Penultimate: Vision #11 Review

Vision #11 is an insane rollercoaster of a comic in which so much happens, that it makes you wonder how it will be wrapped up in just one more issue. However, people who were worried about the treatment of a particular character may not be very happy with this one.

Spoilers beyond this point.

So, it finally happened. After 11 issues, we finally got promised confrontation between Vision and all the other heroes. Artist Gabriel Hernadez Walta gets to move beyond a suburban setting and show his skill and drawing action scenes and a diverse range of heroes, and he does so amazingly. Tom King meanwhile, forgoes most of the dialogue, and instead gives us a thematic narration of Vision’s creation at the hands of Ultron as the battle rages on.

As you can see, the small amount of dialogue left in the sequence was of the utmost importance.

Overall, while it’s a heartbreaking but amazing scene, it does also make you wonder how Vision was able to defeat all heroes. I mean, there are over a dozen of them, including incredibly powerful ones like Thor and Blue Marvel, as well as some super geniuses who would’ve known better than to bring just one security measure, one that Vision had already overcome in fact.

Back at the Vision household, things aren’t going so well. Virgina reveals to Viv her role in her friend CK’s death, and Viv… doesn’t take it so well.

See more of Viv in Marvel's Champions #1, on sale this October!

In an act of frustration, Virginia kills the family dog, Sparky (making it the second time this poor dog dies thanks to her), then uses the act of his murder to use the future seeing flower established a while back.

I feel like this panel kind of encapsulates the whole series.

Meanwhile the narration has switched from Vision’s beginning to Virginia’s, and the reveal that she’s been experiencing some of Wanda’s memories as well.

Wanda herself is the last defence between Vision and Victor’s cell, but even she can’t reason with him (or do this– Civil War spoilers)

Vision finally confronts Victor, who doesn’t even get a chance to speak before… Virginia shows up and kills him.

And all it took was a drug addiction and the murder of your nephew.

And with our faces matching the look of surprise on Vision’s, the issue ends.

Now, a lot of people are very understandably upset about the series’ treatment of Victor Mancha, and I kind of have to agree. In the end, despite his dying words, he was less a character than a plot device in the Visions’ story. Elements like his out of nowhere drug addiction and accidental murder of his own nephew are kind of out of nowhere for the Victor we know and love. Add to that the fact that Victor is a Latino character, and Vision considered to be a white one, and the whole thing just takes on a whole new layer of problematic issues.

That trouble aside, Vision #11 is as fantastic as you’ve come to expect. I’ll definitely be missing the series after next month’s concluding issue, and I’m genuinely curious as to what the lasting repercussions for Vision and his family will be in future appearances (notably the upcoming Avengers and Champions series).

Aranwe Quirke is a totally real, definitely not made up name. No, you may not see the birth certificate.