active roster of Avengers (and many other heroes of Earth) vanished along with it without trace. [Avengers (1st series) #242]
In the week that followed, Vision assumed the role of acting chairman of the remaining Avengers: himself and Wanda, Avenger-in-training Starfox, and team associate, the missing Hawkeye's new bride, Mockingbird. He raised Starfox to full Avengers status while talking to the press to assure the media everything was being done to maintain order in the heroes' absence. When the other Avengers returned from Battleworld and the first Secret Wars, Vision decided it was imperative that he retain his current position. Using some equipment he built with the assistance of ISAAC, Vision duplicated Starfox's "pleasure power" with a cerebral enervator to make the Wasp agreeable towards letting him remain chairperson. He had a similar "conversation" with the team's government liaisons Henry Peter Gyrich and Raymond Sikorski.
After making the necessary arrangements, Vision brought the enlarged Avengers roster together. Once he formally secured the role of chairperson from Wasp, Vision announced his plans for the team membership. Under the guise of logically accommodating everyone, Vision maintained the six member limit while establishing a new "detached" membership status for Thor and She-Hulk to 
work as active reservists on-call for emergencies. With the blessing of Gyrich and Sikorski, Vision also unveiled his idea for expanding the Avengers to a second California-based franchise, and dispatched Hawkeye and Mockingbird to begin establishing the West Coast Avengers. [Avengers (1st series) #243]
Vision's plans for world security required the Avengers take on greater overall authority, which he tried to secure on the team's behalf. America had recently acknowledged the hidden Wraith War between the Galadorian Spaceknight named Rom and the shape-changing Dire Wraiths that had infiltrated many areas of society. Vision attempted to have the Avengers spearhead the Wraith War offensive but, despite a successful mission uncovering Dire Wraiths in the space program, the president turned authority in the Wraith War over to SHIELD. [Avengers (1st series) #244-245] Vision went political after that, briefing the President on their mission at the White House in 
person instead of through the standard channels, and using the meeting for several photo ops and staged media moments, while also urging the president to raise Avengers chairperson to a cabinet-level position. [Avengers (1st series) #246] The change in Vision's behavior did not go unnoticed by Wanda. She soon confronted him about the actions he was taking without consulting her. Vision comforted his wife and promised to confide in her more, but he continued on his chosen path nonetheless. [Avengers (1st series) #247]
Despite his personal issues, Vision proved to be a successful leader of the Avengers. He oversaw the team's victories during the war with the Asgardian fire-demon Surtur and his armies, as well as the Inhuman-Deviant hybrid, Maelstrom, who threatened the rotation of the planet Earth entirely. [Avengers (1st series) #249-250]
Still, these victories were not enough for Vision. He reasoned that the best way to impose order on the world was to take it over entirely. With the help of ISAAC, he created an encephalotron command chair that would allow his synthezoid brain to interface with the world's computers, taking over every nation's defense systems, their nuclear missile codes and all other modem linked databases. With this, Vision could control the world just as ISAAC controlled Titan, 
imposing peace on the planet by any means necessary. Unfortunately, this sacrifice would mean leaving his physical body behind, becoming one with the computer networks and never holding Wanda again. Despite his currently flawed reasoning, Vision still recognized this as a major step, a last resort he could not step back from. As a result, he hesitated before using the command chair and his troubled mind began experiencing nightmares as he fought to reconcile his decisions. [Avengers (1st series) #251]
Vision's erratic behavior was becoming more evident to his teammates, and Captain America approached Vision about the pressures of leadership. Cap encouraged the Vision to be more open with him and Wanda about the stress he was under. In a roundabout way, Vision told Cap what he was planning with a hypothetical about What If you could bring about world peace, and 
what price would you be willing to pay? Captain America said he hoped he would be strong enough to make such a sacrifice if needed, but he'd have to be absolutely sure of the results. As Vision was about to explain his plan in detail, however, Wanda rushed into the mansion's library and told him their house in New Jersey was on fire. Anti-mutant fervor was on the rise in America and a bigoted arsonist took it upon himself to force Vision and Wanda out of the Leonia neighborhood. Seeing his home destroyed and his wife in pain, Vision became resolute and prepared to enact his plan for world domination immediately.
With the proper excuses, Vision arranged for all active Avengers to be far away on mission duty as he activated the command chair. As his consciousness wormed its way into the datastream, Vision gained control over the computer systems at the Pentagon, NORAD, SHIELD, the Kremlin and more. As the world governments slowly realized they had lost control of their nuclear arsenal, the Avengers also realized Vision had deceived them. Returning to the mansion, the Avengers confronted holographic projections of the Vision that tried to explain his actions. Through multiple 
conversations with his wife, Captain America, Wonder Man and the other Avengers present, Vision came to realize his methods, while well-meaning, were ultimately flawed. Controlling computers did nothing to stop people from hurting each other in other ways, such as the arsonist that attacked his home. Nor could he guarantee there would be no fallout from people rejecting his dominion and trying to create workarounds to his control.
Finally getting the perspective necessary to recognize how irrational his thinking was, Vision retracted his world domination plans before it was too late. Starfox and the other Avengers managed to reverse the command chair's function and recall Vision's consciousness back into his body before it was permanently detached in cyberspace. Vision recognized the control crystal as 
the cause of his continual malfunctioning and performed immediate self-surgery by reaching intangibly into his own head to remove the crystal from his neural network. The results were impressive -- not only did Vision's personality and rationality stabilize, he became more "human" than ever before. Gone was the monotone tenor in his electronic voice, and his true human emotionality began to shine through.
That said, Vision still had much to answer for. His world takeover hadn't been so brief that the United States government failed to notice it. The breach in American defense systems was traced back to Avengers Mansion and an answer was demanded of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Vision accepted complete responsibility for his actions and immediately stepped down as chairperson, returning the chair to the Wasp after he apologized for mentally manipulating her. Vision and Wanda left the mansion with their government liaison to provide a full debriefing to their sponsors. [Avengers (1st series) #252-255]