Vision is without question one of the most powerful Avengers, both in the comics and on the big screen. Whereas Scarlet Witch’s abilities have been limited in the films from what she has been able to do in the comics, Vision has showcased a variety of comic accurate powers throughout his three feature film appearances to date. There are differences of course. MCU’s Vision was created through JARVIS, Ultron and the Mind Stone, a slight reworking of his comic book origin. On the page, Vision’s legacy stretches back to the earliest days of Marvel comics, back when it was still called Timely Comics.

In those comics of the 1940s, Marvel debuted the original Human Torch, a cyborg, who would later serve as the body for the Vision. Although he was created by Ultron to take out the Avengers, Vision overcame his programming, fighting against his creator instead, and even wound up joining the team. In the movies, he is good and decent enough to even have proven to be worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and is the only character capable of that other than Thor himself.

But even die-hard fans might not be totally understanding of just how powerful Vision actually is and how many different applications of his powers there are. That’s what we’ll be looking at in this list, the powers you didn’t even know that Vision had.

15. He Can Change His Density

Many fans familiar with the Marvel movies are aware of Vision’s ability to phase through objects. It’s a power he uses multiple times in both Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, even using it to disarm enemies. But the ability to phase is only one small aspect of a much larger power and it’s one of Vision’s most effective abilities. He has the ability to drastically change his density, so that he can be lighter than the air or as heavy as a tank.

This allows Vision to become intangible and phase through solid matter, moving through walls and even people with ease.

He becomes more of a ghostly figure when using the power for those purposes, often appearing translucent and floating in the air as he phases. But the power can also be used to drastically increase his weight, allowing Vision to become virtually immovable. When standing his ground, he can weigh tons, so that even extreme physical force won’t budge him and punching him would only result in a shattered hand. Vision’s complete control over his density is one of his most valuable abilities and, as a result, is also the power that he tends to use most often in a fight.

14. He Absorbs Solar Energy

The decision to put the Mind Gem into Vision’s head in the MCU makes sense, as it allows for a direct tie-in to the larger scheme of the films and to the stakes of Infinity War. But it also allows for an easy explanation on screen for the jewel that Vision has always had in his forehead in the comics. With the movies, it’s clear that the development team saw an opportunity to use an Infinity Stone and took it. In the comics, however, the gem in Vision’s forehead has a much more practical application.

It’s called the Solar Jewel and it is a conduit for solar energy. It’s practical to the point that, much like Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor, it is essentially the thing keeping Vision alive. The jewel absorbs solar energy, powering Vision’s whole body as well as his numerous abilities. Vision can regularly channel this energy through his eyes in a fashion similar to Cyclops’ optic blasts, although Vision’s beams are made of infrared and microwave radiation and are not simply blasts of concussive force.

If it werent’ for the Solar Jewel, Vision would be of much less use in a fight and likely would not be alive at all. It’s essentially the source of his power, much like the Mind Stone serves as the source of Vision’s abilities in the MCU.

13. He Has Extreme Superhuman Strength

Vision might not be seen as much of a brute force, but that does not mean that he couldn’t easily act as one if he chose to. Vision has a wealth of raw, inherent strength and the fact that he only uses it as a last resort says a lot about his nobility and heroism. Like most of his abilities, Vision’s superhuman strength stems from his power to control his density. He doesn’t have the proportionate strength of a spider, he can just make his body incredibly dense and heavy so that he packs a massively strong punch.

By putting all of that power into a single punch, Vision could ideally go toe-to-toe with just about any massively strong character and come out on top. Like The Hulk, he has the ability to increase his strength in the middle of a fight if need be, which is a trait that no doubt comes in handy a whole lot of the time. He can take incredible physical force as well without moving an inch. Due to his massive density, Vision would not even necessarily have to hit back. He often allows would-be attackers to shatter their fists on his immovable form.

Vision will frequently resort to use of this power if he has to, but knowing that he can come out on top in most any physical fight often leaves him perfectly willing to stand back and let his fellow Avengers do the fighting unless they absolutely need a hand.

