A Marvel Character Has Died Three Times This Year

One character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already died three times this year. That dubious honor goes to none other than The Vision (Paul Bettany), who met three grisly demises in Marvel Studios' new Disney+ series, WandaVision, and What If...?. Vision's death trifecta was completed by the latest episode of Marvel's What If...?, which examined the dreaded thought of "What If... Zombies?!". While the main lure of that episode was no doubt the Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptation of the famous Marvel Zombies timeline, there was one scene that also referenced how Vision's fared in a world of Marvel Zombies  - and obvious alert! It didn't turn out well! 

To keep full count, Marvel fans have had to watch Vision die a total of five times now. First, fans had to go through the perverse trauma of watching Vision die twice in Avengers: Endgame - first as he had Wanda Maximoff use her power to destroy the Mind Stone that powered Vision; then again after Thanos reversed time just enough to rip the Mind Stone from Vision's head and toss his corpse aside. WandaVision kept up the double-dip on VIsion deaths tradition, by having VIsion first sacrifice himself to pierce Wanda's "Hex Bubble" world and make contact with SWORD (only to have Wanda resurrect him again). WandaVision ultimately broke fans' hearts by having Wanda have to willfully dissolve the memory of Vision she had created for her fantasy world - a beautiful finale that only served to underscore the unending MCU fan trauma with losing Vision. 

(SPOILERS) Well, What If...? Episode 5 once again opens the wound of fans having to suffer the trauma of Vision loss all over again - in an especially twisted new way. It's revealed in the third act of the story that Vision has been luring people to a base where he's been feeding his unwitting victims to the Zombie version of Scarlet Witch. When some of the surviving Marvel Heroes resist, Scarlet Witch gets loose and Vision has to face the horror of what he's done, ripping the Mind Stone from his own head. In the end, Vision and Scarlet Witch's love is once again shown to be a doomed one, in any universe. 

So just remember: when you're lamenting how badly 2021 is going for you, or all the things you may have lost, just remember that Vision has died three times this year. It may put things in better perspective.

Marvel's What If...? streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.