VisionQuest review: A moving companion to WandaVision, told from Vision's side

I'm a little worried about VisionQuest. I've seen all eight episodes, and I feel that, ironically like WandaVision, it could wind up being crushed by expectations for some people. If you appreciated WandaVision, I think you'll appreciate VisionQuest and simultaneously be slightly disappointed by it, the same way you were by WandaVision.

I think it's a parallel experience, only from Vision's side of the relationship, which I found very rewarding. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed towards the end on a couple of things, but they surprised me with something else. It was as if they were saying, "We don't have this for you, but we do have this." And my reaction was that it's beautiful, I'll take it.

Marvel's ads for VisionQuest have been giving away big reveals

I think Disney and Marvel are a little nervous too, which is why, for the past week especially, they've been kind of ruining some of the big reveals of the show with the advertising campaign. They just want to make sure that you tune in, and I get that.

It's a shame, though, because I loved experiencing those moments cold, as in I didn't know they were going to happen. The super fans, the ones combing through all the clues, are the ones who would most want that experience, so they're the ones most likely to have it ruined for them now. It is what it is.

VisionQuest is not the return of Wanda, but I think we're getting there

So I'm just going to rip the bandage off: VisionQuest is not the return of Wanda. I will say, though, that I think we're getting there. The show is extremely rewarding to fans of WandaVision and Agatha All Along. I know many of you have revisited those shows to get ready, and I'm happy to say you will be greatly rewarded for having done so.

On the flip side, I didn't rewatch them, though I remember them very well, and I still picked up on everything. It was really an amazing experience. It's really for people who are interested in completing this picture and getting both sides of the heart.

Also, VisionQuest is not a show about witches. It's a show about synthezoids, and it does as much to flesh out that corner of the MCU as Agatha All Along did with the witches' corner, which I thought was fun. There's also one speedster who's an absolute delight. I fell in love with him immediately, and that actually makes me a little worried for Wiccan.

The first five episodes are phenomenal, then the focus shifts to Ultron and Jocasta

For me, VisionQuest works best when it further explores the Maximoff family and elevates Vision from just a candle for Wanda to a real, complex life partner. It's always episode five, right? This time that's a very, very good episode, and those first five episodes are, to me, absolutely phenomenal. I think that's because they largely focus on the Maximoff family, Vision and Tommy.

But then the show kind of moves a little bit to Ultron and Jocasta, and I did not care for that as much. So it's going to take a little bit of a dip for some people. For others, that might be where interest gets higher, because it's such a male centric storyline with such a strong focus on science.

I'm hoping VisionQuest might expand the WandaVision fandom. These days when we bring up Wanda, there are always people saying enough with Wanda, she wasn't that great. So maybe if people relate to Vision, we can bring more fans onto the Maximoff bandwagon.

VisionQuest is light on MCU Easter eggs but strong on emotion

So is VisionQuest worth your time? It depends. These days I think, for a number of MCU fans, it's all about the Easter eggs. That's fine, but I don't think you're having as good a time as the rest of us, because I think it's impossible to deliver the amount of Easter eggs some of you want and still have a cohesive, engaging story. "Some of you just want a ball pit of Easter eggs." Doomsday might end up being that, and we'll see which does better. I guess Deadpool and Wolverine was kind of a good mix of story and Easter eggs.

VisionQuest is on the lighter side with MCU Easter eggs. It has a ton of comic book Easter eggs, particularly if you know your synthezoids, but a huge portion of the MCU fan base does not read the comics. If you're interested in really connecting with these characters emotionally, though, VisionQuest delivers.

I'm hoping it's in step with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which I think fans really appreciated because we got to spend time with Peter Parker as a person. The problem is that, thanks to the prior movies, even people who don't read comics have a strong feeling for who Peter Parker is, so seeing him again is like seeing an old friend. Nobody knows anything about Vision, so you have to actually want to meet the guy, and that maybe is a little bit of a hurdle. Still, there are several incredible character moments here interwoven with action. That's all I'll say, but they were just a joy to see unfold.

