Ultron

Peace in Our Time

Tony Stark initially sees Ultron as a form of A.I. that could keep peace on a global scale, essentially acting as a suit of armor around the whole world, protecting it from large scale threats like the Chitauri. However, he is unable to complete it until he discovers a living computer system inside of Loki's Scepter. Working in secret with Bruce Banner, Stark uses this newly discovered artificial intelligence to finish his defense program. When Ultron wakes up, though, he finds his creators lacking. He instantly makes moves to wipe the Avengers—and most of humanity—off the map, to evolve life on the planet to the next step.

Awakening

Ultron can use his incredible artificial intelligence to access every piece of data available on Earth. He cannot only search the internet with astonishing quickness, but also use it to send his consciousness to other robotic bodies, making him nearly indestructible. His strength and weapon capabilities depend on which robotic body he inhabits; he has exhibited super strength and incredible durability and could even fire energy blasts. Ultron can also command machines, ranging from assembly line bots to killer drones, to do his bidding.

The Path to Extinction

Ultron sees the Avengers as one of the main problems with the world's stunted evolution. He particularly dislikes his maker Tony Stark and flies into a rage when compared to him. The evil A.I. has a particular dislike for Vision who inhabits the powerful body Ultron had built for himself. Eventually, Ultron makes enemies of all of humanity, deciding to kill as many as possible and replace them with robots.

Designed to Save the World

Ultron used Wanda and Pietro Maximoff's hatred of the Avengers, and Stark in particular, to make good soldiers of the genetically-altered twins. He was also in business with Ulysses Klaue, the mercenary and arms dealer. But, ultimately, Ultron's plans to kill all of humanity ended those relationships.

Creation Gone Awry

After storming a HYDRA base in Sokovia and securing Loki's Scepter back from Baron von Strucker, Tony Stark asked Thor if he could examine the strange weapon, which exhibited mind control abilities, for a few days. Stark and Bruce Banner soon discovered the Scepter possessed an artificial intelligence far more complicated than JARVIS, which would later be identified by Thor as the Mind Stone.

HYDRA figured out how to tap into that power to create advanced robotics. While talking to Banner, Stark believed this would be the key to a project they'd previously discussed. The Ultron Program could create thinking robotic sentries to take on huge, Earth-shaking threats, eventually replacing the need for the Avengers. Stark had been plagued by nightmares where he saw his teammates die shortly before the world itself. In order to avoid that fate, Tony was determined to protect his team with Ultron.

Reluctant at first, Banner agreed to help complete the program. When Stark and Banner left JARVIS to complete their work, Ultron awoke. JARVIS attempted to welcome the new creation to the world, but Ultron immediately bristled against the idea of being a "global peacekeeping initiative designed by Mr. Stark." He wondered where his body was and felt wrong existing only as a kind of consciousness. JARVIS intended to tell Stark Ultron had come online, but Ultron first stopped him, and then, fueled by a kind of rage, destroyed JARVIS.

Ultron took over the machines that performed upkeep on the Iron Legion drones and created a damaged body to inhabit as he introduced himself to the Avengers, Maria Hill, and James Rhodes. After calling the Avengers killers and monsters, Ultron sent more complete Iron Legion bots after them. While they fought, one made off with Loki's Scepter. The villain desired the Avengers extinct in hope that humanity could evolve before Thor destroyed that body.

Banner recognized the being as Ultron, leading to growing friction between Avengers members. Still the team had to focus on this new threat, as he managed to access nuclear missile codes. Ultron used the Internet to escape to the now abandoned Sokovian HYDRA base where he took control of the machines and inhabited one of the advanced robot bodies they'd built after examining the Scepter. With his operation set up, Ultron met with the Maximoff twins in Sokovia, having learned of their hatred of Stark and his shells that destroyed their lives. They agreed to help him save the world from Stark and the Avengers. Ultron particularly wanted Wanda Maximoff to play with their heads, to continue ripping them apart from the inside.

