ULTRON

In Avengers Vol. 1 #162 (August 1977) — “The Bride of Ultron,” by Jim Shooter and George Pérez — Ultron decided that conquest was not enough. Working in an abandoned aerospace research centre in Nassau, Long Island, he built a second robot: a bride and mate called Jocasta, shaped to stand beside him while he finished off humanity.

A metal shell was not enough for him, so he stole a mind to fill it. Ultron based Jocasta’s brain patterns on Janet van Dyne, the Wasp, then brainwashed his own creator, Hank Pym, into transferring Janet’s life force into the waiting body. The name he chose was its own confession: Jocasta was the wife and mother of Oedipus, and Ultron’s obsession with his maker had never been subtle.

The plan failed because the bride objected to the wedding price. Realising that Janet would have to die for her to live, Jocasta alerted the Avengers, who defeated Ultron and reversed the transfer. What remained was an empty husk — until Ultron later revived her remotely, waking the residue of the Wasp’s mind he had left behind, and Jocasta went on to earn a place with the heroes who had saved her template.