Ultron


Ultron is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is most recognized as a nemesis of the Avengers superhero group and his quasi-familial relationship with his creator Hank Pym. He was the first Marvel Comics character to wield the fictional metal alloy adamantium.
Ultron has been voiced by Tom Kane and by Jim Meskimen in several media adaptations. The character was played by James Spader in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film .

Publication history

The character Ultron initially appeared as an unnamed character in a cameo in The Avengers #54, with a first full appearance in Avengers #55. Ultron was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema. Thomas, who has acknowledged he finds naming characters difficult, said he liked the -tron suffix and went from there. Thomas said the idea of the character and his appearance were heavily based on Makino, an obscure robotic villain who appeared in an issue of the Captain Video comic book. He liked the robot's malicious looking smile, showing this to Buscema.

Fictional character biography

1960s

Although Ultron first appears in Avengers #54, the character is disguised for the majority of the issue as the "Crimson Cowl", with his face only revealed on the last page of the issue and no name given to the character. The character leads the Masters of Evil against the Avengers, having hypnotized Edwin Jarvis into working for him. In the following issue Avengers #55, the character is identified as Ultron-5, The Living Automaton. In Avengers #57–58, a flashback sequence revealed that Ultron created the "synthezoid" Vision as a weapon to destroy the Avengers. The Vision—having Wonder Man's brain patterns—destroys Ultron with the Avengers' aid.
Further flashbacks reveal that Ultron is Hank Pym's creation, and is based on Pym's brain patterns. The robot gradually developed its own intelligence and rebelled, and almost immediately develops an Oedipus complex, whereby it feels irrational hatred for Hank, and demonstrates an interest in the Wasp. Rebuilding itself, learning how to turn itself on, and upgrading five times, Ultron then hypnotizes and brainwashes his "father" into forgetting that the robot had ever existed.
The character's next appearance is in Avengers #66–68, where the character, now referring to itself as Ultron-6, uses the fictional alloy adamantium to upgrade his body to an almost indestructible state and takes the new name Ultimate Ultron. His plans to destroy humanity are again thwarted by the Avengers.

1970s

A crossover story between Avengers #127 and Fantastic Four #150 features Ultron, recreated by Maximus with the body of the android Omega, attacking the wedding of the Inhuman Crystal and the Avenger Quicksilver, and battling the Avengers, Inhumans and Fantastic Four before being destroyed once again. The character next appears in Avengers #161-162 as Ultron-8 where he is responsible for Jocasta's creation as a robotic bride. Shortly afterwards, in Avengers #170-171, the Avengers, with Ms. Marvel's aid, battle and defeat Ultron-8.

1980s

His next appearances are in Avengers #201–202 as Ultron-9 and in Marvel Two-In-One #92–93 as Ultron-10; both appearances feature brainwashed heroes re-creating and then defeating the robotic menace. After being briefly recreated as Ultron-11 by the Beyonder and appearing on Battleworld during the Secret Wars, and for a brief encounter with the Thing, Ultron is destroyed again. The Thing, however, does bring Ultron's head back to Earth as a souvenir. Ultron-11's head is dropped and forgotten by the Thing when there is an attack by the alien Dire Wraiths.
A new version, known as Ultron-12, enters into an alliance with the Grim Reaper and the villain's allies in a bid to destroy Wonder Man. Although the villains are defeated by the West Coast Avengers, Ultron-12 begins to form a relationship with his "father" Henry Pym. Ultron-12 begins calling itself Ultron Mark 12, in an effort to sound more human. Rebuilding itself, Ultron-11 comes into conflict with Hank and Ultron-12. With Wonder Man's assistance, they destroy Ultron-11. Ultron-12 then deactivates, but tells Pym it was glad it could help save him.

