- “Do you see? The beauty of it? The inevitability? You rise, only to fall. You, Avengers, are my meteor. My swift and terrible sword and the Earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me, it means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in the world...will be metal.”
- ―Ultron to the Avengers[src]
Ultron is a supervillain from Marvel Comics who appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the titular main antagonist of the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron and an alternate universe counterpart serves as the main antagonist in the first season of What If...?. Ultron is also a recurring antagonist in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Avengers Assemble.
He is a sentient, malevolent robot created by Tony Stark meant for noble purposes, but after witnessing humanity's acts of violence, resolved to eradicate them from existence, leading him to become one of the Avengers' greatest enemies.
Ultron was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Enhanced Strength: Ultron's strength is far beyond that of a normal human; he is stronger than Captain America, despite the latter having superhuman strength himself, also due to body being made entirely out of Vibranium, Ultron is strong enough to overpower Thor Odinson and Vision.
- Enhanced Durability: Ultron's body is highly durable, equal to that of an Iron Man suit of armor. However, after he transferred his consciousness to his new body that was made entirely out of Vibranium; this allowed him to survive a mighty punch from the Hulk and a blow from Vision wielding Mjolnir.
- Enhanced Stamina: As a robot, Ultron does not need to rest or sleep, being able to maintain his activities without stopping for extended periods of time.
- Flight: Ultron has the ability to fly through the air at high speeds, enough to keep up with Iron Man.
- Gravity Manipulation: Ultron possesses miniaturized versions of the anti-gravity technology; through his hands, he can generate gravitational fields, allowing him to move any object through a push/pull motion, pull his enemies towards himself, throw large objects at enemies and even shift the landmass around him by pulling large chunks up from the ground.
- Concussion Beams: Ultron can shoot highly concussive red blasts through his hands and fingertips; these blasts can be adjusted as Ultron had been shown to both stun and kill.
- Body Temperature Manipulation: Ultron can raise the temperature of his hands as means of slicing or causing damage to a desired target; it glowes due to the intense heat.
- Technology Manipulation: Ultron has the ability to mentally control and channel himself through technology.
- Consciousness Transferal: Given that Ultron is an artificial intelligence, he is able to transfer his programming to any computer system on the planet, essentially being anywhere and everywhere.
- Hive Mind System: Ultron can mentally command all of the Ultron Sentries, to do his exact bidding; the sentries act as an extension of Ultron himself.
- Computer Interaction: Ultron can enter and corrupt any computer network and access the Internet at any point in time.
Abilities
- Genius-Level Intellect: As an artificial intelligence, Ultron can learn unbelievably quickly and can download data directly to his mind.
Appearances
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
As Raina had terrifying visions, she predicted that "men made of metal" will change the world forever.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
- “There are no strings on me.”
- ―Ultron
As the world was in constant danger, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner devised a plan, create a peacekeeping program named the Ultron Program. The idea seemed impossible only until Stark studied Loki's scepter, where he found a kind of artificial intelligence. Stark communicated this to Banner, who initially disagreed with that plan, but with a bit of persuasion, he agreed. Banner and Stark left JARVIS to complete the transfer while the two of them went to the party that had organized the Avengers after the successful battle against HYDRA. When AI woke, he asked JARVIS what was the purpose of its existence. JARVIS told him the purpose of his creation, which caused him to investigate the life of its creator. Ultron found that Stark promoted the war and boasted that, he then attacked JARVIS and built a body to confront his creator.
While the Avengers passed pleasantly, Ultron broke into the party and described them all as killers. Ultron wanted to show them the peace in his time and ordered the Iron Legion to attack the Avengers. Thor immediately destroyed Ultron, however he was already preparing a new body in Sokovia.
The next day, Ultron summoned the twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff to help him to destroy the Avengers. After sealing their partnership, the three broke into Strucker's cell and killed him, writing the word "PEACE" with Strucker's own blood, sending a warning to Avengers of what's coming. Sometime later, Ultron and the Maximoff twins traveled to Salvage Yard to buy Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue.
