Roy Thomas has long credited Neal Adams with the idea that the Vision was created from the original Human Torch's body. For those who may be interested, here's an excerpt from a 2015 interview with Roy:

“I think that was actually something Neal Adams wanted to do [for their first Avengers story, in #93]. It wasn't my concept. Neal wanted to send Ant-Man -- who hadn't been around "The Avengers" for ages and not as Ant-Man. He said, I'd like to have Ant-Man go inside the Vision and take a look around and he said, "We could make some pages out of it." It was obvious he was thinking about something like the movie "Fantastic Voyage" from a few years earlier. The funny thing is that it was the most memorable sequence in the whole Kree-Skrull War, but it was really nothing to do with the war. [Laughs] It was just something Neal wanted to draw and I figured, why not?


I don't know if he told me this before he drew it or after he drew it, but Neal said, "I had this idea that maybe it's the originally Human Torch's android body." I thought that might be fun to do something with. I never got around to it myself because I had to leave the book a few issues later when I became editor of the company, but Steve Englehart knew about that and he followed through on it later on. These things just build. Neal came up with the general idea, I approved it, Englehart worked on it. It was a collaboration and just trying to have fun and sell a few comic books.”

Source:  www.cbr.com/roy-thomas-talks-creating-avengers-villain-ultron-and-his-50-years-in-comics/



In other interviews I’ve read (such as in the 1999 RT interview that’s included in Alter Ego: The CBA Collection), Roy has stated he was surprised when he first saw Neal’s pencils for Avengers #93, because “When I’d conceived him [the Vision] in 1968, I hadn’t envisioned him as having robotic insides; I’d seen him as more organic, with synthetic flesh and blood and bone. But I’d given Neal something resembling carte blanche on this sequence, and didn’t want to quibble.” After all, back  in #57 when Thomas had Pym examine the Vision, he had Pym conclude that the Vision was “...every inch a human being—except that his bodily organs are constructed of synthetic materials!”


Sorry for the drift! And now back to your regularly scheduled program 

Hmm ... not my favorite alternate idea for the Vision, but better than that ridiculous time-tampering they eventually ended up doing (I was not a fan of this rewrite).

High collar and fin not a problem though; Jim Hammond wore clothes, Adam did as well (why he needed a 'mask,' who knows, maybe he just thought it would be a good look on him).

Time to jump ahead and see John Byrne play around with some of the Invaders.

He gets his first taste in Captain America, with Roger Stern, as Cap comes up against Baron Blood.



A serial killer, called The Slasher, has been operating near a small village, north of London (that covers a lot of territory, but I digress). The latest victim is examined by the local doctor, who alerts Lady Crichton, better known to us as Jaqueline Falsworth, aka the wartime Spitfire, daughter of Lord Montgomery, aka Union Jack. Lord Montgomery is still around, and he seems to know who the slasher is, but no one believes him.

Meanwhile, Steve Rogers has his date night interrupted by a call from Jarvis, who relays a cable received from the UK, with a coded message, which Steve hasn't heard since the war. he makes excuses to bernie Rosenthal and hops the Concorde to England, where his thoughts are on the days, with The Invaders....



Steve arrives in the UK and his Avengers Clearance gets him through customes quickly, along with all of his watches and cuckoo clocks...



He travels to Falsworth Manor, where he surprises Jacqueline, who is working in the garden, and is suddenly concerned with her age and appearance, as Steve doesn't look a day older than when they last saw each other. They catch up and Steve explains about the memory problems and Jacqueline tells him about her brother Brian, the former Destroyer and Union Jack II, dying in a car crash, in 1953, her own marriage to Lord Crichton, in 1956, and his death 3 years ago. He then sees Lord Montgomery, who reveals that he is the one who contacted Steve, about The Slasher, who he believes is his brother, John, aka Baron Blood. Steve remarks that he checked with Scotland Yard and they indicate that Baron Blood remained entombed, in the Tower of London. Lord Montgomery believes it is trickery.

