Ultron Retrospective, Part 16: Love and Marriage

West Coast Avengers Annual #8 (1993)
"If Volcanic Winter Comes..."

Writer: Roy Thomas
Pencilers (multi-part story): Kris Renkewitz, Dave Ross, Scott Kolins, Larry Alexander, John Czop, Vince Russell
Inkers: Don Hudson, John Lowe, Tim Dzon, Maria Beccari, Mike Barreiro, Fred Fredericks
Colorists: John Kalisz, Maria Parwulksi, Rob Tokar
Letterers: Clem Robins, Steve Dutro
Editor: Nel Yomtov
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The AWC is looking for some unnamed enemies, who are now "back on earth." (Three guesses.) An 18-year old named Gary Wilton trips and drops something into a manhole. As he goes down into the sewer to retrieve it, he hears voices. It's Ultron and Alkhema, and they're having their usual argument: Ultron wants to kill all life on earth at once, whereas Alkhema wants to do it slowly and painfully. Ultron detects Gary and drags him into their chamber; at that moment, Gary starts to glow. Ultron is about to kill him when the Avengers bust in, with new member War Machine. Ultron and Alkhema have no problem dealing with the team until Wanda tries to bury them under rubble. Being a handy fellow, Ultron repels the stones and fuses them back together, and for his next trick, unleashes a "mesmeric ray" on the Avengers. This makes them his slaves. He's about to kill them when Alkhema suggests that they use them instead. He orders them to place three "seismic activators" that when turned on, will cause three eruptions in volcanoes. This will produce a "volcanic winter" that will act like nuclear winter.

At that moment, Gary turns into a being known as the Raptor, a bird-like human with huge wings and claws. Ultron attacks him, but he escapes. Raptor flies around until he realizes that Gary had snatched up an Avengers Communicard. Iron Man is calling, and Raptor tells him that the Avengers have been captured and where they're going. Iron Man

doesn't quite trust him and destroys the card by remote control after Raptor gives him the story. IM then calls in the reserves: Living Lightning, Tigra, Wasp and Dr. Pym. The story then turns into "Avenger vs Avenger" for awhile. In Alaska, the mind-controlled Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch defeat Dr. Pym and the Wasp and active the device. In Mexico, the mind-controlled War Machine and Mockingbird defeat Living Lightning and Tigra and active the device. In Washington state, Iron Man (and it's revealed to be the Telepresence Unit--Tony is still recovering from his return from death) encounters

Raptor, and still doesn't quite trust him. He did check out Ultron's lab, and his story proved to be true, so he lets Raptor tag along. He wasn't happy about Raptor's ranting about killing, however. They encounter the mind-controlled USAgent and Spider-Woman. In the TU, Iron Man is having trouble with Agent, who has slipped in under Iron Man and

is trying to snap his neck. IM flies him into a mountain, knocking him out. Iron Man is close to destroying the seismic device, when Spi and Raptor fall on top of him, knocking Tony Stark out.

But when Ultron tries to activate the device, it seems that Tony succeeded after all--it doesn't work! He is annoyed and goes out to fix the broken device, and Alkhema decides to come with him, since it means the possibility of killing humans. Upon arriving in Washington, he sees that his other mind-controlled Avengers have shown up there as well, despite having given no order to do such a thing. Alkhema rouses Iron Man into awareness by kicking him; the feedback wakes Tony Stark up in his bed. Ultron tries to mind-control him, but it doesn't work because Tony's brain isn't in the suit! He and Ultron start fighting, but the big U puts him down quickly. He's about to kill him when the other

Avengers snap out of the control, thanks to his diverted attention. He was about to remesmerize them when Gary turns into Raptor again (he had turned back into human form when he was knocked unconscious earlier) and distracts Ultron. The Avengers attack in earnest as Ultron says that he's about to activate his last device and blow up some volcanoes.

Suddenly, a blast appears and destroys the device! It's Alkhema, who informs him that she also tipped off the Avengers on how to track them down in their sewer lab. Ultron then describes the main way in which they differ: "You revel in war--in deaths, endlessly repeated--while to me, the death of all earth's organisms is merely a means to an end--the

transformation of the planet into a home for nothing but robotic life forms!" Alkhema replies "Next time you want a robot companion, lover-- build yourself a dog!" She flies off and Raptor tries to catch her, but he falls and turns back into Gary. Iron Man manages to capture Ultron by fusing a casing.

Comments: One of the worst Ultron stories of all time. His plot is pretty stupid, the book is way too crowded with characters who get little development, and this was a "new Marvel character" annual, so it meant that the new character got most of the focus. And Raptor was one of the least interesting characters I've ever seen. I omitted the chapter on

his origin, but it's the usual mutant boy turns into bird form under stress type of story. The only mildly interesting thing that happened was Alkhema leaving Ultron; she hasn't been seen since, although a number of people think she's the new Crimson Cowl. Ultron would next be portrayed in a rather pathetic fashion in the Vision limited series.