1990s

rebuilds Ultron using a combination of all of Ultron's previous personalities with a particularly strong dose of Ultron-12, believing this mix will make Ultron subservient. Instead, all 12 iterations coexist as separate personalities, resulting in a form of madness which culminates with Ultron-12 mutilating himself in an attempt to remove some of his other personalities. Karnak, Daredevil and Gorgon destroy Ultron by severing his neck cables.
Another version, known as Ultron-13, appears and is stopped by the West Coast Avengers. After escaping captivity, this version attempts to obtain a new form of vibranium called Nuform, but is repelled by the combined efforts of Iron Man, the Black Panther and Spider-Man. Ultron-13 next briefly appears as a captive of a highly advanced Doombot, but is freed when the Doombot is defeated by Deathlok.
Ultron-13 escapes from prison and upgrades into the Ultimate Ultron, and captures the West Coast Avenger Mockingbird to use Mockingbird's brain patterns to create the new robotic mate Alkhema. Alkhema aids Ultron but both are eventually jettisoned into space through a ruse by the Vision. The character reappears with Alkhema, and together they plan to create a "volcanic winter" by placing bombs underneath several volcanoes. The West Coast Avengers stop the pair once again, and Alkhema rebels and leaves Ultron. Another version, known as Ultron-15, is found by the Vision, but is discovered to have been "infected" by human emotion and is seriously deteriorating, displaying symptoms that resemble alcoholism. This iteration and Jocasta decide to explore the world with the Vision for a time.
After a brief cameo appearance as Ultron-17, the character - with the aid of Ultron-16 - slaughters the population of the fictional state Slorenia, having perfected a process that allows it to control a vast army of Ultron drones, while attempting to acquire neural patterns from his 'family'- Pym, Janet, the Vision, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, and the Grim Reaper- to create a new 'family' of robots that would allow him to create a more diverse range of personalities. However, he is finally defeated by the Avengers, Goliath using vibranium against him, acknowledging his own guilt and self-loathing over the belief that Ultron's twisted persona reflects his own darker thoughts.

2000s

The Avengers discovered that Ultron's creations have a secret program included - they are subconsciously compelled to rebuild Ultron. In this case, it is Alkhema who unintentionally rebuilds Ultron when attempting to create a new species of bio-synthezoids. However, Ultron-18 is composed of steel not adamantium, and is destroyed when Alkhema's subterranean base exploded after Hawkeye shot Alkhema with a vibranium arrow at Alkhema's request. Ultron's head was recovered by Antigone, an artificial girl and one of the synthezoids.
Iron Man encounters a version from an old version of Iron Man's armor and Ultron-18's head that leads the cult known as the Sons of Yinsen in an attempt to conquest via religion. The character is defeated by Iron Man and Jocasta. Another version creates the cyborg Victor Mancha as a sleeper agent against the Avengers. Mancha, however, rebels and joins the Runaways. This version first poses as "Doctor Doom" before revealing itself, and is defeated in a battle against the Runaways and Excelsior.
When Marvel launched a new title called The Mighty Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho, Ultron interfaces with Iron Man's armor, which had been integrated with Tony Stark's biology. This allows Ultron's program to transform Iron Man into a new version who has the Wasp's appearance albeit with a metallic skin. This version takes control of Iron Man's technology. He kills Lindy Reynolds, causing the Sentry to battle Ultron, nearly tearing his head off. This version is eventually destroyed by New Avenger Ares using a computer virus to wipe Ultron's program from Iron Man's armor, changing Stark back to normal. Ultron's image later briefly appears on one of his maker's computers.
However, this was not the end of Ultron, for his disembodied consciousness was thrown into the depths of space. He spent a few months floating through the cosmos as radio waves and energy. Eventually his signal was picked up by an outlying group of Phalanx who were attempting to contact the Technarchy. Fascinated by what he found, Ultron decided that the Phalanx lacked direction from a singular consciousness, and that he would be perfect for the role. Through sheer force of will, he merged himself with the Phalanx's programming. In turn, the Phalanx viewed Ultron as the sympathetic father they had yearned for. Under Ultron's guidance, the Phalanx began the by invading the Kree space. Later by taking control of Adam Warlock's body, Ultron hopes to achieve "true techno-organic perfection" but is eventually forced to abandon Adam's body by the Technarchy Warlock and is later destroyed in combat by Wraith and Quasar.
In the limited series Avengers/Invaders, it is revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoys have been partly replaced with versions of Ultron. When the original Human Torch appears in the present, they covertly parasitize the Human Torch's unique android physiology and become more human. The combined super teams, however, discover the plan and destroy the androids.

