Vision & The Scarlet Witch #1: Even Androids Can Cry

Finally! After March’s last issue of the Scarlet Witch, the team of Steve Orlando and Lorenzo Tammetta are back, and this time they brought the Vision with them! In this four issue mini celebrating the 50th anniversary of their wedding (see: Giant Size Avengers #4-June 1975), and the team brought some special guests along with them! It’s a family affair, as it seems the Grim Reaper is back, and he’s got another scheme to escape Death’s clutches, and return to the land of the living! So let’s get on with the review, so we can discuss just how great this first issue is!

The issue starts as a biker gang from hell (figuratively), the Dead Wings, who are in the middle of attacking Darcy, and the citizens of Lotkill, to enter something called Death’s door. It’s a door that’s very similar to the doors that are connected to Wanda’s Last Door, that brings those who are without hope, to a place that can help them with whatever it is that has them so distraught. Darcy reaches out telepathically to Wanda, who’s busy asking the Powers-That-Be (see: GODS #8) in the Far Realms, as she’s searching for the escaped Ch’Thon, who was once bonded to Wanda’s soul to imprison him.

Racing back home, she’s taking this gang one on one, when Vision arrives to give her a hand. The two take the gang on rather quickly, but one seems to slip through. In this “Graverealm”, which kinda reminds me of these interdimensional abstract areas, like the Phoenix’s White Hot Room, or the Asgardians Valhalla, but it feels much more sinister, and death focused. Orlando’s tapping into these magical realms, and abstract entities that we don’t see as often as I’d like. That’s something that’s been quite entertaining over the last few years, with Orlando’s previous volumes of the Scarlet Witch, as well as Jed MacKay’s Dr. Strange, and Hickman’s GODS, enriching the weirdness that we don’t see enough of in current comics.

Orlando using the Grim Reaper is a good choice, as family has been the driving force for his run on the Scarlet Witch these last few years. Whether it’s about her relationship with Quicksilver, or Polaris, or Magneto, or Vision, but he’s always been working on building up her bond to enrich a character who didn’t always have these familial relationships built up. It’s finally time for Wanda to reconnect with her ex-husband the Vision, who haven’t had that many meaningful exchanges since their time in the original West Coast Avengers, where he was stripped of his humanity and memories, and eventually their children. There’s so much storytelling potential for world building, the team just needs to grasp it.

Lorenzo Tammetta and Steve Orlando seem to hit that sweet spot, where the two keep on complimenting each other. With Tammetta back on art duties after his phenomenal work on the last two volumes, as well as the Quicksilver & the Scarlet Witch mini, with this being his best work to date. I especially love his take on the Vision here. It’s giving a C.F. Villa vibe here. He’s really pushing himself, and it shows. His action scenes are kinetic, but clean, meanwhile his slower,  tender moments feel more sincere and earnest. You can almost feel the longing these once lowers still has for each other. Just an excellent artist, whose craftsmanship has excelled with every new issue.