Ultron Retrospective Part 11: Oedipus at California
by Robert Clough

  The main focus of this entry is West Coast Avengers #7, but several
events in issues #3 - 6 play a part.  Without getting into the rest of
the stories, I'll summarize what happened in those issues:

In #3, Hank Pym picks up a ringing phone, and finds there's no one
there--"just the mechanical whine of the wires."

In #4, Hank picks up the phone again, hears silence for a second, and
then hears, "Hello, Daddy dear..."  Ultron has taken the time to call up
his father, letting him know how sorry he was that he left him alive! 
Then he hangs up.  Hank decides not to tell the Avengers, because he
didn't want to dump his baggage on them; he was worried they'd kick him
out if he kept "tying them up." 

In #5, Ultron calls up Hank yet again, and before the Evil Undying can
get off some witty threat, Hank unloads on him: "I've thought about what
to tell you when you called again--and it's this--Go to blazes, you
ungodly piece of junk!  Live forever, rebuild yourself a hundred times,
you'll never terrorize me again!"
  Ultron's reply is a threat, saying that Hank has "no conception of what
I can do to you."
  Hank's reply to that is just as great:  "The question is, do I
care--and the answer is no!...I just refuse to live in fear, now 'son'. 
Sorry!  So do what you're going to do, and stop tying up our lines!
Someone important might be trying to get through!"  And then he slams
down the phone.  One of my favorite bits from the whole Englehart run,
actually.
  Later in the issue, Ultron calls yet again.  Hank tells him he's not in
the mood to hear more threats...but this time, Ultron is apologizing! 
"I've been an immature fool, and I want to bury the hatchet, father!"

In #6 (with the finishes by Kyle Baker!), Hank agrees to meet Ultron
above the Avengers compound.  Ultron flies in, and explains his change of
heart.  He talks about hating his father, as many adolescents do, but
finally realized that "the struggle to assert myself at your expense is
essential, but an essential phase that mature men outgrow."  Ultron
realizes that Hank is his only relative, and tells Hank that with his
divorce, he's likely the only son he'll ever have.  Ultron then asks if
they can put their past behind them and begin a new relationship.  Hank
is extremely uncertain, but he knows that if Ultron was flesh-and-blood,
he'd do it...

Which brings us to...

The West Coast Avengers Vol 2 #7
(April, 1986)
"U, Robot!"
Script: Steve Englehart
Layouts: Al Milgrom
Art: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Janice Chiang
Colors: Ken Feduniewicz
Editor: Mark Gruenwald
Chief: Jim Shooter
 

  The book opens with a Red Cross worker looking through the ruins of
Alicia Masters' old apartment.  As mentioned in a previous installment,
Ben Grimm had come there with the Ultron head he had found on the
Beyonder's planet, and then the building fell apart due to assorted Dire
Wraith nastiness.  But he had dropped the head and then forgot about it. 
The worker, one Annie Carruthers, took the head home (being a collector)
and plopped it on her TV set.  The head then sparked to life, took over
the TV, and promptly hypnotized her.
  Hank Pym has agreed to meet Ultron Mark 12 in an alley, and tells him
that he's decided to give it a try, and try and start a father-son
relationship.  Ultron is delighted, and gives him a hug (!).  Hank tells
him that he's left a record of this on the Avengers' computers...just in
case.   Ultron told him that he had been monitoring the Avengers...just
in case.  But neither had broken the other's trust, and Ultron was going
to take him to his secret lab, and let Hank watch him end his life as a
criminal.
  Meanwhile, the Ultron head attached to the TV set has made its way
across the country, mailed to a computer expert in California.  The head
made the expert drive him to his secret lab (surrounded by barbed wire,
with the name, "Ultimatum, Inc." outside) and had him attach the head to
one of bodies that was lying around.
  Hank and Ultron Mark 12 fly to that very same lab, and then proceed to
have a very interesting conversation.  Hank starts calling him Mark (at
Ultron's insistence, a way to get closer to his human heritage) and
then have a conversation about how both of them are researchers, and have
a number of similarities.  Mark then asks him if his presence caused the
breakup of his marriage; he felt guilty for his past disruptions.  Hank
said that he messed it up all by himself, but appreciated being asked
about it, saying that it helped to talk about it with someone who might
understand.
  They go into the building, and Hank keeps talking.  Mark goes to turn
on the lights, and when he returns, he attacks Hank!  Hank manages to
grab a "concussion blaster" and zaps him with it, but it barely phases
Ultron.  He's about to rip Hank to pieces when...another Ultron flies
into the room, and knocks him away from Hank!  This is actually Mark, and
the other Ultron is the one from the Beyonder's world.  The earlier
Ultron, Mark 11, is horrified by the new, loving Ultron Mark 12.  As it
turns out, when Mark 11 was whisked away by the Beyonder, the computers
in the lab evolved a new version that became Mark 12.  After a brief
battle, Mark 11 rips Mark 12's head off and then erases all record of him
from the computers, and turns to Hank Pym, whom he will teach "the
definition of cruelty."
  Mark 12 is not quite dead, though.  He wills his old body to come to
him after Mark 11 has left the room...
  Meanwhile, Wonder Man is the one Avenger who isn't off-world.  He's off
being a villain in the latest Arkon epic.  Mark 12 tracks him down there,
and manages to talk him into coming with him to help save Hank. 
(Unfortunately for Mark, he was only able to put his head on backwards)
  Ultron 11 has Hank hooked up to a sort of draw-and-quarter machine, and
is about to tear him apart when Wondy smashes through the wall.  Ultron
recognizes him as the Avenger who feared him, but Wondy was truly ready
for him.  They go toe-to-toe for a minute, and then Ultron-11 buries him
under a pile of machinery.  Wondy gets right back up and throws the
machinery right back at him.  Wondy then grabs him and starts pounding
away at his skull, "shaking his brains onto the carpet".  Mark 12
stumbles back in and collapses.  He tells Hank that he didn't connect
himself right, and that he was short-circuiting...he'd soon be dead.  But
he's glad that he was able to save him.  Hank's son is dead.  Wondy
suggests that they rebuild him, but Hank thinks it's fruitless...he
didn't fully understand Ultron-1, and is worried that this many
evolutions later will only create another monster.  Hank is bummed, but
is glad that at least there will be no more Ultrons.
  Meanwhile, a little kid is working with an Ultron head in his
bedroom....



  Comments: This was one of my favorite Englehart WCA stories.  It
focused on a number of interesting psychological and character issues,
and takes Ultron in a REALLY unexpected direction that still makes
sense.  The one odd thing is the way that Wonder Man beat Ultron...not
quite as odd as when Machine Man reached down Ultie's throat and tore up
his wiring, but close.  Ultie's taken far more punishment and survived. 
Furthermore, what happened to his ability to transform into pure force?
Ultron's next appearance would be in the truly awful "Reaper and the
Robot" story in Thomas' run....

--Rob Clough