Steve goes to check things out and consults with the local doctor, who examined the bodies. He gets angry when Cap brings up the subject of vampires.....



So, he isn't Peter Cushing!

The constable informs Cap about Dr Cromwell's past, that there was a vampire scare and villagers thought they had the vampire cornered int he doctor's house. They torched it, beut didn't know about the doctor's daughter. he ran in saved her and was horribly burnt, which is why he grew a beard, to cover the scars.

Cap goes to the Tower, with Scotland Yard Inspector Sweeney (who doesn't look like John Thaw, despite the name) to see the corpse of Baron Blood, which is in a coffin, lined with garlic, with a stake in the the chest. Cap tells him that it isn't Baron Blood and pulls out the stake, and the corpse doesn't reanimate. It is examined by a pathologist who says it is the skeleton of a woman, dead about 12 years. Cap had seen too many bodies in the war to know something wasn't right with that one.

Cap returns to find Jacqueline in an argument, with her son, Kenneth. He has an art school friend (is that a euphemism?) with him, Joey Chapman and introductions are made. Cap confirms to Lord Montgomery that Baron Blood is the Slasher and is around, somewhere.

Later that night, Baron Blood comes to Falsworth Manor....



..and gets a shield in the face, for his trouble. They battle and Cap wraps starnds of garlic around BB's neck, but he turns to mist and outflanks Cap. Rats are gathered in droves, outside the manor, trying to scratch their way in. the household is awakened by the fight and Jacqueline rushes to Lord Montgomery's room, where Cap was hidden and discovers Baron Blood, with Cap under his spell. baron Blood tries to bite his throat, but cannot penetrate the chain mail (not scale mail) of his costume. Kenenth tries to help and almost ends up the next victim. baron Blood retreats at the sight of the first rays of sunlight, as dawn is breaking.

Joey turns up asking what is going on and is basically accused by Cap of being Borther Blood. He tries to get rough with Cap and gets schooled on unarmed combat, though the panels show that Byrne has never been in a fight, as there is no way he could transition from the badly staged block, into a hammerlock. Kenneth pleads his case and Cap relents.

Joey is still POed, but Ken calms him and explains the family history.

Baron Blood returns to his cottage and changes back into his disguise, as Dr Cromwell (well, it was pretty obvious...) and a young woman visits him, compaining of not sleeping and troubling dreams.

Cap holds a briefing, with Inspector Sweeney and the others, and they start a search for Baron Blood, with specially trained officers (Scotland Yard has a vampire squad? Now there is a series I'd like to see!), while Cap questions the locals. Ken and Joey have lunch at a local pub, after their searching and speak tyo the waitress, Jenny, the woman who went to see the doctor. She seems ill and faints and they notice the marks on her neck. Cap is alerted and finds Lord Montgomery suiting up, in his old Union Jack costume. Jacqueline throws a fit (partially because she can't fit into her old costume, and part because of the years that have passed) and Lord Montgomery suffers a heart atatck in the argument. Dr Cromwell is summoned.

He shoes the rest out, to examine his patient, then reveals himself, as Brother Blood, but gets a surprise....



Union Jack is young and fit again, and battles the Baron, but he isn't used to the kick of his Webley revolver and misses. cap breaks in and takes up the fight. Blood takes to the air, but Cap downs him with the shield. Union Jack moves in with his silver dagger, but BB mesmerizes him. Cap attacks again and uses his shield in a different manner.....



Baron Blood is decapitated and melts away. Union Jack is revealed to be Joey. Later, they burn the remains of Baron Blood, ending his reign of terror, once and for all. Lord Montgomery peacefully passes away, while watching the flames, his duty now done.



The story is dedicated to Frank Robbins.

