Who or what is the Vision?

The Vision was my favorite part of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Paul Bettany did a great job portraying the character, who is basically an oversensitive android. The movie got him pretty much exactly right. There was a distinct murmur of excitement from the crowd at the theater when the Vision showed up since he's one of the core Avengers. He's such an integral part of the group that through most of the '70s, he was the sole hero featured in the corner box on the cover of the issues, which usually feature head shots of all the members.

The Vision has been a part of the team since about 1968. Ultron, as in the movie, created him to attack the Avengers. The Wasp named him after he spooked her and she remarked how he looked like "an unearthly vision." (So after naming the Avengers team, the Wasp has also named a team member. Yet the movies have cut her out of team history entirely. Not that I'm bitter.) The Vision quickly defied Ultron's programming, turned against his creator and the Avengers accepted him into their ranks.

The Vision is a synthezoid: an artificial body with a human mind. He can alter his density to become intangible or diamond hard. He also has super strength, can fly and shoot solar beams out of the jewel on his forehead (unlike in the movie, the jewel is not an Infinity Gem in the comic). His body originally was the reconstructed android body of the original Human Torch — not the Fantastic Four Torch but the very first Marvel hero who fought in World War II alongside Captain America and the Sub-Mariner. Years later, they retconned this and said the Vision's body was not the Torch's, saying it was a plot by the time traveler Immortus to manipulate the Vision into believing he had roots so he would marry the Scarlet Witch so she could never have children and could therefore not pass on her destructive abilities.

Got that? I love the Avengers but even as a veteran reader, I still need a road map to follow all the retcons.

Ultron based the Vision's mind on the brain patterns of Simon Williams, Wonder Man. After Wonder Man apparently died in an early battle with the Avengers, the team recorded his brain patterns and Ultron plugged them into the Vision. This basically makes the two twin brothers.

Here's why writers are wrong to treat the Vision as a machine: From his very first appearance, he has shown deep emotion. After the Avengers first accepted him, he was so moved that he shed tears, leaving the team to remark "Even an android can cry" in one of the most famous moments in Marvel history. Over the decades, the Vision has struggled with his android nature, constantly having angst over the fact that he has an artificial body and was not fully human. The irony of this is that the angst proved he was human, a true machine would not even have the capacity to question its lack of humanity.

Eventually, the governments of the world conspired to erase the Vision's memory and personality, feeling he had access to too much sensitive information from those governments. Hank Pym and the Black Panther restored his body but Wonder Man refused to let the Avengers use his brain patterns to restore the Vision's personality, arguing that he was presumed dead and did not give permission when the team recorded his brain patterns. With the Vision emotionless and essentially dead, this left the distraught Scarlet Witch a widow. This, combined with the revelation that her magically conceived children were not real, drove Wanda to a mental breakdown.

Wanda later began a relationship with Simon, who had always loved her. The Vision later got his memories and personality back, revealing he was still in love with Wanda, but she was already with Simon. These two have always been star-crossed.

Wanda's breakdown over the Vision's condition and her children's issues caused long-term problems for the team. In the notorious Avengers Disassembled story, the Scarlet Witch warped reality and caused so much chaos that she killed or injured several members, including the Vision (she felt suicidal guilt after she came to her senses). There was another Vision for awhile but the original later returned. Despite the fact that the Avengers have mostly forgiven Wanda, as she was not fully culpable for her actions, she and the Vision now have a chilly relationship.