Avengers: Infinity War was arguably one of the greatest movies to ever come out of the franchise that is Marvel Cinematic Universe. Over the years we have seen the franchise churn out superhero adventure after superhero adventure. The directors and writers have worked hard over the years to provide the fan with the sense of interconnectivity and continuity that we have craved.
The thing with continuity reference is that although the fans manage to catch most of them, sometimes these references are so obscure and so vague that we may fall completely flat when trying to interpret it.
During the events of Infinity War, which was also the culmination of over a decade of moviemaking and which brought together more than 40 different characters on the same screen, we saw that the mad Titan Thanos took it upon himself to collect all the infinity stones and to fulfil his passion of wiping out half of life in all of the creation. Although the motivations of the mad Titan were a bit muddy, his approach was precise and lethal, his actions had intent.
His movements had a purpose and he took the Avengers by surprise. He picked his teeth with the Avengers’ bones (in a metaphorical sense). All this was amplified by the fact that we saw a paradigm shift during the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
In all previous installments of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, it was always the good guys who came out on top. I mean even for a superhero franchise that is a bit much considering the fact that we need constant conflict in a story to keep it going.
Infinity War, in a lot of ways, did something that no superhero movie has done before. It culminated a franchise that has been able to retain its novelty despite the quantum of characters and story arcs it has to manage. Maybe that is why the movie is so close to the hearts of Marvel fans.
We not only see the universe culminating in one big final act but we, as an audience, also get a lot of story for our favorite characters. But the problem is when you have such a plethora of strong characters you get more Quantum in the story but less quality.
Although there are a lot of payoffs that are to be appreciated in Infinity War, there are also key story points that lack depth and ultimately cause a viewer to disconnect with the world the movie is trying to present.
One such story element was the lack of any true substance behind the deaths portrayed in Infinity War. Albeit tragic, the deaths of these main characters like Spiderman, Vision or the Black Panther seemed meaningless and hollow when you compare it to the overall plot.
Well okay, they serve as to establish Thanos as an indomitable force but that is where the relevance of these deaths ends. For the sole reason that the fandom knows that these heroes will come back eventually, we lose interest in the loss no matter how heartbreaking it might be.
One such loss was of Vision, the character was introduced as a “worthy” heavy hitter in the Avengers roster in the Age of Ultron and acted as the natural enemy of the artificial intelligence. Powered by the mind gem it was thought that vision will be a power to be reckoned with. Things changed when Infinity War and Civil War came around, the character was reduced to an over-glorified bodyguard for Scarlett Witch (not like she needs protection.
WHY WAS SHE UP THERE ALL THIS TIME !?) and for the majority of Infinity War, Vision acted as a damsel in distress. The only time he did enter the combat he ended up dying meaninglessly and quite fast I must add. Even his repeated deaths failed to generate sympathy from the crowd.
But what if I tell you that there was a bigger subplot developing behind the scenes of Infinity War. What if I tell you that there was more the character of Vision and his associates than the audience has ever been led to believe. What if I tell you that Vision never died in Infinity War? Here’s the proof.
Before I start barraging you with conjecture and speculation, let me break down the current information for you. Because to understand this theory you need to understand what all led up to the creation of the character known as Vision and how the writers would want to treat this character moving forward with the storyline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Vision was first introduced in the second Avengers movie titles age of Ultron. The movie followed the events of the creation of an artificial intelligence known as Ultron, a brainchild of Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (although it was originally Hank Pym who started all of this when he invented the actual Ultron AI during the history of Marvel Comics).
Ultron was a highly intelligent artificial intelligence who gained sentience after his birth. It was only a matter of time after achieving this sentience that Ultron decided that if he was to fulfill his objective of saving and guarding the earth, then he must eliminate the current greatest threat vis-a-vis humanity itself.
For these purposes Ultron forged the perfect body made up of vibranium and other parts collected from all over the world, this perfect body was going to be able to pass through other material, an astral representation that has an evil AI.
Ultron wanted to be a presence, something that was invulnerable and acted as the commander of the Ultron legion. Unbeknownst to him, the Avengers stole this body from under Ultron’s nose and this led to a rather peculiar situation where the Avengers faced off again the legion with Vision on their side.
Vision is the perfect body of a sentient AI and the consciousness of the mind gem. The power of infinity and its wisdom running through his mind and the power of humanity constituting his body. Vision, at his inception, was a very promising character.
But what the hell happened in Infinity War. The entire equation changed when he and Scarlett Witch got together. Two powerhouses in the Avengers got together. You’d think that an undefeatable pair, but you’d be wrong because the Black Order made short work of them.
Not only that the MCU has some explaining to do when it comes to Captain America and sundries vs the Black Order. Never have I ever, in my entire life, as a comic nerd, come across such blatant fanservice and such departure from the source material just to please fans.
Regardless, let’s discuss the main issue the death of Vision. While the couple ( Scarlett Witch and Vision were absent or MIA for the majority of the movie, they did redeem themselves when Infinity War ended. We saw Iron Man failing and Captain America being mowed down. We saw a desperate cry escape Scarlett Witch’s mouth when she held off Thanos and killed the man she loved simultaneously.
It was a heartbreaking experience for fans since Shuri failed in her attempt to disconnect Vision from the mind stone. What was even more heartbreaking was the fact that Vision was still brought back to life by Thanos and the power of the time stone and yet again killed in front of Scarlett Witch’s eyes who was then dusted.
But did Shuri really fail? We saw as the Black Order approached the inner laboratory of Wanda, Shuri shut off the console before she started fighting. It looked as if Shuri did succeed in reconfiguring the neurons of Vision, but then why does he fall lifeless to the ground?
I’ll give you the answer. It’s because at that point the mid stone was the power source of that machine. When the mind stone is removed Vision loses all power and shuts off, so technically if Iron Man (or most likely Bruce Banner since he’s the one on earth) was to insert a power core into Vision, we’ll be able to ‘bring him back to life’ figuratively speaking of course.