Thoughts: The Stern & Byrne run on Captain America was a mixture of nostalgia and new battles, including sorting out the mess of Cap's past and memories. they brought back his old Army footlocker, complete with the original Templar shield (triangular). This was an extension of that and would be followed by a recounting of Cap's origin story, with a bit of tweaking to include more recent revisions, like his artistic skills. It also explains why he switched from the helmet to a hood and how he was presented with the buckler shield (round one), by FDR, after it was developed.

Joey Chapman would continue as Union Jack, though his appearances were minimal, for quite a while. He turned up again, in 1990, in Marvel Comics Presents; but it really wasn't until the 2000s that much was doen with him.

Jacqueline would return, in Namor's series, which I will get to, in a bit.

There is something about this story that makes me wonder. Jacqueline is upset by his presence there, with Kenneth and it seems out of character for her. Kenneth claims it is snobbishness, because Joey is of Lower Class origin, yet that also seems out of character, for Jacqueline. She refers to Joey as Kenneth's "art school friend." To me, that sounds like her objection is not about Joey being of more humble origins; but, rather, that he might be the gay lover of her possibly homosexual son. Now, I am inferring this; but, the idea fits more than class objection does.

Jacqueline is of a generation where homosexuality was not only frowned upon, it was outright outlawed. Alan Turing, the brilliant mind behind the British code-breaking efforts at Bletchley Park and the development of the comuter, was convicted of offenses for homosexual acts and subjected to chemical castration. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for it, long before. There wasa perception of the arts being a gathering place for homosexuals and such professions were often looked down upon and artists seen as being gay. There were many who were gay, but many more who were heterosexual and had heterosexual affairs with women, outside of their marriages. So, it is not hard to read that interpretation into some rather vague statements. Joey's physicality is also backed up by statements that he and Kenneth are on a wrestling team.

At an art college?

That sounds like a euphemism, to me, though it could be a wrestling oriented gym, like Billy Riley's gym, in Wiggan, known as The Snakepit, which produced many top catch wrestlers, as well as Olympic wrestlers.

Given that Byrne later wrote Northstar to be gay, but heavily veiled it in allusions, because he wasn't allowed to openly state it; I have to wonder if that wasn't the intent here, with Kenneth and Joey.

There is a certain Hammer quality to this story, which isn't too surprising. Stern and Byrne also make some references to other entertainments. Inspector Sweeney is likely a nod to the UK tv series, The Sweeney, about detectives of The Flying Squad (Cockney rhyming slang...Sweeney Todd, The Flying Squad), starring John Thaw (later portraying Inspector Morse) and Dennis Waterman (of Minder and New Tricks and Little Britain jokes fame). Given the pop culture references in the Hellfire Club, I suspect it isn't a coincidence. Jacqueline's married name, Crichton, might be a nod to Charles Chrichton, who directed several Ealing comedies, such The Lavendar Hill Mob, and later directed A Fish Called Wanda. He also directed episodes of Danger Man 9aka The Secret Agent, in the US), The Avengers (as in John Steed and Emma Peel) and Space 1999, which Byrne worked on, in the Charlton Comics series. Again, just a hunch. They may have just used familiar names, which sounded English. Dr Cromwell invokes the name of Oliver Cromwell, the dictator of England, after the English Civil War, before the monarchy was restored.

It will take a while, but Byrne will return to Invaders nostalgia, in a bit, in the pages of West Coast Avengers/Avengers West Coast. That is our next stop.

I've read Kim Newman's Diogenes Club stuff (and his other work), so I am familiar with that, though that is mostly general weirdness.  This suggests they have a specific vampire squad, which sounds like a premise for Hammer, in the 70s, had they survived longer.  Like a Brian Clemens follow up to Captain Kronos.

If this were Newman writing, they'd be trained by Adam Adamant, look like Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, and run up against a villain from some obscure horror film.

So, our journey continues, in the hands of John Byrne....which means not necessarily stable hands; but, the continuity is already all over the place. Prepare for it to get worse.



John Byrne took over writing and drawing the West Coast Avengers (and continued when they jumbled the name) and he started out by getting rid of The Vision.

