Let’s Talk Hulkbuster: Avengers 2 Age of Ultron

Written by: Gary M. Kenny, CC2K Comics Editor

On Tuesday, ABC had a TV special entitled: Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe. It was a fun little special on how Marvel built their own studio and put all there money in a small little movie called Iron Man. At the end of the special they showed off some great images for the new movies coming out this/next year. One picture of Scarlet Witch, one of Quicksilver, but the best one was the little gem on top; that of Hulkbuster Iron Man!

A fast little history on said armor: Hulkbuster Armor (Model 14) plays off of Iron Man’s Modular Armor (Model 13). Which means Iron Man can put add-ons to his Model 13 armor in order to upgrade his suits, therefor marking various different armors (ie if you are in space, or under water, or in a volcano there is an add on for that). Hulkbuster Armor was made to give Iron Man strength and durability in order to battle the Hulk. It debut in Iron Man (1968) issue # 301. Throughout the past few years it’s been upgraded and was last seen as Model 37 in the World War Hulk mini series by Marvel. Where for almost two issues Hulk beat the crap out of Tony Stark. Epic artwork by John Romita Jr, for the fight scenes alone, I suggest picking it up. This summer blockbuster mini series is also why it got famous and put into the Avengers 2: Age of Ultron movie.

Now let’s talk spoilers (stop reading if you want to know nothing about Avengers 2) or possible hints. What does the above image tell us? Well, the obvious answer: Hulk and Iron Man will fight in Avengers 2. Also, it hints that one of them is either being controlled or is a bad guy in the film. Let’s figure out what could have caused the fight. At the end of Iron Man 3, we learn that Tony and Bruce are friendly with each other. Basically the entire movie Tony was talking to Bruce via a shrink session. That alone tells us in Avengers 2 it’s kind of unlikely that they had a falling out.

So, we can rule out the “bad guy” motive and concentrate on the fact that one of them is most likely being controlled. Now using the title of the film: Age of Ultron. We can point out that Iron Man is probably the one being controlled or at least his armor is. In the comics Hank Pym creates a robot called Ultron to help police and protect society. The robot figures the best way to do this is by killing off the human population. Ultron can also control all sorts of technology. So most likely Iron Man tech is being manipulated by Ultron and since Marvel hasn’t introduced Hank Pym, we can speculate that Tony Stark invents Ultron in the movie.

Ultron probably figures Hulk is a threat, builds a suit to battle him and there we go. HUGE EPIC FIGHT SCENE coming to Avengers 2. Since Hulk doesn’t rely on any tech it’s safe to say that he isn’t being controlled. If Joss Whedon does in fact make it that Hulk is being controlled then all of the rumor mills on the web will speculate the following: Ultron controls the Hulk and by the end of the film, the Hulk is shipped to space (Hulk 3: Planet Hulk) and then in Avengers 3: Hulk comes back to earth and battles the Avengers.

The ABC Marvel movie Special did titillate lots of fan boys with this Iron Man costume and made us feel like they are definitely going bigger, darker and badder in the next film. They also showed us the Scarlet Witch (more normal gypsy less slutty look) and Quicksilver (has the blue suit, no white hair, and seems to be running over robots). Both of which look better then Fox’s X-Men: Days of Futures Past costumes. Really excited for both movies but more so for Avengers 2, all because of that Hulkbuster suit. It got me pumped for 2015.