For a decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the place to go to see bad guys get their comeuppance in a blaze of guns, lazers, and brutal hand-to-hand fights that ended with their demise. After 23 movies of death and destruction, the Infinity Saga ended in 2019 with Spider-Man: Far From Home and something began to change in the way Marvel approached the final act of their movies and TV shows to steer away from every movie ending in violence. With real-world news filled with stories of murder and war, it seemed that Marvel Studios were attempting to show that not every story needs to end with the hero killing the bad guy – because then who is the hero? VisionQuest‘s finale continued this trend while also giving fans that showdown they all crave at the same time.
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The MCU has sometimes struggled to find the right balance to please audiences following the unequaled spectacle and story of Avengers: Endgame. The movies that were released in Phase 4 suffered from an expectation that every movie that followed would deliver the same level of action along with the problems faced from the COVID-19 shutdowns. Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals and others all received online criticism from those who declared that Marvel Studios had lost its edge and superhero movies were dead. This was not helped by then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek wanting to push out more content quicker to capitalize on the success of Endgame, which instead led to rushed CGI effects and a feeling that there was just too many superhero movies and TV shows to keep up with. Now, several years down the line, Marvel Studios is ready to release what could be its biggest movie of all time, and VisionQuest is the last project to arrive before Doomsday‘s December debut.
Vision vs Ultron Happened Twice in the VisionQuest Finale
VisionQuest picks up the final threads of WandaVision to complete the story arc of Vision following his resurrection in the MCU’s first TV series. The story finds Vision with his old memories, a host of Tony Stark’s old AIs in human avatar form in his own Mindscape…oh, and Ultron, the one-time biggest threat to humanity who now looks like James Spader and can still deliver a withering putdown. The series includes some flawless CGI from Marvel Studios, especially when Ultron returns to his robotic form to take on Vision in the series’ final act. VisionQuest’s story is always leading to a showdown between Vision and his “father,” and fans got to see the AI punch-up between the androids with all the furniture breaking and brutal body slams any Marvel fan could want. But this moment comes in the middle of the episode, not at the end.
Instead of Vision killing Ultron in some way, this fight leads to Vision coming to realize that the only way he could stop Ultron attempting to kill humanity all over again was to help him talk through the grief of losing his new-found love in fellow AI Jocasta. This becomes one of the defining moments of the series as Vision traps Ultron in “UltraVision,” his own version of WandaVision, where the pair are contained in a sitcom environment to try and work through the issue. This is something that mirrors the way Wanda dealt with her grief in WandaVision, where she eventually came to the realization that she could not maintain the fake life she had created and released everyone under her spell. By the end of VisionQuest, Ultron has been talked down and accepted – for now – that the human race does not need to be destroyed.
Marvel’s Real World Message Is Hidden in Its Recent Projects
The Multiverse Saga has been steering many of its stories away from all villains needing to die and has been trying to put out a message that sometimes you can sit down and rationally work through differences rather than going straight for the jugular with the force of a bazooka. For some people, this was not what they wanted to see and several projects that ended without a big blow out moment were labeled “disappointing” and “boring.” Yet, this kind of ending has become one of the most common in the MCU, with a moment of violence and destruction being countered by a subsequent moment where words are more powerful than weapons. With VisionQuest‘s final episode, it looks like this is something Marvel Studios is keen to continue with where possible.
While every early MCU ended with violence, the Multiverse Saga has included plenty of movies that end with the villain still alive having been either captured to shown the error of their ways. Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with three versions of Peter Parker helping to “cure” the villains that they had faced across the multiverse, bringing them back from the things that had turned them evil and sending them back to their own universes to face their fate. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day all followed this new format of giving everyone that big action moment but ultimately trying to get across the message that not everything has to end with a violent resolution. VisionQuest may be the latest to continue this trend, but it is unlikely to be the last.
How have Marvel handled their recent movie endings? Let us know which have worked and which haven’t for you in the comments.
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