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Vision and the Scarlet Witch #11: Review

Aug 1986
Steve Englehart, Richard Howell

Story Name:

A Taxing Time!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Vision and the Scarlet Witch #11 Review by (January 17, 2023)

Review: Spider-Man always enlivens things as a guest star, as long as he isn’t too much of a wise guy and he seems to strike a nice balance here. Wanda is told to take it easy for her pregnancy and she does, defeating the bad guy in the end. Toad makes for an offbeat villain, with the stolen tech and single-minded goal of claiming Wanda as his bride. Nice all-around issue, though we really didn’t need Norm Webster, wife-stealer, to return. The biggest surprise is that Glamor and Illusion are jewel thieves, which was certainly not hinted at for the bulk of this limited series and seems bizarre. Oh, and Holly is an action hero. Can’t miss that. Cool issue though Vision should be able to figure out Peter Parker is Spider-Man from the clues.

Comments: In the United States, income taxes are due April 15, explaining the title. Spidey’s friendship with Toad was in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #266; Toad’s theft of the Stranger’s machines was in AVENGERS #138. Toad returns in NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL #7, staying in the X-books for a long time. Spidey sings Bruce Springsteen’s “Jersey Girl,” jokes about the slogan for Memorex recording equipment (“Is it live or is it Memorex?”), quotes Lynn Anderson’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” and compares himself to advice columnist Dear Abby (Abigail van Buren). Spidey also says, “Don’t touch that dial” a phrase from early television but also the title of episode 2 of WANDAVISION, many years later. And a No-Prize to anyone who knows why Vizh and Wanda have a baseball bat in their house.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Vision and the Scarlet Witch #11 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Spider-Man hitches a ride with a group heading to New Jersey because he has an engagement in Leonia…

…where Doctor Strange is advising Scarlet Witch to keep things quiet in the eighth month of her pregnancy, calming her fears and telling Vision to make sure she rests. After Strange leaves, Vision paces the yard, worried about the baby in the wake of the stress of dealing with Crystal and Pietro’s breakup. Wanda, meanwhile, is concerned about Vision while worrying about Crystal and Pietro’s breakup. Peter Parker arrives, photographer for Now Magazine, to take photos for an article on Wanda and Vision’s home. Pete envies their ability to be superheroes and also enjoy a normal life. Pete also asks why Vision decided to permit this article: it’s because they need extra money to pay taxes. Pete sympathizes; he took the job because he needs some extra cash too….

In Antarctica, a scientist on a dog sled is surprised when a man rushes up to him, seemingly from nowhere and asks him if he has a wife. It is a maddened Quicksilver, trying to justify his rejection of Crystal; he yells at the man some more then vanishes, leaving the scientist to wonder if he is going mad….

Holly LaDonna stops by with flowers for Wanda just as Pete goes upstairs to take pix of the mother-to-be. When he’s done, Peter leaves, wondering if he can give up being Spider-Man and support himself full time as a photographer. Pete and Vision run into Illusion and Glamor, and Peter envies their cool magician lifestyle—but we are let in on a secret: the Zarkovs are secretly classy jewel thieves, as seen in issue #9. Then they run into Norman Webster and bad blood from the scandal is evident, Norm wishing he had Crystal back but regretting losing the friendship of Wanda and Vision. Vision drops Pete off at the bus stop and heads home, only to be attacked by Toad in a mechanical battle-suit while proclaiming himself the Terrible Toad-King. His blows deliver an electrical charge, threatening to short out Vision’s circuits. Then Spider-Man arrives, reminding Toad he is supposed to be a good guy and Toad clobbers him and teleports away. Spidey explains to Vision how he met Toad at a low point in his life and saved him from suicide, befriending him, and putting him in a team with two other oddballs. Vision tells Spidey about Toad having stolen technology from the Stranger and now wants to claim Wanda as his bride. The Toad teleports back to fight the two heroes, feeling betrayed by Spider-Man and becoming a baddie again. Toad squirts poison gas in Spidey’s face, knocking him out. Then he teleports in and out until he is able to seize Vision by the head and short him out. He then heads to the heroes’ home to claim Wanda. Holly sees him coming up the walk and tries to fight him off with a baseball bat. He moves inexorably up the stairs toward Wanda’s room and smashes his way in—and then he sees hugely pregnant Wanda and is repulsed. Insulted, Wanda blasts him back down the stair where Spider-Man, arriving with Vision, tries to web him up but Toad teleports away. Anyway, Spidey is impressed with Wanda….




Richard Howell
Frank Springer
George Roussos
Tom Morgan (Cover Penciler)
Mark McKenna (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Bill Oakley.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)

Plus: Glamor (Glynis Zarkov), Illusion (Ilya Zarkov), Toad (Mortimer Toynbee).

> Vision and the Scarlet Witch: Book info and issue index

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