Eighteen years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “VisionQuest” feels like a lost artform. Something phased out by the pressures of an exhausted and evolving industry, and therefore an anomalous feat of superhero storytelling made infinitely more rich by the groundwork laid in front of it with careful intention, not commercial need.
In the lead up to the new series, fronted by Paul Bettany’s all-knowing AI synth Vision, Disney+ billed it as the “final vision of the groundbreaking trilogy,” a reference to its predecessors in 2021’s wildly inventive “Wandavision” and 2024’s supremely kooky “Agatha All Along.” This is the endcap to a story started at the dawn of Disney+ and in the wake of “Avengers: Endgame,” and that’s why “VisionQuest” and its trilogy are such a miracle — it’s a long game Marvel rarely plays anymore.
How did we get here, you ask? In “Wandavision,” the future Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) handled her grief over losing Vision in the fight against Thanos by disappearing into the manageable monotony of her favorite TV sitcoms, creating from them a world in which she magically resurrects her synthetic partner and conjures up twins boys for them to play out the happy ending they never got. But inside her hex, she unknowingly trapped a witch named Agatha (Kathryn Hahn), who forced her to face the extent of her power. In “Agatha All Along,” said witch finds herself sauntering down the fabled Witches Road alongside a mismatched coven, but it’s all just another magic simulation, summoned by Billy (Joe Locke), Wanda’s son who took a human host after she collapsed the hex. Get all that?
“VisionQuest” is created by writer Terry Matalas (“Star Trek: Picard”), a successor of Jac Schaeffer who ran the previous two series. In “VisionQuest,” all eight episodes of which were provided to critics, the titular AI is in search of himself, having been rebuilt by S.W.O.R.D. as a killing machine to stop Wanda’s hex. The only thing they couldn’t recreate were his deceased predecessor’s memories. He looks like Vision, gets flashes of the “Wandavision” story that was, and keeps being told he is Vision by all the other colorful Marvel AI programs he has shoved into his frontal cortex, but he doesn’t quite feel like a real boy yet.
That Pinocchio-inspired sentiment is perhaps better applied to the loudest AI voice in his head –– Ultron (James Spader), his predecessor AI who went rogue with his disdain for human life in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The threat of him and the newly recruited Wanda are why Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) created OG Vision in the first place. But when they defeated him, Vision stuffed Ultron’s digital code in his own head for reasons he is still trying to understand.
At the start of “VisionQuest,” Vision is essentially in standby mode, working as a barback at the Scottish pub the OG Vision and Wanda used to frequent. In his head though, he lives a more vibrantly chatty life, having built a retro-inspired mansion populated by the AI systems created by Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) — J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D.Arcy), F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) and E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire), among them. He makes them wear human avatars, giving him the performance of human interaction, even if it’s all just ones and zeros. This includes Spader, previously only heard as Ultron, but here in the flesh as the digital devil on Vision’s shoulder.
Bettany walks more of a tight rope than ever before with this rebooted Vision. He needs to be cold, but thawing. Overly literal, but with flourishes of personality. Despite Vision’s insistence that emotions aren’t part of his programming, an electric Bettany brings a warmth to the role to which his AI has to rise.
Spader, on the other hand, is almost too good as the menacing figure fixated on coaxing out the human in Vision, because he sees humanity as flawed and inevitably easier to manipulate. There are few actors who can make a four-course meal out of a line of dialogue like Spader. It’s extraordinary to watch him feast on what could be –– and sometimes are –– amusing but terribly cheesy lines like, “The power of code compels you.” This series leaves no digital pun unspoken, in fact. When one AI character infiltrates another’s database, they are greeted with a, “Look what the wi-fi dragged in.” When Hampshire’s delightfully bubbly E.D.I.T.H. tries to expel an invasive AI, she conducts an exorcism with the words, “Control-alt-delete thee from this place.”
It makes “VisionQuest” a surprisingly silly affair. Given the technicolor tragedy that was “Wandavision,” this series could have been an equally dour dive into the digital world. Instead, it is remarkably light on its feet, which sometimes causes it to float away from a more focused story. In addition to its dialogue, “VisionQuest” leans heavily on a literalization of the digital world. At one point, “someone” takes control of a synth body and is seen gripping the wheel of a sea-battered ship. In order to hack a firewall, Vision and Ultron play the part of detectives asked to prove their humanity by picking which of nine photos has a fire hydrant.
At this point in the MCU, there is something refreshing about a property, one that could have a stiff upper lip given its less-than-human characters, reveling in the fun of its own conceit. Bettany remains a great match for this tone with his deadpan deliveries, while Spader is still a master as the menacing drawl and Hampshire is endlessly engaging as the adventure-seeking AI who gives Vision the courage to break free of his own digital guardrails. On the human side of things, this is the other half to “Agatha All Along,” in that Vision is suddenly confronted with the human teenager who received the soul of his other son, Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica). Could the pains and pleasures of fatherhood be what finally cracks open Vision’s code? While Locke was a darker familiar for Agatha, Tommy is more spirited in his efforts to wring a father figure out of Vision. Mollica brings an endearing and energetic spirit to the task, given it’s about as easy as getting blood from a stone.
“VisionQuest” is fun, which doesn’t sound as effusive as it could be. But after years of illegible Marvel films and series, that is the highest compliment. It’s well crafted, even if it’s saddled with one or 20 too many metaphors. Its heartfelt emotion is well earned, and feels cut from the same cloth of empathetic storytelling as its fellow trilogy mates.
For a series that could be as banal as the ones and zeros that power it, “VisionQuest” is among the more humane and hopeful things Marvel has produced, and gives the “Wandavision” trilogy a sendoff as solid as the vibranium build of its hero.
“VisionQuest” premieres Wednesday on Disney+.
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