The Vision and Scarlet Witch have had an interesting romantic relationship, both in the movies
and in comics. However, there’s a lot of weird stuff about their love affair that nobody
seems to talk about. These are just a few of the weirdest, wackiest, and most disturbing
things about Scarlet Witch and Vision’s relationship.
Might as well get this out of the way immediately: The Vision is a robot. He was created by another
robot, the villainous Ultron, who had the intent of using him to destroy the Avengers.
In the comics, Vision has variously been described as an android and as a synthezoid, but he's
never described as being a human. Because, well, he's not. He's a machine. Scarlet Witch,
aka Wanda Maximoff, is not a robot. She's a human being and there's nothing mechanical
about her. So how can a human and a robot be involved in a romantic relationship? Is
a robot even capable of giving consent to such an arrangement?
In the comics, Vision has long held a desire to know what it means to become human. It's
part of what drives him to become involved with Scarlet Witch to begin with. But he'll
never be human, and no matter how closely his mainframe mimics a human being's thoughts
and feelings, he's still severely lacking in the emotions department. As for Scarlet
Witch, she bonds with Vision because both of them are outcasts among their fellow Avengers.
And while she might think she's found a kindred spirit in Vision, what she's really feeling
is, in a word, artificial even if she succeeds in tricking herself into thinking their relationship
makes sense.
"I — I think it… I think it w... "
"It works."
The films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe do a lot of things incredibly well. After
all, there's a reason why the franchise has grossed more than double the take of its closest
competitor at the worldwide box office. But if there's one thing the films haven't done
a very good job of, that's selling the audience on Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship.
While both characters are introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it isn't until Captain America:
Civil War that their relationship starts to develop — and it does so under some pretty
unsettling circumstances.
One scene in particular that stands out is when Vision goes to Wanda's room to check
on her. Instead of knocking on her door and asking to enter like a normal human would
do, Vision uses his phasing power to simply coast through her wall without saying a word,
completely barging in on her.
Wanda rightly calls him out on his creepy behavior, and Vision apologizes and makes
up for it by later trying to, uh… keep her from leaving the mansion? He says he's protecting
her, but that's not his decision to make. Vision's wanton disregard of Wanda's requests
and his desire to control her actions are both major red flags. Not exactly boyfriend
material, Wanda.
After the initial awkwardness of Vision's uncomfortable flirting in Civil War, he and
Scarlet Witch get into a physical altercation when she tries to leave the house. Aided by
Hawkeye, who distracts Vision, Wanda uses her powers to force Vision through numerous
floors, leaving him trapped so she can escape. We know he was being a jerk, but still, there's
no excuse for resorting to that level of violence.
After Wanda flees, she joins Team Cap in opposing the superhero-restricting Sokovia Accords.
Vision, meanwhile, is a being of logic and not emotion, so he sides with Team Iron Man
in support of the Accords. This leads to a giant confrontation between the two groups
at a German airport, with Vision and Scarlet Witch engaging in the battle on opposing sides.
Although the two don't directly fight one another, they're still using near-lethal force
against their friends, and either one of them could have taken the other out by accident.
In fact, this almost happens after Vision uses his solar beam to cut down a tower in
an attempt to block the path of the fleeing Captain America and Winter Soldier. Scarlet
Witch uses her hex powers to keep the tower from falling, but it drops anyway after War
Machine hits her with a sonic attack, leaving her very close to becoming seriously injured
as a result of Vision's initial assault. After this, the two apologize to each other, but
that doesn't excuse the fact that they almost killed each other to begin with.
In the MCU, things between Vision and Scarlet Witch haven't progressed beyond the point
of living together, but they go much, much further in the comics. The duo gets married
in 1975's Giant-Size Avengers #4 in a dual ceremony alongside their fellow Avengers,
Mantis and the Swordsman. Technically, it isn't really the Swordsman, but rather a plant
alien inhabiting the Swordsman's corpse, making Vision and Scarlet Witch's wedding only the
second strangest nuptials to take place that day. Comic books can be very weird sometimes.
"Well, the heart wants what it wants."
Speaking of weird, Vision asks Scarlet Witch to marry him immediately after the two of
them fight and defeat some demons in another dimension. When accepting his proposal, Wanda
says "Don't you see, love is for souls, not bodies!" This, of course, makes zero sense.
Vision is a synthetic human. The one thing he definitely has is a body, but he most certainly
does not have a soul in the traditional sense. We're not really sure what Scarlet Witch was
getting at here, but she unintentionally makes the argument against marrying Vision. Freudian
slip? Perhaps...
Okay, so Scarlet Witch, a human, illegally marries Vision, a robot who may or may not
have the capacity to love or fully understand entering into a commitment like wedlock. You'd
think that would be the strangest thing about this couple, but you'd be wrong because Scarlet
Witch and Vision actually have kids. Yes, you read that right. A robot man fathers children
with a human woman. Now, without getting into a biology lesson here, let's just say that
such a feat would be impossible. Humans can't even mate with other organic species, let
alone machines. But the comics get around this impossibility by way of… wait for it…
"Magic."
