Death Valley Daze

Ultron has escaped from the Vault and has launched an all out attack on Avengers Compound while only Hawkeye and the Scarlet Witch are present. However, before his swarms of robo-ticks can eat the flesh off their bones, the Vision arrives to stop his creator.[1][2][3][4][5] When the Vision attacks Ultron with his heat rays, it bounces off the robot’s Adamantium body and puts the Avengers support staff and Rachel Carpenter (Spider-Woman’s daughter) in danger. Wanda convinces her former husband to stop while Consuela evacuates the area.

The Vision changes tactics and tries to attack his creator using his phasing powers, but Ultron has built a defense against such an attack. With Ultron pummeling the Vision, Hawkeye temporarily blinds the robot with a flare arrow which allows the Scarlet Witch to pull the Vision to safety. The Vision surprises Wanda when he tells her that he sincerely appreciates her concern for his well being, something that the Vision should be incapable of doing since being stripped of his emotions.[6] Ultron fights through the three Avengers and breaks into the compound’s lab. There, he finds what he came for: the remains of two of his previous incarnations: Ultron-10 and Ultron-12.[7]

As Ultron tries to make his escape, the other Avengers — Wonder Man, Mockingbird, US Agent, and Spider-Woman — are returning from Ultron’s diversion at the home of Adamantium inventor Myron MacLean. US Agent, Wonder Man and Spider-Woman leap out of the jet to try and attack Ultron in the air but they miss their mark. That’s when Mockingbird decides to try ramming the Quinjet into their foe. This attempt fails and Ultron manages to rip Bobbi from the cockpit and escape with her as a prisoner.

With the immediate battle over, the returning Avengers are brought up to speed on what’s going on. The Vision also explains his presence, saying that he decided to investigate after receiving reports that Ultron broke out of the Vault, followed by an incident where a supply of Adamantium raided. With the capture of MacLean and the theft of the remains of Ultron’s previous models, the Avengers are certain that he is up to some kind of experiment. Figuring that the robot will target his creator, Hank Pym, the Vision gets to the computer to compile information. Hawkeye insists on finding Ultron as soon as possible and is becoming more frantic now that the robot has captured his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Now that he life is in danger, he realizes how much he actually loves Bobbi and how their separation was a stupid idea.[8]

Meanwhile, at his private lab in Death Valley, Hank Pym is hard at work when his home is crashed by Ultron. Before he can protect himself, Hank falls under the sway of Ultron’s hypnotic powers.

By this time, the Vision is able to track down Hank’s location. However, before the team mobilizes the Avengers staff returns with Rachel Carpenter, Spider-Woman’s daughter, after they fled during Ultron’s attack. The Avengers reveals to Consuela — their maid — that Carlos — their groundskeeper — sacrificed his life to save them all and there is a moment of mourning. With that, Hawkeye mobilizes his team to head out to Death Valley to face Ultron and rescue Bobbi and the others. After they take off in a Quinjet a call comes in from Miguel Santos, aka the Living Lightning, who just recently became a reservist so he can attend school at the University of Southern California. Consuela tells Miguel everything that happened, but doesn’t know where the team has gone. Since there isn’t much else he can do, Miguel heads to his next class instead.

Meanwhile, the Avengers are making their way to Death Valley and along the way the Scarlet Witch asks the Vision if he is planning on staying for long. Her former husband tells her that he only came out west to deal with Ultron and after this mission he is going to return to Avengers east where he belongs. Hearing this hurts Wanda that she has to turn away to hide the fact that she is crying.

On the ground, Mockingbird wakes up and finds herself shackled to an examination table. When Ultron calls her Jocasta — after the robot he created to be his mate — Bobbi asks if Ultron intends to turn her into a robot like he tried with the other Avengers in the past.[9] However, before she can get an answer, the mentally enslaved Myron MacLean and Hank Pym warn their master that they have picked up an approaching aircraft on their radar.

When the Avengers arrive, Ultron unleashes the re-animated remains of his former models. Even though the robots are missing limbs, their Adamantium construction makes them nearly invincible. Deciding they need more brute strength in the fight ahead, Hawkeye drinks some of Hank Pym’s size-changing formula, transforming himself into Goliath once more.[10] Smashing through the robot, the Avengers eventually reach Pym’s home. There they are greeted by Ultron who introduces them to his latest creation, Alkemah — aka War Toy — a new robot he claims to have created from Mockingbird herself![11]

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye/Goliath, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Mockingbird, US Agent, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman), Vision, Hank Pym, Ultron, Alkhema, Myron MacLean, Rachel Carpenter, Conseula Sanchez, Roberto Gonzago, Carlos Alvarez

Continuity Notes

1. This story makes multiple references to how the Vision was created by Ultron. See Avengers #57-58 and 134-135 for details on that. Also mentioned is how Ultron was created by Hank Pym. That was also revealed in Avengers #58.

