Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Variant Covers Show An Evolving Ultron

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at the explosive first issue of Age Of Ultron #1! This March, enter the darkest days of the Marvel Universe as it’s heroes fight for from the blockbuster creative team of Brian Michael Bendis (All New X-Men, Avengers VS. X-Men) and Bryan Hitch (Ultimates, Fantastic Four). Evil has triumphed over good and leading this new age is none other than Ultron, the deadly sentient robot created by founding Avenger Hank Pym who turned on his creator to achieve his twisted objective…the utter destruction of humanity. Now, it’s up to the few remaining heroes to band together and find any way to topple their new monarch. Can Wolverine, Emma Frost, Invisible Woman, Taskmaster, Beast, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Moon Knight turn the tide?

With the robotic revolution in full force, no fan can miss how Age of Ultron will ultimately change the Marvel Universe leaving no hero or villain unscathed! So what are you waiting for? Head on over to your local comic shop and reserve a copy of Age of Ultron #1, featuring a unique cover with foil treatment and design at no extra cost. Fans have been demanding to know more about Age of Ultron since Free Comic Book Day last year, and come March- some of those questions and more (including an ending nobody will see coming) will be answered in Age of Ultron!

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Blast From The Past: Marvel Bringing Back The Gold Foil Cover For Age Of Ultron

Joss Whedon’s Avengers has come and gone and easily became one of the most successful films of all time. Aside from that little tid bit, Marvel Studios and Disney pulled off a huge feat in creating the first film universe in which multiple films lead into one culminating movie. But some fans will still say that something was missing. A pivotal character, or charactrs for that matter, that probably should have been included: Ant-Man. We know that Edgar Wright has been working on a film based on Ant-Man for some time now, which is now slated for a 2015 release and many hoped he’d show up in Avengers, but that didn’t happen. Little to no information is known about what direction the Ant-Man film will take, or if he will have a part in the upcoming Avengers 2, but one can only hope,right?

One of the greatest creations that Hank Pym ever devised was Ultron, a sentient robot hell-bent on destroying the Avengers and man-kind as a whole. Ultron started out as a simple robot, nothing more than a torso on treads with spindly arms. Pym wanted to endow the robot with consciousness, so using a copyhis own brain patterns, Pym gave his creation life, so to speak. But, the robot not only gained Pym’s massive intellect, but also took on his mental instabilities. The problem was, the robot had no conscience to keep that instability in check.

 To Pym’s surprise, the robot developed an advanced intellect within moments of its activation, and an unexpected capacity for emotion; most notably, it was filled with irrational hatred for its “father” Pym and the human race Pym represented. Overpowering and mesmerizing Pym, the robot-which soon dubbed itself Ultron-hypnotically commanded Pym to forget its existence and abandon the New Jersey lab where it was created. Pym did as commanded, and after the lab was closed up, Ultron returned. Using the lab’s equipment, Ultron rebuilt himself completely four times, making improvements and modifications each time.

Christening itself Ultron-5, he was now ready to declare war on humanity, specifically, the Avengers. Ultron, adopting the name Crimson Cowl to hid his robotic identity, pulled together a group of Avengers foes that included Klaw, Melter, Radioactive Man and Whirlwind and named themselves the new Masters of Evil. Jarvis, having been mesmerized by Ultron, provided the group with plans for the Avengers Mansion and its security system. Ultimately, Ultron and his team were defeated, but the robot eluded capture.

Following in the footsteps of Pym, Ultron set out to create his own artificial being. Having acquired the inert android the Human Torch, Ultron modified its appearance and abilities and programmed it using the brain patterns of the Grim Reaper’s seemingly deceased brother. The droid, lated dubber The Vision by Wasp, attacked the Avengers at the behest of Ultron, but Vision had the human conscience that Ultron was missing, causing Vision to turn on its creator and destroying Ultron and of course, joined the Avengers in their quest to fight evil. Pym had slowly began regain his memories of creating Ultron, which was the source of much pain and anguish for Pym over the years. Soon, it became common knowledge that Ultron was the creation of Pym, but it would be years before he admitted that Ultron’s brain patterns were based on Ant-Man’s own.

The same robot that destroyed him also helped create Ultron-6, when an unwilling Vision was forced to create the nexte iteration of Ultron using a body composed of the super-alloy Adamantium. However, the Avengers still managed to trick Ultron into destroying himself. The head of Ultron-6 survived and later resurfaced in the Inhuman city of Attilan, where a massive version of Ultron was built by Maximus, becoming Ulton -7. The robot crashed the wedding of Quicksilver and Crystal, but was deactivated by the massive psionic powers of Franklin Richards.

