I’ll be honest, I had no intention of reading this book.  We all know the Vision as a member of the Avengers, especially after his big screen debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  But a book about Vision having a family and living in suburbia?  Curiosity got the best of me and I thought ‘why not?’.  And I am very glad I did!

In The Vision #1, Vision has settled in Arlington, Virginia, along with his wife Virginia, daughter Viv and son Vin.  He has a position at the White House; the President’s point man between him and the Avengers; the kids have started high school and have acquainted themselves with the neighbours.  But you can’t help but notice that all of this is done outside of what we would perceive as ‘normal’.  The Visions go through the motions, but without any of the human emotional cues that would go along with their experiences…and that in itself gives the book a creepy feel.  We see the neighbours welcoming them to the neighbourhood, which leads to a tour of the house that feels cold and eerie.  The kids start at their new school, with the entire student body staring at them throughout the first day, with one even inquiring of Vin is he is normal.  Neighbours take pictures with them…and of them, showing us that they are perceived as nothing more then oddities…something else for the neighbourhood to gossip about.

And the interaction within the family feels very cold and distant…you can see them acting like a family, but so detached and methodical, they are anything but.  There are moments, however, where we see these synthezoids acting and reacting almost as human as any one of us, especially the unexpected action towards the end of the issue, and the equally unexpected reactions that follow.

Tom King does a fantastic job of bringing us this story of trying to fit in when you know you don’t.  It was great to see Vision and his family trying to understand how humans interact and react, and to see how they themselves react to the attention given to them.  The best part, for me, was the way King dropped a few bombshells and hints as to what is to come for the Visions; none of it bodes well and tells us that this experiment does not end well for any parties involved, and that just hooked me in more.  Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s art work is perfect for this title, giving the Visions a very stiff, artificial feel in a world they are trying to fit in to.  My favourite was the depiction of the kids; Vin and Viv are shown smiling as they show off their abilities to their classmates, but the expressions come across as insincere, like they were programmed to do this as it is the social norm, and it really sells the whole point of this book home.

Overall, I loved this title!  This is something completely different from anything I have read; an artificial superhero who wants to settle down in the suburbs with a family he created.  Dark hints and foreshadowing have told us that this experiment is not going to have a happy ending, and I for one will be sticking around to see what leads to all of this crashing down.

Story: Tom King Art: Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Story: 9 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy