Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1: Review

Nov 2001
Roy Thomas, ?

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4.5 stars

Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1 Review by (September 19, 2020)
The plot of this issue is by Kurt Busiek and Roy Thomas, and the scripting is split between them and 2 other long-time Avengers scribes Roger Stern and Steve Englehart. Each chapter also has different artists, but the colouring, lettering and editing are consistent.

Iron Man has his pointy-faceplate armour on the cover but his standard late 60's armour inside. He's worn both types recently since his previous modern armour gained sentience and went rogue in his #26-30. He's built a new SKIN armour (#42-45) but he says here it's not perfected yet.
Barry Windsor-Smith did the cover but wasn't involved with the inside contents. The armour isn't the only thing wrong with the cover - it shows Captain America as 1 of the robots.

We are told that Quicksilver and Warbird of the core team are absent, but no-one mentions Triathlon.

Hawkeye accepted a prison term in Thunderbolts #50 in return for a pardon for the other TBolts team members. He was last seen still in jail in the TB: Life Sentences 1-shot.

Mockingbird will be retconned as not dead, she was kidnapped by Skrulls and replaced in a *very* early part of the lead-up to Secret Invasion. It was the Skrull replacement who died in Avengers West Coast #100 (and has subsequently made some apps in the human afterlife!). Bobbi Morse will be released at the end of SI.

The last page is a play on the end of #57 (of the original run) where a young lad finds Ultron's head and treats it as a toy.

Antigone will reappear with Ultron in Iron Man #47-48 where Ultron and IM's sentient armour will take over the Sons Of Yinsen. Antigone will then wander out of Marvel history while Ultron will continue via Avengers #500 in the Avengers Disassembled event.

Akhema won't be seen again until 2011 and the Avengers Academy tales in Av Solo #3-4. And she's recently had her own story in the 2020 Iron Age anthology.

Hawkeye will return to jail for TBolts#53 onwards, and eventually start a new team in #65 who will later merge with the original squad in #74.

Grim Reaper did get away and he'll be back in Nick Fury's Secret War #3-4.

Kang will watch the events of TB#57 from orbit before continuing the Kang Dynasty plot in Av#45.

Various Avengers have more adventures before Av#45.

Nearly the whole 10-strong core team will be present during CA#46-48, including Quicksilver and Warbird who were only mentioned here and Triathlon who didn't even rate that, but not Henry Pym in any of his guises. The issues have the special structure of Cap going on a mission which we know will end in a hero's funeral, but it turn out to be just a long-delayed official funeral for Bucky Barnes (who of course hasn't turned up alive as Winter Soldier yet).
Then Cap spends time training the Thunderbolts' replacement, the Redeemers, in TB#53-54. Scarlet Witch is in TB#55-56 for a reason I'll explain later.  Meanwhile Iron Man spends his #46-48 fighting his sentient armour and Ultron, followed by his Nuff Said silent issue #49.
Then the whole 10 cameo in TB#57, 1 of those issues where the villain (Graviton in this case) has defeated all super-heroes, except of course some Thunderbolts.
Then Cap has a string of his own issues. He remembers a WWII exploit in his 2001 Annual, and in #49 his relationship with Connie Ferrari is terminated and he hooks back up with Sharon Carter. Then #50 is a multi-story series-end. The 1st story is his Nuff Said silent entry, in the 2nd he visits a battlefield cemetery in France, and in the 3rd he takes a SHIELD truth gas to explore his psyche with Sharon. And there's more later. Meanwhile Thor cameos in Defenders (2001) #9-10 against the Headmen and Orrgo.
Then Cap and Thor both cameo in Spider-Man: Sweet Charity.
The its back to CA#50 for story 4 as Cap faces aged Nazis with a nuclear bomb, and at the end he's feared dead. (In story 5 a fan hears about his death.) Story 6 has Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Vision, Wasp, Yellowjacket and Quicksilver attending his funeral (but seemingly not Triathlon and Warbird).
However the reports of his death must have been exaggerated because he joins the rest of the core team for the rest of the Kang Dynasty war in Av#45-54 before he has a mini-series CA: Dead Men Running, and has many more apps after that before #1 of his next series. But nowhere, as far as I know, is his 'return to life' explained or even mentioned.

There are 2 more sometimes Avengers in this issue:-
Wonder Man stays in New York for a while and joins his love Scarlet Witch for TB#55-56 where Dallas Riordan come to them for help because it seems ionic Atlas is haunting her as he tries to return to life, as ionic WM did with Wanda. Then he's in the crowd scene in TB#57, but doesn't actually reappear in the Avengers until their #46.
Black Knight is also in TB#57 and A3#46 but attends Cap's funeral in between.