Scarlet Witch explains to Vision that she conceived when magic from some defeated witches
was funnelled through her as Vision held her, saying that while it was happening, she wished
for a child. Yikes. After having a relatively normal pregnancy, Wanda gives birth to twin
boys, William and Tommy, in 1986's The Vision and The Scarlet Witch #12 in a story titled
"Double Sized Climax." You can't make this stuff up, folks.
Just a few years after Scarlet Witch and Vision defy the odds and have children, those kids
are taken away from them in one of the most cruel and unusual ways possible. How does
that happen? Easy: they were retconned.
In 1989's Avengers West Coast #52, the demon Mephisto while using a possessed man called
Master Pandemonium as his unwitting pawn — absorbs the twins into his own body, making them Master
Pandemonium's hands. Comics, everybody. Apparently, Thomas and William were not actual people.
Rather, they were fragments of Mephisto's soul that had manifested into child-like apparitions
by way of the magic Scarlet Witch used to get herself pregnant. You know, that old chestnut.
For a long time, the status quo remained that Scarlet Witch and Vision's kids were not real.
This, understandably, caused great strain on their relationship, and it also had a tremendous
effect on Wanda's life moving forward. The memory or in some storylines where she was
amnesiac, missing memory of her children drove Scarlet Witch mad, and at multiple times,
she lashed out with Earth-changing consequences. At some point, the writers at Marvel must've
felt bad for her because they decided to pull another retcon and declare that Scarlet Witch
and Vision's kids existed after all. We know, we know: Make up your mind already, Marvel!
In the comic series Young Avengers in 2005, we're introduced to two members of the titular
team: Wiccan — a.k.a. William — and Speed, real name Thomas. Sound familiar? They're
both mutants, with Wiccan having similar powers to Scarlet Witch and Speed having the same
power set as Scarlet Witch's twin brother, Quicksilver. The two youngsters soon discover
that they're long lost twin brothers, and not only that, but they claim they're the
same William and Thomas who were the sons of Scarlet Witch and Vision. After some hemming
and hawing, everyone agrees that they are the kids of the two Avengers, as it's explained
that Wiccan and Speed are the reincarnated souls of the long thought-nonexistent, magical
offspring. Can non-existent beings have souls? In a world where robots can make babies, why
not?
We already briefly mentioned how Scarlet Witch has gone a little nuts a few times and done
some pretty bad, reality-warpy stuff that we don't really have time to get into. Well,
one of those times marked the end of her on-again, off-again relationship with Vision. After
losing control of her powers and falling under the control of the villainous Doctor Doom
in the 2004 comic book storyline Avengers Disassembled, Wanda launches a series of attacks
on the Avengers. One of these assaults involves her taking control of Vision's body and having
him crash a jet into Avengers Mansion. Vision survives the crash, but Wanda uses her powers
to make She-Hulk rip Vision in half, killing him once again.
Vision is rebuilt, but this event proves to be the final straw for his relationship with
Wanda. During the 2012 "Avengers vs. X-Men" storyline, Vision finally gets the chance
to confront Wanda about what she did to him. He essentially tells her that her actions
were unforgivable, regardless of the fact that she wasn't in control of her mind when
she committed them. This marks the end of the pair's decades-long relationship in the
comics.
Oh — that's not wacky enough for you? OK, let's see what we can scrounge up…
Ready? Here we go.
Although his former wife is now out of the picture, Vision still feels the need for a
relationship as part of his never-ending quest to become a real boy. And let's face it, getting
a date is hard enough for a regular guy, let alone an android with two reincarnated and/or
imaginary and/or demon kids and an ex-wife who literally killed him. So what's a Vision
to do but create himself a new wife in his own image? And in the 2016 self-titled comic
book series Vision, that's exactly what he does.
"What the f—"
Yup. Vision creates himself a synthezoid wife named Virginia, and he even uses Wanda's brainwaves
to do so, effectively giving her the mind of his ex. He then uses their combined brainwaves
to create two children: son Vin and daughter Viv. They live in the suburbs, and Vin and
Viv attend school. Everything is great… for about five seconds. Then the villain Grim
Reaper invades their home and attacks Viv, stabbing her through the stomach with his
scythe. He's killed by Virginia, who buries him in their backyard. Virginia's actions
then lead to the death of Viv's friend from school when the kid's father attempts to blackmail
her. He shoots at Virginia, but, thanks to her abilities, the bullets phase through her
and, well… they connect with the boy's skull. From there, things just get worse. Virginia
kills the family dog that Vision created. Vin is killed by the Ultron-created android
Victor Mancha, whom Vision considered a brother. And finally, Virginia kills herself after
confessing to her crimes. The sole survivor of the family — aside from Vision himself,
of course — is his daughter, Viv. She ends up befriending Scarlet Witch, reuniting with
her dog — repaired in a joint effort by Wanda and Tony Stark — and continuing her
life as a teenage Synthezoid. The comic ends with the Vision repairing his wife and promptly
starting the whole shebang over again.
Suddenly, the Vision and Scarlet Witch's relationship doesn't sound so strange, huh? Raise your
hand if you're stoked for WandaVision!
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.