“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.’” (Genesis‬ ‭2‬:‭18‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

I still maintain that Wandavision was easily the most philosophically significant and even pastorally significant MCU property that Marvel has ever released. Its exploration of grief through the lens of superheroes (along with top notch production values, excellent storytelling, and superb acting, of course) is perhaps one of the most profound treatments of this season that everyone goes through at some point even if they don’t realize that’s what they are experiencing that I’ve ever seen. No, it wasn’t rooted in the Gospel, but it built on Gospel themes and pointed forward toward Gospel truths in incredibly engaging ways. I didn’t think Marvel would ever be able to get close to that level of storytelling again. I was wrong. Vision Quest has proven to be at least its equal. Let’s talk today about why.

If you don’t much care for Marvel, this probably is going to be the show for you. But if you enjoy really good writing, excellent acting, and a director willing to be both creative and philosophical, you might find yourself having a whole lot more fun than you expect. Vision Quest was absolutely fantastic. The series completes a trilogy of Disney Plus shows exploring what happened to Wanda and Vision after Avengers: Endgame. Wandavision was the first, followed by Agatha All Along, and now Vision Quest. Agatha All Along was fun, but was most definitely the Temple of Doom of the trilogy. It developed and officially introduced the character Billy Maximov (whose superhero name in the comics is Wiccan) into the MCU and gave us more fun with Agatha Harkness, but it wasn’t nearly as philosophically significant as the others.

Vision Quest eventually comes around to the topic of grief, and Wanda’s grief over losing Vision (twice) and then creating and losing her children, Billy and Tommy (Tommy is reintroduced in this series like Billy was in Agatha All Along), definitely looms large over the series, but this one is really an exploration of the nature and significance of family.

The main character of the series is, of course, Vision, but at first this isn’t the same Vision we remember. The original Vision was killed by Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Actually, he was killed by Wanda to prevent Thanos from getting the Mind Stone, but then Thanos used the Time Stone to reverse time, bringing him back to life, at which point he violently ripped the Mind Stone out of his forehead to complete the set and wipe out half the universe with a snap. In Wandavision, Wanda recreates Vision by magic within her enormous hex over Westview, NJ. By the end of the series, we are introduced to what was originally called White Vision. The government organization SWORD (the counterpart to SHIELD that deals with outer space threats) reassembled Vision from his original parts, but reprogrammed him to be a weapon whose first mission was to kill Wanda to end the hex.

At the end of Wandavision, her magic Vision and White Vision faced off against one another. The contest ended with the magic Vision proposing a philosophical quandary to his counterpart called the Ship of Theseus that invited the latter to reflect on what or who he really was. This was paired with a magic Mind Stone blast that essentially copied and pasted himself (along with all of the other AI profiles we have been introduced to throughout the MCU…including Ultron) into the White Vision, who almost immediately flew off to figure out who he really is.

Without having watched at least that scene, Vision Quest doesn’t make any sense. Vision Quest picks up with this Vision, the only Vision we have now, working in the pub in Scotland that he and Wanda used to frequent when they were on the run from the government between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. He works the pub by day, and at night retreats into the house in his mind where he shares headspace with Jarvis, Friday, Edith, Dum-E, U, and, yes, Ultron, whose source code he apparently saved when we thought he had destroyed him at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Ultron is locked in a kind of prison so that he can’t get out and try to destroy humanity again.

The action gets started when we discover that a mysterious Client has hired a bounty hunter called The Paladin to find Vision and bring him to him. Ultron secretly slips an email through Vision’s firewalls that tips Paladin off to their location, and things get moving. Vision, it seems, regularly goes to meet with the genocidal AI on a regular basis and the two banter back and forth about the real value of humanity (which Ultron seems to have come around to, especially thanks to our artwork), and whether they are family with Ultron functioning as a kind of father to Vision.

