1981: The Jocasta's On You Part IV: Jocasta of Arc

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the fourth and final part of our Jocasta retrospective, the metal madame strikes out on her own, only to find life outside of Avengers Mansion ain't what it cracked up to be. And boy, does she end up cracked a lot. 

After being treated like dirt by the Avengers for close to five years worth of comics, Jocasta left the team in September 1981's Avengers I#211. She didn't make any further appearances until over a year later when Tom DeFalco decided to include her in a Marvel Two-In-One two parter. In those days, the series was a vehicle for the Thing to have adventures with the guest star of the month, showcasing the most popular FF member with whatever B-lister most in need of a plug.

To be fair, though the bulk of the DeFalco era Marvel Two-In-Ones consisted of perfectly fine, well crafted tales, they exactly contain any major status quo shaking events... That is, unless no one cared about the character. Oh Jocasta, I got a bad feeling about this...

"I was always present in the background... like a trained pet... or a forgotten piece of furniture!"

It's striking to see it took DeFalco only four panels to hammer home Jocasta's plight. The Avengers took her for granted and that's why she left to make a life for herself in "the real world". However, she soon ran into trouble there as well, suffering from strange, debilitating dreams. Ashamed to return to the Avengers for help, Jocasta turned to the FF for aid to find allies in Thing and his girlfriend Alicia Masters.

However, the reason for her strange dreams soon became apparent: they were caused by a post-hypnotic command implanted in her mind by her creator/husband Ultron who had planned to have his bride rebuild him in the unlikely event he was ever destroyed. He left similar instructions in the mind of Iron Man, who helped remake the adamantium baddie back in Avengers I#202... And oddly enough, he had Jocasta short-circuited to make sure she wouldn't catch wise to what he was doing.

That confrontation ended with Ultron trapped in rapidly hardening adamantium, but the mind controlled Jocasta found a way to release her husband. Moments after regaining his freedom, Ultron thanked his "wife" the only way he knew how.

"Though you are my chosen mate, you were ever the pawn, ever the plaything!"

Ah yeah, that elongated arm coming to Jocasta's rescue belongs to Machine Man. He got involved in this caper when the Thing happened to be visiting with him when Alicia called Ben to report "a lady robot" had gone mad (Under Ultron's influence, Jocasta had freaked out during one of Alicia's exhibits before running off to free Ultron). Intrigued by the notion of a "lady robot", he used his own cybernetic senses to find her before Thing could.  

In the end, Thing arrived on the scene only to fall prey to Ultron's hypnotic powers. He sent the FF member against Jocasta and Machine Man who had gotten pretty banged up fighting Ultron. The two automatons decided to beat a hasty retreat, leaving behind the gloating Ultron and his accomplice.

In Marvel Two-In-One I#93, the impossible happened when Jocasta realized she wasn't alone in this world. Machine Man showed her he was just like her: a robot in a man's world, fighting to make a life for himself. It sparked the beginning of an unexpected romance between the two characters that some considered hastily contrived and completely out of left field...

"We'll beat him! I promise."

And while it's true that DeFalco didn't waste any time pairing off these two tin plated paramours, it does make a decent amount of sense. For most of her time with the Avengers, which is pretty much all her life, Jocasta was looking for someone to connect with. Machine Man experienced a very similar sense of alienation, even though he was part of everyday life as Aaron Stack. In the end, having the two connect felt ever so meaningful and well deserved.

"You don't have to be alone anymore!"

Alas, the budding robotic romance would prove to be short lived. Machine Man and Jocasta decided they needed to stop Ultron from carrying out his latest master plan against mankind. During the struggle, Jocasta once more faced the creature that created her to be his.

"I created you! You belong to me!"

But Jocasta once again denied her creator, proving she was more than her programming. She tried to prevent Ultron from killing her friends, only to catch the brunt of his power cannon. The metal lady didn't live to tell the tale. 

