Ultron Retrospective Part 1: "The Evil Is Born"
by Robert Clough

  Ultron has long been my favorite Avengers villain, both because of his
interesting relationship with his "father" (Hank Pym) and "son" (Vision),
and his sheer power and nihilism.  Part 1 of the retrospective covers
Avengers 54-55 and 57.

Avengers #54 (1968)
"...And Deliver Us From The Masters of Evil"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: George Tuska
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee

  The issue opens with the Avengers testing their new security system. 
Hank Pym (Goliath) briefs Jarvis on it, who is acting a bit weird.  He
leaves the Mansion and goes to a condemned building on some kind of
mission.  Inside, he finds those he was to meet...the Masters of Evil!
This lineup includes Klaw, Whirlwind, Melter, Radioactive Man, and the
Black Knight.  Their leader, who brought the group together, is the
mysterious Crimson Cowl.  Jarvis was contacted by the Cowl to give them
information on the Avengers security system, in exchange for money to
help his mother get an operation.  The Masters double cross him and the
Cowl knocks him out with a sleep-gas gun, promising to dispose of him. 
The Cowl tells the Masters to attack the Mansion at midnight, armed with
their knowledge of its security.
  As it turns out, this Black Knight is not Nathan Garrett, the
villainous Black Knight who had fought the Avengers earlier, but Dane
Whitman, who had taken up the mantle for heroism.  Dane had received an
invitation to join the Masters, and had planned to betray them to the
Avengers at the last second.  He flew over to the Mansion and was
ambushed by the rest of the Masters.  The Cowl had suspected a
double-cross, and arranged to have the team intercept the Knight and
neutralize him.  Once done, the Masters broke into the Mansion and picked
off the Avengers one-by-one, with the Melter beating Hawkeye, Whirlwind
beating the Black Panther, Klaw beating the Wasp, and Radioactive Man
defeating Goliath. 
  The Masters secure the Avengers, and then contact the Crimson Cowl, who
pulls off the hood of another, seated Cowl, revealing a motionless robot.
He then pulls off his own hood and reveals his identity to be that of....
Jarvis!!!

  Comments:  This is one of the first comics I ever read, as Marvel
Triple Action #47, so I have a lot of affection for it.  It's a still a
fine story with great art, especially page 6 where Jarvis opens a door
and we meet the new Masters for the first time.  The story's biggest
problem: if Jarvis needed money, why didn't he simply ask Tony Stark,
instead of betraying the team?  (This was retconned later as Jarvis being
hypnotized) 

Avengers #55 (1968)
"'Mayhem' Over Manhattan"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: George Klein
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee

  The Masters bring the now-captured Avengers back to the Crimson Cowl's
lair, who despite revealing himself to be Jarvis, is back to wearing his
hood again.  As they bring the prisoners in, Goliath escapes and attacks
Klaw; however, the Cowl uses sleep gas to knock him out.  The Cowl
chasties Klaw for his incompetence, which Klaw isn't going to take; he
blasts him with his sonic gun, which has no effect on the Cowl.  Klaw is
shocked, and the Cowl threatens to kill Klaw, who begs for his life.  The
Cowl spares it, reminding him who the "true Master of Evil is."
  The Cowl then reveals his plan: to trap the Avengers in a new kind of
hydrogen bomb, and blackmail the city of New York.  As they lower Goliath
inside, the Cowl demands quiet, wanting to "contemplate the moment...for
reasons of my own."  The Avengers try to bust out, to no avail.
  The Cowl then reveals that he had used Jarvis as a pawn, deceiving both
the Avengers and the Masters.  He takes off his hood and reveals himself
to be...Ultron-5, the Living Automaton!  (He was the robot we saw seated
last issue)  He then whacks Jarvis, who is knocked out.  Ultron orders a
stunned Melter to dispose of the body.  Jarvis is in fact not dead, and
manages to run away.  The Melter drops a ton of rubble on him, but Jarvis
manages to crawl his way out of it.  He makes it to the Mansion, where he
collapses, but finds the Black Knight, who rides off to try and save the
Avengers.  He busts into Ultron's hideout, and uses his power lance to
blow open a whole in the side of the bomb, freeing the Avengers.  A
battle ensues, with Ultron and Whirlwind escaping. 
  The Avengers forgive Jarvis, who explains that his mother needed help,
and allow him to work for them again.  The Avengers are left wondering
who Ultron is, and why he wants to kill them....