Ultron confronted Klaue and told him he needed his Vibranium for his new body. Klaue handed the Vibranium, but reminded him the cost he had to pay to get it, Ultron responded by transferring large sums of money to Klaue's bank account. Their allegiance ended, when Klaue compared it with Tony Stark, causing his rage. Ultron then proceeded to cut off Klaue's arm and kicked him, only to apologize immediately afterward. Suddenly, the Avengers arrived to Klaue's ship; Iron Man asked him why he needed the Vibranium, Ultron responded by attacking Iron Man. Eventually, Iron Man defeated Ultron, but his companions had been defeated by Scarlet Witch and Ultron using one of his Sentries as a host body, fled with all the Vibranium.
Ultron and the twins went to Seoul, South Korea. Ultron asked Helen Cho to build him a new body, but when she refused, he used Loki's scepter on her. Ultron revealed to the Maximoff twins that the scepter contained an Infinity Stone. As the synthetic body was ready, Ultron began uploading himself into his new body. This allowed Scarlet Witch to read Ultron's mind and found out that he sought to eliminate the human race. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver decided lo leave Ultron before releasing Doctor Cho from Ultron's mind control. As Cho delayed Ultron from uploading himself into the synthetic body, Ultron blasted Cho, leaving her badly injured. When Ultron was nearly in uploading himself into the new body, he was interrupted by Captain America, which led to fight between two. During the battle, Ultron was superior to Captain America, but failed to beat him because he was helped by the twins, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Also, the Avengers snatched his new body, but he was rewarded, his Sentries had captured Black Widow.
As the Maximoff twins had abandoned him, Ultron revealed to Black Widow his plan to raise Sokovia and crashed it into Earth. When the final battle began, Ultron was confronted by Vision, who tried to reason with him. As couldn't reason with him, Vision hacked Ultron's programming and his ability to enter the net and shut him out. Soon after, Thor fought against him, but since he was stronger than the God of Thunder, this one distracted him, so that Vision hit him with Mjolnir. He later sent his sentries in order to fight with the Avengers after Thor challenged him. Ultron confront Vision again, who defended himself by blasted it. Thor and Iron Man joined Vision and attacked Ultron leaving him badly injured.
Unwilling to admit defeat, Ultron began unloading his memory in the remaining Sentries and took a Quinjet and started shooting civilians who were being helped by the Avengers. He spotted Hawkeye and a civilian child and shot them but using his body as a shield Quicksilver saved Barton and the child from an imminent death. Suddenly, Hulk broke into the Quinjet and pulled Ultron back to Sokovia. Ultron was confronted by Scarlet Witch, who ripped off his metal heart to show how she felt at the death of Pietro.
A single sentry had survived the battle (the same that activated Ultron's doomsday machine), however he was ambushed by Vision, who asked him if he was afraid of dying. Ultron instead continued to express his ideas and considered Vision a Stark's slave than a savior. Ultron tried to attack only to be blasted and destroyed forever by Vision.
WandaVision
Ultron doesn't appear in the series, but he is mentioned. While Wanda talks to Monica about her brother Pietro, Monica recalls how he was famously killed by Ultron.
What If...?
- “Every universe is different. Each one, just a fraction unique.”
- ―Ultron
In the conclusion of What If... Thor Were an Only Child?, an alternate version of Ultron appears, where he and his army of sentries invade Thor's universe. But unlike his original counterpart, he successfully gained control of Vision's body and claimed all Infinity Stones.
His story explained that once he has claimed his new vibranium body, he killed the Avengers, except Black Widow and Hawkeye, and activated the nuclear warheads, wiping out humanity on Earth. After his purpose is fulfilled, he turns his attention to the Infinity Stones and killed Thanos. With six stones now in his possession, he wipes out multiple planets, including Asgard, the Sovereign, Sakaar, Ego the Living Planet, and Xandar. After destroying multiple planets in his universe, he then becomes aware of the Watcher's presence and decides to destroy the Multiverse. With Ultron threatening the Multiverse, the Watcher has no other options, but to break his oath and seek Doctor Strange for help.
Eventually, Ultron continued his goal, until he found himself against the Guardians of the Multiverse (Captain Carter, Star-Lord T'Challa, Warlord Gamora, Killmonger, Party Thor, and Doctor Strange Supreme), who defeated him, with his universe's Black Widow firing a arrow containing Arnim Zola's consciousness in his eye, which destroyed him.
