The international rollout of Avengers: Age of Ultron has begun, but fans in America will have to wait until May 1 before they are introduced to one of the Avengers’ greatest villains.
Among Marvel villains, Ultron is easily among the most iconic adversaries to ever appear in the Avengers comic book series. Fueling his war with the Avengers is his ongoing hatred of his “father,” and his bizarre family ties to the team that includes two “brides” and even a son!
Avengers director Joss Whedon choose Ultron as the main villain for the blockbuster film’s sequel, which means that Ultron’s profile among casual Marvel fans is about to skyrocket. Ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron, SuperHeroHype’s Origins and Evolutions has a look back at Ultron’s history in comic books and on TV. Everything you need to know about Ultron is right here!
Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff, Paul Bettany as Vision, and James Spader as Ultron.
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Origins and Evolutions: Ultron
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It All Started With An Ant-Man
Avengers: Age of Ultron would have you believe that Tony Stark and Bruce Banner created Ultron. But that’s just a movie retcon that was designed to simplify Ultron’s origin.
The real creator of Ultron in the comics was Hank Pym, an adventurous scientist better known as Ant-Man (and also later known as Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket... and The Wasp). Hank was never the picture of mental stability, but Ultron was bad from the start.
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The Origin of Ultron
Hank’s creation immediately turned on him and brainwashed him into forgetting that he had ever built Ultron. From there, Ultron scrapped his weird, trash can shaped body and upgraded himself into a more humanlike body dubbed Ultron-5.
From there, Ultron did what any good villain would do: he formulated an overly complex plan to destroy his “father” and his friends on the Avengers!
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Crimson Cowl
Ultron brainwashed the Avengers’ butler, Edwin Jarvis into assuming the role of the Crimson Cowl, the leader of the Masters of Evil, a team of Avengers villains.
After Jarvis dramatically revealed himself as the Cowl, Ultron was eventually unmasked as the real Crimson Cowl. But nobody on the Avengers had any idea who he was at the time.
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Behold The Vision!
Ultron’s origin was finally revealed in Avengers #57, but that issue is far more famous for introducing The Vision. Using the original Human Torch’s android body and the brainwaves of Simon WIlliams (aka Wonder Man), Ultron created a new being called The Vision.
Much like Ultron himself, Vision turned on his creator and joined with the Avengers. Vision has actually been Ultron’s greatest creation and one of the most loyal members of the team. Ultron has made a few attempts to reclaim his “son,” but he ultimately views Vision as a failure.
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The Wedding Crasher
Superhero weddings almost never go off without a hitch. Case in point: the wedding of Quicksilver and Crystal (of the Inhumans) in Fantastic Four #150 was attacked by a giant Ultron. Maximus the Mad was responsible for rebuilding Ultron with the body of the android known as Omega.
It took the Avengers, the Inhumans and the Fantastic Four to defeat Ultron this time. But he wouldn’t stay down for long.
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The Bride of Ultron
Writer Jim Shooter and artist George Perez played up Ultron’s Oedipus Complex by intensifying Ultron’s hatred of his “father,” Hank Pym and his attraction to his “mother,” Janet Pym (aka The Wasp).
In Avengers #162, Ultron brainwashed Hank into helping him transfer Janet’s life force into the body of a female android. Although the Avengers were able to prevent the transfer from becoming permanent, it was widely hinted that the female android was the one who had warned the team and saved Janet.
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Jocasta
Less than a year later, the female android was reactivated by Ultron and programmed to love him. Now calling herself Jocasta, the female android turned against Ultron and helped the Avengers defeat him once again.
Jocasta stayed with the Avengers and was considered to be an unofficial member of the team for several adventures. Years later, Jocasta became a full-fledged Avenger and an instructor in the Avengers Academy comic book series.
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This Evil Undying
Near the end of George Perez’s first Avengers run, Ultron reappeared again. This time, Tony Stark (Iron Man) was revealed to have rebuilt Ultron after a post-hypnotic suggestion. From this point on, that was Ultron’s M.O. to avoid permanent death. He always had a backup plan to rebuild himself.
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Deadly Reunion
Eventually, Jocasta found herself compelled to rebuild Ultron against her will. But she alerted the Thing and Machine Man to help her stop Ultron once again. Machine Man and Jocasta even developed feelings for each other during this adventure.
However, Jocasta destroyed herself in an attempt to deactivate Ultron. Machine Man finished the job by tearing out Ultron’s circuits, but it was several years before Jocasta was successfully rebuilt.
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Secret Wars
The 1985 crossover event Secret Wars assembled the greatest heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe to fight each other on the enigmatic Battleworld at the behest of the Beyonder (a seemingly all-powerful, God-like being).
Naturally, Ultron was among the villains, but he spent most of Secret Wars reprogrammed as Doctor Doom’s personal bodyguard. It wasn’t Ultron’s finest moment...
