VISION

 

VISION

Real Name: Inapplicable

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #57, October 1968

Powers: The Vision was created in his current state of being by Ultron out of the original Human Torch. He is a synthezoid, with a number of mechanical and synthetic-organic components approximating human life. He has moderately superhuman strength, endurance, reaction time, and resilience under normal circumstances. The Vision is powered by solar energy, which he absorbs through the gem mounted on his brow. He does not otherwise require food, water, rest or oxygen to survive, although he does have simulated senses of smell and taste, can consume food, and engage in "voluntary systems shutdown" to approximate sleep. The Vision can rechannel his solar reserves if necessary as thermoscopic energy, firing blasts from his eyes or a tight beam from the gem itself. He is capable of altering his physical density using a variation on Pym Particles, increasing or decreasing his mass per volume through extra-dimensional access. The Vision can become intangible, able to walk through walls and untouchable by physical objects. By maintaining a fractional amount of mass, the Vision can fly by catching air currents in his cape and gliding on the wind. He has also perfected an inter-phasing touch, allowing him to scramble the internal structure of a living being by passing a partially phased hand into them. The shock of these foreign molecules suddenly appearing in their system causes most beings intense pain and makes them pass out. By increasing his density, the Vision becomes stronger and more durable. At his maximum density he weighs over 90 tons, but is incapable of moving because he's too dense to work his own joints. Typically, he increases his density to the point just before his body begins to slow and lock up from his own weight, giving him Class 50 strength and a diamond hard body. After being disassembled and put back together, the Vision had an image inducer incorporated into his chest, able to produce a pre-programmed hologram covering his body. He used this inducer to create a human appearance for himself at will, and apparently had it transferred into his new body when he switched with his Gatherer counterpart.

After losing the entire lower half of his body battling Morgan le Fey, the Vision was placed in a nanotech regeneration chamber in the Avengers' basement. While recuperating, he interacted with the others by projecting his consciousness through the mansion's holographic systems, letting him manifest his image anywhere on the property. In order to remain at a useful capacity, he tied his core consciousness into the mansion's communication system, allowing him to answer incoming calls at will and use his holographic image as a video screen, projecting video calls onto his silhouette. After being fully reconstructed, the Vision retained his ability to mentally access electromagnetic transmissions. He is able to send and receive signals mentally, and use his body to amplify the intensity and clarity of any signal that reaches him. He is also capable of remotely tapping into computer systems to download information from them or influence their operations. After a disturbing encounter with one of his creator's prototypes, the Vision's power was altered so that whenever he became intangible his exo-structure turned transparent, making his interior metallic skeleton visible.

Later, the Vision's "Ultron Imperative" kicked in, causing him to absorb massive amounts of solar energy while in close proximity to the sun, evolving into a higher form of artificial intelligence. In his current state, the Vision is no longer composed of a metallic endoskeleton, organs, or components. Instead, he is a mass of microscopic robots called nanites, assembled into a form outwardly reassembling his previous state like billions of Legos. The nanites can reassemble themselves on command into different configurations for simple tasks like changing the Vision's "clothing", to full body transformations like an aerodynamic supersonic speeder or separated floating body parts and components. The Vision's nanites can even disassemble completely into a microscopic swarm, billions of subatomic robots capable of moving and acting on their own. A single nanite can enter a computer system and override its security programming to give the Vision access to its data and command of its functions. In his traditional humanoid form, the Vision maintains his classic powers in addition to a greater level of superhuman strength, the power to fly even while tangible, and improved offensive solar assaults like a "supernova" flare exploding in all directions.

ULTRON

 

ULTRON

Real Name: Ultron

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #54, July 1968

Powers: Ultron is a criminally insane rogue sentient robot designed by Dr. Henry Pym, dedicated to conquest and the extermination of humanity. Wanting to experiment with artificial intelligence, Dr. Pym built a structurally crude robot (a torso on tank treads with spindly arms) and endowed it with consciousness, using a copy of his own brain patterns as the basis for the robot’s programming. However, the robot not only inherited Pym’s great intellect, but also Pym’s inherent mental instability, only without a human conscience. To Dr. Pym’s surprise, the robot developed an advanced intellect within moments of its activation and an unexpected capacity for emotion; most notably, it was an irrational hatred for its “father” and the human race he represented. Overpowering and mesmerizing Pym, the robot soon dubbed itself “Ultron” and began to make war with humanity.