"Jocasta, you were always the misguided, optimistic fool... The witless pawn!"

Enraged, Machine Man and the newly freed Thing eventually took down Ultron, only to be left with the sad realization that even in victory there could be defeat.

"Goodbye, Jocastta. Your friends will miss you..."

Back in November of 1982, Tom DeFalco probably had no idea how true those words would turn out to be. After all, the defining part of Jocasta's shtick was the fact even her closest friends had trouble remembering she was around... on a good day. That makes the following scene from the Roger Stern penned Avengers I#231 all the more poignant. Cover dated May, 1983... The Avengers assembled to pay tribute to one of their own who never truly was.

Of all people, Vision decided to deliver the eulogy.

"The robot Jocasta was never officially an Avenger. In truth, we barely knew her."

... Yeah, and not for lack of trying either, Vizh. His words truly rang hollow, given the fact poor ol' 'Casta bent over backwards to get to know you and all the other Avengers the second she arrived at the mansion. It's also telling that the Avengers didn't decide to posthumously vote her in, like they did when Captain Marvel and Mantis seemingly passed beyond the veil. Still, to be remembered at all is preferable to being totally forgotten and artist Al Milgrom did a bang up job showing the individual Avengers' reactions to the departure of one of their own. 

But truth be told, Jocasta wasn't forgotten, not by Machine Man at least. In the latter days of Roger Stern's Avengers, a storyline popped up in which the Supreme Adaptoid went around recruiting sentient robots as part of his "Heavy Metal" team. He even got Machine Man to join after promising Stack to help rebuild Jocasta (which would mean the Avengers buried an empty coffin). 

"My hopes for your revival have risen again, my Jocasta."

Unfortunately for Stack, the Avengers would stop the Adaptoid well before he even had half a chance to rebuild Jocasta. However, right before the 80s came to a close she briefly returned back to life in Avengers Annual I#17, the closing chapter of the rather abysmal Evolutionary War crossover. The High Evolutionary had built a genetic bomb that upon detonation would evolve all of humanity, Figuring the Avengers might be a problem, he ordered Jocasta's reconstruction when he deduced her accurate cybernetic memory might contain all the data he needed to deal with his possible foes. Using the robot's remains, the Evolutionary's accomplices rebuilt Jocasta.

Turns out she still wasn't ready to help a villain, any villain.

"Thrablam!"

Now, I'm no counter intelligence expert... but if one needed to gather information from a possibly hostile source, you probably don't need to arm her to the teeth. In fact, since most of the knowledge you want is inside her head, why bother with the rest? Finding herself restored, Jocasta quickly defeated her captors and rushed to phone the Avengers about the current crisis.

Of course, technically there weren't any Avengers to contact. The team had disbanded following the recent Dr. Druid tragedy, so Jocasta's call was handled by the Hydrobase automated phone service. It decided the threat warranted a response and summoned a rag tag team of reservists: Falcon, Beast, Hulk, Hercules, Captain America... and Rita DeMarra, the female Yellowjacket who was drawn to Hydrobase just to shut off the alarm that kept going off in Hank Pym's old helmet. Together, they located Jocasta, learned of the Evolutionary's plans and decided to stop him. But not before the good Captain got in a nice lil' dig at her expense. 

"Yes, you did, ma'am... Before we could ask you to join us on special status"

So much for "Jocasta! Thank heavens you're still alive". First, they question her allegiance, then they doubt if she's even real, topped off by Cap's stern lecture on her leaving the Avengers before they could do her the tremendous favor of not allowing her to join. And the irony of it all is that the High Evolutionary brought on his downfall by reconstructing Jocasta. If she hadn't been around, his master plan would have gone unopposed. By the time they reached him, the Evolutionary decided to repay her in kind.

"OH!"