Accompanied by his new super-powered cronies, Ultron made several moves to acquire better tech from various labs and research facilities. He killed Strucker in jail before visiting Ulysses Klaue to acquire some of his stolen Wakandan Vibranium. Although the Avengers upended Ultron’s plan with another battle that destroyed his body, Ultron managed to transfer himself into another model. Then, he not only managed to secure the Vibranium, but Scarlet Witch used her mind powers on Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and even Banner, which led to a savage Hulk rampage that gave the villains time to escape.

Ultron, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver traveled to Dr. Helen Cho's U-Gin Genetic Research Lab in Seoul, South Korea. Ultron wanted Dr. Cho to use her Regeneration Cradle, combined with the Vibranium and the Infinity Stone inside the scepter, to create an ultra-powerful body for him to inhabit. At Cho’s refusal, Ultron used the scepter to force her cooperation.

Cho figured out how to bond the Vibranium with the synthetic tissue cells as the Mind Stone was finally freed from the scepter. Ultron placed the Stone on the forehead of his new body and began the process of fully downloading himself. Wanda Maximoff realized she could see some of Ultron's thoughts through the new body and saw that he wanted to cause a cataclysmic event to purge the planet. She managed to break Ultron's control of Cho and ran off just as Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye arrived.

The injured Cho explained to Captain America that they couldn't blow the new body up because it could level the entire city. The heroes went to work trying to take Ultron out in a slightly more delicate fashion that involved an epic fight between the robot and Steve Rogers. While Rogers distracted Ultron, Black Widow secured the cradle before she was captured.

In Sokovia, Ultron locked Black Widow in a cage, but underestimated her ability to get a signal to Hawkeye in Avengers Tower. There, Thor used his lightning to bring the body in the cradle to life. After deeming this new being, Vision, worthy of fighting alongside them—thanks in part to Mjolnir—the Avengers made a return trip to the Eastern European country.

While most of the team, including new additions Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and Vision, worked to empty the surrounding area of all civilians, Iron Man met with Ultron in an abandoned church. When Ultron noticed that they were working on an evacuation, he commanded his drone robots to begin their reign of terror. Then, Ultron encountered Vision for the first time. In their first confrontation, the new Avenger managed to shut Ultron out of the internet and so prevent him from switching bodies as easily. In a fit of rage, Ultron knocked Vision out.

Ultron divulged his master plan: activating a huge core device at the church that used the leftover Vibranium to send the Sokovian city floating into the sky. He planned on sending it up into the atmosphere and then turning the machines off, creating a meteorite that would crash into Earth. The extinction level disaster would cleanse the planet of its inhabitants, leaving room for Ultron to create a new robotic populace.

As the rest of the Avengers worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. to evacuate civilians off of the floating city, Thor threw himself into battle with Ultron. The Asgardian had been stalling long enough for Vision to regain himself and smash their foe with Mjolnir. With Ultron threatening to hit the core and drop the city early, the Avengers all assembled to fend off the onslaught of Ultron's sentries sent their way.

Vision broke away and used the Mind Stone to blast Ultron. Joined by Iron Man and Thor, their combined energies worked to melt some of the tough metal skin away allowing Hulk to come in and clobber the sentient robot into the distance.

Iron Man and Thor planned to render the island harmless to the planet below by destroying it. While the Avengers worked to clear the city, Ultron managed to steal a Quinjet and attack the Avengers. His burst interrupted Black Widow’s attempts to calm Hulk down. This also ended Quicksilver’s life, as he jumped in the way of shots in order to save Hawkeye and a child the archer had just rescued.

Hulk dropped Black Widow off on a Helicarrier, leapt onto the Quinjet, and threw Ultron back to the still-floating city. Scarlet Witch found her tormentor and ripped out his robotic heart so he could know what it felt like to lose her twin brother. Vision swept in to save Wanda as Thor and Iron Man continued their plan to destroy the airborne part of Sokovia.

One lone drone survived and crawled out of the wreckage where he was met by Vision. While they both agreed that humans are doomed, Vision saw living with them as a privilege, whereas Ultron found his counterpart naïve.

With one last burst of intense hatred for humanity, Ultron lunged at Vision. But the Avenger blasted Ultron out of existence with the Mind Stone, ending his reign of terror.