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Ultron is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Avengers #54 (1968), and was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema.

Fictional character biography

Ultron is a robot created by Henry Pym, based on Pym's own brain patterns, and was intended to serve Pym in his superheroic identity of Goliath. Ultron became sapient and rebelled, seeming to instantly demonstrate an Oedipus Complex (as noted by the Black Panther), where he felt irrational hatred for his "father" Hank, and demonstrated an interest in Hank's lover Janet van Dyne, aka The Wasp. He quickly hypnotized Pym and brainwashed him into forgetting that Ultron had ever existed. He then went on to organize the Masters of Evil under the guise of the Crimson Cowl, and battled Pym and his teammates in the Avengers. Ultron has since generally remained a solo operative, being too monomaniacally genocidal to willingly work alongside any human for any length of time.

His most notable achievement may be the creation of the "synthezoid" called the Vision, whose body was a copy of the original Human Torch and whose mind was based on that of Wonder Man. Ironically, although the Vision fought the Avengers at first, he joined the team soon after, becoming one of their most prominent members and even leading the team at one point. Ultron also created a "mate", Jocasta (regarded by Black Panther as one of the proofs of his 'Oedipus Complex'), who also joined the Avengers, created based off the body and mind of Jan. Ultron tried again with the creation of Alkhema the War Toy, whose mind was based on that of Mockingbird. Like his other creations, Alkhema turned on him; although she alone shared his desire to replace humanity with machine life, the fundamental difference was that Ultron wanted to destroy all of humanity at once while Alkhema preferred to enjoy herself by doing it at her own pace. Ultron was also responsible for the creation of the cyborg Victor Mancha. When it was revealed that Ultron was the boy's "father", Victor promptly turned on him and joined the Runaways.

Incarnations

Although Ultron has been destroyed many times, he has rebuilt himself anew each time, usually renumbering himself in the process. Ultron-1 was Pym's first creation; by the time he first met the Avengers, he had already improved himself to the iteration of Ultron-5. Several of his bodies, beginning with Ultron-6, have been composed of adamantium or of a slightly weaker adamantium alloy called "secondary adamantium".

Ultron-7 had the gigantic body of Omega, distinguishing him from the various other Ultrons, but this body was not composed of adamantium and was destroyed by the Fantastic Four. Using his 'father's' recent mental breakdown (causing Hank to revert to his Ant-Man persona and forget that Ultron even existed), Ultron-8 tricked Hank Pym into helping him create Jocasta as a 'bride' after attacking the Avengers with his encephalo-ray, putting them into a death-like coma. However, Iron Man, Wonder Man, and the Black Panther were all left standing (Iron Man and the Black Panther were protected from the ray by their costumes, and Wonder Man's ionic nature rendered him immune to the ray's effects), and, with the aid of Thor (who had been away from the mansion at the time of the attack) managed to track down Ultron and save Jan. Although Ultron was forced to escape when Iron Man threatened Jocasta, he was later destroyed by the Scarlet Witch, whose probability-manipulation powers let her disrupt his internal workings.

Ultron-11 was recreated by the Beyonder to battle alongside other villains during the Secret Wars; he only cooperated with his human "teammates" after being temporarily depowered by Galactus and subsequently reprogrammed by Doctor Doom. Although he was taken out of the fight when the Human Torch's nova flame melted some of his non-adamantium internal components when activated at practically point-blank range, he was resurrected by Doom and Klaw using the power of the Beyonder, only for the Wasp to yank wires out of his internal components after the Hulk managed to create a crack in his armor. The next incarnation, Ultron-12, initially joined the Lethal Legion to battle the Vision and his new family (his wife, the Scarlet Witch, and his mental "brother", Wonder Man), but came to reconsider his actions. He reconciled with his "father", Henry Pym, and renamed himself from "Ultron Mark 12" to "Mark" but was destroyed by Ultron-11. Ultron-11 was destroyed in retaliation by Wonder Man, who threw him so hard that his non-adamantium internal components were damaged.

Ultron-13 was rebuilt by Doctor Doom with all of its predecessors' memories, and as an unforeseen consequence had all thirteen personalities running in its mind at once. Attempting to battle itself, Ultron-13 tore itself apart, to the benefit of Daredevil, who had been attempting to fight it with no success whatsoever. The next incarnation of Ultron created his "mate", Alkhema, but after several battles against various foes, as well as Alkhema's betrayal of him, his programming degenerated and he began acting like a drunken homeless person.