Talk about the shortest comeback in the business... The other Avengers fight on, with Hercules finally taking the Evolutionary down by "evolving beyond godhood" (don't ask). And guess what, Jocasta was still alive, thanks to Yellowjacket's aid. Instead of just laying there in pieces, Jocasta had plugged herself into the base's mainframe, cracked the computer's security code only to discover the genetic bomb was about to go off... She decided to stay behind and force it to self destruct.

So, here we go again... 

"You must leave now, hurry. And godspeed. Goodbye, Captain"

And with that send off, Jocasta died for the second time in one decade. The 80s weren't too kind to a character that basically needed a little love, just like the humans and synthezoids who denied her. After saving humanity, Jocasta was finally made an Avenger but, to add insult to injury, that didn't exactly mean a thing because the team was still disbanded. 

Jocasta was gone but not forgotten. In the years that followed, she reappeared in numerous forms: an alternate reality, golden Jocasta fought the Avengers as a member of the Gatherers, Some time later, Iron Man discovered that Jocasta's computer mind had survived as programming. He used her services as a major domo of sorts before at long last in the late 2000s Hank Pym rebuilt her... And then started dating her. Because hey, sleeping with the robot whose personality was a copy of your ex wife is healthy.

Then again, who could say no to this doll*?

*... Except for most everyone all the time during the 1970s and 80s, of course.

1978: The Jocasta's On You part I: This Eager Avenger In Waiting...

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In today's Marvel Universe, you're more likely to catch membership to Earth's mightiest than the common cold. That makes the story of Jocasta all the more tragic. She desperately wanted to join only to be snubbed and ignored throughout the 1980s... And to think she was the most competent Avenger ever, as this retrospective will show.

"The first Avenger who touches her answers to me!"

Iron Man protecting a woman's virtue? Guess there's a first time for everything. All kidding aside, just who was Jocasta? For that, we need to revisit the mid 1970s. By then, Ultron had established himself as one of the team's most implacable foes, with ties to both the Vision (who he created) and Hank Pym (his creator). When Jim Shooter took over the series, he figured the next step in Ultron's evolution was him taking a wife. In classic oedipal fashion, Shooter decided that mechanical mate's mind had to be based on the brainwave patterns of Janet van Dyne, his "father's wife.

Long story short... A temporarily insane Pym delivered Janet to Ultron and helped set up the mind transfer. But, even though she was already alive by the time the Avengers arrived, Jocasta wasn't much of a threat. In fact, she almost immediately turned against her creator/father/husband-to-be by cybernetically ordering Pym's ants to lure the Avengers to them. And no one seemed to notice her role in their victory...

Talk about establishing a pattern from the word go.

                     "In her brief, half-living existence, perhaps she was more human, more like Jan
                                                                 than even Ultron suspected!"

But the Avengers didn't give it too much thought. With Ultron seemingly defeated, they left the now inert Jocasta behind and returned home to deal with threats like Whirlwind, Living Laser, Power Man and their employer Count Nefaria. They were also alarmed by the arrival of the 30th century heroes the Guardians of the Galaxy who had returned to the past to find their archenemy Korvac... And amidst all the hubbub, a package was delivered to the mansion in Avengers I#170...

                      "She was undoubtedly his masterwork... the product of dark inspiration!"

Coming from Yellowjacket, a split persona Hank Pym created when he was once again mentally disturbed, that's saying a lot. The Avengers gain custody of the seemingly lifeless Jocasta. But, as all technically inert lifeform are wont to do, she soon reactivates, breaks free, almost squeezing the life out of the Wasp and Yellowjacket before fleeing the premises. Captain America and Iron Man stop the others from tearing her to pieces because, well... 

  "We're going to give her a headstart... and she's going to lead us to... Ultron!"

And lead them to Ultron she did... This time, the recalcitrant robot was holed up in a local monastery, where he had replaced most of the inhabitants with murderous mechanical nuns straight out of a catholic school girl's nightmare. Despite the fact Ultron had forced her to come to him via remote control, Jocasta once again saved the day by resisting her perfect mate's desires and plans.

