The Avengers #57

A new Avenger, but not an alien

By 1968 Roy Thomas was writing The Avengers and wanted to add a member. His first idea was to revive the Vision, an alien hero called Aarkus who had appeared in Timely Comics in the 1940s. Stan Lee liked the idea of a new member but did not want it to be an alien or a visitor from another dimension. He suggested an android instead, and Thomas designed a new character that borrowed the look of the old one.

The story built on Thomas and John Buscema's recent work. They had just introduced Ultron, the robot built by founding Avenger Hank Pym, with a cameo in The Avengers #54 (July 1968) and a full debut in #55 (August 1968). In the new story Ultron builds the Vision from the body of the original Human Torch android and gives him a mind patterned on the brain waves of Simon Williams, the villain-turned-hero Wonder Man. Hank Pym would later call him a "synthezoid."

The Avengers #57 went on sale on August 8, 1968, with an October cover date. It cost 12 cents and ran 36 pages, with a 20-page lead story titled "Behold... the Vision!" The first line sets the mood: "Rain falls on the parched city."

A fan turned writer and "Big John"

Roy Thomas was born in Jackson, Missouri, on November 22, 1940. He trained as a teacher, taught high school English, and in 1964 took over the fanzine Alter Ego while still in the classroom. He joined Marvel in 1965 after a brief stint at DC and began writing The Avengers in 1966. Besides the Vision and Ultron, he co-created Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Ghost Rider, and in 1972 he succeeded Stan Lee as editor-in-chief.

John Buscema was born in New York City on December 11, 1927. He came back to Marvel in 1966 after eight years in commercial art and became the regular Avengers artist with #41 (June 1967). He would go on to draw the Silver Surfer series, more than 200 Conan the Barbarian stories, and the 1978 instruction book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. He died on January 10, 2002.

The credits inside the issue list Thomas as writer, Buscema as penciler, George Klein as inker and Sam Rosen as letterer. According to a 2005 interview with Thomas in Alter Ego, one panel on page 3 was redrawn by Marie Severin.

Behold... the Vision

The Vision arrives at Avengers Mansion with orders to destroy the team. Instead he turns on his programming and leads Goliath (Hank Pym), the Wasp, Hawkeye and the Black Panther to his maker, and helps them defeat Ultron-5, who meets his apparent end in the story. The Black Widow also appears.

Buscema's cover is a nod to Marvel's own past: it echoes the title splash of the Golden Age Vision's first appearance in Marvel Mystery Comics #13. The next issue, The Avengers #58, finished the arc. After the team accepts him, the Vision excuses himself and silently cries.

The Vision made his film debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, played by Paul Bettany, and his relationship with the Scarlet Witch became the subject of WandaVision, the 2021 Disney+ series.

Two surges and a scarce top grade

Mid-grade copies are plentiful: a February 2021 auction listing counted 300 copies at CGC 6.5 and 1,979 graded higher. Near-perfect copies are another matter. The census held 8 copies at CGC 9.8 in November 2015, 11 by May 2019 and 16 by August 2025, with none ever graded above 9.8.

The book's value rose first in the run-up to Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Vision's film debut, and again when WandaVision aired in early 2021. A 9.8 copy from the Twin Cities pedigree sold at auction in August 2011 for $11,352.50. Another 9.8 sold at auction in Beverly Hills in November 2015 for $15,535, at a time when the auction description noted earlier 9.8 prices as high as $18,750.

A white-page 9.8 brought $26,400 at auction in November 2020. In April 2022, after WandaVision, a 9.8 sold in an online auction for $35,000, the highest 9.8 price found for this story. The market then cooled: another 9.8 sold at auction for $18,600 in June 2022, and one in September 2025 brought $15,600.

How to tell what you have

The original issue carries a 12-cent cover price and an October 1968 cover date, with Buscema's cover of the Vision looming over the Avengers. The indicia names Vista Publications Inc. and gives World Color Press of Sparta, Illinois, as the printer. The story has been reprinted dozens of times, including in Marvel UK's Avengers in 1975 and the Avengers Epic Collection volume titled Behold... the Vision.

Recent foreign editions and foil reprints also turn up in CGC 9.8 holders and sell for under $200. They are not the 1968 American original and should not be confused with it.

The numbers

Cover price

12 cents

Pages

36; lead story 20

Print run

Not documented in the sources consulted

Census, November 2015

8 in CGC 9.8, none higher

Census, May 2019

11 certified at CGC 9.8

Census, February 2021

300 in CGC 6.5, 1,979 higher

Census, August 2025

16 in CGC 9.8, none higher

Timeline

1. Jul 1968

   Ultron makes a cameo appearance in The Avengers #54 (cover date).

2. Aug 1968

   Ultron's full debut in The Avengers #55 (cover date).

3. Aug 8, 1968

   The Avengers #57 goes on sale for 12 cents with an October 1968 cover date, introducing the Vision.

4. Sep 10, 1968

   The Avengers #58 goes on sale, completing the Vision's origin.

5. 1972

   Roy Thomas succeeds Stan Lee as Marvel's editor-in-chief.

6. Jan 10, 2002

   John Buscema dies in Port Jefferson, New York.

7. Aug 2011

   A CGC 9.8 copy from the Twin Cities pedigree sells at auction for $11,352.50.

8. 2015

   The Vision makes his film debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

9. Nov 19, 2015

   A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $15,535; the census shows 8 copies in 9.8.

10. May 28, 2019

    A CGC 9.8 copy is offered in an online auction; only 11 had been certified at 9.8.

11. Nov 2020

    A CGC 9.8 white-page copy sells at auction for $26,400.

12. 2021

    WandaVision premieres on Disney+.

13. Apr 2022

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells in an online auction for $35,000.

14. Jun 2022

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $18,600.

15. Sep 11, 2025

    A CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $15,600; the census lists 16 in 9.8, none higher.

The world in 1968

• Jun 5, 1968

  Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and dies the next day.

• Aug 22, 1968

  Police clash with antiwar demonstrators outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

• Sep 24, 1968

  60 Minutes debuts on CBS.

• Oct 1, 1968

  Night of the Living Dead premieres.

• Oct 11, 1968

  NASA launches Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission.

• Oct 16, 1968

  Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their fists on the medal stand at the Mexico City Olympics.

• Nov 5, 1968

  Richard Nixon defeats Hubert Humphrey for the presidency.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Avengers #57 is number 43 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (92 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Stan Lee vetoed Roy Thomas's plan to bring back the 1940s alien Vision, so Thomas made the new Vision an android instead.
• In the story's continuity, the Vision's body is that of the original Human Torch android.
• Buscema's cover echoes the title splash of the Golden Age Vision's debut in Marvel Mystery Comics #13.
• In the very next issue, the android Vision quietly cries after the Avengers accept him.
• Roy Thomas said he picked the name Ultron partly because he liked the "-tron" suffix.
• Marie Severin redrew one panel on page 3 of the story.