12. He Can Repair Himself

As hard as it might be to physically damage Vision, it does happen pretty frequently. He’s been dismantled more than once, even torn in half by She-Hulk at one point. Because of that, an ability to self-repair comes in handy.

Luckily, Vision has that taken care of. Not only does he have the ability to self-heal, but he has a scientific understanding of his own anatomy and can even tinker and manually repair himself if it comes to that.

It’s saved him quite a few times, as Vision has been torn to pieces on more than one occasion, only to put himself back together again when necessary. Vision’s ability to regenerate himself has even led to him replicating himself and using his power to create a robot family in recent comics in order to provide himself with at least some shred of normalcy.

This decision was at least somewhat spurned by the end of his relationship with the Scarlet Witch. And even though he saw what the need for a normal life had done to her, Vision has succumbed to a similar delusion, only recently coming to terms with how false his attempt at the perfect family actually turned out to be.

11. He Has An Extremely Fast Mind

In many ways, Vision’s greatest asset is his mind. That should not be all that surprising as Vision is sort of a living computer. He has access to virtually any kind of knowledge that he would deem necessary, although it never stops him from being in almost all other ways a human being. Vision is one of the few characters in the Marvel Universe to not feel genuinely burdened by knowledge, at least not in the deep and drastic way that both Tony Stark and Reed Richards are. Both of those men have tortured themselves under the pressure of needing to use their mind to save the world, the universe or even the multiverse as a whole.

Vision uses his mind as a tool, like any other tool. It’s an asset that is there when he needs to use it, but it’s not something that seems to constantly gnaw at him, like it does with others. Thinking of things in factual, informative terms comes as naturally to Vision as breathing comes to everyone else. Vision’s mind is not only expansive, but genuinely fast as well.

He can think of things in tactical terms and determine outcomes and solutions in milliseconds that would take his fellow heroes minutes to determine on their own. Because of that, his mind is an incredibly valuable asset to the team.

10. He’s Capable of Superhuman Speed

In addition to strength, flight and phasing through solid objects, Vision is also incredibly fast. He’s not necessarily at speedster level, but he can achieve superhuman levels of speed and uses that power when he needs to. Super-speed has constantly shown itself to be one of the most useful abilities imaginable, if not the absolute most useful. There are so many applications of it to the point where plots have to be radically explained just for characters like Flash and Quicksilver to not always have the upper hand, let alone actually lose a fight.

Vision can’t travel through time or create mirages of himself, but even a minor application of that power is incredibly helpful to him. The ability to move in the blink of an eye as well as pack a monstrously powerful punch definitely make Vision a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Enemies won’t always see him coming, but they’ll definitely feel him.

Super-speed is an ability that Vision uses less often and, once again, it’s because he doesn’t necessarily have to. If there’s something that needs to be dealt with quickly and Vision knows that only he can get there in time, he will definitely do it, but otherwise he will usually rely on the strengths of his other teammates.

9. He Can Fire A Destructive Beam Of Solar Energy

In addition to absorbing solar energy, Vision can also dispel it, usually in the form of radioactive beams from his eyes. But every so often, he can go above and beyond that to fire a beam directly through the jewel itself. This is a beam of pure solar energy, it can be extremely destructive and also takes a lot out of Vision whenever he does it. Vision uses something similar in the MCU, firing a beam directly through the Mind Stone, which also generally weakens him whenever he uses that power.

In Captain America: Civil War, Vision becomes distracted and uses that ability with somewhat destructive results. Compromised by his feelings for Scarlet Witch and distracted, Vision fires a beam at Falcon only to hit War Machine instead, sending him falling out of the sky and ultimately crippling him. This is only a small sample of what that blast could have done to Rhodes had it wound up being a direct hit.

It does make sense that using a blast like this would weaken Vision, though, as solar energy is what he uses to charge himself and dispelling a full blast of it would absolve him of a great deal of energy. Because of both its destructive capacity and the fact that it weakens him overall, this is a power that Vision uses very, very rarely.

