Exit poll: What's going to keep you watching VisionQuest?

Erik Adams: I am, at best, a casual fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe whose relationship to the franchise only grew more indifferent with each passing Disney+ live-action series. Beyond professional obligation, I’m mostly tuning in for the vibes now, so I was glad to see that these first couple of VisionQuest episodes do better on that front than any MCU TV effort since Loki season one. The whole Herman’s Head thing The Vision currently has going on is the most underbaked element of the series thus far, but I can’t argue with the way it looks. I’m a sucker for the mid-century aesthetics this digital mind palace shares with the Time Variance Authority offices and the WandaVision premiere’s Nick At Nite schtick, but it’s the little embellishments that really got me here: The dad-joke computer puns in the kitchen, the pixel-art fireplace in the living room. “I wish I could just keep looking at that reproduction of The Garden Of Earthly Delights in Ultron’s attic” is maybe not the thought you want to have at the top of a series that looks to be as action-packed as VisionQuest, but it is a welcome indication of the good taste it’ll deploy to fill in the margins around a story I’m not yet totally invested in.  

Danette Chavez: Aside from my own completist tendencies and any professional obligation, I’d say James Spader is my main reason for keeping up with Vision’s quest. I don’t mean the character of Ultron, whose appeal was very much limited to the Avengers film bearing his name—at least, the MCU’s take on him—but Spader himself, who’s already proven himself capable of boosting a flagging series/franchise. I could listen to his alternately lilting and resonant voice chide Vision all day, especially now that it looks like Ultron and Vision won’t be relegated to the “mind palace,” a device that literally brings things to a halt on the show (see: Vision standing still to have a long, hard think in a walk-in freezer). The ending of episode two, “Theseus,” looks like it’s setting up a picaresque journey, so we can also probably expect even more great fits from Spader. Uh, and sure, I’d also like to know what Tommy’s Thomas’ deal is. 

Olivia Singh: I remember being initially uninterested in VisionQuest, wondering why the synthezoid was getting his own spin-off (beyond the obvious White Vision loose end from WandaVision). Maybe it’s because there’s no other Marvel title to keep me occupied until Doomsday, but as the VisionQuest premiere got closer, I became genuinely curious. It’s great to see Spader emote with his actual face (or, technically, Ultron’s human avatar), but I can’t help but feel like they brought him into VisionQuest to give Bettany someone familiar to bounce off in Wanda’s absence. The banter between them works, but I can see myself getting tired of that. What’s keeping me hooked is the dynamic between Vision and Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica), a teen burdened with the consciousness of the conjured-up Tommy from WandaVision. Vision and Thomas’ shared identity crisis, and Mollica’s performance so far, have piqued my interest enough that I’ll stick around for more—along with the delusional hope that VisionQuest will eventually offer a more convincing answer to what happened to Wanda (because I refuse to believe her villainous turn in Doctor Strange 2 is the last we’ve seen of her). 

Jarrod Jones: Well, apart from the fact that I’m locked in to host TV Club live recaps over on Surf Social every week (plug, plug), I’d watch VisionQuest all the way through regardless. Not because I’m a Marvel Studios completist, at least not anymore (the wildly inconsistent quality of its TV and film offerings over the last few years has me feeling more selective than before), but because I remain emotionally invested in two members of its cast. Paul Bettany and James Spader’s final interaction in 2015’s Age Of Ultron remains one of my favorite MCU moments, and these first two episodes hoist its prickly, doomy cadence quite well. I’m referring to that bit towards the end where a newborn Vision reckons with his defeated creator, who looks on him with disdain and calls him “unbearably naive.” With Ultron bombing around this new Vision’s head (“rent-free,” as Spader says), what effect will that have on a being once so pure-hearted it could hoist Mjolnir itself? Sure, I bet the show will also grapple with the reality-bending strangeness of WandaVision and the magical mysteries of Agatha All Along—but I’m not clocked in for all that. It’s the testy coexistence between Vision and Ultron that will keep me glued to the couch for the duration of VisionQuest.