Marvel’s What If…? just gave Ultron a Marvel Comics power that originated with the first Captain Marvel: Cosmic Awareness. The ability was one of several new tools that was added to Ultron’s arsenal in the show’s latest episode. Getting Vision’s body and recovering the Infinity Stones from Thanos’ corpse transformed Ultron into the MCU’s most dangerous villain yet.

Though Ultron Vision isn’t the first character to possess a full set of Infinity Stones, he’s clearly a bigger threat than the Mad Titan was in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Thanos’ mission was to eliminate half of all life in the universe, whereas Ultron is determined to eradicate everything. To make matters worse, he isn’t limiting his crusade to just one timeline. Ultron, who has figured out how to use the Stones to travel to different realities at will, has just become a problem for the entire multiverse. The danger he poses was clearly demonstrated in his intense showdown with Uatu the Watcher, which proves that Ultron is now on par with the cosmic entities of the MCU.

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How Ultron was able to fight the Watcher in the first place was made possible by the acquisition of a new ability in Marvel’s What If…? episode 8. It was stated by the Watcher that Ultron ascended to “a previously unattainable level of consciousness”. It was because of this that Ultron suddenly became aware of the existence of the Watcher and the multiverse. The episode doesn’t name this “state of consciousness”, but it seems to be the MCU’s take on Cosmic Awareness, an ability typically associated with Captain Mar-Vell and Quasar in the comic books. It appeared first in 1973’s Captain Marvel #29, the landmark story that turned Mar-Vell into the Marvel Universe’s cosmic champion.

Blended image of Mar-Vell, Drax, and Thanos flying in outer space in Marvel Comics.

In the comic, Captain Mar-Vell was gifted with Cosmic Awareness by an eternal being known as Eon (who later gave the same power to Quasar). According to him, this power came with being the Protector of the Universe. Apparently, Mar-Vell needed it in order to properly safeguard the universe. Cosmic Awareness is essentially a sixth sense that allowed him to detect disturbances in the universe, weaknesses in an opponent, and knowledge that he needed to accomplish a task. Thanks to this incredibly beneficial power, Mar-Vell developed a deep understanding of the universe and all that occupied it. Since then, other Marvel characters have gained variations of this power as well.

While Cosmic Awareness was a power originally meant for the Protector of the Universe, it makes sense that Ultron now has it in Marvel’s What If…? After all, Adam Warlock obtained a version of it when he briefly wore the Infinity Gauntlet, thus enabling him to communicate with a number of cosmic entities he normally wouldn’t be able to make contact with. With that in mind, it seems fitting that the combined power of the six Infinity Stones could give a person Cosmic Awareness. The problem, though, is that it’s being used for evil in the show. Cosmic Awareness has the potential to help a hero save the universe, but in the possession of a villain like Ultron, it could lead to all sorts of multiversal chaos.

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