"I love you, Ultron! I exist only to love you, to serve you, for so I was created... 

and thus I must destroy you!"

Jocasta's open act of rebellion allowed the Avengers to free themselves and to finally (or so they thought) deal with Ultron. In the aftermath, they were suddenly confronted with another mystery when Jocasta disappeared along with several Avengers.

                                                   "HEY! The tin lady... she vanished!"

And so she did... Even though she was still far from officially being a member, Taneleer Tivan, better known as the Collector, had grabbed Jocasta to add to his collection of Avengers. Y'see, the Elder of the Universe was aware of Korvac's plans (because Tivan's daughter Carina was dating him)... And the old man was desperate to capture and save as many of Earth's mightiest before Korvac could carry out his plans to reshape the cosmos. 

Over the course of several issues, the Collector quietly nabbed most of the Avengers until a small contingent including the Wasp and Hawkeye managed to stop him. In the process, they freed the others and the Collector's shenanigans were finally noticed by the almighty Korvac who turned the Elder to ashes as punishment for trying to deceive him.

A fate Jocasta faced in Avengers I#177, when she decided to join the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy in opposing Korvac and his lover. She was unceremoniously dealt with...

"You are merely loyal to those you think are friends! I am sorry it must be thus!"

Korvac and his love proved unbeatable, until they realize their mission of covertly taking over the universe and forcing their version of peace and love on everyone is botched because of their fight with the heroes. The two nigh omnipotent beings commited suicide and used their final energies to restore all their deceased opponents back to life. Jocasta lives... And remains with the team for a few more issues, even though not everyone seems quite aware of the fact that, well, she's there.

"Seven of you will remain as Avengers... the rest are out!"

Case in point... The Avengers' government liaison Henry Peter Gyrich had no idea the walking, talking Jocasta was actually alive when he showed up in Avengers I#181 to read the team the riot act. In order for the government to trust the Avengers again, Gyrich demanded the organisation cut their active membership back to seven members... of Gyrich's choice. To no one's surprise, Jocasta was not elected or even considered a possibility. 

In fact, Gyrich pretty much had a conniption when Jocasta spoke up during this scene from Avengers I#182

"Hey! I thought this tin woman was just a trophy or something!"

Pleasant as always, Jocasta seemingly doesn't take offense to Gyrich calling her a meaningless trophy, pointing out that if he feels she's a machine, why should she even require security clearances or passes? 

But considering the Avengers' long established history of inclusiveness, scenes like this leave a bitter taste in any fan's mouth. By now, Jocasta has more than proven her worth... She fought against Ultron, her ideal mate, twice... Helped against the Collector, sacrificed her life fighting Korvac... Heck, the Vision is equally as artificial and he got voted in after his first appearance in which he tried to kill the Wasp and was a willing accomplice of Ultron's...

"You accept me... though I'm not truly a human being?"

Now, I'm not saying Vision was accepted because the Avengers were pretty much an all boy's club back then... But it is odd to see how much difficulty they seemed to have acknowledging an equally artificial lifeform like Jocasta. Still, she bravely soldiered on in obscurity and didn't even balk when it was her cybernetic sensory array that led the team to locate the missing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch (who were captured by their alleged foster father Django Maximoff).

"I sense that the energy stream emanates from that rooming house."

Once again, Jocasta proved crucial in finding, fighting and defeating a foe. But just like the Avengers themselves, the writers of the book would sometimes just forget that she was even there. Jocasta lived at the mansion at the time and even though Gyrich's government edict had limited them to seven active members, there were rules that allowed the team to call in reservists/back ups if needed.

In other words: Jocasta could have been on active duty since day one... But, for instance, where was she when the team faced Crusher Creel in Avengers I#183 & 184?

"I ain't gonna stop 'til this harbor runs red with Avengers' blood!"

Or a few issues down the line when Pietro and Wanda run into trouble once again while searching for their true origins in the Balkan nation of Transia? Iron Man proved unavailable, so you'd think the perfect substitute would be the Avengers' resident Iron Maiden... You'd be wrong, though. Captain America decided to call in a rather wonderful reservist instead.

