Setting Up Out Of Vision By Theodore Kemna
Setting Up Out Of Vision
By Theodore Kemna
By Theodore Kemna
I recently finished reading The Vision: The Complete Collection by Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Jordie Bellaire. This book, which collects the original twelve issue miniseries just titled The Vision originally published by Marvel Comics between November of 2015 and October of 2016, tells a story about The Vision, a robot superhero who wants nothing more than to be a human, and his attempt at having a regular family. He does this in the best way he could, by building a wife, daughter, son, and dog, moving into a home in the suburbs of Washington DC, and trying to live a semi-normal, by superhero standards, life there.
The Cover for Issue #1
One storytelling technique used masterfully throughout the book is setup/foreshadowing. This is done through setting events or actions up that at first seem like minor details but later end up being used in ways to advance the plot and add a sense of cohesiveness and planning to the overall story. Though it was used at many points throughout the story I would like to focus on "one" example introduced at the very beginning of the story, the decorations of the Vision's home.
At the beginning of the book, there is a scene where Vision and his "family" give a tour of their home to their new neighbors shortly after moving into their home. This scene at first seems to exist only to introduce the reader to the Vision's family, but the actual contents of the tour are shown as the book goes on to be a subtle form of foreshadowing of events to come. On the tour the Vision presents four important items in his home, a Piano of Vibranium (an incredibly powerful material within the Marvel universe) gifted to him by the Black Panther, a Flying Water-Vase from the planet Zenn-La gifted to him by the Silver Surfer, A Vibraniam-Steel Lighter from World War 2 gifted to him by Captain America, and a clipped Everbloom Tree, which's flowers, he explains, when treated correctly, allow a person to temporarily view the future. At the time these items only appear to be details added in by the writer and artists to fill the tour, but as the story goes on each serve a purpose that progresses the plot. Though I will not spoil how each of them is used, I will focus on the most important one, the Everbloom Tree. About halfway through the book a character uses the Everbloom Tree to view the future and to try to stop something from happening. If the tree had not been setup as being able to do this earlier in the book, this would've seemed like a random and out of nowhere appearance, but because it was set up in the beginning, this makes sense to the reader and serves of a bit of an "ah ha! I remember that" moment for them. This is true for the other 3 as well, but as I said earlier I don't want to spoil them in this blog post.
The Vase, The Lighter, and The Everbloom Tree
Though I did not focus on it too heavily, the story is also very good and keeps you paying attention from beginning to end. As I hope was shown through the last few paragraphs, even what seems like a small detail ends up contributing significantly to the plot of the book in a very fun and satisfying way. If any of this peaked your interest I definitely recommend checking it out.
Nice post! I definitely think that graphic novels deserve more attention. I haven't read a graphic novel in over a year and I might consider reading this novel. I also think it is cool that this story was spread out into 12 issues and then combined into a book. Finally, I think more books about robots are being written and they deserve more recognition in general. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI like your post, I think you did a great job explaining how in the house tour the book introduces four important parts of the story. It sounds exciting when you notice the Everbloom Tree later in the book and you understand what it means. I also have barely read any graphic novels so I may check this out in the future.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you were able to portray the subtle foreshadowing created by the author. I also liked the way you included the panels that showed the foreshadowing, because I was able to visualize what you were describing. This seems like an enjoyable read and I liked the way you described the "ah ha!" moment. I will have to check this book out sometime!
ReplyDeleteThis is not the type of book that I would normally pick up on my own, but you made it sound interesting. I liked the way you talked about foreshadowing from the book and included a specific example of the "Visions" home. It helped me understand the plot better and how the foreshadowing was used in this specific book. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteThis blog post gave me great memories of the series. Even though I have already read most of the series, your review still gave me chills remembering parts of the ending. This review has inspired me to perhaps read the series again, and try to remember what specifically happened at the end. Nice.
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