One of the most chilling moments in the Disney+ series WandaVision was seeing the original Vision resurrected by SWORD, but in the comics, that resurrection involved Ant-Man. Chalk white and apparently devoid of emotion, this new “White Vision” remains a wild card in the MCU even after the Scarlet Witch’s version of Vision helped return his memories. However, Marvel comic book fans know that White Vision has a very different origin in the comics.
This disturbing chapter in the Vision’s life occurred in the pages of West Coast Avengers, a spin-off of the original Avengers comic that saw several Avengers relocate to California and form their own branch of the superhero team. It also followed an earlier Vision storyline in Avengers #253 where the android tried to take over the world governments’ computer systems and nearly took over the planet. Although Vision did not become a world conqueror and instead opted to live a family life with Wanda Maximoff, his actions unnerved many governments.
When Vision and the Scarlet Witch returned to join the West Coast Avengers, the government organization Vigilance responded by kidnapping the Vision in West Coast Avengers #42. Wanda and the rest of the Avengers tracked down Vigilance, but by the time they got to Vision it was too late – the government had completely dismantled Vision and erased his memory.
The Avengers managed to salvage all the dismantled parts and Dr. Hank Pym (who had already passed on the identity of Ant-Man to Scott Lang) attempted to put the android back together again. Although Hank found that he could return Vision to a functioning state, there were several problems. Originally, Vision acquired his emotions and baseline personality from the brain patterns of the Avenger Simon Williams (aka Wonder Man) who was dead at the time. Simon eventually came back to life and was even part of the West Coast Avengers but he refused to let them use his brain patterns again, feeling it would violate him.
Without Simon’s help, Hank decided to upload all the data from the Avengers computer banks into the newly resurrected Vision. This allowed Vision – now reborn as a pale, ghost-like version of himself – to know who the Avengers were and his past relationship to them. However, he no longer felt any emotional attachments to them, including his wife Wanda. Needless to say this upset the Scarlet Witch and the two of them eventually separated. For a while, the “White Vision” became the character’s new status quo – but eventually he regained his original red, green, and yellow look and even reacquired his emotions. Unfortunately, this proved too little and too late as Vision never managed to reconcile with Wanda and the two never got back together again.
While Wanda and Vision are regarded as one of the great couples of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, their comic book counterparts had a much more difficult relationship. The former Ant-Man did his best to restore the android, but his efforts ultimately produced a pale shadow of the original Vision who could not enjoy the type of relationships he once did. Considering Wanda’s version of the Vision was able to restore the original’s memories in the final episode of WandaVision, it’s possible that their MCU counterparts may enjoy a better reconciliation – but only time will tell.