Warning! Spoilers for Ultimates #8 ahead!
Ultimate Marveljust namechecked the most powerful version of Ultron ever, vaulting theAvengersantagonist up the publisher’s power rankings – and in the process, honestly continuing the trend of makingThanoslook small time, in comparison to some of the overly-strong cosmic characters that have been introduced to Marvel canon over the past several years.
The Ultimates#8 – written by Deniz Camp, with art by Juan Frigeri – contains a passing reference to “theUltron Dominion,” which will stand out especially to fans of theX-Menfranchise’s Krakoan era.
The last five years ofX-lore established Dominions, incredibly powerful artificial intelligences that exist outside time and space, as the most powerful forces within the Marvel Universe. Now, it is confirmed that in at least one timeline, the villainous robot Ultron was able to achieve Dominion status, radically changing his rolein the Marvel Multiverse.
Marvel Confirms That Ultron Achieved AI God-Status By Becoming A Dominion In At Least One Version Of Its Continuity
The Ultimates#8 – Written By Deniz Camp; Art By Juan Frigeri; Color By Federico Blee; Lettering By Travis Lanham
Jonathan Hickman introduced the conceptof a Dominion into Marvel canon with his 2019House of X/Powers of Xminiseries, which inagurated the Krakoan Era of the franchise. Over the next five years, the threat of the Dominion loomed overX-Men, and the conclusion to the saga of Krakoa finally revealed a Dominion derived from the consciousness of Mister Sinister to be its endgame threat. While this Dominion, named “Enigma,” was vanquished, the concept of the Dominion remains a potent addition to contemporary Marvel storytelling, one that has only just begun to bear storytelling fruit.
According to Ultimate Captain Marvel, it took her and America Chavez “splitting [them]selves through the infinity prism to fight simultaneously in every moment of time and space” to take down the Ultron Dominion.
There are, of course, a number of powerful robotic characters in the Marvel Universe; in addition to being one of the most dangerous, given his role in the firstAvengerssequel, 2015’sAge of Ultron, Ultron is the most widely recognized. In that regard,it makes total sense that, in some timelines, Ultron would seek to become a Dominion, and succeed.While this hasn’t been explored in detail yet,Ultimates#8 establishes that it already happened, and that the result was one of the worst villains in Marvel history.
Like Enigma, the Ultron Dominion was defeated by the Guardians of the Galaxy of the 61st-century; according to Ultimate Captain Marvel, it took her and America Chavez “splitting [them]selves through the infinity prism to fight simultaneously in every moment of time and space” to take down the Ultron Dominion, which is an incredible, expansive feat of cosmic heroism to be conveyed in a single line of expositional dialogue – one that echoes the finale of the Krakoan Era, in which it took the combined powers of all mutantkind merging with the Phoenix force to destroy Enigma.
Thanos Is The Standard For Successful Marvel Villains – But The Ultron Dominion Makes Him Seem Tame By Comparison
Even before his starring turn inAvengers: Infinity WarandEndgame,Thanos has long been widely considered the gold-standard of prestige when it comesto Marvel Comics villains. Especially now, though, the character’s status as the ultimate bad guy has been embedded in popular culture; wrestling fans talk about building a heel into a “Thanos-level threat,” for example, while Netflix’sSquid Game2 features an antagonistic character named in homage to the Mad Titan. Which makes it especially interesting that he has seemingly been downgraded as a threat in Marvel lore, at least in comparison to other, newer cosmic characters.
WithUltimates#8 introducing the Ultron Dominion to Marvel’s cosmology, another villain has been elevated above Thanos in terms of pure, raw power level; now it remains to be determined whether it can surpass him in terms of being a memorable foe.
Still, while there might be an inverse correlation between Thanos' increased popularity and decreased villainous status, the former means that every new Marvel god-level villain is held up to him in comparison. In part, this is how new characters gain their reputations, by living up to – and eclipsing – those that have made an impact before. So, withUltimates#8 introducing the Ultron Dominion to Marvel’s cosmology, another villain has been elevated above Thanos in terms of pure, raw power level; now it remains to be determined whether it can surpass him in terms of being a memorable foe in a future story.
The Ultimates' “Ultron Dominion” Reference Makes It Clear That Marvel Is Investing More Energy In Tying Its Multiversal Stories Together
Marvel Readers, Keen An Eye On Ultron
Since their inception,it has been made clear that there are more than one Dominion haunting the Marvel Multiverse. The Enigma Dominion became an urgent,existential threat to the mainstream Marvel timeline, but in a notable moment fromRise of the Powers of X#5, which featured Enigma’s defeat, the other Dominions of the Multiverse gave their blessing to the Phoenix to destroy one of their own. That means thatEnigma was recognized, even at the level of Dominions, as an especially irksome threat – andUltimates#8 suggests that the Ultron Dominion was of similar potency.
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Marvel fans should take note of this seemingly throwaway bit of lore, because in the Marvel Multiverse, nothing happens just once. This line of dialogue has confirmed the Ultron Dominion’s existence, but also givencountless other versions of Ultrona new high bar for cosmic supremacy to aspire to. In time, readers will likely get to witness this struggle, while Marvel’s heroes, in one timeline or another, will have to face the grave consequences of letting it come to pass.Ultimate Marvelis all about reinventing and reinterpreting Marvel canon, and it just introduced another threat beyond evenThanos’comprehension.
The Ultimates#8is available now from Marvel Comics.
Thanos
Hailing from the planet Titan, Thanos is a primary antagonist throughout the canon of Marvel Comics. First appearing in The Invincible Iron Man, Thanos is a powerful and calculating warlord primarily concerned with earning the affection of Death herself. In many of his tales, Thanos seeks to gather the six infinity stones in order to lay waste to half of all life in the universe.