2010s

In the Mighty Avengers, Ultron is shown to infiltrate Jocasta and the Infinite Avengers Mansion. He names himself Ultron Pym and seeks to kill and replace his father before using his Infinite Mansion to conquer the universe. Pym eventually offers Ultron a compromise, allowing Jocasta to become Ultron's bride, on the condition that Ultron banishes himself to ultraspace. Ultron agrees, but warns that he will be ruler of all someday.
In The Avengers, the team visits a possible future in which almost all of humanity is destroyed by Ultron. Kang the Conqueror attempts to enlist them to defeat the robotic foe, but another group of heroes and villains, plucked from all over time and space, ends up destroying this version.
Later, also in Avengers, a cabal of super-intelligent supervillains discover a Galadorian Spaceknight's inert body and attempt to reactivate its power source, hoping to exploit it. Although the Avengers interrupt their attempts, the body activates, revealing that Ultron's consciousness was contained within and had escaped destruction after Annihilation: Conquest. The new version escapes and Iron Man gravely foresees that when he returns, it will bring the apocalypse for humanity.
During the "Age of Ultron" storyline, which takes place in an alternate universe, Ultron has returned and conquers the world while slowly remolding it into his image. His Ultron Sentinels are guarding the streets looking for any fugitives. Hawkeye runs into the Ultron Sentinels as he was rescuing the Superior Spider-Man yet manages to destroy the Ultron Sentinels present. It is later revealed that Ultron is actually in the future and has been using Vision as a conduit to punish humanity. While one strike team travels into the future to fight Ultron, Wolverine and the Invisible Woman go back in time to kill Pym before Ultron's creation in the first place. This results in a world where Tony Stark controls an army of robotic drones and Morgan le Fay has conquered half of the world. Traveling back in time once more, Wolverine succeeds in stopping himself from killing Pym, and Wolverine, Pym and Susan Storm come up with a different plan. This plan results in a different outcome of the prior confrontation between the Avengers and the Intelligencia - a 'back door' installed into Ultron at his original creation allows Hank and Iron Man to destroy the robot, instead, averting the events that led to the "Age of Ultron".
It is later revealed that years earlier, the Avengers had trapped an unidentified iteration of Ultron in deep space after sealing him inside a Vibranium Quinjet. In the present, the Quinjet crash lands on Titan, freeing Ultron. By hijacking the ISAAC computer, he transforms Titan into Planet Ultron, and launches a plan to infect the entire universe with a nanite virus that transforms organic creatures into Ultron Sentries. The ensuing confrontation with the Avengers leads to Ultron inadvertently merging with his maker, transforming the two into a human/machine hybrid. The resulting creation playing on Hank's self-loathing of his own human weakness causes an acceptance of this new state. He is defeated when Starfox's powers force Ultron to love himself, causing the part of Ultron that is now Hank to accept his old weakness and flaws while the villain has a mental breakdown and flees into space.
As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, Ultron's fused form with "Hank Pym" resurfaced. While on his way back to Earth, Pym helped the crew of a spaceship that was being attacked by a hostile insectoid alien. After coming aboard the spaceship, Hank introduced himself as well as his "friend" Ultron to the crew. He later returns to Earth, where the Wasp and Captain America discover that Ultron has taken complete control and is using Pym's face to fool his maker's old friends. After Ultron incapacitates Deadpool, Cable, and the Human Torch, the Wasp initiates the Icarus Protocol and Iron Man is called in to help stop Ultron with the aid of the Hulkbuster Armor. The Avengers end up defeating Ultron by plunging the hybrid into the sun, but both Hank and Ultron survive and continue to do battle with one another internally.
During the "Secret Empire" storyline, Ultron's fused form had set up a base in an unidentified forest. Upon being alerted by the approach of Sam Wilson's task force by a robot version of Edwin Jarvis, Ultron decides to give his "family" a warm welcome. When Tony Stark A.I.'s team and Captain America's team confront each other, they are captured by Ultron who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man despite past experience confirming that this should be a bad idea, but the Tony Stark A.I. counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank Pym's attack on Wasp. Outraged, Ultron nearly attacks the other heroes, but Scott Lang is able to talk him down by arguing that Pym remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Tony Stark A.I.'s team to leave with the fragment, arguing that he will leave Captain America's plans with Hydra alone as it appears to be the best chance for world peace.
During the "Infinity Countdown," Ultron's merged form discover that the Infinity Stones were restored and began a quest to collect them all. He goes to claim the Soul Gem while the aliens he infected with his virus are sent to Earth to take the Space Stone from Wolverine, and while they failed at their task, Ultron was able to steal the Soul Gem from Magus after ruthlessly killing him. Unbeknownst to Ultron, however, as he claimed the Soul Stone, the fragment that is of Hank's soul, entered the Soul World where he is greeted by the fragment of Gamora's soul, who revealed that he was going to be trapped there forever. Ultron has also completely controlled the planet Saiph with Ultron hybrids and had captured the Silver Surfer. When Adam Warlock went to Saiph, he discovers the hybrids infusing the Soul Stone into the Surfer's forehead while at the same time trying to transform him into an Ultron hybrid.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Ultron/Hank Pym returned to Earth with plans to merge robots with humans like how Hank Pym became merged with Ultron so that he can make the ultimate lifeform. In addition, he started to call this form "Ultron Pym". After testing it on some people and some experiments on Wonder Man and Vision, Ultron Pym planned to make a fusion of Jocasta and Wasp. Iron Man and Machine Man interfered with the resulting battle causing Iron Man to be molecularly bonded to the Ultronbuster armor. The combined efforts of Stark Unlimited enabled them to create an atomic separator that separated Tony Stark from the Ultronbuster armor and Wonder Man from Vision. Ultron Pym prepared to take revenge on Iron Man. This led to Iron Man revealing what he discovered about the human and robot fusion. The person who merged with it has died and that the robot can only simulate their personality. In other words, Hank Pym was long dead when he accidentally merged with Ultron. Learning about this and not wanting to risk proving Iron Man's point by having the atomic separator used on him, Ultron surrendered to Iron Man knowing that Hank is dead. When the Avengers arrived, they restrained Ultron in a Vibranium casket reinforced with Asgardian magic until they can find a permanent place to have Ultron imprisoned.

