The Vision by Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta is the ultimate parable that honesty is the best policy. Especially for a synthezoid family if they want to avail themselves to the legal system.
Vision’s career as an Avenger has run the gambit from fighting Ultron, to taking over the United States ballistic missile system, to the US Government taking him apart for compromising the security of US nuclear weapons, to saving the world at least 37 times. What does a robot do after such complex career? Start a robot family in a Washington, DC suburb. After building his wife Virginia, Vision built their children Vin and Viv.
The Grim Reaper, brother of Wonder Man, attacked the Vision’s wife and children while Vision was away. The daughter Viv was impaled by the Reaper’s scythe. The Reaper cut Vin the son. Virginia did the normal motherly act of bashing in the back of the Grim Reaper’s skull to kill him. Instead of calling the police, she told her son not to tell the Vision.
Assuming the Commonwealth of Virginia recognizes the Vision family as “people,” Virginia Vision could have argued that she acted in defense of both Viv and Vin. The Supreme Court of Virginia has recognized that a person can use force in defense of family members. Foster v. Commonwealth, 13 Va. App. 380, 385 (1991); Hodges v. Commonwealth, 89 Va. 265, 272, (1892)). The test is whether the defender “reasonably apprehend[s] death or serious bodily harm to another before he or she is privileged to use force in defense of that person.” Foster, at 385-386.
The fact Viv had been impaled was more than enough to for Virginia to “reasonably believe” that the lives of her children were in danger.
As multiple Presidents have learned over the decades, it is the cover-up that gets them into trouble. Virginia buried the Grim Reaper’s body in the backyard and kept this fact a secret from the Vision. Life spun out of control with Vin getting into a fight at school, Virginia getting blackmailed with video of her burying the Grim Reaper, and the accidental death of the blackmailer’s son.
Tom King has done a magnificent job telling the tale of a lie spinning out of control, where bad decisions are made on top of bad decision. The irony of living machines that continue to “logically” make poor choices is a unique vision of humanity. As with life, a policy of truth could have avoided a litany of mistakes.