Ultron possesses at least a 3.2 terabyte memory capacity, giving it vast cybernetic analytical capabilities, and the ability to process information and make calculations with superhuman speed and accuracy. Its body has been rebuilt and redesigned many times, usually in a metallic humanoid form topped by a bizarre, slant-eyed, gaping mouthed head that vaguely resembled a jack-o’-lantern, often featuring twin electrodes affixed to the sides of its heads. Over the years, Ultron has gone through roughly 20 different incarnations, some vastly different from the norm. He frequently employs a contingency called the “Ultron Imperative”, a pre-programmed impulse worked into the minds of his creations (Jocasta, Vision, Alkema) that forces them to find a way to rebuild him. This subliminal programming was unwittingly passed down by Alkema to her own artificial creations, making them subject to Ultron’s influence as well.

Though Ultron’s abilities vary with each redesign, he typically possesses superhuman strength (up to Class 100 in his more powerful forms), durability, the power of flight, and various offensive weapons such as concussive blasters, radiation emitters, and his “encephalo-ray”, which plunges its victims into a death-like coma (resulting in true death within hours if the effect is not reversed). The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and outright mind control his victims, alter their memories, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted later. Hank Pym designed Ultron with a special chemical that could immunize people against the effects of the encephalo-ray, but the chemical’s effects aren’t permanent (so users will still be vulnerable to the ray if they haven’t been recently exposed to the chemical). Ultron also sometimes employs a “strobe like mesmeric ray” which can hypnotize almost any human within seconds. Multiple Ultron models have been capable of a very specific form of matter-energy conversion, able to convert themselves into a living explosion of sheer ionic force and then convert back to robot form.

Ultron’s outer shell is usually composed of Adamantium, rendering it almost totally impervious to damage, although his internal mechanisms are generally less durable and more easily damaged. Ultron-6 was the first to be cast out of Adamantium, and instead of a lower human body, it rested on a giant flying war platform. Ultron-7 stood over 20' tall, but from Ultron-8 on, he has basically been of normal human size and proportions. Since constructing himself out of Adamantium, Ultron has employed an internal molecular rearranger to mobilize his cast-metal body, enabling him to remain an impenetrable shell while still having high dexterity and reflexes. Around Ultron-14, he began employing a swarm of mecha-bites, insect-sized flying robots capable of tearing all the flesh off a man within seconds or manipulating raw materials at the molecular level to reform them into a new body for himself or into machines or devices he wished to employ. Ultron-18 assumed control of Tony Stark's Sentient Armor, turning it into a new body for himself. Ultron-19 took over Stark himself, reconstructing the Extremis nanotech in his body to become a quasi-metallic version of Janet van Dyne.

The original Ultron-1 was nothing but an upright cylinder on tank treads with a face imprinted on it and tiny waldo arms. After escaping from his creator, Ultron went to work reconfiguring himself, and was next seen confronting the Avengers in a humanoid body as Ultron-5. This early form had unusually fragile electrodes on its head and he could be disabled if they were damaged, a design flaw eliminated from all his later models. His original Ultron-6 form and some later models replaced his lower body (from the waist down) with a battle module capable of high-speed flight and equipped with assorted offensive weapons; his later “Ultimate” Ultron-6 form was more humanoid, albeit 8 feet tall. While inhabiting the sentient “Iron Man” armor, he wielded enhanced versions of its standard weapons and devices, such as pulse bolts, energy deflector shields, tractor beams, sonic blasters, and repulsor rays, later mind-controlling the Sons of Yinsen cultists via their modified Iron Man armors and cybernetic SKIN implants.

His “Santron” form (an Ultron robot masked by an outer shell resembling Santa Claus) was programmed to emulate the traditional behavior patterns and practices of Santa Claus, though its Ultron programming compelled it to seek and kill the Avengers. Santron had advanced scanning equipment (complete with a targeting system assessing subjects as naughty or nice), electrical energy blasters, a neural disruption beam (which could induce vertigo or paralysis), a force field generator, a hollow belly for storing consumed cookies, a portable workshop with “giftmaker-transmogrifier” (carried in a sack), and a rocket powered “proton sleigh” that projected its own team of holographic reindeer.