"We're going to need all the "muscle" we can get!"

Of course, the Avengers had no idea they were flying into a combat zone ruled by a Ch'ton possessed Scarlet Witch... Given the fact that magic is vulnerable to metal, having an honest to goodness, super powered metal woman on the team would have been quite the assett. But no, Jocasta was unavailable and the Avengers made due without her... A trend that would continue on into the 80s as we'll see in part II of The Jocasta's On You: I'm Still Here.

1980s: Ulterior Ultron part II: This Evil Multiplying

By Jef Willemsen (clarmindcontrol.blogspot.com)

In the second and final part of our look at Ultron's 1980s appearances, the adamantium assassin is halfway through the decade when he starts to suffer from a complex combination of daddy issues and cybernetic schizophrenia. There may be no strings on the James Spader movie version, but the Marvel Ultron sure was governed by the ties that bind.

                                                       "Torn between two Ultrons!"

"... Feeeeelin' like a fool!"

As we covered last time, Ultron XI went to the Secret Wars, got his head handed to him and was left behind on Battleworld. He would have stayed there if the Thing hadn't decided to bring it back with him in April 1985's Fantastic Four I#277. Whatever happened to the adamantium pumpkin was never revealed, but six months down the road he showed up as Ultron XII in The West Coast Avengers II#1. 

     "Never shall the immortal Ultron rest until he has destroyed all who bear the name of Avenger!"

Heck of a way to start a West Coast franchise, Hawk... But Ultron wasn't working alone, he had joined his old ally the Grim Reaper along with M'Baku the Man Ape, Nekra and Goliath in a complicated scheme of revenge and sibling rivalry focussing on Hank Pym, Wonder Man and the Vision.

Avengers: Age of Ultron steered clear from the complicated relationship Ultron had with his father/creator Hank Pym, but writer Steve Englehart dedicated the first two issues of West Coast Avengers to this dysfunctional duo... And Pym wasn't even a member!

                                                         "Just watch me, dad! Just watch!" 

This was the first time Englehart started dropping hints this new 'n improved Ultron wasn't his usual, maniacal self. But nothing much came of it, not with so many villains to pound on. In the end, the Avengers and their allies Vision and the Scarlet Witch defeated the Reaper and his allies. Ultron escaped and, as always, vowed revenge. Let's see what his big plan was...

                          "Hello, dad! It's me again... Your loving son, Ultron Mark Twelve!"

Yup, the invincible, adamantium dipped killing machine resorted to prank phone calls. Over the next couple of issues, Pym was repeatedly called by his "son" who did very little but leave ominious, teasing messages. Just before he could ask Pym to ask around for "Amanda Hugenkiss", Henry had enough, cursed his boy out and hung up the phone. That provoked a very unique reaction from Ultron when he called again a little while later.

"You were right to put me in my place!

                          I've been an immature fool and I want to bury the hatchet... Father!"

Well, burying the hatchet is fine, son... But what about those eye lasers, pocket nuke and other deadly weapons you got stuffed in your chassis? Pym was intrigued by Ultron's apology though, and stayed on the phone for a while listening to his robotic seed make amends. He even agreed to meet with Ultron, naturally without even bothering to inform the Avengers one of their most lethal enemies had him on speed dial. Logic systems might be Henry Pym's speciality in the lab, when it comes to rational thinking he's the worst.

          "Father, now that you are divorced, it is likely that the only "son" you'll ever have is me!"

There's something uncomfortably comic about seeing those sappy lines come out of a grinning deathbot with a thermo-nuclear furnace in his throat. But Ultron seemed sincere enough in his intentions, so much so that Pym finally started to believe his story. According to Ultron, after "evolving" through 12 incarnations he'd finally worked out the kinks in his programming. He compared his hatred towards Pym and all mankind to a teenager going through puberty and rebelling against the world in general and his father in particular. All in all not the worst analogy and Englehart really sold the premise, even though most teens first go through puberty before they take (or make) a wife. All Jocastas aside, for a brief moment, Hank Pym felt he had a son.