Literally.

He disappeared from their HQ and was nowhere to be found and, the Avengers database had no references to him!

I hate it when a computer goes senile. All it does is talk about how cool ENIAC was and drones on an on about Alan Turing and Charles Babbage......

Anyway, the gang goes looking for him and get attacked by Ultron, except it isn't Ultron, it's a fake. We get a recap of the continuity, as we knew it, that The Vision was created by Ultron, with the help of Prof phines Horton, from the leftover body of the original android Human Torch, with the memory patterns of Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man. Except he wasn't.

Or was he?

Probably not.

Anyway, it turns out that the Vision was android-napped (Synthezoid-napped, according to Roy Thomas) by a confederation of global security services, because he had tapped into the global security networks and knew all of the secrets. Kind of like Colossus, but without Eric Braeden getting busy with Susan Clark



The Avengers track him down, to find him disassembled and his memory wiped.....



They turn up the supposedly dead Phineas Horton, who says the Vision is not his work, then collapses. They take him home to hook him back up, but the memory is an issue. The reconstituted form starts attacking everyone, including Scarlet Witch, until Hank Pym shuts it down.

Oh, and Wanda and Vision's twins disappeared and reappeared.

The Vision turns up, whole and he's been at the peroxide, because he is bleached white (because John Byrne thought it made him more ghostly, but it just made him look unfinished). He's back, with some memory, but no emotional core, without Wonder Man's brain patterns. Except, Wonder Man ain't parting with them, because, this time, he has a choice (he was dead, last time....but he got better). Wanda throws a hissy fit, slaps Wondy and storms off, then he gets buried by a whole cliff, after Wanda's hex power sets off a massive, localized earthquake.

Oh, and Hank says the Vision couldn't have beeen built out of the Torch, according to his analysis.

Hank and Black Panther rebuff Wanda's desire to tinker with the Vision, since they feel it violates his being, without his permission. Wanda gets a mysterious telegram, from a Texas address, about AI experiemnts and that they believe they can help her. Wanda swipes a Quinjet and takes Vision there. It turns out to be a trap, for Wanda, as the group want to study her, to determine how to control how mutant genes manifest powers, to move themselves into the next stage of evolution.

And Ann Raymond is at a Denver homeless shelter, in rough shape, muttering about getting to LA to see The Vision, obsessing about a newspaper clipping that says the Vision isn't the Human Torch....





Jan, Hank and Wonder Man are with Prof Horton, when he awakens. They talk and he confirms that the vision could not be constructed out of The Torch, because he was a synthetic being, not mechanical, while the Vision had mechanical parts and synthesized tissue......



It was Immortus who showed the Vision his past and Hank realizes he must have been lying, which Immortus, in his castle, confirms, as he watches the scene, then switches to watching Wanda. She's under the influence of the mysterious group, That Which Endures. They are the manifestation of a intelligence that has lived through the eons, watching evolution and joining species as they become dominant, from single cell life, to fish, to land animals, to dinosaurs, to mammals, to humans; and, next, mutants. They have something called an Assimilator, which analyzes abilities and conditions the host mind to their way of thinking and Wanda is under its spell. Cap & She-Hulk enter the scene, tracing Wanda's Qunjet, which the group destroyed, setting off an alarm, at Avengers Mansion. They get the run around, then sneak around and learn the truth, but She-Hulk ends up under the group's control. Cap is immune, because of the Super Soldier Formula. Hawkeye and Mockingbird, along with the Great Lakes Avengers (don't ask) turn up and Mr Immortal (one of the GLA) goes into the Assimilator and destroys it, but is fine, because he is immortal. Everyone is released from its control, including Wanda.

That leads to issue #50, where Ann Raymond comes to the WCA HQ, looking for help about the fate of her husband, Thomas Raymond, aka Toro, the sidekick of The Human Torch. Toro died in battle with the Mad Thinker, as witnessed by Namor, who told Ann as much, but the emerging truth of the Vision has convinced her otherwise. Wanda flips out and leaves, becaus this is all the start of Wanda flipping out, periodically, and turning heel.

