WandaVision may have revealed its biggest twist yet in the form of the White Vision. The shocking reveal that SWORD Director Hayward has restored Vision's original body and brought him back in a colorless, truly robotic form actually has its origins, like so much in the series, in the comics.
The white version of Vision appeared in the Vision Quest storyline in 1989, one of the most important Scarlet Witch and Vision comic book stories. This story and its direct aftermath have major implications for the outcome of WandaVision and perhaps also the future of the MCU.
Vision Was Out Of Control
Vision Quest took place over issues #42-44 of West Coast Avengers, written and drawn by John Byrne. Immediately preceding it, Vision suffered from glitches that left him with a lack of control over his powers. He is paralyzed and rendered unconscious after a battle with the villain Annihilus.
When he regains his abilities, he acts strangely and eventually tries to take over all the world's computers. This leads a consortium of the world's leading intelligence services to begin monitoring him in secret.
Dismantled
In Vision Quest, those intelligence services finally act. The United States government in concert with others abducts The Vision, and Wanda discovers him in a lab very similar to the scene in episode eight of WandaVision where she finds his body in a SWORD lab.
The scene in the comics is perhaps more traumatic. Vision is dismantled down to his circuits and his synthetic skin is simply ripped off and cast to the side, like a pair of old clothes.
Immortus Was Behind It All
Though the concerns about Vision's behavior were genuine, what no one realized at the time was that the efforts of the world governments were being manipulated by a being named Immortus. This was part of a greater plot to manipulate Wanda's life. He was focused on her for her power and status as a Nexus Being, a living gateway to the multiverse.
Given where the MCU is going in its next few movies relative to the multiverse, that likely has implications for WandaVision. Immortus is one of the many incarnations of Kang The Conqueror, a major Avengers villain who will appear in the MCU in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantummania.
Nexus Beings
The concept of the Nexus Being is key to Immortus' interest in Wanda and the tragedy that befell her and Vision both. Nexus Beings are rare individuals with the ability to affect probability, as Wanda was noted to do in episode eight, and thus the future, allowing the alteration of the flow of the Universal Time Stream.
Immortus sought to become the master of all time and was primarily concerned that Wanda would give birth to children who would inherit her power and prove highly destructive to him and his plans. His fears about her children with The Vision, Billy and Tommy Maximoff, were ultimately unfounded.
The Original Human Torch
A major aspect of Marvel Comics lore gets resolved in Vision Quest. It involves Vision's original creation by the evil android Ultron and the original Human Torch. The Human Torch is a classic member of The Fantastic Four but had actually existed back in the 40s when Marvel was Timely Comics. Marvel later retconned that version to be an android.
For a long time, it was understood that some of Vision's synthezoid body was built from a second android that the android Torch's creator Professor Horton had constructed. But Vision Quest revealed Ultron actually used spare parts from the original android Human Torch.
Reconstruction
The Avengers were able to retrieve The Vision's dismantled body from the governments that had abducted him. They quickly reassembled him, but this was imperfect.
His skin was damaged in the careless deconstruction of his body and that left him completely white. His memories and much of his original programming were also severely damaged, leaving him an emotionless automaton far removed from the loving and compassionate man Wanda had known.
Wonder Man Refuses To Help
WandaVision teased the appearance of Wonder Man, a longtime Avenger with a major connection to Wanda and Vision. Simon Williams hasn't appeared in the show so far, and it doesn't seem like he will now with one episode to go.
Wonder Man's memories and brain patterns were used to construct the original Vision back in the 1960s, but when it came to reconstructing him during Vision Quest, Williams refused to offer his mind to help restore Vision. This left Vision in his robotic state, but he refuses because the original procedure was done without his consent.
Soul Fragments
The fallout of Vision's new condition is catastrophic. Shortly after Vision is rendered cold and emotionless, Wanda suffers again when it's revealed that her children are magical constructs. They never existed, having been created inadvertently with fragments of the soul of the Marvel supervillain Mephisto.
Mephisto reincorporates the fragments of his soul, basically erasing the twins from existence. They would later be resurrected many years later in the form of Wiccan and Speed from the Young Avengers, a team the MCU seems to be setting up.
Wanda And Vision Separate
This leads Wanda into a breakdown and the total collapse of her marriage with The Vision. The two end up working on different Avengers teams, with Vision staying with the west coast branch while Wanda going back to New York City.
They remain apart for a long time, and their estrangement does contribute to Wanda's overall sense of isolation and grief. She ultimately succumbs to it when she discovers that Agatha Harkness, a powerful sorceress from Marvel Comics, placed a spell on her to forget her children ever existed.
Restoration
Vision's immediate future in the streaming series looks bleak, but there is hope. Over time, Vision regains his memories and former identity. He does this through the construction of a new synthezoid body that resembles his former one, and this results in the gradual re-emergence of his memories and emotions.
These resurfaced brain patterns, combined with a new infusion from a scientist named Alex Lipton, bring The Vision back to his former self. In WandaVision, it remains to be seen if the Vision Wanda created through magic can be integrated with the synthezoid body.