Avengers 2 Age of Ultron: A Helpful Guide

The first question maybe, why do I need a guide? Well, there will be a lot going on in Age of Ultron, such as new characters, potential missing characters, characters changing sides and tie in’s to upcoming Marvel films.

Just watching the film for what is will be, a fantastic comic book action movie is fine but to get the full enjoyment from the movie then this relatively simple guide may help.

Warning: This guide may contain some slight plot spoilers but only meant in a helpful way and will include some comic history behind the new characters that will be appearing.

Watch the extended trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk24PuBUUkQ

A New Enemy and New Avengers.

Ultron was created by Hank Pym aka Ant Man and first appeared un-named in the Avengers #54 comic before his true arrival in #55. The main difference already is that as Ant Man, despite being an original member of the Avengers in the comics has yet to appear in the movie so Tony Stark becomes the creator of  Ultron.

Ultron is an artificial intelligence robot that in short rebels against its creator and declares war on all humanity. Ultron also has the ability to upgrade itself and become more intelligent each time making it harder to defeat. Director Joss Weedon already touched on this aspect by saying that we will see 3 different versions of Ultron in this movie, at least 2 of which can be seen in the trailer at 16 secs and 2.15 and possibly even 1.16 although its a little dark and quick to tell if this is the second version of the three.

Ultron will have some help in his quest for destroying the world from twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff better known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Both characters can be seen in the end credit scene in Captain America 2 and are both present in the trailer. (Spoiler Alert) In the comics both start as villains before changing sides and becoming part of the Avengers and this will also happen in the movie.

Another new character that will appear is Vision, an android originally created by Ultron himself.  (Spoiler Alert) Like the twins Vision changes sides and becomes one of the greatest Avengers of all time in the comic series. Curiously Vision  does not appear in the trailer and so far little is known about how big of a part he will play but again in the comics and a possible future storyline for the movies is that Vision and the Scarlet Witch get married.

Another new Avenger, although a character that we have seen twice before in the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) is James Rhodes aka the Iron Patriot played by again by Don Cheadle. It is not known if Rhodes will don the armour or not.

One other new character that we do see in the trailer (at 1.47) is Ulysses Klaw played by Andy Serkis. This is a tie in to the upcoming Black Panther film (2017) as Klaw has done battle with the Panther in the past. As for the Panther it is rumored that we will briefly see the character’s alter ego T’Challa in the movie but not the Panther himself. In the comics The Black Panther joins the Avengers for several years. Another connection here is that the Black Panther’s native homeland of Wakanda is where the metal Vibranium, which is most commonly known as one of the materials used to construct Captain America’s shield comes from and we can see in the trailer (at 2.19) that Cap’s shield is broken in half and therefore needs a new one.

Missing Characters?

Loki will not be appearing as a main character  in this film although it is rumored that he may appear in some small capacity, perhaps in one of those after credits scenes?

Also not appearing is Falcon, last seen offering to help Captain Amercia in his search for Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soilder  in Captain America 2. The Winter Soilder will also be absent but expect both to appear Captain Amercia 3.

Agent Coulson, who was killed in Avengers Assemble but resurrected for the television series Agents of SHIELD will also not be appearing but is expected to back in the MCU at some point soon.

The Hulk Buster Suit

At 1.46 in the trailer we see the Hulk Buster suit which is created by Tony Stark as protection against the Hulk. Although it has been rumored that Ultron takes the suit to battle the Hulk you can clearly see at 1.48 (pause it here!) s the suit closes that Iron Man is in fact inside the suit and this has to be a tie in to Captain America 3 ‘Civil War’ film.

In the comic ark of Civil War the Avengers form two sides in a disagreement over the governments ‘Superhero Registration Act’ ostensibly designed to have super powered characters act under official regulation. The act is supported by Tony Stark and opposed by Steve Rogers (Captain America) and interestingly involves Spiderman.

It is unlikely that the MCU will follow the exact same story and it seems that some of the Avengers have had enough of Stark and his attitude towards being a super hero but this story will progress much more over future films but the fight between Hulk and Iron Man in the Hulk buster suit suggests the civil war may have just begun?

The Age of Ultron Comic Arc

The Age of Ultron comic series consists of 10 books and was produced in 2013. The books consists of many characters that will not appear in the film such as Spiderman, Wolverine and Ultron’s creator Hank Pym (Ant Man) and for those reasons and others including the relevant timelines between MCU and the comic being much different means the story is largely different although the main premise of Ultron trying to destroy Earth and SHIELD no longer active remain. The main part of the ending involves both Wolverine, who cannot be included as FOX has the license to all things X-Men and Pym who has not yet been bought into the MCU but does have his origin film coming out in 2015, two months after Age of Ultron. So if your looking for answers as to what happens in the film you won’t find them in the comic story.