And the bonding continued...

"My GOD! The face is still so threatening, but... he's hugging me!"

The idea that an artificial intelligence could eventually decide it had outgrown its basic programming (i.e. 'kill all humans') was a fascinating one. and Englehart really sells the premise. For a brief moment, Hank Pym even felt he had a son. Which was a lucky break, because at that point in his life he was pretty much down in the dumps. No purpose in life, no one to love, not even a steady job as either a scientist or a superhero. Having his greatest failure suddenly turn out to be a loving child felt like Hank's first lucky break in quite a while. But of course, we can't have that now, can we?

"You are almost too easy to kill!"

Ah kids, you turn your back for a second and there's two of 'em. West Coast Avengers I#7 revealed how Ultron Mark 12, or "Mark" as he preferred to be called, had come to be. Y'see, Ultron-11 was right in the middle of experimenting with his software when the Beyonder abducted him to go fight in the Secret Wars. The experiments continued unsupervised and ultimately led to the creation of Mark 12, who had been allowed time to outgrow his hatred for mankind.

The Mark 11 still had its sheer distate for all things fleshy. The issue also revealed how he came back to life. After Thing forgot all about him,  he was found by a nurse who didn't realize what the funny looking head was. She took it home and put it on top of her TV, considering it little more than a fancy paper weight... Being near electronics allowed Ultron to take over the set, feed off enough electricity to power his hypnotic encephalo-ray and he was back in business. The enslaved nurse shipped him to computer expert David Menconi on the West Coast who also fell prey to Ultie's hypnotic powers. Menconi was forced to drive Ultron to his old lab...

"Good! Now carry me inside!"

Long story short... With the help of Menconi Ultron-11 soon regained a body. He then realized there was a "successor" of sorts running around, the benevolent Mark. Disgusted by his loving, pacificist tendencies, Ultron-11 pretended to be Mark and lured Hank into the trap we saw before. Fair's fair, it's not like Pym could tell them apart. Luckily, the Mark-11 knew an easy way to make sure anyone could tell the difference.

                                                         "An Ultron that must cease to be!"

That wasn't the end for Mark, who forced his body to come to him and reattach the head as best he could. While Ultron-11 was busy torturing his father/creator, Mark sought out the one person who had a chance of fighting Ultron: the Avenger turned moviestar Wonder Man. In the past, he'd been terribly insecure and mortally afraid of death, even though his ionic form was practically unkillable. His fear of dying had caused him to falter against Ultron in the late 70s, but thanks to his new, Hollywood size ego Simon Williams was ready for a rematch.

"I won't make the same mistake you did!"

Poor Ultron, ripped apart by someone wearing the most 80s pair of shades you'd ever want to see. And as for Mark, he "died" soon afterwards, the faulty reattachment had caused the circuits in his head to fuse together beyond repair. Hank Pym was alone again... But luckily, he's a sane and stable man who'd never let life push him to make rash decisions...

Ultron returned in Fantastic Four, once again courtesy of Steve Englehart who wrote all but two of his 1980s appearances. There's a bit of a disclaimer though: the Ultron appearing in Fantastic Four I#331 was actually "just" part of a bad dream. Click here for the full story, but in a nutshell: Englehart had intended the Ultron encounter as an actual adventure, but pressure from Marvel editorial forced him to make changes to his planned storylines. In order to have his cake and eat it too, he decided to have the FF dream 'm instead. 

Reed dreamed that his new PC, the Ultron anagram"Turino XL", turned into a new version of the killing machine. However, in the dream Ultron was unceremoniously defeated by the She-Thing of all people... Talk about your regular revoltin' developments.

"Don't forget, honey, I'm not just a pretty face!"