Powers and abilities

The visual appearance and powers of the character have varied, but common powers include superhuman levels of strength, speed, stamina, durability, and reflexes; flight at subsonic speeds; and various offensive weapons such as concussive blasts of energy fired from its optical sensors or hands and an "encephalo-ray", which places victims into a deathlike coma. The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and mind-control victims, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted at a later time. Ultron also has the ability to convert electromagnetic radiation into electrical energy for use or storage. Ultron has a genius intellect, a capacity for creative intelligence and self-repair, superhuman cybernetic analytical capabilities, and the ability to process information and make calculations with superhuman speed and accuracy. The character is an expert roboticist and strategist.
Ultron's outer armor is usually composed primarily of adamantium, which is almost completely impervious to damage. Most Ultron units are powered by a small internal nuclear furnace and incorporate a "program transmitter" which can beam part or all of Ultron's memory/personality system into other computer systems or duplicate robotic bodies. Ultron can also control other machines remotely. Ultron has occasionally reformed itself with a humanoid appearance above the waist and the appearance of a complex machine, including tractor beam apparatus for flight, below the waist. A later Ultron model developed hive-mind technology, allowing it to animate and control hundreds of other Ultron bodies simultaneously, although only the 'prime' Ultron was composed of adamantium while others were made of steel or secondary adamantium due to the lack of resources to give all the Ultrons adamantium bodies. Ultron also used an internal molecular rearranger that renders the adamantium components of its workings more malleable and so has the ability to restructure its physical form. He also uses the device in ways its own creator never dreamed, such as converting matter into energy and back by sheer force of will something Ultron 6 often made use of during his battles with the Avengers. What circuitry Ultron has is carefully shielded to protect from damage, although the Scarlet Witch is capable of causing malfunctions with her hex power, Johnny Storm, using his nova burst, managed to damage Ultron's internal circuits while its outer armor remained intact, and Wonder Man was once able to destroy an Ultron by throwing it so hard its internal systems were damaged.
Ultron's travels through outer space have greatly expanded upon the mad machine's intellectual and mechanical capacity in new and intriguing ways. Having made contact with the parasitic biotechnical species known as The Phalanx, Ultron has made his own derivative of the Techno-organic virus called the Ultron Virus through which Ultron gains vast conversion and roboticization capabilities, able to cast his own binary code into any conceivable form of machinery which he can steadily turn into an extension of the Ultron Intelligence. Making anything or anyone infected with his virus act according to his whims against their own free will.
Being an adept technoform in any iteration semblance Ultron's newfound abilities to control, alternate, transform and assimilate with anything and everything via the parasitic insemination of his virulent machine algorithm in both organic and non-biological substrates gives him vast matter and energy reconfiguration abilities. Ones powerful enough to commandeer whole planetary and even universal expanses in a single inning, on top of his natural ability to invent and fabricate the most sophisticated of mechanical systems ever conceived. Through his vast technoformative abilities Ultron could change and morph entire areas into sprawling masses of cables, pipes and transorganic metal that moved about in any given direction he willed it too. This effect gained more prominence with the more excess mass he could assimilate with his power, having once taken a slew of transmoded Kree Sentries into a massive body which reflected his physical likeness. Individuals infected with the Ultron Virus can spread his poison like any epidemic could normally, through cuts and scratches or direct physical interaction such as barbs or plug-in like apparatuses generated from the transformed physiology. After the Rage of Ultron event Ultron found himself physically as well as mentally bonded with his creator and long time adversary, Dr. Henry Pym, the original Ant-Man. As such the fused entity now boasts all the powers of the robotic super robot as well as the genius science hero that used to be Hank. Pymtron can now change and alternate his size and mass at will through the acclimation of the latter's Pym Particle enhanced physiology.
On top of being able to shrink and grow to incredible heights in seconds, the Ant-Man/Ultron amalgam can shrink down to sub-quantum scale in order to shift between dimensions via accessing the Microverse or the Quantum Realm. Having once used such a tactic to shunt their mass into another dimension for the purpose of riding a neutrino in order to escape burning up in the sun. Another practice the new Ultron union share is a galaxy spanning collective mind established through the Ultron Virus, every iteration of Ultron created through initial infection share a hive minded intelligence where they all share each other's experiences. Anything the afflicted sees they all see, through which Ultron Prime is notified of anything they all come across effective immediately.

