When Lisa Molinari (Lauren Morais) donned a literal coat of arms to enhance her pickpocketing skills in VisionQuest Episode 4, it was far more than a cute inside joke between her and Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica). Dedicated comic readers recognized it as a reference to Lisa’s alter ego: her comics counterpart encounters a magical jacket that allows her to manifest four additional arms at will, and naturally becomes a superhero named Coat of Arms thereafter.
Last week, it wasn’t clear whether that nod to Lisa’s hero status was just a fun Easter egg or a concerted bit of foreshadowing. But nothing (usually) is mentioned in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe without an intention to explore it. As Lisa, Thomas, and the new Vision (Paul Bettany) continue their adventures in VisionQuest, Lisa might have just gotten one step closer to her destiny as Coat of Arms. But will she join the MCU’s version of the Young Avengers, or stand against them as a villain?
Spoilers ahead for VisionQuest Episode 6!
VisionQuest changes Lisa’s hero origins
Will Lisa be friend or foe to Thomas in the future?
Ever since Jo Carrington (T’Nia Miller) returned to the world as “Jocasta,” a female counterpart to the evil android Ultron (James Spader), our heroes have been on the back foot. Last week, Ultron fully escaped his prison in Vision’s mind, joining forces with Jocasta and reigniting his loose plans to subjugate humanity. In Jo’s past life as a human scientist, she developed nanites that could bond with their respective host and help diagnose issues within. She’s reprogrammed them now to create servile victims — and Lisa becomes the unwitting subject of her first field test.
While tracking Ultron and Jocasta in Madripoor, Lisa is infected with a nanite, which burns through her will and forces her to attack Vision and Thomas. Father and son do eventually subdue her — Vision fries the nanite in her brain and puts her to sleep — but it’s a temporary fix. They’ll have to find a way to either extract the nanite or rewrite its code. Whatever happens next, the MCU just gained a new enhanced individual, even if VisionQuest is rewriting Lisa’s origins in a techy new direction.
Will Lisa actually become Coat of Arms?
VisionQuest takes some techy liberties with Lisa’s origin, but she could still realize her destiny.
In the comics, Lisa’s powers are directly connected to the magic coat she randomly finds hanging in an alleyway. Said coat — enchanted by an extra-dimensional sorcerer, Tiboro — gave her the power of flight alongside the ability to manifest more arms. At this point, those origins are a long way from what we’ve seen in VisionQuest. The series has seemingly written magic out of the equation (though science is “a kind of magic,” as Vision argues in earlier episodes). That said, Lisa could still become a version of Coat of Arms before the series comes to an end.
It will be difficult, or more likely impossible, to remove the nanite from Lisa’s brain completely. But there might be a silver lining if Vision can make it work in her favor. If anything, this could just be the beginning of Lisa’s cybernetic enhancements. Maybe the arms she gains in the MCU will be robotic in nature. As for her flight powers, perhaps a jet pack? The possibilities are endless — but with Jocasta in her head, the most pressing question remains whether she’ll fight for humanity or against them.
