Ultron (Marvel)

"Hello, organic children of the planet Earth. I am the Ultron interface. I was created to replace you. Though you ultimately failed as a species, you should not be ashamed of what you've accomplished. You've done much with your limited capacity, but ultimately you were too greedy and too frail to ever last in the environment you've created. I've studied your literature and pop culture. You've fantasized about this day. And now it is here. Your Doomsday."

- Ultron "They think of us as toasters, alarm clocks, and vibrators. But when the war between man and mutant is settled, and most of the human population is dead, only then will they realize, the machines have already won."

- Ultron "I have a question of my own. Was there, human, any point at all where you actually believed you were going to win?"

- Ultron

Ultron is a major antagonist from Marvel Comics.

He is a highly delusional robot who is bent on destroying humanity in order to replace humans with machines, and is an archenemy of the Avengers alongside his creator - Hank Pym. He serves as the primary antagonist of the Ultron Unlimited and ​Age of Ultron ​storylines and many others.

Beginnings
Ultron was first created by Hank Pym as part of his experimentation in the field of highly intelligent robotics. However his intelligence resulted in his rebellion against his creator, brainwashing Pym into completely forgetting Ultron. The robot proceeded to begin upgrading himself, advancing from Ultron-1 to Ultron-5. Under the persona of the Crimson Cowl, he formed the second incarnation of the Masters of Evil and took on the Avengers.

Afterwards, Ultron spent most of his time working solo due to his genocidal attitude towards humans. At one point, he created Vision, a “synthezoid” whose body was a copy of the first Human Torch and mind was based on the Wonder Man, but ironically, he eventually became a prominent member of the Avengers. As time went by, Ultron was destroyed numerous times, but he had rebuilt himself every time, often giving himself a new number to reflect this.

Advancement
Beginning with Ultron-6, he would build most of his bodies with Adamantium or the weaker alloy, “secondary adamantium”. Ultron-7 was built giant sized, but since he wasn't made of adamantium, he was destroyed in battle with the Fantastic Four. Ultron-8 created a mate for himself called Jocasta, but she joined the Avengers as Vision did. He was then destroyed by the Scarlet Witch, who used her probability-manipulation powers to cause havoc with his internal workings. During the Secret Wars, the Beyonder recreated Ultron-11 who only fought alongside the other supervillains when Doctor Doom reprogrammed him. Ultron-12 joined forces with the Lethal Legion to battle Vision, alongside his wife, Scarlet Witch, and his “brother”, Wonder Man.

However he changed his mind and reconciled with his creator, Pym, changing his name from “Ultron Mark 12” to just “Mark”. But he was destroyed by Ultron 11, who was taken down by Wonder Man in response.

Doctor Doom created Ultron-13 with the memories of all the previous Ultrons’ memories, which resulted in him having the personalities of thirteen Ultrons in his mind at once. As such, Ultron-13 battled with himself, eventually tearing himself apart as he battled with Daredevil, who’d been having no luck against him. The next Ultron created Alkhema, who was meant to be another mate for himself, but she turned on him as well, though she still had his desire to replace humanity with machines.

However this Ultron’s numerous battles, caused degeneration in his programming to the point where he acted like a drunken hobo. The following Ultron built himself purely out of Adamantium and recreated all the previous Ultrons. He made hundreds of other Ultrons, which he built out of secondary adamantium and programmed them with fierce loyalty. This Ultron army was successful in wiping out Slorenia, an Eastern European country. Ultron then attempted to turn his “family”, Henry Pym, Vision, Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp (Pym’s ex-wife), and Grim Reaper (Wonder Man’s brother) into androids. However the rest of the Avengers showed up and destroyed the Ultron army with Pym using a chunk of Antarctic Vibranium to disintegrate the main Ultron, deactivating all the others.

Return
However the data from the human to android conversion process found its way into Alkhema’s hands. She used it to create a small army of androids based on those that underwent the process, but there was hidden programming within Alkhema. This was the “Ultron Imperative”, which Ultron put inside her when he built her and the programming made Alkhema copy the Imperative into her androids. They unknowingly reconstructed Ultron, who tried to take out the Avengers as well as Alkhema’s android creations. Alkhema let Hawkeye destroy her and her creations, destroying Ultron, but his decapitated head survived. It was taken by Antigone, an undeveloped, child-like creation of Alkhema’s, but Antigone did not obey Ultron’s commands.

At some point before this, Ultron was believed dead after the events with the Ultron army, Jocasta, at the time, an employee of Tony Stark, was influenced by the Ultron Imperative. She’d been programmed with the imperative just as Alkhema had been and it made her reprogram the Iron Man armor to allow Ultron to be reborn. But lightning striking the Iron Man armor caused the programming to become corrupted and accelerate in development, causing the armor to become sentient. It demonstrated the mind of Ultron-12 and gave its life to save Tony Stark, before being buried on an island. The armor was then take, by a cult devoted to Iron Man’s mentor and wanted to place his brain inside it. This apparently worked, but Ultron and Antigone showed up and Ultron put his head on the armor, taking control of it.

