Who is the greatest villain in all of the MCU? Back in 2015, briefly, the answer to that question was the murderous A.I. known as Ultron. Since then, outside of Thanos and the impending reign of Doctor Doom, the cinematic Avengers have spent more hours battling each other or their own inner emotional demons than actual enemies. And now, with VisionQuest, one of those enemies is back, sort of. As the new series makes clear, when Vision vaporized the last of Ultron’s sentries in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he took a portion of Ultron’s A.I. consciousness and trapped that data in his own mind. That one detail — the unlikely virtual survival of the MCU’s sneakiest villain — is the key to understanding nearly everything about VisionQuest.Technically, VisionQuest is the final installment in a trilogy of MCU TV shows that began with WandaVision (2021) and then took another path down the witch’s road in Agatha All Along (2024). But it’s also a show utterly obsessed with Ultron. So, whose show is this anyway? While VisionQuest is a noble effort to tie up some Marvel loose ends, it’s also a show very much about Ultron, which means it’s a techy sci-fi show lacking a lot of the literal magic of its progenitor. As a sci-fi show, VisionQuest mostly succeeds. But does it work as the sequel and conclusion to the WandaVision trilogy? The answer to that would be shaky, kind of. James Spader’s Ultron steals the show. | Marvel StudiosWhile WandaVision took place nearly entirely in various fictional constructs with murky impacts on real people, VisionQuest tries valiantly to make clear impacts between virtual worlds and the concrete, real world. And yet, there is a ton of time in this show spent on individual A.I.s that live inside Vision’s mind. This means that there’s more than a bit of a Marvel-does-Inside Out feeling to the initial set-up of the show, which can, tonally, make the entire series seem a bit inconsistent. On the one hand, we love and care about the various independent programs inside of Vision’s mind — E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hamshire) is funny and brave, F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady) is loyal and determined — but none of these characters are quite on the same Pinocchio journey as Vision and Ultron. This isn’t to say that the various A.I. characters aren’t fun — they are — but when combined with everything going on with the show, these characters create a bit of a busy feeling to the proceedings, not to mention a kind of uncomfortable hierarchy. Some A.I.s are destined to become real boys, and some aren’t. But why? Why couldn’t F.R.I.D.A.Y. or E.D.I.T.H. get their own IRL body and live a life? Well, because the show’s not called EdithQuest or FridayQuest. Or even UltronQuest, even though it feels that way a lot.Because VisionQuest’s showrunner is Terry Matalas — now famous for the fan-favorite tour de force that was 2023’s Star Trek: Picard Season 3 — it’s tempting and perhaps even fair to see various parallels and even some connective tissue between this series and some of this other work. In VisionQuest, Vision’s internal struggle against Ultron could be seen as a maximalist version of the storyline in Picard Season 3, in which Data struggled to defeat Lore’s personality from taking over his entire positronic being. In some ways, VisionQuest is a reversal of Star Trek stories about androids, not necessarily in tone, but in outcomes. That said, when Paul Bettany is afforded this many different, well, let’s just say, sides to this idea, a longtime TV sci-fi fan can’t help but be reminded of Brent Spiner playing various versions of Data and his related “family.” There’s not really a one-to-one Trek analogy here, but like Data the android, the synthezoid Vision is going on a Pinocchio story, and none of that is disguised or shied away from at all.Vision (Paul Bettany) and E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire) in VisionQuest. Of note, this scene takes place in Vision’s mind. | Marvel StudiosIn a sense, what Matalas does best is to avoid accusations of relying on clichés and tropes by embracing those things and, more often than not, making those clichés and tropes too fun to dislike. And it’s here that VisionQuest’s batting average is a bit lower than Picard Season 3 or the totality of the 12 Monkeys reboot series, which is, truly, Matalas at his absolute best. Two 12 Monkeys alumni are present here: Todd Stashwick as the bounty hunter Paladin, and Emily Hampshire as the aforementioned Stark A.I. program E.D.I.T.H. Orla Brady was in all three seasons of Picard, serving an oddly similar role to Vision himself in VisionQuest as F.R.I.D.A.Y., as she did in all of Picard: a housekeeper who is also a kind of secret agent. All of these actors work in these kinds of roles because these roles were quite literally made for them. And yet, not one person who loved Stashwick and Hampshire in 12 Monkeys as their low-key iconic character Deacon and Jennifer would say that these Terry Matalas players are better in VisionQuest. Ditto Orla Brady, who is always fun to watch, but isn’t in her greatest role by a long shot. It’s nice to see everyone having fun and playing together, but even for fans of these folks, it’s not quite enough to say that this series is somehow profoundly fantastic. For those who love the mini-Matalas verse of Easter eggs that connect 12 Monkeys and Picard, and even some Enterprise, there’s much to love in deep-cut references to names like “Markridge” or a hotel with the name “Emerson.” There’s also a ton of Marvel Easter eggs, and more than a little bit of retcon to the pre-Tony days of Stark Industries. Again, as he did with 12 Monkeys and Picard, Matalas is great at weaving complex mythology from preexisting universes into a new storyline. But the real question is, outside of all the boxes that VisionQuest needs to check, is it its own show, worthy of an eight-episode run? Ultron (James Spader) and Vision (Paul Bettany) hash things out in VisionQuest. | Marvel StudiosAnd it’s here that those who want to like the show will falter. Those who don’t care about Marvel continuity, or a Star Trek-style look at A.I. through a Marvel lens, will probably come away from VisionQuest mixed, because the direction of the show’s biggest narrative arcs may not work for a lot of viewers. Some of the revelations — and cameos — on this show are genuinely great. Other revelations, some of which have already been teased in trailers and others that are still secret, will almost certainly leave serious Marvel fans and filthy casual alike scratching their heads.VisionQuest is not a bad show, and in some ways, it's more cohesive and clear-headed with its narrative goals than Agatha All Along. In fact, it even makes more science-fictional sense than WandaVision. Here, everything has an answer, and everything can be explained. But that doesn’t mean the show has the magic of WandaVision. It wasn’t supposed to, and it needn’t have tried, but, on some level, that magic feels missing all the same.VisionQuest premieres on Disney+ on October 13.