For the final Character Spotlight of the Visions of the Future season, I wanted to pick another character that I was confident could have fit the theme of this season: Victor Mancha.
Victor Mancha was created in 2005 by Brian K. Vaughan as part of the original Runaways series. Although he wasn’t in the first story arc for the group, Victor’s story is the centerpiece of the second volume of Runaways, when the team receives a cryptic message from a future Gertrude Yorkes that a villain known as Victorious will slaughter the heroes from her time period.
Future Gertrude dies, but not before telling the Runaways that Victorious was a boy known as Victor Mancha in the Los Angeles area, and his father is a villain from their time period.
The Runaways soon find Victor, and it turns out… he’s not such a bad guy? But when a run-in with a group of heroes (including Darkhawk!) trying to stop the Runaways goes south, his electromagnetic powers rear themselves, ultimately leading the group to discover that Victor’s father is none other than Ultron.
Over the past twenty years, Victor has been involved with a number of major players in the Marvel Universe. He spends some time with his grandfather, Hank Pym, and also plays a role in the excellent Vision run by Tom King. Victor and Vision are technically brothers, but their familial bonds go awry, ultimately leading to Victor’s apparent death at the hands of Vision’s wife, Virginia.
In 2017, Rainbow Rowell picked up the writer's mantle for Runaways, where the head of Victor is found by Runaway Chase Stein. Victor spends quite some time as a head, and even goes on a few missions strapped to Chase’s body. Eventually, he is made whole, and continues as a full-fledged member of the team. He also briefly adopts the moniker of Kid Justice, while serving with Doc Justice, a west coast hero (and vigilante) that he grew up idolizing.
Victor is currently ranked at 165 on the Most Wanted September poll. Speaking of which - the polls close this Friday! So make sure you vote here!
I believe Victor will be in Marvel Snap eventually. For one, there's the title “Son of Ultron” that was datamined when the original Visions of the Future season was datamined. I am also confident that the Runaways will get their own season one day. Nico Minoru may hangout with the Midnight Suns now, but she won’t forget her Runaway roots. Karolina Dean is currently the highest polling Runaway at 103 and would make for a great Season Pass character.
When I was thinking about what Victor Mancha would look like as a card, I thought about his family tree and how that could influence him. At one point Victor thinks Doctor Doom is his father, so between him and Ultron, I initially wanted him to do something with token bots, that was less reliable, but before turn 6. But Victor is nothing like his father, so I’ve instead turned to his brother for influence, along with his electromagnetic powers and cyborg nature.
Victor Mancha - 4/5 - You can move this once. Activate: Inflict -1 power on all enemy cards here.
Victor’s movement here gives him a lot of flexibility, and the ability to control when you activate his ability makes it like he can reach an overall net of 9 power, which keeps him out of the range of Shang-Chi. He also fits in well with the numerous Activate robots we’ve seen this season. Not to mention the ability to Activate twice when Jocasta releases next week.
Victor’s best other home could be in a negative affliction deck, as another way to power Ajax and Diamondback. Here’s a deck I could see working:
Victor Mancha Most Wanted
Finally, one more reminder to vote in September's Marvel Snap Most Wanted poll if you haven’t already. With nearly 400 votes cast, some of the rankings are still neck and neck. I can’t wait to share the results with everyone at the end of the month, so stay tuned! In the meantime, let me know what you think about Victor Mancha and what you’d cook with him!