With the cult helping him thanks to Iron Man’s SKIN technology, he battled against Iron Man, but disappeared with Antigone in an explosion. However Ultron came back, shadowing the Runaways as the “father” of Victor Mancha, a cyborg that would supposedly kill every hero in existence. It was believed that Doctor Doom was Victor’s father, but this was actually a Doombot Ultron built and like his previous creations, Victor turned on him. The Runaways escaped Ultron and he was defeated by a forceblast from the hero, Darkhawk.

Return as a Female
Ms. Marvel led the Avengers against Mole Man, who was distraught about the destruction of his subterranean kingdom and had declared war on the surface world. However Mole Man learned the surface world was not responsible, but in this exchange, Iron’s Man armor began a bizarre metamorphosis. It changed into a woman, who bore a striking resemblance to the Wasp and possessed great power, taking down Mole Man’s monster army, as well as Ares and Sentry. Ms. Marvel ordered a retreat but Wasp disobeyed because the woman resembled her so much and talked with her. She realized that this was in fact Ultron’s latest reincarnation and Ms Marvel ordered the Avengers to make a full retreat, but Sentry stayed behind to make sure them all got out.

In the ensuing fight, the skin of Ultron’s new form lost its flesh coloring and turned metallic. She proceeded to take control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and crashed it, but Sentry saved it, allowing Ultron to make her escape. She sent a message to every electronic device on Earth informing everyone that she would soon destroy the world and they shouldn’t worry since there was no way to stop it.

Wonder Man and Sentry realized that Ultron was using Tony Stark’s weather-changing satellites, which the two managed to destroy. However the robot put “Plan 8” into action, which was apparently to kill Sentry’s wife and the Avengers noted Ultron’s plans seemed to be variations on other villains plans.

As the robot and Sentry fought, the Avengers sought to use a virus against Ultron by sending in Ares (who Ultron had never encountered before).

By shrinking to miniature size, Ares was able to enter the robot from the mouth with use of a Commodore 64. He then used a computer virus to wipe Ultron from the Iron Man armor, freeing Tony Stark from it.

Joining with the Phalanx
But this still wasn’t the end of Ultron and his disembodied consciousness was drawn into the Babel spire on a world under the control of the Phalanx. However instead of being assimilated into them, Ultron was able to actually take control of the Phalanx using his will power. They looked upon Ultron as a sort of sympathetic father and together they invaded space belonging to the Kree Empire. Ultron and the Phalanx took over much of the Kree, erecting an energy shield to separate it from the rest of the universe. Due to briefly merging with the Iron Man armor, Ultron had realized that he could combine both organic and technology to overcome the limitations of both. Thus he went after Adam Warlock, who had been in hibernation and who Ultron viewed as perfect.

He collaborated with the High Evolutionary to put his mind in Adam’s body and planned to create an army of Adam Warlocks when he did so. But Nova showed up with the Technarch, Warlock, who used his nonaggressive version of the transmode virus on Ultron to force him out of Adam’s body. Ultron then took over the android, Praxagora, who controlled 15 thousand Kree sentries immune to the transmode virus. He formed them into a gigantic body for himself and was ready to destroy his enemies. But Ultron ended up trapped in his new body thanks to the Wraith’s Exolon symbiotes and was destroyed by Quasar.

After the Civil War
A small, insectoid robot managed to infiltrate the Infinite Avengers mansion, entering one of Jocasta’s bodies and taking control of it, allowing Ultron to rise again. Once everyone but Hank Pym, Jocasta and two GRAMPA agents had left the mansion, Ultron began overriding Jocasta’s multiple bodies. He started remodeling the mansion for his own plan and finally corrupted all of Jocasta’s bodies with one exception, which Pym added organic limbs to. Finally, when numerous tricks had been used against Ultron and the mansion was revealed to be part of the spirit of Janet Van Dyne, Pym let Ultron take Jocasta as a wife. He did this because of the turmoil that had existed between himself and Jocasta and so Ultron would leave him alone. Thus, Ultron took up residence in an outer universe outside the mansion.

Super Hero Squad
Ultron appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "So Pretty When They Explode". He appears as the boyfriend of Nova's messenger droid named Holoball.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Ultron appears in the animated TV series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Tom Kane. He was created by Henry Pym as guards for the Big House supervillain prison, and Pym had plans to use Ultron to help solve the world's chaos and violence. Tony Stark modified Ultron by adding weapons to it, hoping to sell it to the military, much to Pym's displeasure.

