Ultimo (Marvel Comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei manga series see Karakuridôji Ultimo
| Ultimo | |
 Ultimo |
|
| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Tales of Suspense #76 (April 1966) |
| Created by | Stan Lee |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Ultimo |
| Notable aliases | The Living Holocaust, Doomsday Machine |
| Abilities |
|
Ultimo is a fictional giant robot in the Marvel Comics universe. It was once controlled by the Mandarin and used against Iron Man, but has fought Iron Man several times even when not under the Mandarin's control. While having been dismantled by S.H.I.E.L.D. at one point, it has reappeared since.
Contents |
[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origin
Ultimo is a gigantic android that is thousands of years old, and he was constructed by an alien species that has since been destroyed by their own creation. They called the robot "The doomsday device", apparently a combat instrument and a weapon of mutually assured destruction. Ultimo confirmed that his "masters" have not contacted him in "thousands of years".
The first time (chronologically speaking) Ultimo is depicted in print (in flashback in Iron Man vol.3, #24), he is already traveling through space, and has attacked the planet Rajak, ultimately killing all its people. The only survivors, a group of merchants who were off-planet at the time, attempted to destroy him, but had to flee before his might. In the end they managed to lure him into an asteroid belt, where both he and the ship were battered by space rocks until they were driven off-course and separately crash-landed on an unknown planet — Earth. This happened around the 1840s.
[edit] First appearance
In "Tales of Suspense" #76, the Mandarin first reveals Ultimo as his "Greatest creation". (Later issues suggest that the Mandarin found Ultimo in a long-dormant volcano in the vicinity of the "Palace of the Star Dragon" in the "Valley of the Spirits", somewhere in the People's Republic of China, and then reprogrammed Ultimo to serve him.[volume & issue needed]) Mandarin charged it with geothermal energy inside a volcano and gave it its current name. The giant robot vanquishes a force of Chinese soldiers sent to dispatch the Mandarin and nearly destroys Iron Man, but is drawn by him back into the volcano. The volcano has been destabilized by his activity and erupts, swallowing the robot whole in a conflagration of red-hot lava.[1] This proved not to be enough to destroy him, however.
Ultimo is then sent by the Mandarin to assist the Living Laser, and battled Thor and Hawkeye.[2] Ultimo was then sent by the Mandarin to attack the Yellow Claw and Loc Do, and battled Iron Man and Sunfire.[3] Ultimo was next sent by the Mandarin to attack Washington, D.C. Ultimo fights both Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers, even on the Capitol Mall, before finally being dumped in yet another volcano.[4] He is not heard from for years after that, until, in Iron Man vol.1 #298, he is revealed to be the cause for a series of earth tremors in California. Over the years, he has drifted across the entire length of the continental plate, soaking up gigantic amounts of geothermal energy, and is thus "For the first time in centuries, fully charged". The then-current version of Iron Man (the remote-controlled NTU-150) proves no match for him, and is torn to pieces — and the cybernetic backlash to Tony Stark's nervous system renders him comatose.[5]
[edit] Ultimo Versus the Iron Legion
In Iron Man (1st series) #300, the 64 pages edition, Ultimo battled the "Iron Legion". The Iron Legion was led by Jim Rhodes, in the War Machine Armor, and furthermore comprised Happy Hogan, Eddie March (the first substitute Iron Man), Bethany Cabe, Mike O'Brien (formerly Guardsman) and Carl Walker (formerly Force). With the exception of Bethany, each had previously worn an Iron Man suit. However, Rhodes said that he knew from "personal experience" that Bethany knows how to handle herself. Since Stark was down, Rhodes called them in, and had Abe Zimmer (Stark's tech wiz) take a number of old armors out of storage, (see Iron Man's armor) and fix them to be nominally functional again. However, Zimmer said that they would not function anywhere near capacity, since Stark stored them for sentimental reasons only, not with the idea that they would ever be used again. Eddie wore the gray, original suit, and also was the first to get hit by Ultimo. His attempted rescue by Carl Walker, in the "classic" Iron Man armor, led to Carl getting shot, and the suit beginning to melt, forcing him to eject. While Beth and Happy aided Carl and Eddie, Rhodes, together with Mike in the Silver Centurion suit attacked Ultimo in order to provide a distraction. At this point, Rhodes realized that this wasn't what he had in mind for this battle, and decided on a change of plan. Happy was to get Carl and Eddie to the hospital, while Bethany and Mike headed to the town of Futura to start evacuations. Bethany objected, and convinced Rhodes to allow her to buy time against Ultimo with him. At this point, Tony Stark had come out of his coma and donned the new Modular Iron Man suit. He headed out to aid in the fight against Ultimo with a Full-Spectrum Scanalyzer and Railgun Launcher. Stark successfully took out Ultimo single-handedly, by causing a lightning bolt to strike the robot's "central nervous system". His scans indicated that Ultimo is several thousand years old, and he has it hauled off for study.[6]
[edit] Ultimate Devastation
 |
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) |
Years later, the robot is the property of Stark-Fujikawa, the company which bought Stark's company when he was believed dead (after the events of "the Crossing"). Stark-Fujikawa's engineers, having performed extensive research of the hulking, inert robot, managed to access its control programs, and now the company intends to use the enormous energy reserves stored inside Ultimo to provide cheap electricity to the entire Western USA.
