We’ve had some peeks at The Vision from Avengers: Age of Ultron in the past, but nothing too official has bubbled to the top to give us a glimpse at the heroic android. Luckily Entertainment Weekly’s big summer movie issue is here to grant us our chance, complete with a nice nod to some Marvel Comics history.
Three of the special covers feature each member of the team in some awkwardly shopped pose, ready to do battle with titular villain Ultron on the final cover. The Vision is alongside Black Widow and Hulk on cover two, obviously, looking quite similar to his comic counterpart. Paul Bettany looks a little silly in red face paint, but I’m sure he’ll look a lot more “natural” on the screen. As for the story behind Vision, EW does provide a small taste behind the character’s cinematic origin. SPOILER ALERT obviously:
These new characters are the products of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), a new villain from HYDRA, which infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. long ago and raided its most powerful technologies.
Strucker has been using Loki’s scepter for human experimentation, which bestowed the siblings with powers of magic (Scarlet Witch) and speed (Quicksilver). But the bad baron piques the interest of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark for other reasons. “Von Strucker was working on a lot of stuff, including robotics,” says Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. “Tony realizes, ‘[Those robotics] might be able to help me get over the hump of some of the AI stuff I’ve been working on.’ ”
Stark’s invention, Ultron, is born from the marriage of both men’s technologies. Alas, adolescence is a bitch, and Ultron goes rogue, shreds Stark’s other artificial-intelligence program, J.A.R.V.I.S., and gives rise to his own awesome creation: the synthezoid known as the Vision (played by Paul Bettany, who previously voiced J.A.R.V.I.S.).
So a nice mix of the comic storyline and something original to the film series. Nothing wrong with that.
The coolest part of the cover for me is how it ties in with the first issue of the X-Men series that debuted back in the early 90’s. SlashFilm points this out, noting that all for covers put together offer a slight nod to Jim Lee’s iconic cover that flooded the comics market back in 1991.
At first glance, it didn’t really hit me too much. The awkward nature of the character placement and Photoshop stood out first, but it works once you realize the homage is in play. They look awkward for a reason. Now if only Jim Lee could come in and transform the EW covers into an art piece, we’d be set. Compare and contrast below and check out each of the covers up close over here.
(Via Entertainment Weekly / SlashFilm / The Verge)
