Oh, You Dumb Bastard Robot...

You know what I love in comics? I love it when a villain is so all-powerful, so sure to win that they eventually get knocked down a peg or two via some dumb-yet-insanely clever way.

Take Ultron right now over in Mighty Avengers. Ultron, that evil robot created by founding Avenger Henry Pym is back and more powerful than ever. It’s not only managed to seemingly kill Iron Man/turn him into a hot, naked, robot doppleganger of The Wasp, but using Tony Stark’s armor, Ultron has managed to use the Avengers’ own futuristic technology against them. Power grids are shut down, The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier is disabled and dogs and cats are living together. Things look pretty bad for Earth’s Mightiest.

That is, until Henry "Ant-Man/Giant Man/Goliath/Yellow Jacket/Wife Beater" Pym starts to remember the 80’s fondly….


And it works! Well, almost. S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to get powered up again, Ultron is kind of surprised and The Avengers get a little extra time to figure out how to kill that batshit crazy robot and play a little Pitfall. The day isn’t saved, but things are at least moving forward.

Of course, this would never happen in real life. In real life, evil androids bent on wiping out humanity don’t bullshit around. They just nuke everything. If you're lucky, before the nuclear holocaust begins, a message may pop up on your computer monitor telling you how humanity has become obsolete and that the time of the machines is at hand. Maybe. But where’s the fun in that? In real life, a Commodore 64 never saved the day, but it would be nice if it did.

So thank you comic books for giving us what we want. Thank you comic books for letting ultimate evil be toppled by obsolete video game systems!