The Vision #10

Written by: Tom King

Art by: Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Coloured by: Jordie Bellaire

Lettered by: Clayton Cowles

In the previous issue, Victor Mancha attacked Vin when he discovered his secret correspondence with the Avengers. Intending only to incapacitate him, Victor accidentally used too much power in subduing him, resulting in Vin's death. Flashing back to memories of Victor's life between the Runaways and now, we are given the reason for his lack of control; a growing addiction to the frequency of vibranium that has caused Victor to begin to act paranoid with withdrawal. Hearing the commotion, the Vision enters the room with his wife, and seeing his son dead on the ground, holds him.

This issue picks up in the aftermath of the events of the previous issue, with the Visions under house arrest to prevent them from any impulsive actions while the Avengers figure out what to do. Vision laments to his wife that, in all laws and religions in his databases, the death of an innocent while his killer remains free is never viewed as fair or just. He then realizes that the only way to make the situation fair is to bring back Vin, which is impossible, or get rid of his killer, which he has difficulty reconciling with his role as an Avenger. After a moment alone with his daughter where they discuss if God is real and if Vin has a soul to go to heaven, Vision makes up his mind and decides to break the house arrest, rocketing off to confront Victor. While not much really happened in this issue, it did an amazing job of exposing the Vision families thought process, dealing with questions like what happens when they die, and what is one synthetic life worth.

The artwork maintains its quality, with some moments such as Vision breaking through the barrier set up by Ironman at the end really going above and beyond. As the story itself was simple but nuanced, the artwork did a great job of really showing exactly what was going through the head of each family member as they interacted with each other and lamented the death of their son or brother.

Tom King continues to deliver one of the best comics currently on the stand, mixing questions of morality with questions of mortality and even questions of faith. Were this just a regular family dealing with loss it would still be a great comic, but adding the fact that they are synthetic lifeforms looking for their place in the world on top of it adds an entirely new layer to the storytelling that makes every page both a joy and a heart breaking moment. I continue to recommend this book to anyone who is not only a fan of comics, but a fan of quality literature in general.