WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Free Guy, now playing in theaters.
Free Guy tells the story of an NPC character named Guy, who develops sentience and emotions based on a real human. If that sounds familiar, that’s because there’s another popular AI character with a similar backstory. Marvel Comics fans will recognize some similarities with Vision, the synthezoid famous for being Ultron’s creation and the eventual lover of Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe slightly altered Vision’s comic book backstory, however, removing one key component: the source of his human-like mind. In Avengers: Infinity War, it’s explained that Vision’s mind is a mix of Jarvis, Ultron, the Mind Stone, and Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, who both worked on Ultron and Vision’s AI. In contrast, the comics version of Vision had his mind come directly from a human source: Simon Williams, the hero known as Wonder Man.
Simon Williams was originally an ousted businessman gifted ionic energy powers by the evil Baron Zemo so that he could destroy the Avengers. Turning to the side of good, Simon went against Zemo but died in the process. His brainwaves were recorded before his death, including the romantic feelings he felt for another villain-turned-hero: the Scarlet Witch.
The sinister android Ultron implanted Simon Williams’ brainwaves into his creation, the synthezoid Vision, giving the machine a personality similar to Simon’s. This led to Vision having feelings for Wanda, just as Simon had prior. Simon was presumed dead at the time, so he and Vision never had to compete for Wanda’s affections. That is, until Wonder Man came back to life and Vision ended up losing his personality. Wanda begged Simon to provide his brainwaves once more so that the Avengers could rebuild Vision’s soul, but he refused because of his own feelings for Wanda.
In many ways, Guy’s love for Millie in Free Guy reflects Vision and Wanda’s story. As Millie’s programming partner Keys explains, he programmed Guy’s base character named Lovelorn to have feelings for the same type of woman Keys himself did. That woman was Millie, resulting in Guy falling in love with her as soon as he saw her in Free City. Guy eventually realizes that he is a digital love letter written for Millie and wishes her the best in pursuing the real-life romance. This is an interesting contrast to Wonder Man, who acted on his own self-interest and feelings for Wanda and refused to help restore the Vision.
Guy and Vision were each based on the emotions of others. While Keys was excited to learn Guy was based on his original coding, Wonder Man was less than thrilled about his brainwaves being used to create Vision. Because he was in a catatonic state at the time, he didn’t have a say in the process, leaving him to feel his soul was ripped out against his will. The two did develop a brotherly relationship prior to Vision’s “death,” but Simon’s feelings for Wanda overshadowed any desire to bring Vision’s mind back.
Vision’s personality eventually returned thanks to remnants of Simon’s brainwaves in his system, but the damage to his and Wanda’s relationship at the time was already done. If things weren’t complicated enough, Vision eventually created a new love of his own named Virginia. Vision’s synthezoid creation was modeled using Wanda’s brainwaves, which Wanda gave to Vision years ago as a gift.
The notion of self-identity is constantly explored in Vision’s stories. Although Guy went on a similar journey in Free Guy, he had an easier time accepting that his personality and romantic interest were based on that of a real human being. Vision constantly struggled with the fact that his brainwaves weren’t originally his own, making him doubt his own humanity. His eventual creation of his synthezoid wife and children brought Vision a kind of happiness he never thought he’d have again after his separation from Wanda. Now that Millie has started a relationship with Keys, perhaps the two will consider programming a Millie-like NPC for Guy to finally settle down with in the sequel.
To see Guy’s journey of love and self-realization, watch Free Guy in theaters now.
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