What are other peripheral Avengers doing in the period between here and #45?
Jack Of Hearts is at Bucky's funeral in CA#46-48, Then he, Black Widow, Firebird, Firestar, Justice, She-Hulk and Silverclaw join in the TB#57-fest. She-Hulk partners Thing in their Long Night 1-shot and then she, Widow and JOH are there for Cap's funeral.
Firebird and Jack will be in A3#45. She-Hulk and Silverclaw join in for #46, and Firestar and Justice make it for #48. But Black Widow skips the whole Kang Dynasty copntinuation thing in favour of Marvel Knights vol 2.
Meanwhile Living Laser, Photon and Quasar miss out on the intervening stuff because they're on the Avengers space station in the asteroid belt. But Photon will be in #46, and the other 2 in #47.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Chapter 1: Out of the shadows
Script by Roy Thomas, art by John Paul Leon.

There's a gang battle brewing between the Sharks and the Jetz (somebody's been listening to West Side Story) but it's interrupted by what seems to be the Vision who defeats them all with his combination of invulnerability and intangibility. But then he kills them all, except the Grim Reaper disturbs his last kill. Then it may be Scarlet Witch whose hex causes an ATM to spew money, or Wonder Man's strength which speeds things up by ripping the machine open. Goliath and Wasp turn up at a power station that's about to blow. Henry Pym flicks a few switches which he says should stop it while Wasp gushes admiringly, but he only makes things worse and then they leave. A worker solves the problem by doing the exact opposite of Pym's moves. (Were those the Bizarro versions of the heroes?)

Then things become a *bit* clearer as we see robot versions of the 5 Avengers plus Grim Reaper, all with Ultron-like faces.

Chapter 2: Heroes assembled
Script by Roger Stern, art by Paul Smith.

The Avengers hear about the reports of robots, and Captain America, Iron Man and Thor meet the people and the police at the front door of Avengers Mansion. They are joined by Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp and Yellowjacket plus Wonder Man who's in town from Hollywood. They don't know what's going on yet but co-chairpersons Cap and Wasp promise they're on the case.

Simon Williams is particularly agitated because of the possible involvement of his brother the Reaper who it seems broke jail recently (after his capture in #33 during the Thunderbolts crossover). Wasp calms him down. Vision will continue trying to track down the robots. Iron Man says he'll help him after recharging his armour, and YJ says he'll help *him*. Janet Van Dyne then directs all but those 2 to the situation room where she and Vision scan the available info, leaving the rest to drink coffee served by Edwin Jarvis. The robots seem more familiar than just being copies of some of them.

The others discuss the current Kang situation - since #42 of the current Avengers series they've been dealing with uprisings fomented by the villain. WM has been handling stuff on the West Coast (as seen on a viewscreen in #44). Thor says other Avengers are spread across the globe. (We see a panel of Black Knight, Quicksilver and Warbird with a large symbolic Kang behind them.) Wanda Maximoff wonders if this could be another of Kang's ploys. Thor agrees that the Conqueror has used robots before (eg a robot Spider-Man in #11 of the original run) but there are other candidates like Dr Doom, Ultron and Alkhema.

We are reminded that Ultron captured Goliath, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp and Wonder Man along with Eric Williams in #20-22 and recorded their brain-patterns on discs. He was going to use them to create a new race of robots, but he was destroyed at then end of #22. Wasp now recalls that the discs were never found (but, spoiler, we saw Alkhema retrieve them), and also that these robots seem to match the 6 that Kang showed them in #42 as 1 of the possible future dooms for Earth. The Avengers now conclude that Ultron must have been rebuilt yet again. And when Jan notices that the 3 sites where the robots were seen are around Klein Towers which was built atop Ultron's original underground lair where Vision was created (in original #57-58), the case seems closed.

We take time to look in on Tony Stark and Henry Pym and get a couple of explanations. Tony is wearing an old Iron Man armour from the late 60's and it needs a bit more than just recharging. But his current SKIN suit is in bits because he'd found some problems with it. We also get confirmation that Hank has switched from his Goliath id to his Yellowjacket 1 (since the end of his G/YJ literally split personalities in the 2001 Annual), though he gives no reason for the choice. Then Wasp calls them to follow up the new lead.

All 8 Avengers reach the site. Vision opens a door by reaching inside and manipulating the lock and they descend to a sub-basement. The entrance to even lower levels is shut off but Scarlet Witch opens up a stone staircase. They find Ultron's lair wrecked but apparently deserted, but Iron Man is getting interference when he tries to scan the place. And then they are attacked by the robo-Avengers.

A very giant metal fist takes out IM and Thor with 1 blow. Robo-Grim Reaper zaps Wonder Man with his scythe. The robot versions of the 2 females attack their flesh counterparts. Both Visions sink their immaterial hands into each other's chests, but it is the synthezoid that beats the robot until robo-WM gets him with an ionic fist. Robo-GM has Yellowjacket on the ropes ...

