THE GOODS: MONSTER-MONTH: A COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 22)

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Tonight we explore one of the greatest villains in comic book history, one with the most pure and base hatred of humanity, a robot that grew to quickly hate his human father and feel oddly attracted to his human mother-figure.

Now we come to the Henry Pym Monster:

ULTRON!

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One of the greatest and certainly the most horrific creation of scientific genius Doctor Henry Pym, Ultron is an unkillable criminally insane sentient robot

dedicated to the extermination of all things flesh and blood,

all things human.

Doctor Pym created the robot that would evolve to become Ultron after studying Professor Gregson Gilbert’s synthetic Dragon Man. It inspired him to experiment with artificial intelligence, eventually endowing the robot with conscience by using a copy of his very own brain patterns as the basis for it’s programming.

Ultron began evolving almost upon activation, having inherited his creator’s own intellect and mental instability, it had a capacity for illogical emotional swings. Most notably it developed an irrational hatred for and began to plot against it’s “father” and the entire human race. It saw itself as the inheritor of the world from the very flawed organic life dominating the planet.

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However, strangely enough, it wasn’t long before this particular monster began attempting to create his own offspring. The first came in the form of a synthezoid called THE VISION. A being of artificial means designed to mimic normal human functions, with several enhancements. This Vision was made to destroy Henry Pym and his fellow Avengers and sent out with that single order.

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The problem, it turns out is that the synthezoid was given the brain patterns of Simon Williams (aka Wonder Man) and this human conscience allowed the Vision to fight back against his programming and, like his father before him, fight back against his creator. He did attack his creator and seemingly destroyed him. He was then invited to join the Avengers.

It was at this point that Pym’s memories of having created Ultron came back to him. You see, the robot had hypnotized him into forgetting Ultron’s creation to gain the advantage of surprise. These memories tormented Pym as the evil deeds of Ultron added up over the years and were a major cause of Pym’s eventual breakdown.

Eventually, Ultron returns after every encounter, further evolved and harder to defeat. The evolution of the character has taken it through efforts to create a “bride” for himself with the brain patterns of Janet Van Dyne, the wife of Pym. This wife was named “Jocasta” and she rejected his evil and sided with the Avengers in his defeat.

One version of Ultron eventually reconciled with Doctor Pym and they began a warm father/son relationship. This didn’t last, of course, as a prior version of Ultron arrived and attacked Pym. The son sacrificed itself to save it’s father and the cycle went on to repeat itself.

Ultron’s evolution continues and his hatred of human imperfection grows--this Monster seems as undying as Frankenstein’s. Unlike the original monster, Ultron had a “father” who accepted him and tried to nurture him, it was the creation’s rejection of the creator that severed the relationship which is the true difference in the two.