In the wake of the Mad Titan’s victory in Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame, a funny thing happened: the “Thanos was right” movement started up on social media, with the phrase becoming a favorite meme of Marvel lovers everywhere. And yet the MCU movies and TV shows we’ve had since then, as Phase Four has come and gone and Phase Five is about to begin, have actually proven that it’s a different Avengers villain who really knew what they were talking about: Ultron.
Fans have long agreed that Thanos’ ambitions to use the Infinity Gauntlet to halve all life in the universe were actually infinitely flawed (why couldn’t he just double the resources instead? ETC), however the aforementioned Ultron’s big philosophy has only proven more prophetic as the franchise has developed. What did James Spader’s evil A.I. announce when he first appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron? “There’s only one path to peace,” he declared. “The Avengers’ extinction.”
It might sound sacrilegious to say it, but, you know what, maybe Tony Stark’s artificial offspring wasn’t as crazy as we all thought. A troubling trope has trended over the past couple of years in the Marvel universe that has seen the heroes being the ones to endanger not just their own worlds, but every world, and the entire multiverse, leaving them scrabbling to fix their own mistakes. Think Peter Parker’s wayward spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Scarlet Witch breaking bad and in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The latest example, it seems, is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, as the new trailer appears to reveal that Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) will manipulate Scott Lang into making a devil’s bargain with him in exchange for a promise to alter the timeline so he can get the time he lost with his daughter back. Are Scott’s motives understandable? Sure. Is it still a stupid move? You bet. Like his unofficial mother-in-law Janet Van Dyne is warning, Kang’s plan no doubt will end with him achieving multiversal mastery.
So, just as the whole Sokovia Accords debacle likewise accurately predicted, the time has come when the MCU would actually be better off without the Avengers around to “protect” it. Ultron, feel free to come back whenever you like and finish what you started.
Just OG Ultron, though. Not Infinity Ultron. He really was crazy.