'VisionQuest': Looking Back At The Comics' White Vision Saga, And How It Could Unfold Onscreen

At Marvel's recent Television and Animation panel at New York Comic Con, the eagerly awaited VisionQuest series was confirmed for a 2026 release. The series, set to conclude a trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued in Agatha All Along, stars Paul Bettany reprising his role as the synthezoid Avenger, now in the reassembled white form seen at the end of WandaVision. This Vision has access to both his own memories, and those of the Vision who existed within the Westview hex, but with none of the emotions attatched to said memories. VisionQuest will follow the character as he attempts to rediscover exactly who 'Vision' is.

The events that led to Vision's time as White Vision in the comics are equal parts iconic and controversial among the character's fans. Let's look back at these events, their eventual resolution, and how VisionQuest's version of the story could unfold.

A Vision destroyed

The sequence of events that led to the birth of the White Vision began in the 'Absolute Vision' storyline. Unbeknownst to his wife or teammates, Vision's control gem takes damage, altering his usual ability to reason. In this altered state, Vision enacts a plan to establish world peace via hacking into and taking control of Defence systems around the world. Everything is peacefully resolved once Vision's gem is repaired, and Wanda and Vision, already considering a leave of absence, leave the team to appease nervous authorities.

Unfortunately, the incident comes back to haunt them in the comic 'Vision Quest', when rogue Government Agents kidnap and dismantle Vision. While Hank Pym manages to reassemble him physically, his synthetic skin was damaged beyond repair, leaving him bleached white, and his brain is altered to the point of leaving him without emotions, destroying his marriage to Wanda.

Restoring humanity

The White Vision eventually develops a malfunction, and seeks help. He meets a human scientist, Miles Lipton, who realises that part of Vision's synthetic brain is not functioning fully due to a lack of human brain patterns. He had once possessed the patterns of Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, but these had been lost following his dissassembly, and Simon, revealing that he had always viewed Vision as an inferior synthetic copy of himself, refused to allow his brain waves to be used again.

Lipton donates the recorded brain patterns of his murdered son, Alex, and gives Vision a holographic projector which allows him to move unnoticed among people, using the alias Victor Shade. Vision develops a friendship with Lipton and his widowed Daughter-In-Law, Laura, during this time, helping them solve Alex's murder and bring his killers to justice.

Soon after, Lipton invites Vision for another visit, revealing that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and has developed a program that will, he believes, temporarily have Alex's psyche take full control of Vision's body, allowing him to be with his son one final time before his death. Vision allows the use of the program, and both Lipton and Laura spend time with 'Alex'.

However, while he never outright confirms her assumption, Vision's teammate and former Sister-In-Law Crystal, who accompanies him on the trip, discovers that the program didn't work. Vision had simply studied and impersonated Alex, as a final kindness to Lipton, whom he had grown to care for. This not only confirms his reconnection to his emotions, but establishes that Simon was wrong. The brain patterns used are only a template, and Vision is not a copy of the person to whom they belonged, but his own unique entity.

Sometime after this, an evil Vision from another dimension kidnaps and switches bodies with White Vision to infiltrate the Avengers. The ruse is discovered, and the evil Vision and White Vision body are destroyed.

The original Vision survives within the impostor's body, and this is how he has appeared ever since.. until recently.

White Vision 2.0

While The Vision and Wanda Maximoff have been separated for decades in the comics, the romantic tension between the pair has continued to simmer on and off over the years. Recently, the former couple were paired up in The Vision and The Scarlet Witch, a five issue miniseries produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their Wedding Issue, a major event for Marvel at the time.

While investigating the appearance of a series of mysterious doors, with people lured inside the doors by the call of dead loved ones, never to return. During the investigation, Vision ventures through one of the doors and suffers what should be a fatal injury, even for a synthezoid, asking Wanda to watch over his daughter, Viv. Wanda, unwilling to let him die, prevents his soul from moving on, and returns it to his body, which she magically repairs. Unfortunately, the spell goes awry, again leaving Vision with an altered bleached white form. However, unlike the previous White Vision saga, this version is too in touch with his emotions, feels too keenly, in a way that leaves him prone to volatile outbursts.

Trapped behind the door in longtime enemy the Grim Reaper's Graverealm, Wanda and Vision are forced into a series of cruel trials before they can face and defeat the Reaper's master, the God Gargantos. They succeed, and over the course of the trials, Vision finds himself more fully able to feel his enduring love for Wanda.. But both also understand that the current version of White Vision is too dangerous to continue to exist.

However, time moves differently in the Grave Realm, by then known as the Outer Dark. Wanda uses her chaos magic to build a world for the couple to inhabit.

They live a full, happy life together, while only a single day passes on Earth.

After, the Scarlet Witch returns Vision to his pre-death state, colour included. Wanda fully remembers the events in the Outer Dark, but while Vision seems aware that something occurred, the extent to which he remembers has thus far been left ambiguous.

White Vision in the MCU

In the MCU, White Vision is the result of S.W.O.R.D's 'Cataract' project, the assembled body of the original Vision, revived when Hayward obtains a sample of Wanda's chaos magic. At first under the control of Hayward and S.W.O.R.D, White Vision flees Westview after Hex Vision unlocks his memories.

According to star Paul Bettany, VisionQuest picks up the character's story a year after the events of WandaVision, as White Vision struggles with the question of who and what he is, possibly with the help of Tony Stark's various A.I creations, set to appear in human form during the series. It has been said to tell a story of Fathers and sons, and intergenerational pain.

This is probably where Vision and Wanda's son, Tommy Shepherd/Tommy Maximoff, now played by Scottish actor Ruaridh Mollica, fits into the story.

Billy Maximoff/William Kaplan supposedly 'saves' Tommy in the penultimate episode of Agatha All Along by finding a new body for his twin brother's soul to inhabit. Unfortunately, it appears that Tommy's new life is less than perfect, and unlike Billy, who struck parental gold in the form of Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan, Tommy Shepherd does not have parents who care about him.

It is perhaps through finding and helping Tommy out of his less than ideal living situation that White Vision may begin to reconnect with his emotions, but whether this would also effect his colour is unknown. And of course, this is all assuming the returning Ultron doesn't thwart Vision's attempt to find himself.

We can't wait to see how the story pans out when VisionQuest hits Disney Plus in 2026.