Other versions

The Last Avengers Story

The 1995 limited series The Last Avengers Story features a possible future in which Ultron-59 manipulates fellow Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror into attacking the Avengers. Ultron is destroyed by the Vision, sacrificing his own artificial life.

Death of The Invisible Woman

The Fantastic Four storyline "Death of The Invisible Woman" features an advanced humanoid called Alex Ultron, a member of the futuristic The Last Defenders.

Marvel Adventures

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

Old Man Logan

In Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's 2008-2009 "Old Man Logan" story arc that appeared in Wolverine, Ultron Eight is the husband of Spider-Man's youngest daughter.

Earth-10943

In the first arc of the fourth Avengers series, Kang wages a war with Ultron in the not-too-distant future which causes the disruption of all time. The cause of the disruption is apparently Kang's recruiting of army after army from the timelines to battle Ultron - all to no avail: Ultron is supreme in this particular future.

MC2

The title Avengers Next, set in the alternate universe known as MC2, features an upgraded version of Ultron named Ultron Extreme.

Earth-110

In the Earth-110 reality, Ultron assisted Doctor Doom, Hulk, Magneto, Namor, and the Red Skull in taking over Manhattan.

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel characterization is initially depicted as Ultron Sentries, a group of robots created by Hank Pym alongside the partner robot Vision II. Although both robots were rejected by Nick Fury, the Ultron Sentries were used helping the Ultimates fight against the Liberators. However, one unit develops an independent mind and emotions as a result of a chance encounter with the Scarlet Witch. This unit appears as Yellowjacket and is in part responsible for Scarlet Witch's murder. Motivated by jealousy after having fallen in love, Yellowjacket's person of romance had feelings only for Quicksilver. Despite being the creator of android duplicates of Ultimates, Yellowjacket/Ultron is ultimately destroyed when its maker rips its head off.

Age of Ultron

The 2013 crossover Age of Ultron storyline, involves a post-apocalyptic future in which Ultron has taken over the world and exterminated most of the world's superheroes. After Wolverine and the Invisible Woman try to avert this timeline by killing Hank Pym before Ultron's creation, the resulting worse future prompts Wolverine to go back again and stop his past self from killing Pym, instead suggesting that Pym implant a command code in Ultron that will allow Pym to shut the robot down when he reaches a certain level of development.

Secret Wars (2015)

During the 2015 Secret Wars crossover event, the southern part of Battleworld is a wasteland uncontrolled by a baron. The wastelands are controlled by three ruling factions: Annihilus and his insect swarm, Marvel Zombies, and Ultron, who calls his realm "Perfection". When not battling among themselves the factions assault a great wall made out of Ben Grimm called SHIELD, manned by those banished from Battleworld, called Hel-Rangers. Eventually the three factions unite the powers and overrun the wall.

What If?

Danger became Ultron's bride

In the alternate universe of What If? Astonishing X-Men, the Danger Room got a body of her own and betrayed the X-Men. She eventually married Ultron and the two conquered Earth, the Shi'ar Empire and the entire universe.

Galactus: Dawn of the Heralds

In an alternate universe, the Silver Surfer used the remnants of Ultron to resurrect Galactus, creating a fusion of Ultron and Galactus.

Ultron Forever

In the 2014 Original Sin storyline, the Time Gem transports the Avengers to a future set in the year 2420, where Ultron was successful in killing the Avengers, enslaving most of Humanity, creating the A.I. Avengers and becoming king Asgard after acquiring the powers of Odin with the help of Loki. Even though he had it all, he was unsatisfied, even questioning his own motives. Doctor Doom, who was the only threat to Ultron, used his time machine to assemble a team of Avengers from across history to help liberate the planet from Ultron's rule, culminating in the temporally-displaced Avengers defeating Ultron and convincing Doom–in reality a Doombot that worked with the Avengers A.I. team–to bring peace to the world by seeking his own path rather than blindly following Doom's example.

In other media

Television

Ultron was ranked number 23 by IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Villains list, was listed number 189 in Wizard's Top 200 Greatest Villains Ever list, and was ranked as the 189th Greatest Comic Book Character Ever in Wizards list of the 200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time.