Why Hank Pym Isn’t In ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’; Ultron’s Powers Dialed Down
By eelyajekiM
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Monday, February 23rd, 2015 at 3:30 pm
In the Marvel comics, Hank Pym used his brain patterns to create Ultron, an artificial intelligence cyborg that would become sentient and develop an Oedipus Complex. It is nearly indestructible, and adapts itself with new upgrades after each defeat. So to have the titular character as the lead villain in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it would seem that our heroes were destined to lose this battle.
With Ant-Man also set for release this summer, you would think that there would be some sort of connection between the two. But as Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon would explain, “Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers.” The director also gets into why he had to dial down the powers of Ultron so that he wouldn’t be god-like. Hit the jump for more.
Before the Age Of Ultron even began shooting, Whedon actually addressed trying to make Ultron a bit more grounded than he is in 2013. And now that the film is only a couple of months away, here’s the director going further into detail with Empire magazine about Ultron’s origins and making him more vulnerable than he is in the comics:
“The powers in comic books – they’re always like, “˜And then I can reverse the polarity of your ions!’ – well, we have to ground things a lot more. With Ultron, we have to make him slightly less omnipotent because he’d win. Bottom line. Also, having weaknesses and needs and foibles and alliances and actually caring what people think of him, all these things, are what make him a character and not just a tidal wave. A movie about a tidal wave can be great, but it’s different than a conflict between one side and the other. When Ultron speaks, he has a point. He is really not on top of the fact that the point he’s making has nothing to do with the fact that he’s banoonoos. And that he hates the Avengers for bringing him into this world, and he can’t really articulate that or even understand how much he hates humanity. He thinks he’s all that. That guy is very fun to write. He combines all the iconic stuff. The powers he has are slightly different – he can control certain things, he’s not just firing repulsors.
There is a lot of truth to that. Having an unstoppable force is a great source of conflict, but if there is no character to that force, it really wouldn’t make for an interesting story or leave room for character development.
So moving on to why we aren’t going to see Hank Pym in the film, Whedon said:
Of all the heat I’ve ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things. But the fact of the matter was, Edgar had him first and by virtue of what Edgar was doing, there was no way for me to use him in this.
In the film, Ultron is a creation of both Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, and would be used as a peacekeeping force. But not having the original creator of Ultron in the mix was exceptional hard for Whedon:
It didn’t make sense to introduce a third scientist, a third sciencetician, to do that. It was hard for me, because I grew up on the comics, to dump that, but at the end of the day, it’s a more interesting relationship between Tony and Ultron if Tony was once like, “˜You know what would be a really great idea?’ They’re doing what they always do – which is jump in headfirst, and then go, “˜Sorry, world!’ But you have to make it their responsibility without just making it their fault.
While it may have been difficult for Whedon to not have Pym as one of the creators or even the sole creator, he does admit that the cimeatic approach is a much better fit for the MCU:
Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU, Tony Stark is that guy. Banner has elements of that guy – we don’t really think of him as being as irresponsible as Tony Stark, but the motherfucker tested gamma radiation on himself, with really terrible, way-worse-than-Tony-Stark results.
Of course with every adaptation there will be changes, but Marvel knows what they are doing. Having the origins differ from the comics doesn’t make Avengers: Age of Ultron any less exciting.
Avengers: Age of Ultron opens in theaters on May 1, 2015.
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Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
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