... until he's saved by the real Grim Reaper (who I presume attacked robo-Vizh in Chap 1 before we saw the robot version) who 'kills' his counterpart. Then Iron Man and Thor recover and destroy the robot Goliath and Wonder Man. Robo-Wasp gets human-sized to continue her assault on Wasp, but Vision sticks his hand through her brain. And Wanda teams up with Eric Williams to demolish her copy. Cap didn't play any part in this but now returns from being punched through a wall by robo-WM.

Robo-Vision's head is still functioning and he calls out to ask why their mother forsook them. He displays holographic memories of Alkhema taking the memory discs and creating these robots as a practice run. They were faulty but she let them live to see what they'd do. They stayed underground for a while but their practice fights wrecked the place. So they left and tried to act as Avengers. Robo-Wasp is also not quite dead and she gives Henry Pym a garbled message about Thebes and 20 hours. Then Iron Man detects that all the robots are about to automatically self-destruct. Thor's hammer whips up an interdimensional doorway to channel the explosion away. And the Avengers leave the building, noting that the real Grim Reaper has slipped away as usual.

Chapter 3: 7 ... against Thebes?
Script by Kurt Busiek, pencils by Tom Grummett, inks by Karl Kesel.

Back at the Mansion while some of the team wonder how Alkhema simulated their powers others wonder what relevance 'Thebes' has. While Vision searches their database Henry Pym wonders about Ultron's Oedipal fixation on him as his creator and his them-wife Jan, and how Ulty's creation Alkhema fits into that. Butler Jarvis pauses during serving more coffee to mention the origin of the term in Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex where Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother Jocasta, which is why the robot gave that name to his other 'female' creation with the brain-patterns of Wasp. He also refers to a couple of other Sophocles plays involving Oedipus' daughter Antigone (relevant later) and a play by Aeschylus about Oedipus' children called 7 Against Thebes, a city in Greece. And he segues from there to the older city Thebes in Egypt.

Captain America immediately decides to send 2 teams to check both locations out, while Vision remains behind to continue researching other angles. Iron Man hasn't been here during the above conversation but now he joins them with Hawkeye in tow. He persuaded the Commission On Superhuman Affairs to let Clint Barton out of jail temporarily to help out because of his connection to Alkhema. Barton isn't that keen on confronting the robot whose mind is based on that of his dead wife Bobbi (Morse)/Mockingbird, but he'll do it for the team.

Chapter 4: Wonders of the ancients
Script by Roy Thomas, pencils by John McCrea, inks by James Hodgkins.

Cap, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Vision, Wasp and Yellowjacket head for Egypt in a quinjet while Scarlet Witch, Thor and Wonder Man take another quinjet to Greece. On the way the 1st team discuss the ethics of exterminating the new robotic species of life that Alkhema is probably following her father's plans by creating. Once they reach Luxor they have to split up further to cover the many subsites as quickly as possible. Cap and Vizh visit the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II who the Greeks called Ozymandias, the subject of the famous poem by Shelley. TM and YJ cover another mortuary temple, that of Queen Hatshepsut. For Hawkeye and Wasp its the 2 Colossi of Memnon, all that remains of the m-t of Amenhotep III, that allegedly used to 'sing'. And they hear such a sound which suggests that recent changes at the site have reactivated the effect. Jan calls in the rest of the local squad and Clint finds a hidden trapdoor in the ground between the statues. As the other 4 join them he opens the door and they descend a new stairway ...

Chapter 5: O, brave new world ...
Script by Roy Thomas, pencils by Jim Starlin, inks by Al Milgrom.

... to be attacked by a horde of robots, each bearing some combination of features of the original 6, from the brain patterns of the 6 chars Ultron considered part of his 'family'. But when the Robos, as they call themselves, realise that 3 (Vizh, YJ and Wasp) of their foes are 3 of their progenitors they stop fighting. And Jan tells the Robos that the other 3 Avengers are under their protection. They are led to a huge cavern containing multi-layered buildings and walkways that the Robos call Robotopia.

Chapter 6: Deadly reunion
Script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Pat Oliffe, inks by John Livesay.

Suddenly Robos and humans alike are struck by an electric attack by Alkhema's less-humanoid War Toy robots, and an interaction with Hawkeye's electroshock arrow causes him to be limply thrown into the shadows. The Robos quickly recover but the other 5 humans are trapped in a bio-energy grid as Alkhema walks onstage. She orders the Avengers killed but the Robos protest about their 3 progenitors. But they back down when their 'mother' insists.