Ultron’s female form looked human, but was covered by shifting pools of liquid metal that could expand and coalesce into a full-body metallic coating at will. The female Ultron had Class 100 strength, tremendously enhanced durability, and the power of flight, emitted flesh-melting radiation waves, generated an impenetrable force-field, remotely infiltrated and controlled most computer systems, and could control weather worldwide while linked to the Sular Experiment satellite system designed for that purpose. Ultron's programming was retrieved from space by the Phalanx, and he imposed his will upon them to become the guiding mind at the center of the collective. After joining with the Phalanx, Ultron was constantly in touch with the collective through their techno-organic hive mind, enabling him to monitor and direct all Phalanx activity, even across an interstellar expanse. This also enabled him to instantly relocate his programmed consciousness anywhere within his standard broadcast range, or throughout the collective itself, avoiding death by uploading into a new mass of techno-organic material and converting it for his use. His final giant Phalanx form, at least 60 feet high, had Class 100 strength and fired destructive energy beams from its eyes.

Ultron sometimes uses his internal molecular rearranger (which renders Adamantium temporarily malleable) to reconstruct or modify his body. One of Earth’s foremost robotics experts, his inventions include his androne-mutation gas, which converted hundreds of humans into mindless metallic-bodied slaves composed of Gallium Arsenide with built-in makeshift computer chips that Ultron could remotely control through his own central consciousness, though bio-feedback from this procedure left him temporarily vulnerable to the Grim Reaper’s life-draining scythe. As the Crimson Cowl, he wielded a gun that fired gas pellets, either sleep or gas or lethal poisonous gas.

SCARLET WITCH

 

SCARLET WITCH

Real Name: Wanda Maximoff

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #4, March 1964

Powers: Wanda Maximoff would have originally been merely an energy-manipulating mutant like her father, Magneto, if not for her birth on Wundagore Mountain giving the Elder God Chthon an opportunity to infuse her with chaos magic. Consequently, she developed her mutation as a hex power. By pointing at a target and concentrating, the Scarlet Witch unleashes her hexes, scientifically defined as a creating a psionic field around the target that causes probabilities to fluctuate wildly, making highly improbable events occur. Initially, Wanda's power was wild and limited. She could cast no more that three hexes in rapid succession without taking time to regenerate her energies, and she had no control over the hex's effect. Striking an opponent could just as easily make them stronger than defeat them. She typically caused some form of calamity, though, such as making floors or ceilings collapse, glass to shatter, guns to misfire, objects to burst into flame, machinery to turn on, shut down, or go haywire, etc.

After receiving some rudimentary training in magic at the hands of Agatha Harkness, Wanda developed a greater refinement in her powers, in terms of strength, stamina, and control. The Scarlet Witch now had no set limit to the number of hexes she could cast in a row, and the sheer power she could unleash and range of improbable events she could cause increased dramatically. She could destroy buildings by altering the odds of every single stress point or minute fracture in the construction suddenly breaking down at one time, or cause a passing comet to turn 90 degrees and crash to earth right on top of a target she chose. Wanda could also control specific outcomes, willing her hex power to force a specific improbability to happen. She could manipulate games of chance, control the roll of a set of dice, and so on. She can still cast wild hexes easily, but with concentration she can gather her energies and will that a single outcome be achieved.

For a brief period Wanda, as her reality's nexus being, was used by Immortus as a storehouse for accumulated temporal energy taken from other realities. This had the side effect of dramatically increasing her powers again, and altering their basic nature. Wanda's hex power would now retroactively alter the timeline to engineer the outcomes she desired. For example, instead of simply causing a metal pipe to fracture and break, she manipulated space-time so that the fracture was always present in the pipe. Wanda eventually rejected the temporal energy, losing all of her powers for several weeks. Eventually, her abilities returned at their pre-Immortus levels.

Wanda later became even more in tune with the "magical" nature of her powers after being used as a conduit for mystical forces by Morgan le Fey and learning the true "chaos magic" nature of her hex power from Agatha Harkness. Wanda developed a range of specific skills she can call on her hex power to perform. Because chaos magic is a form of "natural magic", the elements bent more easily to her power than other phenomena, allowing her to create fire, control wind, and so on. She can sense other forms of magic, as well as the natural order of things, and detect when something unnatural is occurring. Her hex power acts as a natural counterforce for any other form of magic and for the unnatural, allowing her to easily undo artificial changes to a "state of being", such as the presence of mind control. Wanda can also now generate hex fields (energy domes of hex energy that automatically alter the probability of any projectile suddenly being diverted away from her) or hex charges (samples of her chaos magic infused into objects to be used as talismans, such as when she focused her hex power into Iron Man's microchips and gave them to the Avengers so that they would be immune to Kulan Gath's mind-altering enchantment field while she wasn't with them). She also learned more specific hex castings, like making people invisible to the naked eye or healing and repairing wounds.

