Marvel fans are in need of seeing the Young Avengers in the MCU, and Marvel’s upcoming Vision Quest series might be the best way to do it.
When last we see Vision, Wanda brings him back to life by transferring his consciousness into a new Vision body, dubbed “White Vision.” Afterward, he flies away from Westview leaving his future unknown. Vision has played a major part in the MCU ever since he entered the scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the comics, he plays a significant role in the formation of the Young Avengers.
The original Young Avengers series by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung included Kate Bishop, Patriot, Speed, Wiccan, Hulkling, and Cassie Lang, most of whom are already in the MCU (though not all have suited up yet), and many of the pieces are coming together. This could give us an indication of where Vision Quest could go and how the superhero team could join the fray.
The Young Avengers’ origins start in the future. Nathaniel Richards is a 16-year-old robotics student from the year 3016 who gets rescued by his future self. The only problem is that his future self happens to be Kang the Conqueror, who gives his younger self psychokinetic armor that responds to his mind. With these new abilities, Nathaniel sees the horrible destruction Kang will cause. He time travels to the present-day Marvel Universe to seek the help of the Avengers against Kang, but the team has just been disbanded.
Nathaniel tries to contact various Avengers, but he has no luck putting the band back together. He breaks into Stark Industries, uploads Vision’s central processing unit, and discovered a failsafe program that located members for the next Avengers team in the event that the main Avengers team were to fall. Using the name Iron Lad, he travels further back in time and forms the Young Avengers, though at this time they’re unaware of his true identity.
The MCU is headed in a similar direction with the rise of Kang the Conqueror. Nathaniel is a younger version of Kang, and it would make sense for similar events from the comics to start unfolding pretty soon. In Loki, He Who Remains (a Kang variant guarding the Sacred Timeline) spoke about Multiversal wars that occurred because evil Kangs fought to take over the Multiverse. Young Nathaniel could become aware of his future self’s imminent destruction and want to make things right by putting together a team of his own.
The other heroes are mostly in place as well. Kate Bishop showed up in the Hawkeye series, a now-teenage Cassie Lang is heavily featured in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Eli Bradley appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Scarlet Witch’s children, Tommy and Billy, were seen in both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. All that’s needed is for them to come into their own as heroes and be recruited to the Young Avengers, and Nathaniel might be the one to do it.
It’s possible that the Avengers could lose in Avengers: Kang Dynasty if it plays by the same Avengers: Infinity War rules, and they could need extra backup to stop Kang once and for all. During the events of Vision Quest, Nathaniel could come to Vision with more insight into Kang’s ultimate plans and get to work forming the team ahead of the conflict. After Vision’s experiences with Ultron, Thanos, and S.W.O.R.D., it would make sense for him to plan for tragedy.
The connection between the superteam and the synthezoid is strong, and Vision has even been a mentor to the team after the Avengers disbanded. At one point, he joins the team as Vision II, a teenage superhero emerged from Vision’s data and Iron Lad’s armor. but the confrontation with Kang comes at a cost for Nathaniel. When it’s discovered that Nathaniel is a younger version of Kang, the hero has to leave the team and returns back to his own time.
Much of the West Coast Avengers‘ “Vision Quest” story by John Byrne has already been used in WandaVision. Wanda and Vision raise two kids in the suburbs until Vision’s kidnapped, disassembled, and experimented on to become White Vision devoid of any humanity. The MCU’s Vision Quest will likely take a different approach, and it could become a gateway for the Young Avengers to come through.