The ship built on top of the dormant doomsday device is attacked by Goldenblade and Sapper — ironically, representatives of the doomed Rajaki race, seeking to steal energy to resurrect those Rajaki that still survive as data patterns aboard the crashed vessel - who accidentally wake up Ultimo, and the robot immediately sets out to destroy the ship. Unfortunately, the city of Spokane is on his route, and will be destroyed unless he is stopped. Goldenblade, Sapper, the superheroine Warbird, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US army all work together with Iron Man to slow the giant down, while he attempts to use what data the Stark-Fujikawa engineers managed to obtain to break into Ultimo's core programming once more. Moments before the city is reached, Tony Stark manages to convince the giant killer robot that he is one of his "Masters" and orders him to shut down.
Afterward, Ultimo is dismantled and his systems "fried" by the transfer of his energy stores to the Rajaki vessel.
[edit] Initiative
Ultimo reappeared, apparently fully restored, in "Avengers: The Initiative" #1, facing the Mighty Avengers - just long enough to be deactivated by a single shot of the Tactigon, a weapon of unknowable power, at the time in the hands of the girl called Armory.[7]
[edit] War Machine
Most recently in the pages of War Machine, Ultimo was converted into an "Ultimo Virus" capable of bestowing enhanced strength, speed, regeneration and optic blast abilities to its victims, which included Ares and Rhodey's former love interest Dr. Glenda Sandoval.[volume & issue needed] The current owner and re-manufacturer of Ultimo is presently unknown.
[edit] Powers and abilities
As a gigantic artificial construction, Ultimo is incredibly strong and nearly indestructible. Despite his bulk, he is deceptively fast, being able to walk at about 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). He can absorb and store immense amounts of heat energy. He can fire beams of concussive force or beams capable of disintegrating matter from his eyes, the power of which varies with his own energy level (but at full power they can easily vaporize several dozens of tons of rock in a single blast). He can, over time, significantly increase his size (and presumably strength and durability): When he first appeared, he was 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, but after his years-long lava bath underneath the Earth's crust, he had grown to 60 feet (18 m); later, after Stark-Fujikawa's engineers accessed his systems, they made him grow to "over a hundred feet" (he stretched along the entire length of the hull of a medium-sized research vessel).
Ultimo has also shown he can adapt his defenses; for instance, while he once was deactivated by a lightning bolt, this later proved ineffective.
Finally, he seems capable of repairing himself even when deactivated and completely disassembled.
Ultimo has no capacity for self-motivated activity, and is dependent on programming or the commands of its programmer. Ultimo is programmed for the combat use of its superhuman powers, or, as it was rather graphically put: "If it moves, it dies. If it resists, it dies first."
[edit] In other media
[edit] Television
- Ultimo appeared in the Iron Man portion of The Marvel Superheroes.
- Ultimo appears in the 1994 Iron Man episode "Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer" voiced by Ed Gilbert. The Mandarin and MODOK have brought him to life despite the warnings of Justin Hammer. He later appears in 19th episode called "Iron Man, On the Inside", where he is shrunk and sent into Hawkeye.
- Ultimo also makes a brief cameo in the 1994 Fantastic Four show, actually appearing on an Iron Man TV show-in-the-show battling the superhero.
- Ultimo appears in the "Hide and Seek" episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures. He is the third guardian of the rings, in the temple of Courage. It uses power and force to fuel itself, such as when Tony used his replosers on it, it grew bigger. Tony defeated it by turning off the Iron Man suit, because that was the courageous thing to do.
[edit] Video games
- Ultimo appears as several lines of the Mandarin's defenses in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. He also appears in Iron Man's simulation disk.
- He also serves as a mini boss in Mandarin's palace in the same game, though this version was said to be an advanced "Ultimo Mark 2". There were also a "Prototype Ultimo Mark 3s" during the Mandarin boss battle, blocking the teleporter to Mandarin. The only way to get to him was to lure one of his self destructing robotic bugs onto the teleporter to destroy the Ultimo on the otherside.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Ultimo at Marvel.com
- Ultimo at marvunapp.com
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