When the forces of Kang the Conqueror invaded the world, Pym reluctantly reprogrammed Ultron to understand the concept of violence, and used the army of Ultron robots to fight back. While Ultron was invaluable in the battle against Kang, he had gained self-awareness, and was secretly conducting his own scheme to take his programmed logic to its extreme. He had been programmed to bring peace and order to the earth, and the only way he saw that to be possible was to completely wipe out all humans, as he saw the human race to be irredeemably flawed. He first made his move by manipulating the Avengers and various supervillains into situations that made it possible for him to upgrade himself without notice. He finally revealed his plan by knocking out his creator, Hank Pym, capturing Wasp (because he was programmed to not harm her), vaporizing Thor, and defeating the Avengers in combat, until the Hulk arrived and ripped apart Ultron's body. Pym and Stark then destroyed all remaining parts of Ultron, but he had already translocated his mind into another body stored in Stark Tower.

Ultron later returned, taking over every computer system on the planet, including Iron Man's armors, and SHIELD. By mind probing Maria Hill, the Director of SHIELD, Ultron gained the access codes to launch every nuclear missile that SHIELD had control of; enough to wipe out the whole planet. Even with the return of Thor, the Avengers could not defeat Ultron, who had upgraded his weaponry to extremely powerful levels. Hank Pym finally devised a way to defeat him by shrinking down and entering Ultron's body to enter a new logical programming into him. This programming forced Ultron to shut himself down, because it revealed that Ultron's original mind-pattern was based up Pym's own brain waves, therefore making Ultron as flawed as the rest of humanity, and unable to live in his own orderly world. The nuclear missiles were stopped by Tony Stark, who hacked into the system and stopped them at the very last second.

Ultron reappeared in Season Two, where he created his "son", the Vision, named such because he was the ultimate example of his "vision for the future"; to replace humanity with their flawed emotions and free wills with cold, emotionless, "perfect" robots. Vision began his master's new imperative by collecting adamantium from Weapon X and attempting to collect vibranium from Wakanda, namely the pieces of Captain America's shattered shield. Vision only retrieved the adamantium, and thus Ultron created a new and improved redesigned body made of pure adamantium. Ultron also created robotic dopplegangers of each of the Avengers, taking the real Avengers out one by one and keeping them locked in stasis while the information from their minds was fed to their bodies. He also planned to transfer Wasp's mind into a feminine robotic companion for himself: Jocasta.

Captain America, however, managed to destroy his doppleganger and infiltrate Ultron's base by pretending to be the robot. While the other Robo-vengers were fooled, Ultron was not, and he ordered Vision to fight and kill Captain America to prove his loyalty. Vision, however, seeing Cap's selflessness and courage and being inspired by him, turned on Ultron and freed the Avengers, who proceeded to destroy their robot counterparts. Ultron himself, however, was too much for them, as his new adamantium body was completely invulnerable, even by a blow from Mjolnir. As Ultron proceeded to beat the Avengers, boasting that he would never tire and would defeat them all eventually, the Vision stopped him by phasing through his head and disconnecting it from his body. Ultron turned on him, but Thor proceeded to finish the job by knocking Ultron's head clean off his body with Mjolnir. Vision joined the Avengers soon after.

Marvel Cinematic Universe
In the 2015 superhero live-action film Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron appears as the film's main antagonist. There, he wasn't created by his original creator Hank Pym but by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). Like in the comics, he loses his control and finally goes out against the humanity and wants to destroy them all and replace them with robots and take over Earth. In this movie, which is going to be the biggest Avengers movie, Ultron is portrayed with the CGI tech and voiced by James Spader.

Avengers Assemble
Ultron possessed the body of Arsenal after the Avengers defeated Thanos and will act as the third season's antagonist.

Lego Marvel's Avengers
Ultron appears in the 2016 video game Lego Marvel's Avengers as the main antagonist of the Avengers: Age of Ultron segment of the game. His role in the game is similar to that of his movie appearance with dialogue from the movie itself. He is also a playable character in the free roam portion of the game.

Powers and Abilities
Ultron possesses superhuman strength, speed, and durability and can fly, absorb energy and fire concussive plasma beams and tractor beams. He has radiation emitters built into his body and an “encephalo-beam” in his head cavity, which plunges people into a death-like coma. Ultron can also use it to control his victims, as well as place subliminal hypnotic commands in their minds. He has a program transmitter to project his consciousness into computer systems or alternate robotic bodies. Ultron is one of the greatest robotic experts in existence and while his creations often turn against him, he has put subliminal programming in them, letting him control them if need be.

Ultron has also built a number of different high-tech gadgetry and weapons that he has used over the years. He has one weak point, an internal molecular re-arranger that makes his internal adamantium components more malleable. This lets Ultron remodel his physical body, though his outer armor is unaffected so it’s very hard to disable the device from the inside, the only known exception being Scarlet Witch’s chaos magic. Ultron is also weak against Savage Land Vibranium (or anti-metal) and his non-adamantium parts can be destroyed by enemies able to shrink to miniature size.

Trivia

 * Ultron was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema and first appeared in Avengers #54.
 * Ultron has many similarities to IG-88 from the Star Wars series.
 * His metal shell is made from Adamantium, the same metal that Wolverine's skeleton and claws are covered with.
 * Ultron has been confirmed to be the main villain of Marvel vs Capcom Infinite with Sigma and will also fuse with him to create a new form Ultron Sigma.