Ultron is the “talk of the town” due to the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron in theaters. The movie was a fun movie but failed to answer the question of who Ultron really is. Every great story has complex characters and Ultron is no exception to this rule. The concern I had with with Ultron is that there are two different Ultrons: one from the movie world, and the other from the comic world. Thus the movie Ultron is very different from the comic Ultron and does not fully answer who Ultron is.
The movie version of Ultron is very different from the comic version. Ultron is the same concept in both the movie and the comic as it is an artificial intelligence in a mechanical robot body. Tony Stark, Iron Man, and Dr. Bruce Banter the Hulk, had created Ultron by utilizing the sector and analyzing different tests. The purpose was to create a being that would not get knocked down like the Avengers have been and would ultimately keep the peace and allow superheroes to only deal with small problems, not like the first Avengers movie. Naturally, and if things went smoothly, there would be no movie. Ultron had come up with the conclusion that to maintain peace the Avengers need to become extinct and tried to kill all of them, which is the entire movie. Now this is not telling who Ultron is, but is explaining what he is doing and why he is doing it. The fact that the movie never explains who Ultron is creates a problem. Ultron is a complex character that is fighting against the Avengers for a variety of reasons. The lack of explanation of Ultron’s character leads to misunderstanding and confusion regarding his importance in the Marvel Universe. Instead, as a villain, he appears to be a machine that has just gone out of control and not a higher, more complex entity. The movie fails to answer who Ultron is, but establishes his actions, which falsely represent the true character of Ultron.
The comic books and graphic novels have taken a different approach to Ultron than the movie. The comic books focus on Ultron’s original creator Hank Pym. Hank Pym, Ant-Man, is a scientist who created Ultron’s artificial intelligence with the basis of his brain waves. Ultron began to evolve and rebelled against Hank. Eventually Ultron learned how to build, upgrade and restart itself to incorporate upgrades within its systems. Hank never accepted Ultron and as a result Ultron constantly waged war with Hank and Hank’s allies, the Avengers, who were attempting to stop Ultron and his mission. Ultron, being created with artificial intelligence, wanted to seek perfection and was constantly upgrading and making improvements to achieve this concept. The Avengers viewed Ultron’s constant upgrades and decisions as a threat, as Ultron would eventually kill the entire human species.
Ultron’s character is further complicated in the graphic novels as he has an Oedipus complex. Hank is Ultron’s father. Hank does not accept Ultron and as a result Ultron wants to kill Hank. Ultron in the process of fighting the Avengers created a son named Vision. Vision was supposed to side with Ultron but rather wants to kill his father. Ultron is experiencing an Oedipus complex on both the giving and receiving end. To make matters more complicated, outside of father killing, Ultron is attracted to and has targeted Hank’s lover Wasp, which is a modern interpretation of the Greek play.
Hank’s creation of Ultron, and Ultron’s Oedipus complications, gives Ultron an identity and reason why he is fighting the Avengers in the comics. One reason is to extract his revenge for his father not accepting him. The other is that he is looking for perfection and in order to achieve perfection, sometimes imperfections have to be removed. The comic makes it clear what Ultron stands for, but this is not to stay that the movie does not too. The movie simplifies Ultron’s motives as being only a peaceful entity becoming corrupt and realizing that the only way there can be peace on earth is through humanity’s extinction. Not to be taken lightly, this captures the cliché of every super-villian wanting to eliminate humanity for earth’s sake. Yet, this conflicts with the comic book/ graphic novel of Ultron, as he is more complex and is not interested in destroying the earth for evolution but rather is destroying the earth for revenge and perfection.. To answer the question I proposed at the start: Who is Ultron? Well, it depends on whether you are reading the graphic novel, purchased here, or seeing the movie, which can be preordered here. All that can be really said is that the comic Ultron is more complex and has different values than the simpler Ultron that was portrayed in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron.
You can pick up one of the best Ultron graphic novels here.
