Super Sunday Special: The Marvel Vault

Published by Running Press, 1st ed (2007)

Hardcover, 192 pages

Today's special is about "The Marvel Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the World of Marvel" (whew, that's a long title for a book!) by Peter Sanderson and the living legend that is Roy Thomas.

What Is It? The Vault is a hardcover ring binder book detailing the history of Marvel Comics, from its early days in 1939 to 2007. An updated version published in December 2016 covers the current decade too. The format is a little strange: 30 x 2.3 x 26.9 cm (or 10.7 x 13 x 1.8 inches) mean it's shorter and deeper than a regular book, meaning it doesn't fit well on a book-shelf unless placed resting on its binding.

Avengers: "Even An Android Can Cry"

Avengers #58 (1968)

By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, George Klein

Background: Despite being largely unaware of his own history, Vision has rebelled against Ultron and sided with the Avengers. The current Avengers roster is Black Panther, Wasp, Goliath and Hawkeye.

So, What Happens? Captain America, Thor and Iron Man briefly return to the Avengers to discuss what to do with the Vision, who wishes to join the team. Cap stages a short fight so that Vision can prove his powers, and the synthozoid is so impressive that it takes Thor to bring him down. Despite his obvious usefulness, the Avengers are wary because too much is not known about the origin of the Vision, whose only memories are of having been created by Ultron to destroy the Avengers. Hank Pym has identified the Vision as a sun-powered synthozoid, something he himself had been working on, but now realizes he doesn't remember what happened to his own experiment. The Avengers go to Hank's house and lab, where his once-destroyed machines have somehow been rebuilt some time ago. Using his electronic memory bank, Hank finally remembers creating the Ultron prototype, who referred to him as father and attacked immediately, eventually hypnotising Hank into forgetting everything and moving to Avengers Mansion. Iron Man notices that the memory tape with the brain patterns of their erstwhile foe Wonder Man is missing, and the team realize Ultron must have used them as template for the Vision. Returning to the mansion, the Avengers welcome Vision into their ranks, explaining they don't consider him anything less than a man. Touched, the Vision walks out of the room to hide the tears in his eyes.

Avengers: "Behold... the Vision!"

Avengers #57 (1968)

By Roy Thomas, John Buscema, George Klein

Background: The current Avengers roster is Black Panther, Wasp, Goliath, Hawkeye.

So, What Happens? During a rainy night, a mysterious, red-skinned character enters Janet van Dyne's apartment and terrifies her. Describing him as an unearthly, inhuman Vision. Janet manages to shrink down and escape, but the intruder is capable of walking through walls and of shooting heat rays from his eyes. Wasp is in trouble, but the intruder suddenly collapses in pain, and moments later Hank Pym is there too. They decide to take him to Avengers Mansion, where they are eventually joined by Hawkeye and Black Panther. By studying their mystery man, Hank determines him to be an artificial human, or a synthozoid, something he himself had been unsuccessfully working on. The creature awakens and names himself the Vision after Wasp's remark when she first saw him. He says his mission is to destroy the Avengers and attacks, revealing the power to alter his own density from intangible to hard as a diamond. Eventually however he calms down, realizing he doesn't know why he was sent to kill the Avengers, nor how he came to be. Feeling he and the Avengers should be allies, he remembers being created by the robot called Ultron-5 and offers to take the team to him. Despite some uncertainty, the Avengers agree to follow the Vision, unaware that Ultron had both caused him to collapse at the Wasp's and programmed him to lead the Avengers to his lair, where he could destroy them himself. Upon entering Ultron's secret base, Hank is captured and the rest of the team falls into a trap. Vision phases through the walls and meets Ultron, revealing he really wants to help the Avengers and challenging his creator, who admits the Vision's power may be greater than his own but refuses to explain why the synthozoid possesses human memories, thoughts and emotions. Eventually, Ultron is tricked into jumping against the wall and explodes. With his destruction the traps stop and the Avengers reunite, unaware that Ultron's head has survived. The Vision rues the missed chance to learn the full story behind his creation.

Iron Fist: "The Fury of Iron Fist"

Marvel Premiere #15 (1974)

By Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano

So, What Happens? Danny Rand, the martial arts master carrying the title of the Iron Fist, undergoes his final trials under the watch of Yu-Ti, lord of the mystic city of K'Un-Lun. First he battles four warriors called the Dragon Kings in hand-to-hand combat and easily wins. Then it's the turn of the champion Shu-Hu, who proves to be a much tougher challenge. During the fight, Danny reminisces about his past: ten years ago, as a kid, he took part in an Himalayan expedition with his parents Wendell and Heather and his father's business partner and best briend Harold Meachum. Their goal was to find the mystic and legendary city of K'Un-Lun, but Harold betrayed them and caused Wendell to fall and die. Left alone and lost, Danny and Heather wandered in the snow until they found a rope bridge, but before they could both cross it they were chased by a pack of wolves and the woman had to sacrifice herself to save her child. Danny was then rescued by the monks of K'Un-Lun, who took him in and trained him to become Iron Fist, the Living Weapon. Back to the present, Danny lets his mother's memory motivate him to overcome Shu-Hu and finally defeats him by focusing his inner energy - his chi - into his fist and deliver a mighty finishing blow. Shu-Hu is revealed to be a robot, while Danny is asked to choose between immortality and death.