Thank heavens it was only a dream. Ultron showed up one last time during the 1980s as part of the company wide Acts of Vengeance crossover. Brought together by a disguised Loki, the Kingpin, Doctor Doom, Mandarin and the Red Skull concocted a plan to rid themselves of their mortal enemies by playing a game of Musical Super Villains. They had their allies attack heroes who'd their never faced before, figuring the element of surprise would win them the day.

The Kingpin wanted Doctor Doom to defeat Daredevil for him. Doom being Doom, he wasn't about to lower himself to a lackey's work. Instead, he reconstructed and reprogrammed Ultron.

                      "Your circuits contain certain information on a Daredevil. Destroy him."

To keep the potentially lethal robot in check, Doom had decided to incorporate all 12 previous personalities into Ultron-13, essentially giving him a case of cybernetic schizophrenia. Ultron heard voices and they were all real and all his. This was of course right up the alley of Ann Nocenti, who wrote Daredevil I#275 and 276. 

In true Nocenti style, the rambling, functionally insane Ultron was sent against Daredevil who happened to be out in the woods with his friends, the mysterious Number Nine and Karnak and Gorgon of all people. You'd think that a glorified, blind acrobat wouldn't last two seconds against even an insane Ultron, but Nocenti managed to get two issues out of it.

"Kill the Daredevil. Why? I don't hate him. None of One through Thirteen hate him any more than the rest of humanity. Why must I commit this unnecessary act?" 

... Why must we read this unnecessary banter? Nocenti often incorporated characters suffering from mental disorders, she created the schizophrenic Typhoid Mary for instance. While she's usually very good at voicing the psychologically stricken, having a robot go through it is just plain silly.

Maybe not as silly ha-ha as the Ultron-11 head with a TV set for a body, but still pretty bad. Ultron's biggest enemy was himself and a surprising, moral dilemma. He is supposed to be perfect, unlike humanity which is inherently flawed. However, since human hands created him, doesn't that make him imperfect as well? After almost 44 pages of quasi-philosophic moral meandering, Ultron (and the readership) had enough. He practically tore its own head off, which saddened Number Nine who he'd decided to take as his bride. She felt he didn't deserve to die, because there was an inherent good hiding behind his voice (Mark-12's influence no doubt).

Daredevil wasn't convinced...

"Crkkk!"

Yup, a robot who knocked out Thor and ripped through entire teams of Avengers like a box of Kleenex during flu season is brought down by a pissed off man in tights carrying a branch. How the mighty have fallen.

                                                                       "That's it."

You said it, DD!

And with that rather depressing story, the 1980s came to a close for Ultron. Luckily for him and Avengers fan everywhere, the 90s were far kinder to everyone's favorite electronic executioner. Roy and Dann Thomas would make him a mainstay during their early 90s Avengers West Coast run that also introduced his new "bride", the sassy Alkhema. Ultron became a threat to be reckoned with and the anticipation for his return was palpable in the late 90s when Kurt Busiek and George Perez relaunched the Avengers.

The two titans were well aware Ultron was in demand and made sure to tease his inevitable appearance. For instance, with this scene from Avengers III#10.

"Enjoy it while you can, my flawed progenitor... My time is dawning!"

Ultron took his time getting ready... And when he finally made his move nine months later, it led to one of Marvel's most beloved, shocking and intense stories. Over the course of four issues, Ultron took over the country of Slorenia, wiped out its entire population and almost got around to repopulating the planet with drones he planned to give personalities based on the memory engrams of his "family", the kidnapped Vision, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, Wonder Man and Hank Pym.

Busiek was one of the first who got the essence of Ultron right... You should be deathly afraid of him, not because he's "just" an unbeatable robot. No, it's because Ultron is better than you. That's one of the few things Brian Michael Bendis got right during the dreadful and ultimately inconsequential Age of Ultron event. Given enough time, Ultron will overcome us all. And not because he's "just" functionally immortal. Ultron can keep reinventing himself, becoming better and better with each new incarnation... And what's worse, the older, tough as heck versions are always right around the corner should he need them.