Comments: Another great issue, featuring one of my favorite appearances
of the Black Knight.  Ultron is truly menacing here, as he manages to
manipulate everyone involved.  Strangely, he ducks out of the final fight.
Worst dialogue in issue: after the Panther decks him and says that
animals are more trustworthy than some humans, the usually-articulate
Radioactive Man exclaims "That did it! It's not bad enough that
jungle-come-lately knocks us around...but if he's gonna start makin' with
social comments as well...!"  Ugh.

Avengers #57 (1968)
"Behold...The Vision!"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: George Klein
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee

  Janet Van Dyne is in her apartment after Hank Pym leaves to go his lab
(much to her dismay), whne she is attacked by a myserterious
green-and-gold garbed figure with a red face.  Jan exclaims "It's some
sort of unearthly inhuman vision--!"  Jan escapes by shrinking and flying
through a keyhole into the next room.  To her dismay, the Vision becomes
intangible and walks through the wall, and then zaps her with his
"thermoscopic eyes".  He then inexplicably has a headache and collapses.
  Hank is alerted to her distress signal, and zips up to 20 feet and
climbs up the building to find out what's wrong.  He finds Jan and the
mysterious Vision.  They contact the rest of the Avengers and summon them
to the mansion.  Hank examines the Vision, and discovers that he's not a
robot, but a synthozoid, "every inch a human being--except that all his
bodily organs are constructed of synthetic materials."  Vizh suddenly
wakes up and starts attacking the team, saying that he was sent to
destroy them, and then suddenly stops.  Hawkeye asks him who he is, and
how he got his powers.
  Vision searches his memory and recalls who created him, and sent him to
destroy the Avengers...Ultron-5!  The Vision suddenly doesn't want to
fight the Avengers anymore, and offers to lead them to Ultron.
  Once in his headquarters, Ultron reveals what he had done.  He
created the Vision to black out and be taken back to Avengers Mansion,
where if he failed to destroy the team, would then lead them back to his
lair.  He then starts zapping the team, with Hank Pym falling through a
trap door, having to fight a robot at the bottom.  The other Avengers are
in trouble as the walls start closing in.  The Vision decides to turn
intangible in an effort to find and defeat Ultron, hoping that he does so
before the Avengers become jelly.
  He does indeed track him down, where Ultron lulls him into lowering his
guard, and throws him into a pit of acid.  Vizh turns intangible at the
last second, as Ultron reveals that his only weakness are the twin
electrodes on the side of his skull.  Vizh demands answers...as to why he
has emotions, human thoughts, etc?  Ultron taunts him and jumps at him,
as Vizh turns intangible again, and Ultron rams into a wall, exploding.
  The Avengers are now safe, and examine Ultron's body, finding that his
head was missing.  They assume that the explosion destroyed the electrodes.
  Later, we see Ultron's head intact, and a child finds it.  He plays
with it, kicks it around, and finally disconnects the electrodes.  The
text is the poem "Ozymandias."
 
Comments: This issue had some of the best and worst of Roy Thomas.  The
Vision and Ultron are two amazing characters, but the way Ultron
programmed him was kind of inexplicable, and Ultron conveniently
revealing his weakness was even more inexplicable.  Why Ultron exploded
when he slammed up against a wall is also not explained. Roy redeemed
himself with the fabulous Ozymandias thing at the end, though.

Next: The origin of Ultron, and how he came to be made of Adamantium!

--Rob Clough
  Hindsight Lad, jr.