Two episodes a week makes VisionQuest feel like an MCU movie every week

I also love the release schedule. It reminds me a bit of Andor, except here you get two episodes a week instead of three. The first six episodes run a little under an hour, and with the credits out they're about 45 to 50 minutes. You get two of those a week for three weeks, which is an MCU movie a week. For the final two weeks you get one episode at a time, because those are about an hour each.

With the final episode, episode 8, I was getting nervous that they wouldn't have enough time to wrap everything up in a satisfying way. I paused it expecting maybe 5 to 10, or if I was lucky 15, minutes left, credits included. I can't tell you the euphoria I felt when I saw there were 30 minutes left.

Did I get the WandaVision and Agatha All Along crossover I was hoping for, especially after those first five Maximoff centric episodes? I was a wee bit disappointed on that front. I got something, and I think I was promised something that's coming, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Instead I was given something else, which was a really nice surprise.

Paul Bettany's Vision is up there with Olsen's Wanda and Hiddleston's Loki

I would say VisionQuest is as beautiful in its emotion and meaning of the relationship between Wanda and Vision as WandaVision was. I found myself as genuinely and surprisingly moved as I was with that first show, which many would argue, I think successfully, is still the best MCU Disney Plus show.

As I said in my first reaction when the social media embargo lifted, it hits different when you're doing a deep dive on an Avenger instead of introducing a character from scratch on Disney Plus, which has really not worked out for them. The groundwork has been laid in the movies, we've established a connection, and the acting is better. I feel this very much has the quality of an MCU movie; overall it's like an eight hour MCU movie. Paul Bettany is a joy, and although he hasn't had a hugely successful movie career, you can really see the difference in the quality and style of the acting.

In that regard it feels a little like Andor too. Is it as good? I think it's between Andor season 1 and 2: better than season 1, but not quite as good as season 2, especially because the story is still not done and the Maximoff family is still not totally reunited. I would say Bettany's Vision is up there with Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda on her show and Tom Hiddleston's Loki on his. And like Loki, Vision can really rock a popped collar. His wardrobe is impeccable, a debonair fashion plate.

White Vision and the AI built by Tony Stark

As we walked through the house he created within his mind, I thought, you and Wanda really are a perfect match. A big part of that is that he's inspired by Wanda. The original Vision learned to be human through his relationship with her, so it's only natural he would incorporate a lot of her personality, which is kind of how relationships work. Spend enough time with someone and their interests at least partially become yours.

Here you have White Vision, a copy who has Vision's memories but none of his emotions, trying to become more human as Vision managed to, and so are his AI friends: Jarvis, Friday, Edith and, of course, Ultron. All of them were built by Tony Stark, because this is the MCU and all roads, even Wanda's, lead back to him. I don't know if it's Robert Downey Jr.'s ego or Kevin Feige superstition, but it doesn't feel realistic that he'd be the only one who cornered AI, when in real life several companies are racing to build it.

We do dive into the history of AI within the MCU, and that's all I'll say. If these programs are, for all intents and purposes, real boys, they kind of bring back that Pinocchio metaphor. It reminded me a lot of a Prime Video series I enjoyed until it kind of ran out of stuff to do, and of Free Guy. To VisionQuest's credit, it eventually becomes very much its own unique conversation about AI, and a very timely one. Thankfully we don't spend too much time with Jarvis, Friday and Edith. No offense to them, but that's not why any of us are here.

Tommy Maximoff is the heart of VisionQuest

Some of you may be more excited about Ultron going in, but believe me, after Vision, Tommy Maximoff is the star of this show, and I would say he is certainly its heart. He's as eager to learn about and help his family as Joe Locke's Billy was in Agatha All Along, and they really do seem like a yin and yang as twins. Speed was never very strongly identified, even in WandaVision, so seeing him come together so strongly here, to the point where I think he overshadows Wiccan, is surprising.

I feel very bad for Wiccan, because I've been very supportive of Joe Locke in that role, and now I'm a little worried for him. I hope we'll see them together in the MCU going forward, and that whoever's handling them works hard to keep them balanced. Get Vin Diesel's point system from the Fast and the Furious movies. People laughed at it, but I think it's important they be on an even keel.

