Avengers: Age of Ultron
The second culmination point happens in the sequel to the Avengers film, Avengers: Age of Ultron. A major difference between the film and the comic is that Hank Pym, not Tony Stark creates the artificial intelligence known as Ultron. Hank Pym, in case you may not remember or know, is the original Ant-Man.
In this film, the fourth Infinity Stone is brought in and that is the Mind Stone. The Mind Stone is the stone embedded inside Loki’s sceptre, the same given to him by Thanos to use in the Avengers.
The fate of the sceptre post-Avengers was going into custody of S.H.I.E.L.D which was not seen on-screen and we only saw Thor take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard. It came into the possession of Hydra naturally which we found out in an end-credits scene in the Winter Soldier. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a new leader of Hydra, used the sceptre and unlocked latent abilities within two volunteers- Wanda and Pietro Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
After obtaining the sceptre from Strucker in Sokovia, Tony Stark has the bright idea to use the A.I within the sceptre to create his ‘Ultron’ global defence program and creates an A.I much like J.A.R.V.I.S. Not wanting to have been brought into the ‘corrupt’ world that Ultron deems unworthy, Ultron develops a strong hatred towards Stark and to humanity in general especially towards the Avengers. Ultron seeks to make himself into the ultimate life form, and so gathers a few tools- he goes to the African nation of South Africa to gather vibranium from Ulysses Klaw. Ulysees has knowledge of the metal because of his dealings in the African nation of Wakanda, where vibranium is found, and is one of the hardest known metals in the Marvel universe alongside adamantium, the metal that Wolverine’s skeleton is infused with. The presence of Ulysses Klaw is an easter egg because he is a well-known enemy of Black Panther and so foreshadows the hero’s debut in the MCU as well as the fact that Ultron dismembers Klaw’s arm paying homage to the fact that Klaw has a molybdenum arm in the comics which can shoot out sonic vibrations.
Ultron then goes to South Korea to have Helen Cho use synthetic-tissue technology to create a body made out of vibranium as well as implementing the Mind Stone, which he breaks out of the sceptre taken from Strucker, into it. Helen is forced to comply and creates the body. As Ultron prepares to upload himself into it, he is thwarted and the body is confiscated by the Avengers back to Stark Tower where Tony again has the bright idea to upload an A.I into the body, as if good ol Tony didn’t learn the first time. Understandably, some of the Avengers are against this plan of action like Captain America but Tony intends to upload J.A.R.V.I.S into the body which Thor allows because of a vision he received in a cave of a being formed from the union of the A.I capabilities of the Mind Stone and the synthetic body who would be able to help stop Ultron. That being, of course, is Vision. Vision proves his worth by lifting Mjolnir and that enough gains the trust of the Avengers.
Eventually, Ultron is defeated, but on a small note, it should be said that Ultron is one of the most formidable foes the Avengers have ever faced in Marvel comics history, only being able to be defeated by going back in time and activating a failsafe virus within Ultron. The Mind Stone, of course, remains embedded in Vision’s forehead which raises the question of how Thanos will obtain the Mind Stone. Luckily Vision is inorganic and ripping his head apart will not be as gruesome as someone who is made of flesh and blood.