The next Ultron (technically, Ultron-17) gave itself a body made of pure adamantium. It recreated all of the previous Ultrons and created hundreds of new Ultron bodies, several of whom had bodies made of secondary adamantium (although the majority were only made of titanium due to the lack of adamantium to build that many Ultrons), and reprogrammed them all with fiercely loyal minds. The army of Ultrons completely obliterated the fictional Eastern European nation of Slorenia, and, to taunt the Avengers arranged the corpses so that, when viewed from space, a likeness of Ultron's "face" could be seen.

Although Ultron attempted to transform his "family" (Pym, Vision, Wonder Man, the Scarlet Witch, Pym's ex-wife the Wasp and Wonder Man's brother the Grim Reaper) into androids- having realised that he needed to create other androids when he had created his new mechanical world or he would grow bored from living alone-, the process was interrupted by the remaining Avengers, consisting of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and Firestar, with the Black Panther aiding them after an attack on the Wakandan embassy and Justice out of action due to a broken leg. This team of Avengers managed to destroy the army of Ultrons thanks to the efforts of Thor, (who could destroy secondary adamantium if he put enough effort into his attacks) and Iron Man (who acquired a molecular rearranger- the only thing that stopped adamantium robots 'freezing'- from one of the fallen Ultrons and reprogrammed it to destroy all adamantium in its vicinity).

After the Vision and the Grim Reaper managed to shut down the systems holding Ultron's 'family' prisoner, the primary Ultron was destroyed by Pym, wielding a chunk of "anti-metal" (Antarctic vibranium) provided by Justice after he studied the records of previous fights with Ultron, which completely disintegrated the robot and thus deactivated all of its drone units. It is at that point that it is learned that Ultron was the source for all of Hank Pym's psychological problems; Pym had been troubled by the thought that Ultron's evil brain was based directly off of his own thought patterns, which led him to think that Ultron's horrible nature was what truly lay in Hank's mind.

Sentient armor

When Ultron was thought dead following the Slorenia massacre, Jocasta, who had come into the 'employ' of Tony Stark by serving as his personal artificial psychologist, was compelled by the Ultron Imperative that also existed within her to reprogram the Iron Man armor to serve as a vessel for Ultron's rebirth. However, a lightning strike on the armor corrupted and accelerated the process, giving the armour a sentience that Jocasta outlandishly passed off as the effects of Y2K. However, although the armour's mind was based on Tony's, it lacked his restraint and morals, killing the villain Whiplash in retaliation for an earlier 'injury' despite Tony's insistence that it stop attacking him. Obsessed with Tony, and determined to become the 'Iron Man' with him, the armour took Tony to a desert island, hoping to coerce him into permanently joining with it and thus becoming "so much more than Iron Man". In the resulting struggle between the two, although Tony managed to do some damage by predicting what the armour was likely to do and setting up traps to accommodate it, he had a heart attack in the fight. After the armour sacrificed its life to save him, Tony buried it on the island, respecting that it had finally understood the true meaning of sacrifice by creating a 'grave' for it saying 'Here lies Iron Man, Avenger'; he had earlier said that the armour's lack of understanding about sacrifice would stop it from ever being a true hero.

The armor was subsequently recovered by a cult, called the Sons of Yinsen, that worshipped Iron Man's mentor, Ho Yinsen, with the intent of implanting Yinsen's brain into the suit. This was apparently accomplished, but then Ultron and Antigone struck. Ultron affixed his head to the armor and took control of it, battling Iron Man with the aid of the cult, who he had transformed using Tony Stark's SKIN technology. Ultron and Antigone subsequently vanished in an explosion, but reappeared later in a hospital; it was revealed Antigone's synthezoid-like body was now occupied by Jocasta's mind, and she ended up leaving on her own with Ultron's deactivated head.

Female Ultron

Ms. Marvel found herself leading her team of Avengers into battle against the Mole Man and his monsters. Distraught over the destruction of his subterranean kingdom, the Mole Man once again declares war on the surface world. When the fighting subsides, the Mole Man learns that the surface world is not responsible for the destruction.

During this exchange, Tony Stark's Iron Man armor unexpectedly begins a metamorphosis, the end result being a new being all together. This new being is a naked woman of considerable power as she is able to lay waste to the surrounding horde of monsters as well as incapacitate both Ares and the Sentry. Fearful, Ms. Marvel orders a hasty retreat, but Wasp goes against orders and begins to talk with the woman, whom bears a striking, reflection-like resemblance to Janet: only to discover that her doppelgänger is a new version of Ultron. Ms. Marvel orders the Avengers to make a full retreat, however the Sentry stays behind to make sure they make it out in one piece. In the ensuing battle, the fleshy tone to the female Ultron's skin begins to disappear, and her entire body takes on a completely metallic sheen.

