Tom King: The Vision, Volume II

[bibliogramma]

I finally got around to reading the second volume of Tom King’s graphic novel The Vision, subtitled Little Better than a Beast, which continues the story of Avenger Vision, a synthetic being, and his equally synthetic family, trying to live as human beings.

It’s a tragedy. Partly because they are trying to be what they cannot be, partly because society cannot let them be what they are, partly because of the problem at the core of the superhero story, the one about having so much power snd attracting evil and dealing with that in the middle of a world full of ordinary people. Some superheroes deal with it by having secret identities - that’s the DC universe way, for the most part, and it kind of works most of the time.

But Marvel heroes don’t always do that, and Vision is so very different that he couldn’t do it anyway. So this story about a superhero trying to have a normal family life becomes a meditation on fame, power and difference. It’s also a frightening look at how a chain of poor decisions can lead to horrifying results. Lies, denials, betrayals, spreading out like ripples, reinforcing each other and evoking terrible consequences.

One of the characters becomes obsessed with quoting Shakespeare, and there is something very Shakespearean about this story. Figures larger than life, fatal flaws, and cathartic consequences. Hidden guilt coming to the surface. And destruction. And renewal, and the seeds of more to come.