Ultron Retrospective Part 2: The Origin of Ultron
by Robert Clough

I'm pleased at the positive comments received on part 1.  Part 2 will
cover issue #58, which doesn't actually feature Ultron, but he does appear
in an extended flashback sequence.

Avengers #58 (1968)
"Even An Android Can Cry"
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: George Klein
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee

  The issue opens with T'Challa being summoned to the Mansion for some
unknown mission.  In fact, a full meeting of the group had been called to
assess the Vision's desire to become an Avenger!  The "big guns", Thor and
Iron Man, were called in because the situation was so unusual.  In an
effort to find out how powerful the Vision really is, Cap arranges a
little fight where Vizh holds his own against him, Iron Man and Thor. 
Everyone is satisfied that Vizh is powerful enough, yet they all are
bothered by the fact that he doesn't know who...or what he is. 
  The Vizh probes his memories again and has a breakthrough.  He recalls
Ultron waking him up from his tube in his lab, declaring the Vision to be
his slave.  Vision is under Ultron's control, yet is already consumed
with ontological and epistemological questions (ie, why am I alive, and
why is the world the way it is?).  Ultron tells him that such nonsense is
for humans, and takes Vizh through a shakedown of all his powers.  Ultron
starts babbling that Vizh will destroy "the one I hate most".  Hank Pym
suddenly recalls once again that the Vision was similar to one of his
robots, an artificial human that he called a synthozoid, but couldn't
remember why he stopped working on it.  So the Avengers trot out to
Hank's house out in the country.
  To Hank's surprise, it's boarded up and abandoned, and all the
equipment inside is covered with dust.  Worst of all, Hank can't remember
why!  Hank activates an "electronic memory bank" and he suddenly
remembers a number of astonishing things.  He recalls tinkering with his
synthozoid, and before he even activates it, it starts talking!  The
robot starts talking like an infant, and then its speech patterns starts
to quickly advance.  Unfortunately, the robot starts zapping him with
shock blasts.  Pym realizes that the robot thinks he's its father, and
wants to kill him..."like a living, mechanized Oedipus complex!"  The
robot zaps him into near-unconsciousness, and then hypnotizes him into
leaving the house and never coming back.  The robot, Ultron-1, then left
to complete further evolution on himself, and wouldn't challenge the
Avengers until he was Ultron-5. 
  Hank's lab is pretty much as he left it, with one exception.  The
memory tape that contained Wonder Man's brain patterns had been stolen
(Wonder Man had been presumed dead after his one and only encounter with
the Avengers back in issue #9).  Ultron had used Wondy's brain patterns
for the Vision!  The Vizh is then voted into the Avengers.

Comments: This was an interesting issue for a number of reasons.  First
off, there were no real fights, except for the skirmish between Vizh and
the founding Avengers early on, and the fight between Goliath and
Ultron-1 in a flashback.  These sort of "resting-place" issues usually
happen to be some of the best-loved in the series.  Second, Buscema's art
is exceptional, with one minor flaw: when Hank, Steve and Clint are
unmasked at the end, you literally can't tell them apart, except for the
costumes.  Buscema tries to make their hairstyles a little different, but
it doesn't help much.  Of course, he wasn't the first artist with that
problem, and certainly wasn't the last.  The issue is notable for two
splash pages: the first page, with T'Challa silently creeping along a
wall, and the last, the famous page where the Vision, being accepted as
an Avenger, turns away from the group and begins to cry.  Still a great
Avengers Moment (TM). 
   Ultron's origin doesn't really change much, but the Oedipus complex
part of it is greatly expanded upon by Shooter.  The Vision's origin gets
far more convoluted, but I won't get into that here...

Next: Roy Thomas and Barry Smith give us the first adamantium version of
Ultron in one of the great Avengers trilogies!