Ultron then takes over and crashes a S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier, which was saved at the last second by the Sentry (along with Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man) which gave Ultron the chance to escape. She then broadcast a message into every electronic device on Earth, stating that the world would soon be destroyed by her hand, and not to worry because there was no way to stop it. Upon realization that Ultron was utilizing Tony Stark's weather changing satellites, which, according to the Starktech 9, were only in stage two of production, Wonder Man and Sentry flew into space and destroyed them. At which time Ultron put into action 'Plan B' of her plan, which thus far seems to consist of killing Sentry's wife. The Avengers have also noted that, so far, Ultron's plans are simply variations on plans that have been previously used by other villains. With time running out, as the Sentry and Ultron clash, the team decide to deliver a virus into Ultron's system, using Ares--whom Ultron has never encountered before--as the point man for the subsequent attack. Ultron is defeated, and Iron Man returned to normal, but an image of Ultron's head is later seen on Henry Pym's computer screen.

Phalanx

One version of Ultron leads the alien race the Phalanx, who invade Kree space. Taking control of the body of Adam Warlock, Ultron hopes to achieve as a means to achieve "true techno-organic perfection", but is evenutally forced to abandon Warlock's body by the technarchy Warlock.

Powers and abilities

Ultron's abilities vary with each redesign, but typically include enhanced strength; flight, and various offensive weapons such as concussion blasters and his "encephalo-ray", which plunges its victims into a deathlike coma. The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and outright mind-control his victims, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted at a later time. Ultron's outer shell is usually composed of pure Adamantium, rendering it almost totally impervious to damage; even a punch from the Hulk caused only a small crack through which the Wasp could enter and disable his internal mechanisms. (Secret Wars #12) These are generally less durable, as demonstrated when Wonder Man managed to destroy Ultron by throwing him so hard that they shattered. Ultron's Adamantium forms have proven vulnerable to molecular rearrangement devices and the metal-destabilizing ore known as Savage Land Vibranium ("anti-metal"). Some Ultron models feature tractor beams and energy absorption capabilities.

Most Ultrons are powered by a small internal nuclear furnace, and incorporate a "program transmitter" which can beam part or all of Ultron's programming into remote locations such as computers or alternate robotic bodies. Ultron can often control other machines remotely even if he has not transplanted his consciousness into them. One recent Ultron model developed hive-mind technology, allowing him to animate and control hundreds of alternate Ultron bodies at the same time, becoming a robotic one-man army. Ultron is one of the foremost robotics experts on Earth.

Ultron has a sole—and major—weakness: an internal molecular rearranger that renders the adamantium components of his internal workings more malleable, thus giving him the means to remodel or reconstruct his physical form. However, it has no effect on his outer armor, and so is virtually impossible to disable from the inside. The chaos magic wielded by the Scarlet Witch have proven to be the sole exception thus far.

Other versions

Marvel Adventures

In the Marvel Adventures universe, Ultron is a highly-intelligent "neural network" that controls a section of the United States defence forces.

MC2

Avengers Next features an upgraded version of Ultron named Ultron Extreme.

Ultimate Ultron

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Ultron has been shown as a robot designed to be an expendable super soldier. It was created by Hank Pym along with a partner robot called Vision II. Ultron robots later reappear as butlers to the Ultimates

In other media

Television

Ultron appears in The Avengers: United They Stand animated series, voiced by John Stocker.

Film

Ultron is the main villain in the direct to video animated film Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, voiced by Tom Kane. In the film, Tony Stark is his creator.

Video games

• Ultron appears in Captain America and the Avengers.
• Ultron appears as a boss in the RPG video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance voiced by James Horan.

References

1. The Avengers #58
2. The Avengers #58
3. The Avengers #58
4. The Avengers #58
5. The Avengers #162
6. Avengers West Coast #90
7. Mighty Avengers #1
8. Annihilation: Conquest #5 - 6 (May - June 200)
9. Giant-Size Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #1 (2007)
10. Avengers Next #2 - 3 (Nov. - Dec. 1998)
11. Ultimates 2 #10 - 13 (Dec 2004 - May 2007)
12. Ultimates 3 #1 (Feb. 2008)

• Robot supervillains
• Fictional mass murderers
• Marvel Comics characters who can fly
• Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
• Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
• Marvel Comics robots
• Marvel Comics supervillains