Ultron Takes His Revenge Against the Avengers [Review]

Ultron is back and he has a score to settle with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Click “More” to read our review!

S2, Episode 16: Ultron Unlimited

Ms. Marvel runs across Iron Man who attacks her without warning. She learns that it isn’t Tony Stark at all, but a robot. This fake Iron Man is then approached by a doppelganger of Ms. Marvel and the Vision who collects the passed out Danvers and takes her to Ultron’s HQ. Ultron plans to replace all the Avengers with synthezoid copies which will then help defeat humanity and replace everyone with synthezoids. At the mansion, Hawkeye and Captain America are confronted by the Vision and their doppelgangers. Later, when the Vision goes to collect Wasp, he deviates from his programming when she fights back forcing him to hurt her when he was told not to. The deviation affects him curiously. Meanwhile, the Avenger synthezoids attack Thor and replace him. Ultron reveals his plans to transfer Wasp’s mind into a mechanical bride codenamed “Jocasta”. Ultron’s treatment of the Wasp and his plans has the Vision starting to question his purpose and programming. Ultron commands the Vision to finish off Captain America who has been acting as his doppelganger all along. After learning why Captain America continues to fight, the Vision finally rebels and frees the Avengers. Thor, alone takes out most of the fake Avengers. They learn Ultron is now comprised completely of Adamantium which makes him indestructible. The Vision intervenes and Thor is able to decapitate him. Cap saves the Vision who tells the team that Ultron’s plans for him to be cold and unfeeling went against his own feelings of what being truly perfect is – to be more human.

This episode was pretty epic for only 22 minutes of programming. It goes from a surprise attack by “Iron Man” on Ms. Marvel to a whole team of “Avengers” fighting Thor, to Captain America and Vision having a brawl, to the real Avengers taking down Ultron, to Vision redeeming himself. That’s a lot going on in just one episode. Whereas some episodes like “Michael Korvac” was paced to slowly to really make something good out of a single episode story, this episode is pretty near perfect. It combines all the things that, when done right, makes for a great half hour of television. There’s betrayal, action, a nearly unstoppable villain, and that warm ending that isn’t entirely positive, but well played. In some ways, it parallels something much larger scale like Star Wars. One bad guy learns what’s most important to him and turns on the bigger bad guy to save the day.

This episode actually goes beyond what you would really call “children’s entertainment”. While it still keeps the lighter and more adventurous elements upfront and on the surface for the kids to focus on, there are some real serious themes lingering in the depths. First, there’s the neverending debate between how much emotion can be trusted versus logic. The idea of the technological singularity is also present here, but it’s kind of reversed as Ultron hopes to make the world operate more smoothly through the eradication of humanity and replacing it with the streamlined thought processes of machinary instead of humanity reaching a new height by agumented themselves through technological means. Yes, there’s also a sexual element as Ultron wants to build himself a bride. While it’s technically a flaw in Ultron’s programming to desire a mate even though pure logic wouldn’t necessarily dictate the need of one, it takes on the idea that beings, even sythesized beings, don’t like being alone. All of these things helps Vision calculate what he ultimately wants to be. What he discovers is that maybe being more human is better than existing only for logic and there’s a warmth there that, like Ultron himself, fills a void.

Then again, maybe this episode just kicks ass and that’s all I really need to say.

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