Mighty Avengers #4 — Nick Peron

Jun 13

Jun 13 Mighty Avengers #4

Ultron has taken control of Iron Many (Tony Stark)’s body, transforming him into a half-flesh/half-metal being that resembles Janet Van Dyne (aka the Wasp). Hijacking all global communications the killer robot reveals its plan for the world. It tells all who can hear it that the planet Earth is quickly becoming uninhabitable to organic beings and Ultron is in the process of speeding this up by causing extreme weather and seismic events to wipe the slate clean. it intends to build a new race of mechanical beings to replace and inherit the world. It tells the world that it loves them all and says goodbye.

At the downed SHIELD helicarrier, the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) has assumed command of the situation as both Tony Stark and Maria Hill are out of commission. They have just been joined by a suit of Tony Stark’s original Iron Man armor piloted by an artificial intelligence called Starktech-9. It has come because it believes that Tony Stark is dead.[1] It was created independent of world communications infrastructure and was built to assist SHIELD and the Avengers in the event that Stark himself was killed. However, before it can explain what they need to do, the robot is attacked by Ares, who believes it to be a trojan horse. Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) pulls the god of war off Starktech-9 and tries to reason with him.

That’s when Hank Pym, shows up and tells them that Starktech-9 is legitimate as he helped Tony design it.[2] Carol, Janet, and Ares hope that Hank — Ultron’s creator — can stop the robot and possibly save Tony in the process.[3] However, Pym has no idea why the robot has chosen to take on the appearance of Janet this time around. All Pym knows is that Ultron was designed to become smarter than he is and that no matter how hard they have tried, they have never been able to destroy it for good. As they wonder how Ultron is controlling the weather, Starktech-9 boots back up and explains that the killer robot has taken control of something called the Sular Experiment, a satellite project developed by Stark to control global weather patterns. The intended purpose was to try and solve world hunger by geo-engineering rain in arid regions where it is difficult to grow crops. Although the project is still five years away from completion, satellites were already put into orbit to refine the system.

Ms. Marvel is annoyed to hear that Tony was working on this and orders Wonder Man (Simon Williams) and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) to take them out. While they are doing this, the Black Widow is having SHIELD agents try to get the helicarrier back online. However, once all the satellites are down, Ultron initiates plan b, unleashing an electro-magnetic pulse that blacks out the entire planet. Carol, Simon, and Bob, then race out to catch every aircraft over New York that are suddenly falling out of the sky.

Luckily, Starktech-9 was insulated from such an attack and, as SHIELD technicians are busy repairing it, the Wasp asks what their next plan should be. It explains that Ultron has taken control of Tony’s body because his biology is now tied to his armor. It points out that this, and the weather control aspect of its plans were used because they have been tried in the past before.[4] This makes Hank and Janet realize that Ultron has no capacity for imagination or originality, and ask Starktech-9 to try and locate its central processors.

At that moment, Ultron has broken into Avengers Tower, where it finds Lindy Lee — the wife of the Sentry — who is integral to plan b. At that same moment, Edwin Jarvis (the Avengers butler), tries to call the team for help when he hears Lindy scream.[5] When the Avengers race to their headquarters they discover that Ultron has taken control of all of Tony Stark’s suits of Iron Man armor and attacks them.[6] As the Avengers fight these Iron Man drones, Ultron uses one of them to tell the Sentry that it has eliminated his wife. Bob breaks off from the fight and rushes into his Watchtower. there he finds Lindy’s bloody body in bed. As he cradles her in his arms, a mechanical tendril reaches out from the darkness.[7] While back outside, Ares is smashing as many Iron Man suits as he can get his hands on. Watching the Wasp in battle, he suddenly comes up with a way to defeat Ultron.

At that moment, at Plokstine Missile Base in Lithuania, technicians are suddenly locked out of the computer systems. As they try to figure out how to regain control, one of them notices that whoever has hacked the system is trying to find the launch codes.

Recurring Characters

Mighty Avengers (Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, Wasp, Wonder Man, Black Widow, Sentry, Ares), Ultron, “Hank Pym”, Lindy Lee, “Edwin Jarvis”, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Ben Urich, Kate Farrell, SHIELD, Starktech-9

Continuity Notes

Tony’s body was hijacked by Ultron in the first issue of this series. Starktech-9 showed up at the end of last issue. Do I need to tell you that this was the first suit Tony built back in Tales of Suspense #39? Well it’s too late now.
This isn’t the real Hank Pym, but rather a Skrull spy named Criti Noll. They took the real Pym’s place prior to House of M #1, as will be explained in Mighty Avengers #15. This is ahead of a planned invasion of Earth that will primarily take place in Secret Invasion #1-8.
The real Hank Pym did indeed create Ultron, as told back in Avengers #58.
Indeed, Ultron is using schemes that have already been done before. The weather control plan is likely in imitation of the Weathermen, one-off Avengers foes who attempted to use a weather control satellite to endanger the Earth in Avengers #210. Likewise, Ultron had previously usurped control of Tony’s armor in the past, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-32 and Iron Man Annual 2000.
This isn’t really Jarvis either, but yet another Skrull infiltrator. He took the place of the real Jarvis prior to New Avengers #1, as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #1.
Cue the obligatory cavalcade of past Iron Man armors. The ones showcased here include:
- The first suit of red-and-gold Iron Man armor that was built in Tales of Suspense #48 (Model 2).
- His trademark red-and-gold armor created in Iron Man #66 (Model 3).
- The next suit after that, which was created in Iron Man #85 (Model 4).
- The “Silver Centurion” (red and silver) armor that was built in Iron Man #200.
- His Armor Wars armor which was created in Iron Man #231.
- The War Machine armor created in Iron Man #281.
- The “Renaissance” armor that Tony built in Iron Man (vol. 3) #1.
- The armor Tony wore during his time as Secretary of Defense, circa Iron Man (vol. 3) #73 (Model 24).
- The upgrade that Tony made for the #24 armor in Iron Man (vol. 3) #84 (Model 25)
- And lastly, a suit of Extremis armor that was built in Iron Man (vol. 4) #4.
Although Lindy appears to be dead her, we’ll discover that she is alive and this was a delusion that Ultron put in Sentry’s head. See Mighty Avengers #6.

Topical References

Many cell phones in this story are depicted as “flip” model phones that were popular when this comic was published in 2007. This should be considered a topical reference as they have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of the smart phone.
There are also a number of CRT model televisions, this is topical as this is now an obsolete technology.