Meanwhile Hawkeye is woken by the human Grim Reaper who has apparently followed a tracer he attached to his 'brother' Vision. Barton wants to contact the 3 Avengers in Greece but Williams warns him not to. The tracer went dead when Alkhema arrived and he fears another signal might alert her. So Clint reluctantly teams up with the villain and hatches a plan.

Meanwhile Alkhy has been toying with the others, pretending to dither over which way to kill them while she builds up her power to eradicate them all. But she assures them she's not going to make the mistake of keeping them alive to watch her victory over humanity and thus give them the opportunity to thwart her. But then Grim Reaper's scythe blasts her from behind, and she turns to blast *him*. As he's smothered in War Toys Hawkeye steps in and threatens her with an arrow made of Antarctic vibranium. And she knows what that vibranium did to Ultron in Slorenia (#22).

Alkhema changes her voice to that of Bobbi Morse who pleads with Clint not to sever her last link to life by killing the robot. He chooses to believe that means there is an aspect of his wife in there and begs her to take control of the villain, and maybe they can give her a better life in a body like Vision's. But Alkhema drops the charade and instead blasts a hole in a wall of the cavern ...

... to expose another cavern beyond where another mass of bodies exists. She describes them as bio-synthezoids being birthed by a plastoid birthmatrix. And Vision realises they are like him! And she tells Hawkeye that if her kills her then *all* her children, synthezoids, Robos and War Toys, will self-destruct taking out the Avengers and much of Egypt. Clint is willing to die to end her but he can't kill his friends, and especially not Bobbi. She senses his hesitation and fires at him.

But then another voice laughs ...

Chapter 7: This evil ... unveiled
Script by Steve Englehart, pencils by Jorge Lucas, inks by Mike Royer.

... and she turns to see another body being created by the bio-synthezoids. And it is Ultron, who explains that he programmed Alkhema to recreate him, as he did the Vision (original #66-67) and Jocasta (Marvel Two-In-One #92) before her. She created the bio-synthezoids and now they have recreated him (but note he is now made of steel not adamantium). This plot development perturbs the Robos, and even the War Toys - allowing the bio-energy field to weaken ...

... which allows Vision to escape and then disrupt it totally, freeing his comrades. Hawkeye too is back on his feet. And as a caption says "the pent-up melee begins". The sides are confused and confusing, but Captain America decides the best plan is to get Hank Pym to the bio-synth controls so he can shut the synthezoids down.

In the centre of the fighting Alkhema confronts Ultron, who has not yet completely formed and still attached by the feet to his synthezoid growth medium. He taunts his 2nd 'wife' that her name is derived from Arabic (as in 'alchemy'), and Arabic law allows him to divorce her by saying "I divorce thee" 3 times. And in this case each utterance is accompanied by a blast of force. But *her* adamantium body easily survives and she orders (also 3 times) the Robos and War Toys to kill him.

But Ultron slaughters them as they attack. Cap and Vision lament the genocide but Alkhy says she can always make more. All 3 kinds of robot are still fighting the Avengers. Yellowjacket reluctantly leaves his comrades and reaches the controls. He quickly figures out what to do, but nothing happens. Ultron gloats that he has taken control of the system that creates the synthezoids and is recreating *him*.

Meanwhile Hawkeye has found his vibranium arrow and Grim Reaper. He knows the only way to stop Ultron is to destroy the whole complex by killing Alkhema, triggering the multiple self-destructs. But he still can't do it to Bobbi. Eric Willams tries to take the bow and arrow off him, but Clint says it's *got* to be him that does it. He tells the other humans to leave quickly and then takes aim at Alkhema. She uses Bobbi's voice again to say that she'd rather die than let Ultron win. He fires the arrow, and then a grapple arrow to a hole in the ceiling. As he climbs the rope to safety the female robot dies and her creations start to explode all over.

Epilogue: The lone & level sands ...
Script by Roy Thomas, art by Klaus Janson.

All the Avengers escape (because the explosion didn't destroy much of Egypt - I guess Alkema exaggerated). None of the robots seem to have survived, but they hope Grim Reaper got out. Scarlet Witch, Thor and Wonder Man join them from Greece. Then the 2 quinjets head back home.

When they've gone a bio-synthezoid climbs out of the whole. It is a young 'zoid and it's carrying the head of Ultron which orders it to take it to a lab and rebuild its body. But the youngster prefers to play, tossing the head in the air. It says that with all the other creations gone it's lonely so it will keep the head for company, and they wander off. And the young 'zoid chooses the name Antigone.



?
?
Hi-Fi
Barry Smith (Cover Penciler)
Barry Smith (Cover Inker)
Tom Smith (Cover Colorist)
Plot: . Letterer: Comicraft.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steve Rogers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clint Barton)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Alkhema, Antigone, Grim Reaper (Eric Williams).

> Avengers: The Ultron Imperative: Book info and issue index

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