8. He Can Partially Materialize Inside Another Person

Unlike many of the others, this is a power that Vision actually does use quite often both in the comics and the films. His ability to phase is one of his strongest traits as it often makes him almost impossible to hit. Enemies trying to gain one up on Vision have almost always had to find a way to disable his phasing ability before even engaging him directly. They often go for the jewel or wind up creating some tech that affects Vision’s abilities before even getting into the fight, because when he is free to use it he can be extremely powerful.

Vision does not shy away from phasing his whole arm through an enemy and solidifying it inside of them.

Realistically, this would cause the person Vision is fighting to burst, but instead they usually go into shock and pass out from the experience. In the films, Vision has only used this power on non-human enemies such as Ultron robots and alien invaders. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision is shown dismantling Ultron drones with ease, using his ability to partially phase to cause many of the robots to explode from within. In Captain America: Civil War, he does use his power to phase through Ant-Man, though he does not solidify himself within him so that he passes through Scott without actually doing him any harm.

7. He Can Shapeshift

Given that Vision is a mostly red android, the ability to change his appearance is certainly one of his most practical. From the first trailer to Infinity War, fans got to see that this ability would make it into the films as well. It’s often necessary for Vision to have to take on a human appearance in order to blend in when not in uniform or on an actual mission. Whenever he’s had to go into hiding, it is also helpful as someone like Vision has a hard time being anything but distracting. It’s impossible for him to hide without a power like this one.

But like any shapechanger, Vision can use this power in all sorts of ways. He can disappear into a crowd, he can take on the persona of someone else, disguising himself in order to more covertly infiltrate an enemy operation. That can be a good thing when a situation doesn’t call for the Avengers to simply burst into a room and start busting heads.

Despite his colorful appearance, Vision is actually one of the most stealthy Avengers and this power is a big reason why. It’s one that he doesn’t always have to use, but when he does need it, the ability to shapeshift has often proven itself to be a life-saver.

6. He’s Gifted in Hand-to-Hand Combat

The Avengers always prepare for the worst. In terms of strategy, it just makes sense. Anything can go wrong at any time and their enemies are always trying to catch them off guard, to bring them down to their lowest point. Sometimes the bad guys succeed, and the Avengers will always need a backup plan when that happens. For those reasons, it actually makes sense that Vision—one of their biggest guns without question—would need to have a knowledge of hand-to-hand combat.

If his powers are completely disarmed, which is possible, then Vision needs a way to defend himself without simply becoming a weak point for the entire team to have to protect. With a skilled knowledge of martial arts, Vision is able to stay in the fight even without the use of his many powers. There are, after all, members of the Avengers who have no powers at all and still manage to prove themselves valuable to the team time and again.

Not only was Vision trained by Captain America, but he is able to pull knowledge from virtually any resource available to teach himself any martial art or other fighting style that he might ever have to learn. That can definitely prove valuable in a situation where Vision finds himself without access to his other powers.

5. He Has Superhuman Senses

One of the powers fans might not know much about, Vision actually has superhuman senses that can often come in handy during a fight. These powers aren’t as obvious because they’re not the kind of power one would generally expect a robot to have. But Vision is an android and very much a biological organism even if he has internal circuits and a robotic origin. Vision can touch, taste, feel, smell as any other human would, but he can also do these things much better than the average person can.

These powers can regularly serve their purpose when the Avengers have to track an enemy that has gotten away, or distinguish someone in the crowd, or even point out a shapeshifter among them.

There are many practical uses of super-senses, as characters like Daredevil and Wolverine regularly demonstrate.

In fact, since Wolverine became a regular member of the Avengers, this is a power that Vision has had to use far less often. But even still, it’s something that has its value. It’s a power Vision can always have access to and generally makes it just easier to navigate through life, even for an android. These skills are especially useful whenever Vision has to find himself taking out a villain on his own without relying on any outside help or backup.