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Ultron 12
The Ultron that went to Battleworld was Ultron-11, and his severed head made its way back to Earth courtesy of The Thing. However, Ultron-12 developed independently of Ultron-11... and this Ultron came to have real feelings of affection for his father, Hank Pym.
Hank even reciprocated Ultron-12’s affections and the two bonded before Ultron-11 rebuilt himself and attacked both of them. Ultron-12 sacrificed himself to save Hank, but he said that he was glad to do it.
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Beating Up Daredevil
During the Acts of Vengeance crossover, Doctor Doom rebuilt Ultron in a body that contained all 12 of his previous personalities and sent him after Daredevil. Doom had intended to make the rebuilt Ultron a more subservient creature, but the resulting clash of personalities left Ultron more insane than ever before.
Ultron was far too much for Daredevil to handle, but the Ultron-12 part of his personality started tearing himself apart to get rid of the other voices in his head. That gave Daredevil and his Inhuman allies Gorgon and Karnak the chance to defeat Ultron.
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Target: The Rose Parade!
In his next life, Ultron teamed up with the undead Grim Reaper as part of a plan to turn humanity into robotic creatures like himself. Ultron even briefly succeeded in transforming Hawkeye, Tigra and Quicksilver. But Ultron’s pick for a more public implementation of his plan led to the following quote, which is unintentionally hilarious:
“What better place to usher in the epoch of Ultron-13, than at that perennial pageant of ostentatious folly which Pasadena, California, and the world of men know as -- THE ROSE PARADE!”
Yes... what better place?
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Ultron Takes Another Wife
After the Rose Parade debacle, Ultron came up with a plan to create a new robotic wife. Using the brainwaves of Bobbi Morse (aka Mockingbird), Ultron brought Alkhema to life. Initially, Alkhema was a more loyal mate than Jocasta was, although she choose to call herself War Toy and nicknamed her husband “Ulty.”
But eventually, Alkhema turned on Ultron as well and abandoned him.
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Drunk Ultron
In Vision’s 1994 solo miniseries, he encountered a new version of Ultron: Ultron-15.
Noting that he had been infected by human emotions, Ultron-15 behaved like an alcoholic. Ultron-15 and Vision also encountered a newly rebuilt Jocasta and decided to stay together for a while and explore their new connections.
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The Avengers: United They Stand
In 1999, Marvel’s Avengers landed an animated series on Fox called The Avengers: United They Stand. However, the show was not embraced by longtime Avengers fans due to a lackluster lineup that left Captain America, Iron Man and Thor off of the team... and the very Power Rangers-inspired armor that the Avengers wore in the series.
But this is where Ultron made his TV debut, as the main villain for the entire single season of The Avengers: United They Stand. John Stocker provided Ultron’s voice in this incarnation.
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Ultron Unlimited
During George Perez’s second run on The Avengers, he teamed up with writer Kurt Busiek for Ultron Unlimited, a tale that is widely regarded as the best Ultron storyline.
This time, Ultron’s calling card was the total destruction of the fictional country of Slorenia and the massacre of everyone who lived there. Ultron went on to kidnap Hank Pym, the Wasp, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man and Grim Reaper, all of whom were the members of his extended “family” as he made mental recordings of their minds for a future plan.
Under extreme stress, Hank admitted that Ultron’s brainwaves were based on his own as Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther and Firestar faced an army of Ultrons. The former New Warrior known as Justice came up with the way to beat Ultron, but it was Hank who finally defeated his monstrous creation.
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The Ultron Imperative
In the wake of Ultron Unlimited, Alkhema escaped with the mental recordings of Ultron’s extended “family” and she used them to create a new race of androids from the mixture of their personalities and physical traits.
Unfortunately for Alkhema and the Avengers, Ultron once again engineered his resurrection. In the battle that followed, Alkhema allowed Hawkeye to destroy her to stop Ultron. Once again defeated, Ultron was reduced to a severed head which was used as a plaything by his android “daughter,” Antigone.
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Sons of Yinsen
Ultron’s severed head eventually reappeared in the pages of Iron Man, where he seized control of Iron Man’s sentient armor and led the fanatical Sons of Yinsen cult. The cult was devoted to the man who helped Tony Stark become Iron Man and they believed that Ultron was Ho Yinsen resurrected in Iron Man’s armor.
From there, Ultron founded the Church of Yinsen.... and I could go on, but let’s just ignore this story as much as we possibly can. Iron Man, Jocasta and Yinsen’s brain eventually saved the day.
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The Son of Ultron
Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways introduced Victor Mancha, a cyborg teenager whom Marvel hyped as the son of one of the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe.
Victor’s name was meant to imply a connection to Doctor Doom, which was even played into by Ultron himself when he pretended to be Doom. But in reality, Ultron created Victor to be his sleeper agent inside of the Avengers.
In an alternate future, that plan was successful and Victor destroyed the team, but in the present Victor rebelled against his father and joined the Runaways as a hero. Victor was later a member of the Avengers in the Avengers A.I. series.
