MARVEL'S ULTRON
RETURN OF THE MURDER BOT
By Kirsten Howard
Ultron’s back in Marvel’s What If…?, but the comics have always taught us that he’ll never really be gone for good.
Dreamt up by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema in 1968, Ultron has been a thorn in the side of the Avengers for over fifty years.
In Marvel Comics, the iconic robot with a god complex and a grudge against humanity was originally created by Hank Pym, and has since manifested various superpowers.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced the villain in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he was voiced by legendary Brat Pack actor James Spader.
In the blockbuster film, Ultron is brought to life after the Mind Stone interacts with one of Tony Stark’s Iron Man sentries.
Confused and angry, he soon joins forces with the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro. But the Avengers forge a plan to stop Ultron from kickstarting the apocalypse.
After being defeated by the Avengers and their new superhero Vision, Ultron seemed to completely disappear, unlike other MCU villains.
But Marvel’s What If…? brings back a terrifying new multiverse version of Ultron who has Vision’s body, and all six Infinity Stones in his possession.
Though it’s surprising to see Ultron back in the MCU six years after we last saw him, he has reemerged time and time again in the comics.
There have been at least 18 different versions of Ultron wreaking havoc in the Marvel Universe over the years, and that doesn’t even include his most recent incarnation!
The villain Ultron Pym is a version of the robot fused with Hank Pym, and during his last big Marvel story he was dead set on merging other humans with robots to make the ultimate lifeform.
We may even see Ultron again in live action in the future, as the MCU doesn’t seem to be done telling stories about Tony Stark’s accidental murder bot just yet!