The Avengers #19-22
Originally released in 1999
Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by George Perez
I've read Kurt Busiek and George Perez's Avengers before, but I wanted to take today to focus the Avengers' most persistent and personal threat: Ultron. Created by Hank Pym as an experiment in artificial intelligence, Ultron gained sentience almost immediately... and developed a massive Oedipal complex, viewing Hank as his father and wanting him (and all of humanity) dead. Several incarnations later, he created a body for himself out of the indestructible metal Adamantium; couple that with his ability to live on as long as his code exists somewhere, and he's a near constant threat to all life on Earth.
Before Ultron makes himself known, we get a glimpse into the personal lives of the Avengers. As newcomers Justice (Vance Astrovik) and Firestar (Angelica Jones) are getting used to the idea of being on the team, Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch are out on a date. That's awkward for Wanda's ex-husband Vision, whose artificial intelligence is based on Wonder Man's mind, a fact that causes no shortage of existential crises for the synthezoid.
During a press conference, the Wasp crashes through the window, telling the team that Hank has been kidnapped. On top of that, the factory that creates the Avengers' Quinjets was attacked with Black Panther caught in the middle of it. Traveling to the factory, the Avengers find an adamantium robot, but not the one that they were expecting.
Alkhema is another creation of Ultron, a second attempt at giving himself a bride. Based on the brain patterns of Mockingbird for some reason, Alkhema is as cruel as Ultron, only disagreeing with him when it comes to their preferred method of ending all life on Earth. (she's more sadistic, wanting to kill everyone one at a time rather than all at once)
When the Scarlet Witch arrives and defeats Alkhema, the sadistic robot reveals that she has some awareness of what Ultron is planning, telling them to turn on the news. The Avengers, along with the rest of the world, discovered that over the course of three hours, Ultron arrived in the country of Slorenia, slaughtered every single man, woman, and child in it, and declared it to be his own territory.
It's a terrifying reminder of what Ultron is capable of, and what he would accomplish if the Avengers didn't stop him. Ultron's existence also haunts Iron Man, leading to a heart-to-heart with Firestar; while Iron Man had nothing to do with Ultron's creation (unlike the MCU), he serves as a constant reminder of the dangers that advanced technology could bring, and the potential danger that he (or someone else, if they got ahold of the Iron Man suit) could cause.
Meanwhile, the Wasp, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Wonder Man go to investigate Hank's kidnapping, only to be attacked by variants of every past incarnation of Ultron. Try as they might, dozens of Ultrons prove to be too much for them, and they're kidnapped and taken to Slorenia.
There, Ultron reveals that he plans to use his prisoners as the basis for a new type of robot. Rather than ending all life on Earth and repopulating it with robots that are extensions of his will, he is going to use the brain patterns of his "family", mixing and matching them to create a much more varied society with himself as its ruler.
As the Avengers fight their way through the ruins of Slorenia, and its former population which Ultron transformed into undead cyborg soldiers, Justice is back at the Avengers mansion poring over their records on Ultron's defeat. With a broken leg, he can't exactly go out into the field with the rest of them, but he wants to make himself useful.
Meanwhile, the Avengers get deeper and deeper into Ultron's compound - it took everything that they had to defeat Ultron-16, only for Ultron-17 to appear. And Ultron-23.
As Ultron fends off the Avengers, Hank is blaming himself for all of this. Janet tries to convince him otherwise, hoping to prevent him from having a mental breakdown, by telling him that he couldn't have possibly predicted what Ultron would become, and he's not responsible for the actions of his self-proclaimed "son".
Hank admitting that Ultron's AI was based on his own mind adds a new layer of guilt to Hank's creation of Ultron, as he's known from the beginning that every vile viewpoint that Ultron expresses, and his endless desire to end all life, are all things that Hank himself must feel on some level deep down. Meanwhile, the Vision manages to free himself, offering Ultron a chance to end his loneliness and find a place in the world for him that doesn't involve ending it.
Of course, Ultron refuses the offer, but it was a delaying tactic to free the other Avengers (and the Grim Reaper, a former ally of Ultron who was also captured by him). With their brains scanned, Ultron prepares to kill them all, only for the wall to burst open.
Even with a full Avengers line-up, Ultron's indestructible body weathers any assault thrown at it. Justice's research proves useful when he arrives in Slorenia with two handfuls of Antarctic Vibranium, a variant of Vibranium that destroys metal, and tosses it to Hank.
Hank proceeds to pummel Ultron, letting years of grievances loose as he smashes Ultron's body until there's nothing left. From his expression afterwards, he's clearly not in a good place mentally, but in these issues, it feels like Busiek and Perez are trying to redeem the character after years of mistreatment. (shame that the Ultimates would go on to cement a specific image of the character into the public consciousness a few years later)
I was hoping that these issues were the source of a chilling speech from the show Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (I know I've read a comic where Ultron gives a similar speech; Tom Kane's portrayal in this show is chilling in its clinical and matter-of-fact nature), though that did not turn out to be the case. I really should read more of Kurt Busiek's work; I recently passed the 300 day mark for this blog, which really puts into perspective how there's not much longer until I'm done with this blog, and I've enjoyed the Kurt Busiek stories that I've read. (including his Avengers run, of course)
No comments:
Post a Comment