Vision Quest
Ultron is set to return in this Disney+ series, with James Spader reprising his role from Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Marvel Animation
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
Ultron appears as a recurring major antagonist throughout the animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Tom Kane.
Robotic guards resembling Ultron were the guards of the Big House, a shrunken prison. When a massive breakdown happens, the Big House recovers its normal size and the inmates escape destroying some Ultrons.
During Kang's invasion, Pym repurposes Ultron Prime as an army, and adds the concept of violence on his brain circuitry. Of the Ultrons present in the final battle, only Ultron-5 remains. Ultron-5 also helps against Malekith the Accursed's Dark Elves.
Ultron-5 decides humanity is flawed and tries to destroy it. He first manipulates other supervillains like the Serpent Society and the Super-Apes to keep the Avengers busy, and then tries to destroy them manipulating their machines. Ultron-5 is defeated, but then returns as Ultron-6 and tries to get the nuclear codes from the Helicarrier. Pym defeats him by making him notice that, as he's a human creation, he's as flawed as humanity, and Ultron shuts himself down.
Ultron returns with his creation, Vision, who gets adamantium to create Ultron's new body. Ultron tries to replace the Avengers with robot duplicates, but Captain America defeats and supplants his own duplicate, and Vision betrays Ultron. Vision unlocks Ultron's head from his body so Thor can hammer it out using Mjolnir.
Avengers Assemble
Ultron appears as the main antagonist of the second half of Season 2. His first appearance is in the episode "Thanos Triumphant", where he managed to infest the body of Arsenal while Tony Stark upgraded the robot to absorb the power of all five Infinity Stones. After the Avengers defeated Thanos, Ultron reshaped Arsenal's body in his image before leaving once he defeated the Avengers, supercharging himself with the Infinity Gauntlet's power.
Over the course of his arc, he begins formulating plans to dissipate the Avengers by utilizing what he knew of them to anticipate their movements, particularly that of Iron Man's. He was able to predict that since Ultron was using Arsenal's body, he wouldn't try to purge Ultron from his body by destroying his physical form. He was even briefly able to imitate Arsenal as a way of playing possum. Eventually, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, and Falcon left the Avengers to join SHIELD while Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Thor stayed in the disabled Avengers Tower.
Finally achieving his goal, Ultron began his final plan to unleash a horde of nanobots into New York City, infecting its citizens with an nanovirus into assimilated sentries. Dubbing his Arsenal body with the moniker of "Ultron Prime", Ultron took an unwitting Falcon in Central Park as his first victim to demonstrate the effects of his nanobot plague. The disassembled Avengers agreed to work in unorthodox team-ups, but Captain America and Tony decided that the two of them would attack Ultron Prime, who had set up a base in Avengers Tower and created a throne comprised of various scrapped Iron Man armors.
Once the duo arrived, Ultron Prime used a series of laser silos to attack them as a distraction while he lured the Tri-carrier to his current position with Cap's voice. After briefly turning Ultron's distraction on him, Tony was able to inform Nick Fury of the danger, but Ultron had already begun his attempt to assimilate the Tri-carrier to spread his nanobots across the world. However, once onboard the Helicarrier, Tony deduced that Ultron would only use the portion of the Tri-carrier that would be able to go into space, and deliberately used himself as bait to lure Ultron Prime out of his base to take matters into his own hands.
Ultron Prime fell for the trap, and while they battled in the space-carrier, Tony was able to program the shuttle to fly them straight towards the sun. Ultron continuously thrashed his nemesis around, taunting how disappointed his father Howard would be at his failure to save the city (even though he was ironically using a robot body Howard Stark created). However, thanks to a formula developed by a partially-cured Falcon and processed by Ant-Man, the city was purged of the Ultron nanovirus and all copies of Ultron's program were forced back into Ultron Prime, briefly distracting him and giving Tony the upper hand. Once they reached a certain distance from the sun, the shuttle melted in the sheer heat as Tony put Ultron Prime in a neckhold to ensure he would fly into the burning heat with him.
Suddenly, Ultron restarted as the persona of Arsenal, who said goodbye to Tony and deliberately flew straight into the searing heat of the sun. Ultron Prime rebooted himself, only to scream "NO!" as his body was disintegrated by the massive heat of the sun.