The best compliment I can pay Tommy: I've been against a Young Avengers show, and I'm kind of starting to warm to it. If they can get talent this good with powers this fun, maybe we should do it. The actor, with his cinematic cheekbones and charismatic persona, is one of the best casting finds I think we've seen in quite some time, and not a small screen choice like a lot of recent Disney Plus casting. He has the level of charisma of Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova. When he and Bettany are on screen, they feel like one half of the Maximoff family and make you wonder about the other half.

Ultron returns as a formidable and violent threat

We always talk about Marvel's villain problem: they usually last one movie or show and are never actually that evil. VisionQuest thankfully fixes that by bringing back Ultron and making him a formidable threat both mentally and physically. The show is surprisingly violent, with a lot of kills, and I'm not just talking red shirts. I hope those don't leak, because they were good surprises. If you have a show featuring Ultron, it needs that violent element to make him feel like the threat he should be.

James Spader twirls his digital mustache and does a wonderful job opposite Bettany. Is Ultron really Vision's father, and what does that mean to both of them? That was another really interesting part for me, because it built on the family dynamic and gave Vision his own family tree rather than just being Wanda centric.

Kudos to Terry Matalas, a master sci fi storyteller and clearly a WandaVision super fan, who uses the 1950s and 60s TV aesthetic to create metaphors for how technology works. The captcha joke given away in the trailers is hilarious, and there's a lot more like that. I'm not a big computer person and I still got the jokes. At first it reminded me a bit too much of that Prime Video series, maybe a ripoff of WandaVision, but once I saw the metaphor represented how computers work, I had a lot of fun with it.

The Jocasta scenes feel less cinematic, and Paladin never fit for me

Spader started in movies but over the years has become very TV, so it's good his scenes are mostly with Bettany, who pulls him back toward being cinematic. The problem is T'Nia Miller's Jocasta, because Miller mostly works on the small screen too. When it's just her and Spader, the scenes become less dynamic, and I didn't like them as much. Early on, though, when Jocasta is more of a shadowy figure, she moves and looks really cool. We don't see the synthezoids' true forms much, but I'm glad they saved their money so that when we do, they look amazing.

We also spend a surprising amount of time with Tommy's girlfriend, Lisa, and with Todd Stashwick's Paladin, a bounty hunter from the comics. I didn't like Stashwick at first; he felt like a TV actor in a cinematic setting. "Get this fly out of my ointment." He's there because he's from Matalas's Star Trek: Picard, so some Picard fans may be happy. I eventually came to appreciate him enough, but never really loved him and thought he didn't fit. Diane Morgan, aka Philomena Cunk, as his assistant is a great bit of casting.

VisionQuest's London actually feels like London

A large part of the show takes place in London, and unlike Secret Invasion, it actually feels like we're there. I was in London at Christmas 2024, in the exact market where we first spend time with Tommy and Lisa, and it felt like I was right back there. The MCU was very New York centric at first and then moved to LA, so a new setting feels really great.

My verdict: VisionQuest is a story about love

I love VisionQuest as much as I love WandaVision and Loki, and I think it keeps the MCU headed in the same direction as Spider-Man: Brand New Day, at least I hope so. We've never really gotten to know Vision in the MCU, or Tommy in the comics, so finally meeting them was so rewarding. Add Ultron, a villain, when a lot of people see Wanda as a villain, and perhaps there's a little bit of Ultron in Vision, which maybe is why he and Wanda get along so well. I love an anti hero, so a whole family of them is a treat for me.

More than anything, VisionQuest, like WandaVision, is a story about love: the power of having it, losing it, and never having had it, even for a synthezoid. Perhaps those different experiences with love are what make us human. Don't go in with an agenda, maybe a little one, but really look to complete the picture of WandaVision. The first two episodes drop on Wednesday, though the time still hasn't been cemented.

Which part of VisionQuest are you most looking forward to: Vision, Tommy Maximoff, or Ultron?