Meticulously conjured and wonderfully smart with an edge that was somewhat surprising, VisionQuest is not only a phenomenal finale to the WandaVision trilogy but a successor to Age of Ultron.
VisionQuest Review
Whether you are a casual MCU fan or a longtime Marvel geek, you’ve had this discussion at least once: Who is the best villain? Obviously Thanos and the looming God Emperor Doom from Doomsday are going to dominate the conversation but let’s not forget Ultron. In 2015, he was a killer A.I. who took his directive for peace very seriously. Realizing humans were the problem (he’s not wrong), decided to annihilate the world (ok he’s wrong here). He was stopped by the Avengers and deleted permanently by Vision… or so we thought.
Enter VisionQuest, a meticulously conjured and wonderfully smart show that brings Ultron back home. Paul Bettany syncs back up perfectly with Vision and James Spader’s Ultron is amazing, no surprise there. Showrunner Terry Matalas brings his sci-fi expertise and his ability to weave together complex lore, themes, and characters to the MCU. The result is a show that feels both new and familiar. In just 8 episodes, Matalas and crew craft a story that is intriguing, impactful, and satisfying. Despite this being a story about AIs and Vision’s Pinocchio journey on the surface, VisionQuest is ultimately about what it means to be a family. The good, the bad, and the Ultron of it all.
VisionQuest tells the story of what happened to White Vision after he left Westview at the end of WandaVision. Tommy Maximoff (Ruaridh Mollica) also gets to share what’s happened to him since that fateful night. It is also a follow-up to Avengers: Age of Ultron as well as a reunion of sorts for other familiar faces…voices, weaving a story that is based on Vision but is also thoroughly connected to the greater Marvel Universe. It’s ultimately about Vision’s journey to become a “real boy.’ It’s the Ship of Theseus in show form. However, that self-discovery involves navigating complex relationships with his various AI family, his and Wanda’s son Tommy, and of course Ultron. He needs to make sense of his new reality, learn to feel as the “real” Vision did. It’s an ambitious undertaking. Yet the character arcs, reveals, and twists are effective and unveiled with precision. VisionQuest keeps you wanting to see what happens next and as far as episodic flow is concerned, it might be the best TV show Marvel has released.
As with any MCU offering, there is always the question what kind of homework is needed to watch it. As a super fan, none of that makes sense to me. I’ve seen and read everything about everything. Just saying! To answer the question though, I think Age of Ultron and WandaVision are essential views if you want this story to have maximum impact. Agatha All Along is important ish. You won’t miss much not knowing the ins and outs of that show just like Multiverse of Madness, Civil War, and Infinity War aren’t required but would help some things make sense and deepen the connection you have with the story.
A lot of the story is set inside Vision’s mind – his core processor – where the other AIs from the MCU are cohabiting as one big happy, slightly malfunctioning family. Think Inside Out but instead of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust you have JARVIS, FRIDAY, EDITH, DUM-E, and U. Plus Ultron, who spends his time supplying snark and barely veiled threats while the others tend to day-to-day life. The set designs and the little details like the “food” they are eating or the stove they are using are stunning. The visuals are incredible and will make you want to jump into the tv to experience that high-tech, futuristic, fantastical world.
Matalas is adept at managing multiple threads inside a sandbox that has quite a lot inside it. As with Picard, he can handle the massive canon and lore while carving out his own space that feels unique but never out of place within the bigger picture. The show moves seamlessly between our world and the digital world where anything can happen at the speed of wifi. There are sprinkles of flashbacks, callbacks to dialogue, and easter eggs that work in tandem to elevate the story and the various character arcs.
Unlike Wonder Man, VisionQuest is unashamedly a superhero show. But the way the story is designed, it’s more than that too. It’s ambitious, like WandaVision was, with the world in which this superhero journey takes place. It’s a sci-fi action-drama piece with a dash of sitcom moments. It’s funny, heartwarming, and even shocking at times. This is a darker version of Vision, who doesn’t come preprogrammed for the greater good. He’s not the Avenger, he’s not that Vision. Bettany gets to show off a little by embracing this new Vision as well as some other moments where he inhabits or is inhabited by another.
Spader is effortlessly and gleefully evil as the returning Ultron with some of the funniest quips in the entire show. I also laughed when he pondered extreme violence against humanity like a normal person would deciding between an iced or a hot coffee. Could go either way. Emily Hampshire’s EDITH and Todd Stashwick’s Paladin have some great moments throughout the series as well. Who knows, maybe Hampshire can reprise this role next time we see Spidey.
Verdict
VisionQuest is a meticulously conjured and wonderfully smart story about what it means to be a family. Paul Bettany and James Spader are pure processing gold as their battle of wills continues from over 10 years ago. A darker Vision and a fatherly yet still lethal Ultron keep you wanting to come back to this and see what happens next. There are high stakes, twists and turns, wit, love, and more all wrapped up in a sci-fi world that makes for one awesome viewing experience. There is no other MCU series to compare this to and that’s what makes it, and WandaVision, so exciting. I hope to see these characters again and I want to see Matalas helm another MCU project. Until then, I’ll be rewatching the series as it premieres on Disney+ and geeking out with my fellow nerds online.
Episodes 1-2 of VisionQuest are now streaming on Disney+. The rest of the episodes will release weekly on Tuesdays.
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