After an oversaturation of comic book movies and shows, Spider-Man: Brand New Day reminds us that a truly great superhero story must focus on the human element of it. The spectacle helps, certainly, but deep down, we look for a hero we can relate to, and their issues have to resonate with our own.
Interestingly, Disney+’s latest series, VisionQuest, finds an alternate route to connecting with its audience. Following the events of WandaVision, we find Vision (Paul Bettany) living disguised as a human, struggling to discover who he is. When we last saw White Vision, SWORD had rebuilt him as a weapon to kill Wanda Maximoff, until her version of Vision imbued him with the same persona. He has all of Vision’s memories but none of his emotions or actual experience. He’s a machine trying to understand his purpose. What is he to do with all these memories, and how does he rationalize his existence?
But things go sideways when an unknown client hired The Paladin (Todd Stashwick) to capture Vision. To gain the upper hand, The Paladin makes a god for Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica), carrying all of Tommy Maximoff’s memories and persona inside of him. Forced out of hiding, Vision feels compelled to rescue Thomas, a choice that ultimately forces Vision toward an identity forged through action rather than mere observation.
The show presents a fascinating dilemma as it explores what defines humanity. Having formed a bond with the original Vision, the audience instinctively has a connection with the original Vision, and we are immediately hoping that this new iteration of him will find his own identity soon. Watching a “person” piece himself together makes for compelling viewing and it’s quite an enjoyable ride. Do our emotions define us? Our experiences? Our memories? These are asked and are somehow argued throughout the first four episodes of the show and it’s quite enjoyable.
Parallel to Vision’s journey is Thomas’s own crisis of identity as he carries the memories of both Thomas Shepherd and Tommy Maximoff, he is riddled with the need to be anybody else because he isn’t sure who he is. As an orphan turned a con man, with his pickpocket friend Lisa (Lauren Morais), preferring to be anybody else rather than try to figure out if he is crazy or not.
The collision of these two characters surprisingly forms the emotional strength of the series, and the story truly takes off the moment they finally meet.
Rounding out the cast are the AIs Vision has created within his mindscape: copies of code from various AIs used in the MCU mainstays including Jarvis (James D’Arcy), Friday (Orla Brady), Edith (Emily Hampshire), Dum-e and U (Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer), and Ultron (James Spader). Each with their own unique personalities, helping Vision along to finding what it means to be human and to reconcile his existence with Wanda’s version of his memories and his own rebuilt body as a weapon. There’s also a lovely supporting turn by Diane Morgan as The Paladin’s tech-genius assistant.
By the third episode, another antagonist emerges: Butcherbird, a mercenary whose own goals run separate from that of Vision’s, but their paths will cross and it expands the questions about technology’s own relationship with humans.
There are just enough superheroics to keep this rooted in the comic book genre with funny quips and puns and enough light-hearted moments to keep it friendly. Yet the story remains firmly centered in the existential, grounded by the relationship between Vision and Thomas, as well as Vision and Ultron. One brings him closer to humanity through the possibility of affection, while the other brings him closer to humanity by embracing chaos. Interestingly enough, it’s these two aspects Vision needs to embrace if he wants to fully understand humanity and it’s fascinating to watch as it unfolds.
These first four episodes deliver a strong start, promising a lot of good storytelling threads that keep the show emotionally strong and intellectually ambitious without becoming overly lofty. Above all, the series retains enough charm and humor to keep it from spiraling out of mainstream appeal.
It is a promising start to a show I’m interested to finish and catch more of it as as the rest of the season unfolds.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Be sure to check out the first four episodes of VisionQuest, now streaming on Disney+.
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