4. He Could Potentially Live Forever

While the first Vision was more of a crime fighting detective in the 1940s days of Timely Comics, even the version of the character fans know and love has an origin stretching back at least that far. His body stems from the original Human Torch of the ‘40s, an android who was very different from the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm who wound up taking the same name. Even though Vision is a miracle of modern science in the Marvel Universe, parts of him are actually very old.

Vision is also constantly updating. His powers change over time, so his appearance even changes over time. As an android, he seeks to better himself, sometimes by attempting to be more human, sometimes by making improvements to his operating system to make sure that he continues to be an extremely valuable member of the Avengers and generally the best version of himself that he can be.

With that in mind, as he keeps updating and has his ever-fluctuating body evolves, Vision could potentially live forever. He does not age, after all, and there’s always been a sad reality to his knowledge that he will likely last well beyond the rest of his fellow Avengers.

3. He Can Manipulate Technology

As an android, Vision’s technopathic abilities can be extremely valuable. He can instantly decode technology, understanding it at a base level within a moment of coming into contact with it. That means that he knows just about everything about any kind of technology he gets his hands on. This sometimes even extends to alien tech. Whether helping to fly a Quinjet, hack into a HYDRA system or even help Captain America open his email, Vision’s power to manipulate technology has no shortage of applications.

This means that he can pilot virtually any vehicle the Avengers come across, he can lock, safe, or otherwise encrypted device, disarm weapons systems and so much more.

In 2018, the world is built on technology and it affects every single part of everyday life. The ability to immediately hack into and control any system is not only a valuable asset, it could potentially make Vision incredibly dangerous if he ever turned against the team. With this kind of power, even if it seems small-scale, it turns out to be an incredibly good thing that Vision did not embrace his destiny of being designed by Ultron to eliminate the Avengers and wreak havoc on the world at large. He probably would have been pretty good at it.

2. He Can Manipulate His Own Cells and Grow New Ones

Vision’s body does not age, so he could practically live forever. He also has the ability to repair himself if need be, which also comes in handy in many different situations. After all, he’s been dismantled several times over the years. But Vision’s greatest asset in terms of both his lack of aging and his power to self-heal lie in the fact that he can have total control over his own cells. This is also part of what allows him to shapeshift. He can control and rearrange the molecules in his body, not just to change appearance but to much more practically heal any damage he might happen to take.

This power has gotten much, much stronger as Vision has continued to evolve over time, both as a character and as an android. The comics have always had to leap forward to embrace the technology of the time and imagine the sci-fi tech of the future, which can be a completely different thing in 2018 than in 1968. Using the fact that Vision upgrades himself as an explanation allows for a necessary sense of consistency.

In those early comics, Vision would heal from minor wounds, but now he can heal from extensive, catastrophic damage and even regrow limbs if he needs to. This power has become more and more useful as the character has gone on, to the point that it’s now one of his defining traits.

1. His Body Is Now Made of Nanobots

If there’s anything that truly sells the Vision’s insane ability to constantly upgrade and better himself, it’s this. Vision has been constantly evolving as an android over the past fifty years of his comic book history. But in recent years, Vision’s biology has gotten a complete overhaul. His body is now comprised entirely of nanotechnology. This allows him to repair any amount of damage as well as regrow limbs, as well as any number of different applications.

Nanotechnology has been becoming more and more prevalent both worldwide and within the Marvel Universe.

Fans were excited to see that Tony Stark himself would take a note from the comics and use nanotech for his new MCU suit in Avengers: Infinity War. That suit is able to create all manner of different constructs and weapons as soon as Tony thinks of them.

Vision’s body operates in a similar way, but more extensively as it’s his entire being and not just a suit of armor. For Vision, with his new biological workings, the sky is truly the limit and his potential has barely even begun to be tested. While he was one of the most powerful and useful Avengers before, he can now accomplish literally anything he puts his mind to.

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Which of these powers surprised you most? Let us know in the comments!