2. Here, Ultron refers to the Scarlet Witch as a mutant, when she actually isn’t. It’ll be discovered years later that she was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary when she was a child. In order to cover up his work he made it so that future DNA scans would have her register as a mutant. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5.

3. The AWC had just recently defeated Ultron in Avengers West Coast #66-68.

4. Here, the Vision is referred to as the Scarlet Witch’s ex-husband. The two were married years ago in Giant Size Avengers #4. Their marriage was torn apart when the Vision was disassembled by a government agency in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45. Although he was rebuilt, he no longer had any capacity for emotion and left his wife in Avengers #312.

5. Wanda discovers that her hex powers are suddenly not working. This is signaling the return of the once destroyed pages to the Book of Darkhold. For all that and the restoration of Wanda’s powers see Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins #1-7.

6. What Wanda doesn’t realize is that the Vision recently received the brain engrams of the late Alex Lipton in Avengers #348 which has restored his capacity for emotion. Despite this, the Vision continues to act as though he has no feelings in order to spare anyone who may have had an emotional connection to him in the past, or those who cared for Alex Lipton before his death.

7. There are actually three Ultron corpses here for models 10, 11, and 12. Model 10 was deactivated by the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One #92-93. Here, states that the #10 model was inferred to have been destroyed by Reed Richards. This might be in reference to Fantastic Four #331, however that conflict was a dream, so how Ultron knows about it is anyone’s guess. The Mark 11 and Mark 12 warred against one another and both were destroyed in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #7. The Mark 12 was despised because it was the only version of Ultron at the time to move past his hatred toward humans.

8. How Hawkeye and Mockingbird’s marriage came to be on the brink of divorce is a long and complicated set of circumstances. The details:

   • Clint and Bobbi got married back in Hawkeye #4. It was all marital bliss until the time when the West Coast Avengers were struck going backward in time circa West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-24. As seen in issue #18, while in the 1800s, Bobbi was kidnapped by the Phantom Rider just as the rest of the Avengers were going backward in time.

   • Bobbi was forced to drink a love potion that made her loyal to the Rider. Eventually, she shook off the effects of the potion and, in a battle with her captor, did nothing to prevent him from falling off a cliff to his death, as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #23. Because of Clint’s staunch belief in the Avengers rule about killing, Bobbi kept the truth of what happened a secret for months.

   • Things went south when the the spirit of the Phantom Rider possessed his modern day descendant and revealed the truth to the rest of the Avengers. As seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #34-35, Hawkeye didn’t take it very well either and this put a strain on their marriage.

   • From issue #37 on, Clint and Bobbi split up. However, Mockingbird came back in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #46 and convinced Clint to help her train the Great Lakes Avengers and work on their marriage. Although Clint agreed, the two could not reconcile and Clint returned to the west coast team in Avengers West Coast #60.

   • Bobbi revealed issue #88 that she filed divorce paperwork and that they have two weeks before it becomes final.

9. Jocasta was created to be the so-called bride of Ultron by transferring the life force of the the Wasp into a robotic body in Avengers #162. Although this failed, Jocasta eventually came online in issue #170 of that series. By the time Ultron went after Jocasta in Marvel Two-In-One #92-93, she had renounced his evil ways.

10. Hawkeye first became Goliath during a period that Hank Pym was going another alias from Avengers #63 to 98. He later became Goliath again during Operation: Galactic Storm as seen in Avengers #345-347, Iron Man #278-279, and Captain America #399-400. He went back to being Hawkeye upon his return to Earth in Avengers West Coast #83.

11. Although this story suggests that Ultron made Alkhema out of Mockingbird, he merely used Bobbi’s mind as a template as we’ll learn next issue. It’s also interesting to note that this will be the last appearance of the real Mockingbird for a while. Starting next issue, she will have been replaced by a Skrull spy named H'rpra. This will not be explained until New Avengers: The Reunion #2. Bobbi will spend years as a captive of the Skrulls until she is rescued in Secret Invasion #8.