Welcome to a new cycle of Comic Book Classics Revisited!  You know, there’s a LOT of talk out there about the Avengers and this Ultron guy that is about to start an entire “Age” named after himself.  That’s kinda egotistical, isn’t it?  Anyway, who is this Ultron character?  What’s his beef with the Avengers?  We’ve already seen Ultron back when I looked at the original Secret Wars, but he was treated as Doctor Doom’s lackey more than the murderous robot that he is.  That’s not even mentioning his longtime connection to the Avengers.  With all this Ultron talk out there that’s supposedly connected to some low-budget B-movie that’s getting released soon, I thought I should take a look back at some of Ultron’s key appearances in what I’m calling the “Ultron Handbook”.  Read on below!

The Avengers #54 starts out with Black Panther testing a new security system being put in by Hank Pym (a.k.a. Goliath).  As Hawkeye and the Wasp tells us, Avengers Mansion has a pest problem.  By pest, I mean villains have been busting in often.  This new security system projects a black light that when you step into it, triggers mechanical traps for the invader’s arms and legs.  Jarvis, the loyal butler of the Avengers walks in and Hank tells him of the new security devices.  When Hank kids Jarvis about blabbin’ the location of the devices, Jarvis reacts defensively.  The Wasp picks up on Jarvis’ reaction, but Hank just dismisses it thinking Jarvis doesn’t really have a sense of humor.  However, Jan’s intuition isn’t totally unfounded as Jarvis sneaks away to call someone with “exactly the information” he was told to gather.

Later, Jan heads out for the day and is accompanied by Jarvis.  They part ways as Jarvis explains he’s headed to the Bronx to visit his mother, but, beneath her notice, actually heads downtown for his suspicious meeting.  He gets off into what appears to be a rundown neighborhood.  He enters a condemned building and opens a manhole cover.  Under the building, Jarvis goes through a few different, but none any less ominous than the previous, doors.  Inside a harsh voice announces the presence of Klaw, Whirlwind, the Melter, Black Knight, and the Radioactive Man – known as a group as the new Masters of Evil!

Also introduced is the man who brought together this new version of Masters of Evil – the Crimson Cowl.  He introduces himself as a man without a face, a name, or an identity.  Jarvis says he’s wanting his payoff for bringing the information.  Rightfully so, the Radioactive Man is suspicious about Jarvis as he wasn’t too sure that this wasn’t some sort of trap by the Avengers, but Jarvis and Crimson Cowl state it is no trap.  Suddenly, Klaw lashes out saying he wants to strike against the Avengers soon or he’ll be forced to take out his own revenge.  Klaw launches into his origin as a pure sound monster and his hatred for the Black Panther.  Radioactive Man also explains his past as an original Master of Evil from way back in the Avengers’ infancy.  Jarvis drops off the plans he was being paid for and demands his money, but Crimson Cowl pulls out a gun that fires gas pellets to knock Jarvis out.

Later that night, the Black Knight revisits how he got mixed up with the Masters of Evil.  As it turns out, he is the nephew, and sole heir, of Nathan Garrett, who was a villainous Black Knight best known for fighting Iron Man.  When he found an invite to the new Masters of Evil, he joined in order to betray them to the Avengers.  However, that goes nowhere as the rest of the Masters jumps Black Knight already aware that he was a fraud.  Black Knight sends his flying steed off which catches the notice of Hawkeye.  Before he can  assemble the rest of the Avengers, the Melter busts into the monitoring room of Avengers Mansion.  Hawkeye nearly stops the Melter, but is eventually knocked out.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Whirlwind attacks Black Panther.  Using his knowledge of Avengers Mansion (his real identity is of Janet’s chauffeur), he’s able to use his powers to throw Black Panther against the garage walls to knock him out.  In Janet’s bedroom, a hole is blown through the wall and in comes Klaw.  She’s able to throw him off guard, but, when she tries to escape in her Wasp form, Klaw slams the bedroom door shut.  Too late to avoid the door, Wasp flies directly into it and is knocked out.  In Pym’s lab, Radioactive Man surprises Hank and his lab assistant, Bill Foster.  After a chase through the mansion, Hank gets captured in his own security device because Radioactive Man’s own radioactivity was not detected by the sensors.

The Masters of Evil gather the captured Avengers and turn on a scanner that only the Avengers should know the channel to activate.  The Crimson Cowl appears understanding that the scanner is on because of a successful mission.  Crimson Cowl wants the Avengers to know who engineered their defeat.  That’s when it appears two Crimson Cowls are running the show.  The seated  one is revealed to be a robot while the one moving about reveals himself as Jarvis!

So, there we have it, the first appearance of Ultron!  It’s a little humble, I’ll admit.  He’s just referred to as a robot, and if there was more space in the frames, the Masters of Evil would have probably said something like “Look at ‘im!  He’s just a lousy, no good, stinkin’ robot!  Get ‘im!”  But as you look at the frame revealing Ultron there on the right, it’s him alright.  He’s still pretty creepy looking.  Well, at the very least, he’s mean looking.  I’m assuming that when this issue came out back in late spring of 1968, not many people expected this grumpy looking robot would become one of the greatest enemies of the mighty Avengers.  More than likely, they would have thought that these new Masters of Evil were going to be a longer lasting thing or that Edwin Jarvis, the loyal butler of the Avengers and Tony Stark, had gone bad!

All that aside, let’s talk about the actual comic by Roy Thomas and John Buscema.  This era was during what I call the Golden Age of the Avengers.  The Thomas and Buscema era was simply spectacular.  It didn’t always rely on the heavy hitters of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man.  Instead, we saw characters like Black Panther join and Hawkeye being an excitable guy who often acted before he thought.  Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne were the main characters with Hank leading the team.  Additionally, there was rarely more than five or six Avengers on the team at one time.  In this issue, there were only four team members.

In the issues leading up to this one, we saw the Avengers battle the X-Men, meet the Grim Reaper, get captured by the Collector, invite Hercules to join the team, and had a run in (or two) with Magneto.  On top of that, we got a new, heroic, Black Knight (who appears in this issue).  It’s a busy time for the Avengers and Marvel alike.  Many of the series of this time saw new heroes and villains created and many would become long running, and important, members of the Marvel Universe.

All of those things would help make what the Marvel Universe is today, but it’s not why this issue can be considered a classic.  It’s more than just the introduction to a new Masters of Evil, or the first appearance of Ultron, nor is it that it was an old Avengers issue.  It’s how these older comics are written.  There is a cliffhanger at the end of this, but it makes you want to come back to read the conclusion.  It’s paced quickly and doesn’t bog down in order to be collected and sold for $20 as a six part story.  The Avengers are tired of being attacked at home, but they don’t realize there is a traitor in their midst.  The new Masters of Evil is formed from old grudges against members of the Avengers.  Jarvis is revealed to be the traitor.  That’s about it in terms of story.  It doesn’t need any more than that to be fun and exciting to read.  If that’s not a classic I’m not sure what is.

On Friday we tackle the conclusion to this two-part story that introduces Ultron into comics.  Come back and take a look!