5 Questions You May Have About Avengers: Age of Ultron

Over the last several years, Marvel has owned Hall H on Saturday night at San Diego Comic Con, and the 2013 edition of the world’s premiere nerd-related event was no exception. After some brief comments from The Avengers director Joss Whedon, the lights went dark, the music came up and the crowd was treated to a tease for the 2015 sequel to The Avengers. What was shown was an animation where Iron Man’s helmet is bent and reshaped into the head of the super-team’s robotic nemesis Ultron. At the end, the words Avengers: Age of Ultron appear on screen, and while that will thrill fans of The Avengers’ comic book, less savvy movie fans may be wondering, who’s Ultron, why is this such a big deal, and what about that purple guy at end of the first film? We know that you must have some pretty big questions weighing on your mind in regards to Ultron, Marvel and all things Avengers-related but fear not, dear reader. We're hear to ease your confusion and explain to you what exactly is going on here. Continue reading on the next page... Question #1: Who is Ultron? Basically, Ultron is a highly sophisticated robot. He first appeared in The Avengers #55 published in August 1968, leading the Masters of Evil in an attack on the team using Jarvis, the Avengers’ butler and confidant, as his pawn. In flashbacks we see how Ultron was created as an artificial intelligence by one of The Avengers (more on that later) using their own brain pattern as a template, but as Ultron developed, he evolved his own goals and ideals, and decided that they didn’t align with either his “father’s” or his comrades in The Avengers. But Ultron, despite being destroyed at the end of nearly every confrontation with the team, often returns stronger, smarter, and more evolved, as well as more blood thirsty in his desire to destroy The Avengers and their legacy. Other than Loki and the Masters of Evil, Ultron is probably The Avengers’ most powerful, and most bothersome, nemesis. Continue reading on the next page... Question #2: What About Thanos? Thanos, in case you didn’t know, was the big purple guy we saw in the first bonus scene at the end of The Avengers. He was the guy that taught Loki the secrets of the Tesseract, and sent the Chitauri to conquer the Earth. It was presumed that Marvel was setting up Thanos as the antagonist in the next Avengers film, a presumption helped along by the Easter egg appearance of Thanos’ ultimate weapon, the Infinity Gauntlet, as one of the trinkets in Odin’s treasure room in Thor. And while Guardians of the Galaxy is at least going to circle “the Mad Titan” with a number of the characters having an either overt or implied connection to Thanos, it now seems that Thanos himself is being saved for an epic conclusion in The Avengers 3. Continue reading on the next page... Question #3: What’s the meaning of the subtitle: “Age of Ultron?” The title Age of Ultron comes from an actual storyline and miniseries featuring the villain that Marvel Comics released earlier this year. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has already thrown some cold water on the idea that the comic book miniseries and the plotline of Avengers: Age of Ultron will have much in common, mostly because the Age of Ultron featured a lot of characters that Marvel Studios and Disney don’t have the rights to use on film, specifically Wolverine and the Fantastic Four’s Invisible Woman. The plot is interesting though, with the heroes of the Marvel Universe forced into an underground resistance after a new, super-advanced Ultron takes over the world. Time travel eventually comes into play, with Wolverine going back in time to kill Ultron’s creator, but complications abound and the story becomes rather convoluted even for the above average comic book fan. For those reasons, it’s doubtful that the movie will be a faithful adaptation of the comic book, but given Whedon’s predilection for challenging his heroes to the point of defeat and death, to confront The Avengers with a villain for whom defeat means evolving into a better bad guy seems like the perfect fit. Continue reading on the next page... Question #4: Does the choice of Ultron as villain indicate that one Avenger in particular will join the team? We will now address the topic of Ultron’s creator because, yes, as a robot, Ultron was created by a scientist named Henry Pym. Recognize the name? If not, how about his superhero alter ego Ant-Man? For years, director Edgar Wright has endeavoured - struggled even - to bring Ant-Man to life on the big screen. Progress has been slow, but now Ant-Man is expected to begin production sometime early next year with a November 2015 release date currently pencilled in on the calendar, a mere six months after the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Does that mean that Ant-Man will appear in someway in the Avengers sequel before being spun-off into his own film? It would be kind of odd to have Ultron without Pym, just as it would be peculiar to show the formation of the X-Men without Charles Xavier. And what about Vision, another robot created by Pym who’s been rumored to play a part in the Avengers sequel and possibly played by Vin Diesel, who reportedly has a mysterious role in an upcoming Marvel film? Regardless, Pym may become the first Avenger to join the team before spinning off into his own solo adventure. Then again, Whedon has played down the speculation, saying that Pym won't be involved. Still, who knows if he's telling the truth and who knows what will change between now and the film's release. It would make sense for Pym to appear but at the same time, Whedon can probably find a way to tell Ultron's story without him. Continue reading on the next page... Question #5: What other Avengers might join “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?” The first movie gave us a core team of six - Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye - but in the comics, The Avengers are made up of dozens of heroes, active and reserve, and spread across several teams from the New, the Mighty, the Secret, the Young, and even occasionally the West Coast. But if Pym/Ant Man ends up joining the team, who else might we expect? Maybe The Falcon? The character is already being introduced in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier and will be played by Anthony Mackie. Whedon himself talked about mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch playing a big role in the film, even though Bryan Singer is also using Quicksilver in his X-Men: Days of Future Past. Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been talked about for the fast moving Quicksilver while Saoirse Ronan has been suggested for the magical Scarlet Witch. That’s about four contenders right there, and though Ultron is a powerful adversary, we know that screen time can be cruel as well as kind when we’re talking about a superhero team movie (ask any X-Men member not named Jackman). Still, there’s a strong case to be made for Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, Wonder Man, Vision, Swordsman, Namor, Mockingbird, Tigra, She-Hulk etc. So there you have it. Hopefully that clears up some of your questions about Ultron and what direction Marvel may be taking Avengers: Age of Ultron in. If you're still confused, or wondering about anything else, feel free to head down to the comments and let us know what you're thinking.