Ultron-9 came about when Tony Stark, acting on a post-hypnotic command that Ultron had given a while back, rebuilt Ultron. Once again, the Avengers defeated the robot when Hawkeye kicked him into a vat of molten Adamantium, which cooled into an unbreakable prison. Jocasta, a previously created rogue “bride” of Ultron, was cybernetically manipulated to creat the tenth versio of Ultron, who quickly created several back up robots to serve as drone and back up “bodies” for himself. This time, Thing, along with Jocasta and her new companion Machine Man, confronted Ultron. Jocasta sacrificed herself in attempt to stop Ultron, but it was Machine Man who ultimately put a stop to him by reaching down his throat and destroying his internal mechanisms.

There have been many more versions of the robot, now numbering in the teens. He has been the servant of several other baddies, including Kingpin, Red Skull and  Doctor Doom, but ultimately, Ultron serves no man and his mission to destroy man kind is paramount.

We know that Thanos will likely be the main baddie for the second Avengers film, which I’m am giddy like a school girl over, but let’s look past that film to the more-than-likely third Avengers film. As I mentioned earlier, Ant-Man will be getting a solo film, but it releases after the Avengers sequel in 2015 and we don’t know yet if Pym will be a part of the team in that film. Regardless, in his solo film, it’d be a great opportunity to introduce Ultron.  I’s highly unlikely that he’d be the villain in that film, but you could have Pym working on Ultron throughout the film and as an end credits scene, Ultron springs to life setting him up as a rogue for future films, namely Avengers 3. Another route you could take is that Pym creates Ultron and he gets out of hand, essentially using Avengers 3 as a direct sequel to the Ant-Man solo film. Obviously there are numerous directions you can take with the character.

But what makes me most excited about seeing a character like Ultron on screen is the potential battle sequences that could ensure. Avengers set a huge precedence for comic book films as far as action scenes, especially since a better part of the film was a giant battle against aliens. What’ I’d like to see is a combined front against Ultron, with Cap, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk and Ant-Man taking on the ground assault, with Iron Man, Thor and yes…even Wasp attacking from the air, with their single target being Ultron, a seemingly unstoppable force.

Anyway, so who do you get to play this menacing foe? One person that I’ve always thought would do the role justice is Christopher Judge, of Stargate SG-1 fame. I don’t doubt that he’d do a decent job with the role, but I think I’m going to head a different route and suggest Andy Serkis. It’s a bit out there, but hang with me here. I’m suggesting that Marvel use motion-cap to produce Ultron and why not bring in the master in Serkis. The CGI work they’ve done on the Iron Man films is superb, but Mark Ruffalo’s mo-cap version of Hulk was amazing and I’m thinking that the same would occur should Serkis step into the role of Ultron. Not to mention Serkis’s ability to manipulate his voice is extraordinary, and could likely come up with a fantastic spin on a menacing voice for the robot.

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Ecksmanfan (Josh Johnson/GeekBoy) is a contributor here at Comic Book Therapy, helping readers to control the geek within. Josh is the owner and editor of GeekBoyMovieNews, your go-to  website for all things related to geek movies, plus a little bit more. If you have suggestions for the next installment of The Neglected Nemeses, be sure to mention it in the comments below! You can view past installments of The Neglected Nemeses by CLICKING HERE.

Josh "ecksmanfan" Johnson, The Neglected Nemeses: Ultron

The first teaser is of Thor’s hammer. It’s broken yet again. Apparently they don’t make quality hammers like they used to. The second on is of Wolverine popping his claws in a firestorm. Could it be related to The Phoenix force? Who knows. Marvel will declare war during Comic-Con International in Sand Diego during the Amazing Spider-Man panel on July 15. It will be an Avenger-centri storyline more than likely. That kind of spoils some AvX threads, but it was very unlikely The Avengers would be wiped out completely.

Now this is where the speculation begins. I’ve had a very interesting chat with a comic book brain trust called S.O.A.L, and it looks like this points to Ultron. Besides the Age of Ultron being teased in the events of the Free Comic Book Day issue and the fact Brian Hitch has been working on it for a while, it just makes perfect sense. We’ve heard about the Age of Ultron and the Ultron War coming up for some time. It looks like now is the time. If you look at the timeline from Heroic Age Avengers which I used as the banner at the top, it all lines up for the Ultron War. AvX isn’t on the timeline, but just below the Ultron War it says Yesterdays X-Men. That could be AvX and a reactivated X-gene. Cyclops was hoping for the Mutant rebirth, and he may get it. We’ll have to wait until  Comic-Con, but this gives us a lot to think about.

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Marvel Set For Another War: Is It With Ultron?