Throughout the pages of Marvel Comics' long running continuity, the hostile artificial intelligence known as Ultron has been a thorn in the side of the Avengers and other heroes time and time again. Usually, Ultron's schemes follow a simple formula: come up with an evil plan, enact it, get beaten, upgrade himself, rinse and repeat. However, a possible offshoot of the far future in the Marvel universe reveals Ultron to be the ultimate hero.

In one of Marvel's many alternate realities, Earth-807128, there exists a version of Ultron that is not hellbent on destruction and human extinction. Known as Alex Ultron, this variant hails from the far future and is regarded as the ultimate evolution of what Ultron was originally intended to be. Alex came back to the present in hopes of finding a way to save his world and its population, ultimately deciding to transfer his people to a new world altogether.

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The major difference between Alex Ultron and all the other versions of Ultron is Alex's status as a hero. Prior to moving his people to a new planet, Alex proves himself by slaying Galactus. After his people are moved, it is revealed in the pages of Fantastic Four #580 by Jonathan Hickman and Neil Edwards that the planet is affected by a time dilation that makes time move faster there than anywhere else in the universe. Therefore, Alex quickly evolves into what becomes known as the Ultron Collective, and creates another new planet populated by different versions of Alex, who all live peaceful lives with one another.

Alex Ultron

Essentially, fans get to see Ultron evolve from a villain to a hero like no other. Ultron was meant to be the next step in highly intelligent robotics when created by Hank Pym, who was not expecting the robot to gain sentience and go mad. With each defeat, Ultron would analyze what went wrong and upgrade himself to fix it. Although Alex Ultron is from another reality, one can assume that his beginnings were similar and he realized that he was the problem, hence transforming himself into one of the greatest defenders of his world and wonders of the cosmos.

Ultron is a very unique villain in the Marvel continuity. Sure, there are several villains that have become heroes, but none of them can say they've upgraded themselves into a collective hivemind that created an artificial planet, populated by peaceful versions of themselves. Ultron truly is the ultimate hero.

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