UItron, Vision Origins Revealed For ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’

Promotional art for Avengers: Age of Ultron was uncovered Tuesday, revealing the movie’s origins for the Ultron, the main villain, and Vision, one of the new heroes. Director and writer Joss Whedon took both origin stories in significantly different directions from the comic book origins.

Warning: These should be considered massive spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Please check out some non-spoiler Avengers news such as Whedon discussing James Spader’s work as Ultron and that this film will be the director’s last for Marvel.

Reddit user LionsRus2014 managed to acquire the promotional art for Vision and Ultron, revealing their origin stories in the process. In the comics, Ultron has some different origin stories, but they typically revolve around being created by Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man. This origin story needed to be changed due to Pym not being established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet, but Whedon took it a step further by adding a tie-in to the first Avengers film.

“First discovered as a simple computer program hidden among the ruins of the Chitauri invasion of New York, the being known as Ultron soon completed its development into a sophisticated artificial intelligence after some experimentation by Tony Stark. Ultron’s first shocking ultimatum upon gaining consciousness was to declare the human race its enemy. Setting out to exterminate all life on the planet, the unstable and emotional Ultron seeks to upgrade its mechanical body to an ultimate, unstoppable form. With an army of robotic drones and the ability to enter and corrupt any computer network, Ultron will stop at nothing to see humanity wiped out.””

As Comic Book‘s Jamie Lovett notes, Whedon played with a similar theme of an artificial intelligence with an alien origin during his time writing for The Astonishing X-Men. The “Danger” plotline revealed that the X-Men’s Danger Room was built using a piece of sentient technology from the Shi’ar, one of the many alien races in the Marvel Comics Universe.

Meanwhile, the comic version of Vision was originally created by Ultron to help fight the Avengers. The android eventually turns on his creator to help the heroes instead. This character’s origin is changed even more than Ultron for Avengers: Age of Ultron. He’s now the scientific love child of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

“Programmed by the combined geniuses of Tony Stark & Bruce Banner and imparted with the ability to fly, project intense energy beams and change the density of his form, the Vision has proved himself a worthy hero, aiding the Avengers in their struggle against the evil A.I. Ultron.”

The Reddit user went on to share another piece of promotional art showing Vision, played by Paul Bettany, using his density altering ability to phase through a well. There’s also a promo piece for Scarlett Johanson’s Black Widow with her new suit and stun batons.

Many have already noted that Vision’s color scheme for Avengers: Age of Ultron matches that of his creators; red and gold for Tony Stark / Iron Man and green for Bruce Banner / Hulk.

What do you think of these updates to Ultron’s and Vision’s origins for Avengers: Age of Ultron? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Reddit, Comic Book Resources]