During all of this we are introduced to two more character, one human, and one synthetic. The human one is a young man named Thomas Shepherd. When Wanda ended her hex at the end of Wandavision, Billy’s magic managed to throw both of their consciousnesses into separate young men, a William and a Thomas, right at the moment of their death, such that they became reanimated (but not zombie style) by the consciousnesses of Wanda’s twins. As we already said, Agatha All Along introduced us to Billy, and here we meet Tommy, or Speed, as he is called in the comics. Throughout the series, Tommy and Vision work out the nature of their relationship, with both finally coming around to recognize each other as father and son.

The synthetic character is Jocasta, a new robot on her own murderous quest. Through a series of events that I am not going to try to unpack here because it will take even longer than this is already going, Ultron escapes from Vision’s mind and goes to Jocasta’s where the two fall in love. Her memories of being actually human, but slowly losing her humanity to her robotic self, and Ultron’s longing to be something more than his robotic self, to be able to really experience, really feel what it is like to be human, draw the two of them together. It really is a touching moment even if their plan is to essentially wipe out humanity. For Ultron in particular, it is the first time in his existence that he feels like he is not alone; like he has family.

In the end, Ultron loses Jocasta when her creator destroys her vibranian body with an adamantium bullet (which introduces a whole new thing into the MCU that future directors should be able to have fun with if they so choose), and in his grief sets about destroying humanity after all. Vision convinces him to stop by reminding him that he is not grieving alone. He is grieving in the midst of a family who is sharing his grief with him. By the time the credits roll, Ultron has gone off to experience the sights and sounds of humanity for himself with plans to try to bring Jocasta back. Vision has fully embraced the fact that even though he might be made of different parts, he is the Vision we all know and love. More importantly, he has been fully reunited with his boys, Tommy and Billy, and we are even left with a hint that Wanda, who dropped a mountain on herself at the end of Doctor Stranger and the Multiverse of Madness, may not actually be dead. (And, major spoiler alert: she seems to have been collected by Dr. Doom who plans to use her powers to advance his own nefarious purposes.)

Okay, I know that was a lot, especially if you aren’t a Marvel fan. If you’ve stayed with me all the way to here, thank you. Let’s get to the payoff. A woman in my church lost her daughter two weeks ago this Sunday. It was a truly tragic and totally unexpected passing. The loss leaves a family that is already broken in many ways potentially even more fractured and trying to make sense of what happened. I’m not sure how they will do that just yet, but what I do know is that the mom was surrounded by the love of her church family and reminded over and over again that she’s not alone. She has a family who loves her and who will walk with her through what lies ahead.

We all need family. God observed in the very beginning that it is not good for us to be alone. We need people who will be there for us no matter what. We need people who will walk through hard things together with us, making sure we are never really alone. These people may be connected to us by blood, but they don’t have to be. When we have these people with us, the challenges of life aren’t nearly as difficult for us to navigate as they will otherwise be. They aren’t necessarily any less hard, but when we have someone who can help us bear the load of grief or hurt or even anger, and who can walk with us back to wholeness, healing, and forgiveness, we are far less likely to lose ourselves along the way.

The very best place to find this is ultimately in the church. When we are surrounded by members of the family of God in a healthy environment, we are in a much better place in life than we will find anywhere else. Now, yes, a church community can certainly be unhealthy. In fact, one of the most dangerous places to be in the world is a toxic church environment. Choosing the right church matters a great deal. But there are many good churches out there with families who love and support each other through all manner of life’s travails. I happen to have the privilege of pastoring one, and it is a true delight.

Vision Quest beautifully reminds us that family is something none of us can do without. Having a family structure can help remind us of who we are. It can set us on the right path when we drift from it. It can strengthen and give substance to our identity. It can keep us from heading off down a dark path that will bring nothing but pain and misery to us and everyone else around us. It can carry us through seasons of grief, helping us adapt to life on the other side of some significant change. It can make life truly worth living. Maybe your blood family does all of that for you and more, and that’s great. But you need more than that. You need a church family who will be there even when blood family can’t or won’t. Besides, if you are a follower of Jesus, those people will be your family forever. Find your people and invest in them richly. The payoff of that will enrich your life more times over than you can even begin to imagine.