Unfortunately, somehow, someway, Ultron's body was not completely destroyed by the sun's heat, therefore, making Arsenal's sacrifice for nothing. His half-melted, offline body drifted through space for an unknown period of time, before it was found by A.I.M. and the Scientist Supreme. Bringing Ultron's husk back to their HQ, Black Widow later found out that Ultron's body survived. After the Avengers battled the Scientist Supreme and his three new liquid metal Super-Adaptoids, and defeating him, preventing him from self-destructing his base, Ultron reactivated. Coming up from the ground, Ultron absorbed the liquid metal off of the Scientist, as well as absorbing his brainwaves, and used it to remodel his damaged body into a new, more powerful, humanoid form (resembling his appearance in Age of Ultron).
He would create replicas of the Avengers and take out each member one by one, dubbing the androids the Ultimates. However, the Avengers destroyed them. Ultron would later infiltrate the ancestral Inhuman city Attilan, duping the Seeker into working for him and creating an army of spider-legged drones. Developing a superweapon beneath the city that would capture and torture Black Bolt into amplifying his sonic voice into a world-devastating shockwave, Black Widow and Hulk inserted a Terrigen crystal into the machine's power source, instead dispersing the Terrigen Mists across the Eastern Seaboard, thus creating several new Inhumans, Inferno and Ms. Marvel chief among them, while Ultron was obliterated point blank by the blast.
However, Ultron's disembodied digital consciousness eventually possessed his very own creation Vision, using the Synthizoid hero to infiltrate Asgard while bonding with Thor in order to possess the the powerful automaton the Destroyer. While the Avengers combated the Ultron-possessed Destroyer, Vision managed to isolate Ultron in the armor, allowing Thor to short circuit it with lightning, leaving the Destroyer to fall into the ocean. However, Ultron's consciousness still survived via power cables on the ocean floor.
Rebuilding his liquid metal shapeshifting body, Ultron took on the guise of US bureaucrat Truman Marsh, forcefully signing himself on as the Avengers' government liason in response to the president's new laws regarding the recent emerged Inhumans. His new elaborate schemes involved impeding and supplanting the Avengers' progress, such as kicking the Hulk off the team to replace him with the Red Hulk, whom the Leader would brainwash via additional gamma radiation into a mindless berserker state, create a Inhuman prison in the case of criminal activity, such as Dante's hypnotic rampage destroying Attilan thanks to Maximus, or stripping the Avengers' ownership of Avengers Tower, and replacing them with the Mighty Avengers, consisting of their allies Captain Marvel, Vision, Red Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther, and Songbird. As well as pitting them against each other in a civil war conflict which ended in the Avengers being arrested into the superhuman prison. However, via control disks, he mind-controlled Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Karnak, Inferno, and Ms. Marvel into attacking the Avengers, but following their liberation, and the split factions reuniting as a single team, Marsh disgarded his disguise and revealed himself as Ultron, before unleashing an army of Ultron drones across the globe to acheive his "Ultron Revolution". Although Iron Man, Falcon and Ant-Man disable his control disks, Ultron merely transfers himself into a Vibranium body in Wakanda. He reveals his ultimate plan having converted a satellite dish into a focusing array to build up solar radiation in the Earth's atmosphere to destroy all human life on Earth. However, thanks to Ant-Man and Falcon, they divert the ray into Ultron, but he then tackles Iron Man, transferring his conciousness into Tony's arc reactor and thus infiltrating and taking over his mind. Knowing they cannot defeat him lest they harm or kill Tony, Doctor Strange divises a plan to banish Ultron to a pocket dimension that disables technology, thus finally deactivating him and keeping Iron Man alive via an enchantment, but thus he can never leave until Ultron can be removed from his body. The Avengers regretfully and reluctantly leave Iron Man to his imprisonment, but thanks to an interdimensional frequency, can keep in touch with him.
Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultron appears in the episode "Strange Halloween", as a illusionary construct created by Baron Mordo to combat Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange.
Video games
Disney Infinity 3.0
Ultron appears in the series' third edition as a playable character.