Nothing conveyed that sense of knot-in-stomach dread than the ending to Avengers I#21. The Avengers had pretty much expended themselves fighting and destroying what they thought was Ultron. Only for another to show up moments later. And another. And another... Which led Firestar to ask just how many of them there were. The rhetorical query got a sphincter tightening reply.

"Oh, no..."

In conclusion: every decade gets the Ultron it deserves... The 1980s version of the robot wasn't all that concerned with exterminating humanity. Taking a cue from the American political climate, it was all about "me, me, me", or better put: "me and my daddy". Steve Englehart went out of his way to get Ultron to try and form an emotional bond with his "father", a man who as Busiek and Perez would reveal, had used his own engrams as a basis for the robot's personality matrix.

Ultron's unsupervised navel gazing led to the ultra-sensitive Mark who also got his time to shine as part of the "chorus" of previous personalities in Ann Nocenti's Daredevil. "Mark", for all his kindness and uniqueness, was exactly what was wrong with Ultron in the 80s. It's hard to make a robotic villain relatable on a human level without taking away the cold, robotic origins that made it so unique in the first place. 

It's a delicate balance and, of course, entirely dependent on the culture's stance. Remember, the touchy-feely approach was all the rage in the 80s...  Star Trek: The Next Generation launched in 1987 with the ship's psychologist seated on the bridge, right next to the Captain.

Luckily for us, Ultron outgrew his cuddly phase in time for the movies.

Surrender to the Age of Ultron, puny flesh beings!

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Spoiler Free Review!

 Last night, I peaked at the Rotten Tomatoes rating and was a bit discouraged to see it at 84%, a respectable score, but a bit lower than I expected (the 2012 Avengers scored 92%). And now I'm startled to see it drop down to 75%.

The movie opens at a breakneck pace and only slows down a bit in the middle for some great character moments before rushing headlong into the climatic confrontation. The film's strength centers on the characters and Whedon leverages that to insert some clever, strong original bits, like Natasha and Bruce's relationship and Hawkeye's backstory. The relationship between Natasha and Bruce was a nice development that had a lot of weight in the story. Nice to see something that originated from the movies that hasn't already been done in the comics.

The story's main premise revolves around artificial intelligence and the role the Avengers play in the world. The execution of it works well and the character angles Whedon chose to focus on was really effective. He dissects the team's chemistry and really puts a lot pressure on specific points that take the team to the brink of despair, but then rebuilds it even stronger.

Spader was good as Ultron. I wasn't bothered by his voice as others were, but I would have liked to have heard a bit more of a metallic sound. What did bother me was that his motivation for such a megalomaniacal course was weak. I would have liked to have seen a deterioration of the relationship between Ultron and Stark.

Whedon adeptly handled the abundance of characters and his dialog was dead-on as usual. The Scarlet Witch surprised me although her powers were a little undefined. Looking forward to seeing more of her and it was nice to see some hints at her relationship with the Vision. Quicksilver was also a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed Evan Peters' portrayal of the speedster in X-Men: Days of Future Past and didn't expect to like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but I did.

The Vision was impressive on all levels. Beautiful CGI captured his look and Paul Bettany nailed his character, both voice and presence. The only thing I could complain about was that he didn't have trademark collar on his cape.

The Hulkbuster vs Hulk battle was one hell of a brawl. There's also one great scene in the climax where the heroes have all gathered to make a final stand that explodes from a comic book in a sequence that's frame like comic panels. You'll know it when you see it.

Sadly there's no 2nd teaser as the end of the film. The first one's great, but there's nothing after that.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying film that builds on the Marvel movie franchise, specifically Whedon's 2012 Avengers. A fun blockbuster movie to kick off the summer! Glad I'm going to see this one again on Saturday with the kids.