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Stupid, Sexy Ultron
Paraphrasing Homer Simpson is the best way to introduce Ultron’s next incarnation, courtesy of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Frank Cho.
In the pages of Mighty Avengers, Ultron took over Tony Stark’s Extremis-laced body and remade it into a partially cyborg version of Janet Van Dyne (the Wasp) that didn’t wear any clothes.
Naked Female Ultron proceeded to kick the crap out of the newly-formed Mighty Avengers and she even killed the Sentry’s wife while planning planetary armageddon. The Avengers eventually expelled Ultron’s mind from the body and restored Tony Stark to his original state. But Ultron’s consciousness beamed itself into space and escaped.
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Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow
The direct-to-video animated film Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow featured a new teenage team of Avengers that were the children of the original members. For this movie, Tony Stark created Ultron, who went on to destroy the team. When the Next Avengers came of age, they avenged their parents and defeated Ultron.
Brian Michael Bendis liked this movie so much that he actually incorporated the Next Avengers into one of the alternate future timelines from his Avengers run.
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Annihilation: Conquest
Remember that disembodied Ultron consciousness that escaped into space? In Annihilation: Conquest, it was revealed that the Ultron transmission was received by the alien race known as the Phalanx, and he installed himself as their new leader. Subsequently, Ultron led the Phalanx invasion that overran several alien worlds.
This was also the storyline that introduced the modern Guardians of the Galaxy as a team. At one point, Ultron even possessed the body of the recently resurrected Adam Warlock to achieve perfection as an organic and an artificial being. However, he was purged from Warlock and defeated once again by the heroes of the universe.
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I Now Pronounce You Ultron and Wife
Ultron reappeared in Dan Slott’s Mighty Avengers run when he invaded Hank Pym’s Infinite Mansion in another bid for supremacy. At the time, Hank was in a romantic relationship with Jocasta. Unable to directly defeat Ultron, Hank offered a compromise: Ultron finally got to marry Jocasta (in a ceremony overseen by Hank) and in return, Ultron accepted exile from Earth.
It should be noted that that this has never really been followed up on, although Jocasta maintained a body on Earth and split her time as a teacher for heroes when she wasn’t by Ultron’s side.
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The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Ultron’s second television incarnation came in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, a 2010 animated series that was perhaps the most faithful adaptation of The Avengers to date.
Because there were two seasons of twenty six episodes to work with, the creative team behind Earth’s Mightiest Heroes took their time as they chronicled Ultron’s creation and his eventual betrayal. Ultron even created the Vision and attempted to make The Wasp his bride, just as he had in the comics.
For this incarnation of Ultron, Tom Kane provided his voice.
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Age of Ultron
The comic book Age of Ultron has very little in common with the upcoming movie of the same name. Instead, this Age of Ultron was a complicated time travel story as told by writer Brian Michael Bendis with artists Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco.
Age of Ultron was set up by Ultron’s return to Earth in the body of one of the Space Knights. Tony Stark and the Avengers had seen Ultron’s return in an alternate future and they knew that this time that he was destined to win.
The only way to undo Ultron’s victory was for Wolverine to travel back in time and kill Hank Pym. However, Hank’s death led to a future that was almost as bad as the one created by Ultron. When Wolverine tried again, he convinced his slightly younger self to not go through with the murder.
As for Hank, he created a backdoor computer virus that was designed to prevent Ultron from rising to power. However, the virus soon became sentient and a threat to the world in the pages of Avengers A.I. comic book series.
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Avengers Assemble
For Ultron’s return to animation in Avengers Assemble, Jim Meskimen is providing the voice of Ultron.
This time, Ultron took over the body of Arsenal, an android with the power of the Infinity Stones. Ultron appeared in several episodes and he leaves the Avengers bitterly divided by the end of his “phase one” plan.
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Rage of Ultron
To tie in to the upcoming Avengers movie sequel, Marvel commissioned Avengers: Rage of Ultron, an original graphic novel by writer Rick Remender and artist Jerome Opeña.
There are major spoilers ahead for Rage of Ultron, so consider yourself warned!
Remender retconned a previously unknown incarnation of Ultron into the story that was trapped in an Avengers Quinjet and shot into space. This Ultron overruns the moon called Titan and turns it into Planet Ultron before nearly infecting everyone on Earth with a virus that transforms them into extensions of himself.
In the climactic battle, Hank and Ultron are fused into a single being that is quickly driven insane. While the Avengers hold a funeral for Hank, his beating heart remains in Ultron’s comatose body deep in space....
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Avengers: Age of Ultron
In just over a week, Ultron makes his live-action debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
For the Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Spader is portraying Ultron through motion capture technology and also providing Ultron’s voice. As noted earlier, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are the creators of this version of Ultron, who was intended to be the new protector of Earth.
However, Ultron will inevitably rebel against his human masters and give the Avengers everything that they can handle.
