Thanks to The Fantastic Four Movie, The MCU Has The Perfect Villain For Vision's New Show

What very well may be the best possible option for Vision Quest’s main villain already exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the time being, it’s unclear what threat Vision will be up against when Paul Bettany’s MCU character returns to the small screen. Ultron will be on hand, but it remains to be seen if Marvel really wants to repeat Ultron’s Avengers: Age of Ultron story.

It’s possible that Marvel will instead look to a different character to serve as the primary challenge Vision will have to overcome. As for who that could be, a character who is perhaps the most qualified candidate – aside from Ultron – was confirmed to have a presence somewhere in the MCU.

The Mad Thinker In Marvel Comics Explained

In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a number of enemies from the rogues’ gallery of Marvel’s First Family were namedropped at the beginning of the film, as a way for it to briefly sum up some of the problems they’ve solved as a team. It was established in the film that one of the Fantastic Four foes they defeated was the Mad Thinker.

As a character who was introduced all the way back in Fantastic Four #15 in 1963, the Mad Thinker is one of the team’s oldest villains. He possesses no superhuman abilities, but can challenge them nonetheless due to his off-the-charts intellect, scientific expertise, and strategic planning.

The Mad Thinker dabbles in several different areas, but the one he’s best known for is his interest in artificial life. Over the years, he’s created several androids, including some with sentience. His most famous creation is Awesome Andy, who went on to become a well-liked Marvel character often utilized as a pawn of criminal masterminds like the Mad Thinker.

The Mad Thinker also has important ties to the Vision. Firstly, he played a small role in Vision’s origin story by offering information to Ultron that helped him secure the body of the original Human Torch, an android the Mad Thinker had an obsession with. When he realized that Ultron used the Human Torch to create the Vision, Mad Thinker set his sights on obtaining the technology within Vision’s body.

What The Mad Thinker’s Role In Vision Quest Could Be

The Mad Thinker and his android from Marvel Comics

The MCU did away with the original Human Torch’s role in Vision’s origin story, but that doesn’t change the fact that an Earth-616 incarnation of Mad Thinker would be extremely interested in Bettany’s character. Building artificial life is a key priority for him, so it would make sense for him to pursue Vision and the other forms of AI featured in the series.

In fact, it may be even that Mad Thinker has something to do with Ultron’s return. Given his intelligence and know-how, it’s well within the realm of possibility that someone like the Mad Thinker could have found a way to bring Ultron back online, either in the interest of science or to serve his own evil goals.

Although The Fantastic Four: First Steps has already discussed Mad Thinker’s defeat, nothing it says about the character rules out a scenario where he appears later. The movie takes place in just one of the MCU’s many realities, so a different version of the Mad Thinker could be somewhere on Earth-616, still on the loose.

Were the MCU to take this course, it would have an opening to create the first-ever live-action version of Awesome Andy, who has the potential to be a fun addition to the MCU’s library of characters, whether it be in Vision Quest or beyond. Something similar could be said for a possible MCU interpretation of Dragon Man, another comic android with major connections to the Mad Thinker.