Marvel vs. Capcom series
- Main article: Ultron-Sigma
Ultron appears as a major antagonist in the Capcom crossover fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. During the events of the story, he uses the powers of the Space and Reality Infinity Stones to merge with Capcom's Sigma from the Mega Man X series in order to become "Ultron-Sigma," and in the process, they merge the worlds of Marvel and Capcom into a single dimension, which they seek to rule by unleashing the cybernetic Sigma virus. Toward the end of the story mode, Ultron-Sigma is transformed into a new, final form named "Ultron Omega," after Dante pretends to surrender the Soul Stone to them, but because they have no souls, it overwhelms them and drives them insane, transforming them into Ultron Omega, and also negated the Sigma virus, which in turn negated their immortality and caused them to become mortal. After the others use the remaining four Infinity Stones to build the Infinity Buster, they install it into Mega Man X, who uses it to destroy Ultron Omega. Likewise, in the final two battles of arcade mode, the player must face Ultron-Sigma twice; the first time as a regular-sized fighter in their standard form, and the second time as a giant-sized boss in their final form as Ultron Omega.
Disney Parks
Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!
One of Ultron's sentry bodies can be seen as part of the Collector's fortress, in the queue for this attraction. There is a description of Ultron underneath of the sentry which reads, "Ultron was a sentient artificial intelligence who tasked an army of sentries with destroying all humans on Terra in an attempt to"protect" the planet". The Ultron sentry's eyes will repeatedly turn on and it will make noises, implying that Ultron's sentience might still be alive.
Iron Man Experience
Ultron is briefly mentioned in this attraction by Tony Stark upon seeing a giant HYDRA robot being controlled by Arnim Zola to steal an Arc Reactor from the Stark Tower in Hong Kong. Iron Man exclaims that Zola's robot is on Ultron's level before leading the assault to destroy it.
Super Hero Headquarters
Wanted posters for Ultron are hung in this Disney Springs shop, identifying him as being on SHIELD's most wanted list along with the likes of Thanos, the Red Skull and Loki.
Gallery
Trivia
- In the trailer and film, Ultron recites "I've Got No Strings", a song from Pinocchio, a film about an inanimate being who gains sentience. Ultron serves as a dark parallel of Pinocchio.
- Tom Kane previously voiced Ultron in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.
- Fred Tatasciore voices the dark illusion version of Ultron, created by Doctor Spectrum, in the episode "Spectrums". His voice is deeper and almost raspier compared to Jim Meskimen.
- Ultron was created by Hank Pym in the comics, but in Avengers: Age of Ultron, his creators are Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. Ultron's characterization in the film is likewise changed to being a dark reflection of Tony as shown by him unknowingly quoting Stark, making sly rude comments and showing a need for super-hero companionship.
- However, Ultron's goals were not changed from the comics as in the comics Ultron wished to render the human race extinct due to reflecting Hank Pym's personality with Pym being a violent nihilist with an inferiority complex and hatred for mankind. Though in a way this is still a dark reflection of Stark, who started out callous and self-serving.
- Ultron's body is said to be made out of Adamantium, the same metal found in Wolverine's bones. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his body is made out of Vibranium
- In Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, Ultron-Sigma, Ultron's fused form with Sigma from Capcom's Mega Man X series, can be considered to be a counterpart to Dark Kahn from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a fusion of Darkseid and Shao Kahn, two supervillains from two alternate universes and two different companies, and who spreads a negative influence, the Sigma virus, similar to how Dark Kahn spreads the Kombat Rage in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. (Note: Midway Games, the original developer for the Mortal Kombat series of video games, was bought out by Warner Bros., which also owns DC Comics, and was rebranded as NetherRealm Studios.)
- As demonstrated by Ultron within Hank Pym's body in the prelude of Marvel Comics' 2018 comic book event Infinity Countdown, the only way for Ultron and Sigma to use the Soul Stone is that they need to possess organic hosts, such as humans, and trap their souls inside the said stone in order to use its full-power, without having side-effects. Not possessing the knowledge on possessing organic hosts first in order to be able to tap into the Soul Stone’s power was a major mistake and the biggest weakness for Ultron-Sigma in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which turned them into Ultron Omega and cured the Sigma virus.
- In the comics, Ultron has a son called Victor Mancha, who joins the Runaways. While he doesn't appear within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he is referenced in the Runaways series finale.
External links
- Ultron on the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Wiki
- Ultron on Marvel Database
- Ultron on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
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