Who is White Vision?

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In episode eight we see the "birth" of White Vision in a post-credits scene that lays out how Director Hayward (Josh Stamberg) brought him back online.

“Sir, team’s ready for launch,” an underling tells Hayward as the Director looks on at the Hex.

“It’s about time,” he replies, heading back into their new makeshift base to join his team that have been working on…something.

“We took this thing apart and put it back together a million times,” Hayward says.

“Tried every type of power supply under the sun – when all we needed was a little energy directly from the source.”

Paul Bettany as White Vision in WandaVision (Disney)

At this point, Hayward glances over at the drone that SWORD sent into Westview a few weeks ago, which still crackles with Wanda’s magical energy. As it turns out, her power – in other words the Mind Stone-influenced magic that was able to kill Vision in Infinity War – is the perfect thing to get his old body going again, albeit in a slightly altered state.

It makes sense, in a way – the Mind Stone powered Vision, and its energy lives on in Wanda – and it certainly works here, re-powering the pale body of Vision and bringing it to life. Now, White Vision is back online and “alive” – but who is White Vision, exactly, and what makes him so significant?

Who is White Vision in the comics?

Well, to find out we will (as per usual) have to jump back to the comics, specifically to John Byrne’s 1989 “Vision quest” storyline in his run on West Coast Avengers. Within that story, at one point Vision is abducted and taken apart – and while he is later rescued he’s damaged, his skin pale and most of his emotional capability gone thanks to the “brain patterns” used to originally humanise him being taken away (and the “donor”, a hero called Wonder Man, denying a request to use the patterns again).

This leads to a storyline where the married Wanda and Vision drift apart, all the more so because their “children” are revealed to be figments of Wanda’s imagination brought to life by magic (sound familiar?), and while Vision does eventually become more like himself again it takes some time and many more adventures before he does.

Really, White Vision is an entirely separate character, cold where Vision was warm and not nearly as human. And it’s interesting to see the Marvel Cinematic Universe involve him in the WandaVision story, not least because it means Paul Bettany technically played three different Visions in episode eight – the original Vision in flashbacks, the Wanda-made Westview Vision and White Vision.

Is White Vision the same as the original Vision?

Well, not exactly.

In the WandaVision series finale, we saw the more emotional Westview Vision (who is arguably even more human than the “real” Vision ever was, capable of more complex feeling) take on his emotionless white counterpart, two halves of the character (the man and the machine) pitted against each other for supremacy.

As much as WandaVision has been about Elizabeth Olsen’s spellcaster, it’s also about her android hubby, and it’s hard not to see White Vision as an expression of this – the fight for Vision’s “soul,” as it were, between two aspects of his personality.

And when the dust settled after the finale, it certainly seems possible that at least one Vision will remain in the MCU. After their confrontation White Vision allows Westview Vision to "awaken" his body's old memories, apparently returning some aspects of his wiped personality (his eyes changed back to their usual colour) and leading him to conclude "I am the Vision," after previously suggesting he was someone else.

But is he now the same original Vision? The finale doesn't make it clear, with White Vision shooting off into the sky before more can be learned about his character. It could be that this is the familiar Vision in an exciting new colour scheme, but it's notable that he doesn't try to help Wanda in the final battle. Instead, he heads off to an unknown location, possibly looking to work out exactly who and what he is in this new form.

Presumably, we'll find out more about this new Vision version – including whether he has the lack of emotions seen in the comic-book story – in future Disney Plus series or movies.

For now, it's just good to know there's a future for Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - even if it's not the Vision we might have been expecting.