… Or, What If Wonder Man had Never Died?
In this version of events, Wonder Man confesses his status as The Mole to the Avengers during their initial time with him, allowing Ant-Man time to bust Zemo’s trap and get the antidote necessary to save his life.
At first, things seem to be going a lot better than the regular reality. The Avengers are left in Simon’s capable hands, Hank Pym never develops his mental issues that plagued his IRL reputation, remaining Happily Married to Janet, Magneto gets Killed Off for Real and Wonder Man pursues a marriage with Wanda Frank. But that just means that Ultron has no mind to upload into the body that would become the Vision… except for his own.
What if Wonder Man had Never Troped?
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In canon, the Avengers relentlessly bullied Hank Pym into proving he was Giant Man, dragging him out of retirement to become Goliath and giving him long-standing mental issues as a result. Here, Wonder Man decides to take Pym at his word and rescue the Wasp so she can verify his story.
- Adaptational Villainy: Quicksilver becomes such an extreme example of My Sister Is Off-Limits that he joins Magneto’s Acolytes to destroy the Avengers.
- Bittersweet Ending: Simon dies from injuries sustained against Ultron, but Hank uses the latter’s “Vision” body to restore him to life, after a fashion.
- Conflicting Loyalty: The initial Point of Divergence is that Simon realises that the Avengers have treated him better than the Masters of Evil much earlier, saving his life.
- Covers Always Lie: The first title is called "What if Vision had destroyed the Avengers?" but none of the Avengers die.
- Death by Adaptation: After Quicksilver is killed during a skirmish, an angry Wanda vaporises Magneto.
- Godzilla Threshold: Ultron is such a dangerous threat that all the former Avengers come out of retirement to stop him.
- Happily Married: Since Hank never became Goliath here, he and Jan get married much earlier, with no issues later in their marriage.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- The ending of the story effectively restores the canon Vision to this reality, with the only changes being the deaths of Quicksilver, Magneto and (presumably) Ultron.
- The Stations of the Canon: Ultron still turns himself on and instantly matures (though he doesn’t inflict Laser-Guided Amnesia on his “father”) and despite him directly controlling the Vision, he attacks Janet in her apartment at night, and gets dubbed “the Vision” via Line-of-Sight Name.
- You Are in Command Now: Simon becomes leader of the Avengers once the original members retire.
