In the comics, however, Tony actually got a chance to build his idealized Ultron who proved to be a genuine force for good. His heroic AI would go on to a new generation of Avengers and prove he was every bit as self-sacrificing (and arrogant) as his creator.
It’s worth noting that in the Marvel Comics Universe, Tony Stark is not responsible for creating Ultron. That dubious distinction goes to Dr. Hank Pym (aka Ant-Man) who created many wonderful and terrible inventions during his career. However, Tony may have taken some ideas from Pym, considering how similar his creation Mainframe is to the infamous Ultron.
Introduced in A-Next #1, Mainframe was activated in the MC2 Universe, an alternate future where most heroes had retired, leaving their children and protégés to carry on their work. In Mainframe’s case, he was activated when trolls from Asgard invaded the Avengers Mansion. Appearing to be a black-and-gold version of Iron Man, Mainframe fought bravely with other heroes who answered the Avengers distress call and later ed a new team of Avengers made of the descendants of past heroes and villains.
Right from the start, Mainframe’s teammates noticed strange things about their armored member. For one thing, Mainframe never took off his armor. For another, he appeared to use robot duplicates of himself – as witnessed when he got caught in a fight between Namor and the Hulk, who literally ripped him in half. Instead of being upfront about his true nature, Mainframe adopted an aloof attitude, which annoyed many of the other Avengers.
Mainframe finally revealed what he was when he defended his teammate Stinger against a foe that could easily slice through his armored form, forcing him to sacrifice all of his robot bodies. itting that he wasn’t a “real” person but a program based on the brainwaves of Tony Stark, Mainframe revealed the extra bodies functioned basically like Ultron’s spare units in that he could beam his consciousness from one to another. When his supply went low, he could even send his consciousness to a satellite where an automated robot factory would build him another body.
As his consciousness was based on Tony Stark’s, Mainframe could be arrogant and authoritative – even to the original Tony Stark. who was shocked at the way his creation talked back to him. However, he was also a dedicated Avenger who was willing to sacrifice his existence to protect others. In one memorable scene, Mainframe actually sent an entire army made up of his spare bodies from his satellite to protect the Earth from Galactus – essentially fulfilling the MCU Tony Stark’s dream of creating “a suit of armor around the world.”
As reckless as Iron Man can be, there’s no doubt that terrible choices, but overall, Stark’s willingness to advance technology ultimately produces beneficial creations – and even heroes – like his “son” Mainframe.
