Unite Or Perish - The Ultron Agenda (September 2019)

[Michael Watkins]

Alright so I'm going to take a stab in the dark here;

1. Ultron finds out about Janet and Tony and he goes to confront him about it which leads to a fight
2. In the chaos Janet gets abducted
3. Ultron wants Janet's mind to be placed into Jocasta (where Slott conveniently forgets this Ultron's human-robot conversion tech)
4. The uprising is framed around rights but it's really Machine Man fighting back against Ultron
5. Machine Man and Jocasta get together and Ultron is defeated.

The framing of what has rights is still poorly explained as it comes to sentient machines and is rendered moot when Ultron is considered Hank Pym and since Hank is legally still dead I die a little inside when they blow the poor guy apart.

Tony Stark is a sentient machine

[Frontier]

So it's not an event, but just an arc in an Iron Man book?

I got the sense it's a crossover with Iron Man and maybe Champions since Zub is writing both (then again, Slott needs a co-writer so it might just be for that).

[Michael Watkins]

I may be thick, but the more I read, the more I came to the conclusion that Hank was never in control of the thing. Maybe every writer has just written Ultron because that's exactly what it is: Ultron pretending to be part-Pym. The horrified look on Hank's face when he got yanked from Pymtron in Infinity Countdown tells me that he was never onboard with anything Ultron could have done before. As I said in the Hank Pym forum, I have no idea which theory is true, so don't fight me over this

But to me, Duggan's take on it is the right one: it's Ultron pretending to be Hank. Whether it truly believes it or not, I couldn't say.

if you go by what happened on page, Ultron was both Hank Pym and Ultron until Hank's soul was consumed. and he acted like a merged Ultron and Hank Pym, irrc. Ultron would have no reason to be offended by being referred to as "Ultron" if it were some other way.

What fans want is to get Hank out, not to have Jan in. Considering the baby Wasp book failed twice, I'm not too worried about Jan. They are slowly inserting her back into games, toys and comic books lately. If something like that were to happen, it would be undone by the end of the book. Let's not get carried away in negativity.

Man, we've turned into a bunch of pessimists, myself included

It's weird, I feel we should be so happy about this as fans, but somehow we just can't. Marvel broke us

^that was in an appreciation thread.

[Mary Jay]

if you go by what happened on page, Ultron was both Hank Pym and Ultron until Hank's soul was consumed. and he acted like a merged Ultron and Hank Pym, irrc. Ultron would have no reason to be offended by being referred to as "Ultron" if it were some other way.

In UA, it was pretty clear that it was only Ultron, and not Hank. But as I said, everybody has a theory, and nothing is confirmed, so I'm not about to argue about it.

^that was in an appreciation thread.

I'm pretty protective of others. Being pessimist or on the fence about something because you've been burned before, and outright scare fans with wild theories are two different things.

[Digifiend]

I got the sense it's a crossover with Iron Man and maybe Champions since Zub is writing both (then again, Slott needs a co-writer so it might just be for that).

It'll be interesting to see the solicit for Champions #9. #8's a one and done story involving their long time rivals the Freelancers, so #9 should start a new arc. Will it be an Ultron arc, that's the question. If it is, it may be connected to this. But that assumes that Ultron does actually show up and it's not just Aaron Stack taking inspiration from him.

[Michael Watkins]

In UA, it was pretty clear that it was only Ultron, and not Hank. But as I said, everybody has a theory, and nothing is confirmed, so I'm not about to argue about it.

good. because i don't want anyone to look silly. Hank's soul was plucked from Ultron in Infinity Countdown. there's really only one way to interpret it.

Being pessimist or on the fence about something because you've been burned before, and outright scare fans with wild theories are two different things.

i'm a fan. and i have been burned before. Scott Lang was killed off so Daniel Way could make a MAX Ant-Man book with Pym as the lead. all i did was speculate that Janet might be in trouble. she's literally shown in peril. it being "wild" is simply your opinion. i can't control how other people feel.

[Iron Maiden]

I wonder if former Avengers A.I. members Victor Mancha and Doombot will be in on this?

[j9ac9k]

I just really hope they don't ruin Machine Man with this. That "X-51/robocop look" was pretty bad, but this could be a million times worse if they make him a second-rate Ultron.

[gurkle]

I wonder if former Avengers A.I. members Victor Mancha and Doombot will be in on this?

Mancha was killed off in Vision's series, but that doesn't preclude him showing up of course.

[Beetle]

Mancha was killed off in Vision's series, but that doesn't preclude him showing up of course.

Victor came back in the Runaways ongoing

[Somecrazyaussie]

I just really hope they don't ruin Machine Man with this. That "X-51/robocop look" was pretty bad, but this could be a million times worse if they make him a second-rate Ultron.

Apparently Machine Man is the main villain in this and not Ultron.

[gurkle]

Victor came back in the Runaways ongoing

Ah, thanks. Even I'm not used to how fast the resurrection treadmill works today.

[Digifiend]

Victor came back in the Runaways ongoing

And Doombot is in that book too.

[Dermie]

That would've made sense... but Bobbi was part of Unstoppable Wasp's supporting cast, so unless that book is uncancelled again...

What does UNSTOPPABLE WASP have to do with it? I'm talking about Mockingbird making a guest appearance. What other books she does or does not currently appear in is irrelevant.

[Digifiend]

The book could've done a tie-in. It's a moot point now anyway, as the solicit has now been revealed and it turns out Machine Man, not Ultron, is the antagonist, meaning the story is probably confined to just Iron Man and this isn't an event.