Ann relates the story of how Thomas attended the funeral of his former mentor, but no one else was there, from the Invaders. He meets a guy, who drugs him (the Thinker) and, with the help of the Puppet Master, makes Toro believe he is the Torch. The funeral was a fake and now that it has come out that Vision wasn't built from the Torch, Ann believes it might have been the Torch that was destroyed and not Toro, since what Immortus showed Vision has proven a lie. The Avengers agree to help Ann find out the truth.

The Avengers go to Pleasantville and meet Don Knotts.....whoops, wrong story...and try to get permission to exhume the body of the Human Torch, from his grave. The town records, though, have no reference to such a grave.
Vision checks it out, first.....



Wanda doesn't worry about legal niceties and fires a hex bolt and flame shoots out of the grave. Wonder Man follows the burning trail skyward and catches up with The Human Torch.....



He talks him down and brings him back, and the Vision meets the Human Torch.....



Hank fills in some of the story, relating to Prof Horton and his step-daughter, Frankie Raye, who hlped himmove some stuff in the lab, including chemicals and became doused with them and burst into flame, eventually becoming herald to Galactus. Horton had molds and equipment to make other Human Torches and Hank believes that is what Ultron di, creating the Vision using the mold and chemicals. He further says his trip inside the Vision revealed WW2-vintage parts, which must be what related the Torch to the Vision and why the Vision seems familiar to Jim Hammond....



Jan gifts Jim Hammond a copy of his original costume, made with unstable molecules and he is welcomed to the team.

Jim Hammond meets Ann Raymond and she now knows that Toro is dead, which is then communicated to the Torch.

Oh, and the Scarlet Witch's twins are artificial constructs, created by her probability-altering powers, because the Vision can't make babies....



The Torch hangs around the WCA, for a bit, while Immortus plays games with them and Wanda flips completely out, since Byrne likes females to suffer as much as Claremont, though he was tormenting the guys too, like Wonder Man, with a case of the hots for Wanda, through the whole Vision Quest and beyond. Then, he seems to disappear when Byrne leaves, after Acts of Vengeance upsets everything. He will turn up again, as Byrne isn't done with him, as he arranges a little Invaders Reunion.

Thoughts: As I said in the Writer/artist poll thread, I'm not that big on Byrne, as a writer. I like some things, but not others and some of it doesn't hold up very well. His stuff here is too much of the "Everything you know is wrong!" school. I'm not a fan of constant retcons, for the sake of putting your stamp on something and Byrne indulges too much in that. Along the way, he F-s up a lot of characters and not necessarily in service to a good story. I hated the White Vision and was happy when he got a tan, again (or at least sunburnt, since he was red). I'm not a fan of Dark Wanda, since it had been done before and she has had so many heel and face turns that she should have been main eventing the Mid-South Coliseum on Monday Nights, in Memphis, along with Jerry "The King" Lawler (the Memphis formula was for Lawler's partners to turn on him, become his enemies, fight across several matches, then Lawler beats them. Then, they'd recycle the idea again, later, after Lawler, against his better judgement, took a former enemy on as a partner, against a worse enemy). Also, they had to screw up Vision and Scarlet Witches marriage and kids, because a stable, loving marriage isn't allowed, in comic books, which is probably part of the reason comics (and video games) seem to attract toxic males (some behind the scenes, at the publishers).

We will pick this up with the Sub-Mariner, who gets his own series (and a ponytail) and reunites with his "old buddy."

I think Byrne wanted to do the whole "man out of time" thing, but Cap was spoken for, and opted to bring back Jim Hammond to do the same thing.  Why he didn't use The Black Marvel or The Thunderer, I don't know.

I see Jim as serving the role as elder statesman similar to Jay Garrick and Alan Scott at DC.