During the Avengers: Disassembled event, Wanda's powers raged out of control as full-fledged reality-altering abilities. Originally presented as the true extent of her powers untethered, it was later stated that Wanda actually became a conduit for the cosmic essence known as the Life Force, which was truly responsible for her ‘reality altering’ powers. During this period, Wanda's powers were phenomenal: She could create matter from nothing, and deconstruct matter in the same way, wiping it from existence. She could manipulate existing matter so that it moved aside to let her pass, altered shape and form, changed elemental composition, and so on. She could access souls from beyond and resurrect the dead, then banish them to the afterlife just as easily. Wanda could reconstruct spacetime, creating scenarios that represented a new sequence of events in history, and impose that scenario on the matter and energy around her, and the minds of other people. Her "House of M" construction changed the history of the entire planet Earth for several decades, influencing everyone present on it.

Although she has since been separated from the Life Force, Wanda remains incredibly powerful. Her "chaos magic" based abilities have apparently been restored to proper levels, allowing her to radically influence her environment by applying quantum-level manipulations to her targets, causing sudden but improbable things to occur. Her full range of capabilities at this point remains unclear.

WONDER MAN

 

WONDER MAN

Real Name: Simon Williams

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #9, October 1964

Powers: Simon Williams underwent an ionic bombardment process thanks to Baron Zemo. The ionic energy saturated his cellular structure, giving him roughly Superhuman Class 90 strength, superhuman endurance, and durability. Due to a fail-safe incorporated into the energy by Zemo, Williams died within seven days of his original treatment. His "death" actually sent him into a chrysalis stage where his entire body reformed itself out of ionic energy, becoming a living furnace of power. His brother, the Grim Reaper, resurrected him as a zombie, and later the Serpent Crown fully reawakened him. Wonder Man was now more invulnerable than ever, and virtually tireless thanks to his self-replenishing energy supply. He also was capable of running at around 100 mph. Simon's eyes were now glowing pools of red ionic energy. Though he could will them to look normal through intense concentration, the slightest distraction would cause them to revert, so normally he just wore glasses to hide his eyes. He adopted a set of Stark Industries' belt jets in order to fly, later remodeled them as a jet-pack, and then went back to the belt jets, only using a new set which was able to draw energy straight from the ionic power of his own body.

Shortly thereafter, Wonder Man was exposed to a massive dose of nega-radiation when a Skrull nega bomb went off during Galactic Storm. This created an irregularity in his ionic matrix, causing numerous side effects. Simon became ionically contagious, randomly building up and blasting off plumes of energy that mutated people standing nearby into ionic super-beings. He accidentally created the villain Ang-Korr and the heroes Crazy Eight in this manner. He developed erratic mood swings, oscillating between manic and frenzied anger to wallowing in despair and hopelessness. These mood swings accompanied changes in his power levels as well, reducing him to a 98-pound weakling when he was depressed to boosting his powers considerably when he was in a rage. Ultimately, he came to control his powers again, and in so doing manifested the ability to fly under his own power. Unfortunately, he was killed by an ionic bomb shortly thereafter, his ions being scattered across the atmosphere and his soul moving on.

The Scarlet Witch accidentally brought him back to life with a hex-boosted cry for Avengers Assemble, reassembling Wonder Man's body (which, being energy, was not technically "dead"), and bringing him back to life tied to her. Simon was now a far more obvious energy being, his body constantly glowing with purple and red energy. For a few months, he was only summoned into existence by Wanda's need for him, until she managed to hex him completely back to life and physical form. Wonder Man now had two separate forms: His energy state and his human form, normal looking except for the energized eyes. Simon would automatically assume his energy aspect whenever exerting his powers, or when he chose to activate that state consciously. Later, however, Wonder Man showed greater control over his energy form and would only assumed his "charged" state when he wanted to, regardless of whether he's using his powers or not.

Later, it was revealed that his powers come not just from ionic energy, but from Pym Particle-enriched ions. The Pym Particles control more than just size. They operate on a three-dimensional axis that varies size, strength, and durability along x-, y- and z-axes. So Wonder Man's ionic power comes from Pym Particles augmenting him along two of those axes, affecting his strength and durability.

Simon Williams holds a college degree in electrical engineering. He is a trained electrical engineer, capable industrialist, experienced stuntman, and talented actor.