As we prepare ourselves for the next Avengers movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron  (scheduled to hit cinemas on May 1, 2015) we take a closer look at who can kill Ultron? The answer is as complex as it can get. We first need to understand the history of Ultron, how he came to be and why exactly he is such a badass villain.

He is voted frequently as one of the top 10 marvel villains of all time.

To get a better understanding of who Ultron is check-out our origin post that take you through his birth, betrayal, anger, motives, powers and abilities. Secondly, one needs to understand that Ultron’s been battling various kinds of superheroes right across the galaxy, from X-Men, to the Avengers, to the Guardians of the Galaxy. These events are all documented in the comics. Here’s the short-version of Ultron’s origin:

Arguably the greatest and certainly the most horrific creation of scientific genius Dr. Henry Pym, Ultron is a criminally insane rogue sentient robot dedicated to conquest and the extermination of humanity. Years ago, inspired by his studies of Professor Gregson Gilbert’s synthetic Dragon Man, Pym began experimenting with artificial intelligence. Building a structurally crude robot (a torso on tank treads with spindly arms), Pym endowed it with consciousness, using a copy of his own brain patterns as the basis for the robot’s programming; however, the robot inherited not only Pym’s great intellect, but also Pym’s inherent mental instability, only without a human conscience. To Pym’s surprise, the robot developed an advanced intellect within moments of its activation, and an unexpected capacity for emotion; most notably, it was filled with irrational hatred for its “father” Pym and the human race Pym represented. Overpowering and mesmerizing Pym, the robot-which soon dubbed itself Ultron-hypnotically commanded Pym to forget its existence and abandon the New Jersey lab where it was created. Pym did as commanded, and after the lab was closed up, Ultron returned. Using the lab’s equipment, Ultron rebuilt himself completely four times, making improvements and modifications each time.

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Make no mistake, Ultron is insanely strong, clever and difficult to kill, which begs the question: Who can kill Ultron? We’re not interested in heroes who can stop him seeing as Ultron has a tendency of rebuilding himself after being “stopped”. We’re looking for superheroes that can once and for all destroy Ultron. In the past there were plenty of examples where Ultron was tricked or betrayed which lead to himself being his own killer.

Man on Man, or rather battle-wise, who can kill Ultron?

Wonder Woman was once quoted saying “His blows felt like that of Thor’s hammer“.

Rumour has it that Ultron is made of pure Vibranium. The mention of “Vibranium” is a big deal, of course. It’s long been rumored that Ultron could be either made out of or could be getting a Vibranium upgrade over the course of Avengers 2 as a plot line. The mythic metal is the most indestructible alloy in Marvel comics besides Wolverine’s Adamantium – the rights of which are owned by Fox (so no such thing as adamantium in the Marvel Studios continuity). Captain America’s shield is made of Vibranium, and it makes sense that Ultron would want to be just as indestructible.

Also See: Who can Kill Thanos?

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Ultron’s Kill List

Ultron’s killed some pretty big names in the superhero department. Things also get pretty complicated with all the alternate realities, but nonetheless here’s a few of the main characters he defeated:

1. All of the X-Men: In an alternative universe (Earth-42221), the A.I. known as Danger sent out a distress call in the hopes that a fellow A.I. would save her from extermination at the hands of the X-Men. Ultron heard the distress call and hastily made the decision to kill his “son” Victor Mancha and the rest of the Runaways. Together, with the aid of a reactivated Wild Sentinel, Ultron and Danger killed Charles Xavier and his X-Men

2. Captain America: Once again in Earth 16442.Captain America was among the heroes and citizens in a refuge from Ultron Sentinels, which guarded the streets looking for any fugitive. His head was blasted off of his body by a Ultron Sentinel after the team was surrounded and overpowered by the swarm.

3. All of the Avengers: In Earth-16422 Iron Man along with the other Avengers were in a battle against Hank Pym’s newest creation, Ultron when he attacked the Avenger’s Mansion. Unfortunately their combined effort was not enough, which allowed Ultron to kill them with very little ease.

4. Falcon: Falcon was one of the members of the Defenders who tried to help Yellowjacket take down his creation Ultron but just like Pym’s previous team, they were unsuccessful which lead to Falcon’s and his teammates’ demise. This happened in Earth-14622

5. Black Widow: Black Widow was one of the members of the Defenders who tried to help Yellowjacket take down his creation Ultron but just like Pym’s previous team, they were unsuccessful which lead to Natasha’s and her teammates’ demise.

6. Scarlet Which: In EArth-1610 an Ultron unit Wanda had previously flirted with the Villain, and had his program altered by her touch. He became obsessed with her and saw Pietro as his rival. Ultron realized that Wanda would never be his, so he killed her with bullet specified directly to her DNA.

Who stopped Ultron?

If we look at our beloved Avengers and the superheroes that either managed to capture, destroy (not kill) or stop Ultron, the most memorable of them are:

1. Avengers fought the robot and Hawkeye knocked Ultron into a vat of molten Adamantium, which cooled into an unbreakable prison

2. The near-omnipotent Beyonder once forced Ultron to fight Earth’s super heroes in the Secret Wars. During this conflict, Ultron was deactivated by Galactus, reactivated as a robotic enforcer serving Doctor Doom, deactivated again by the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four, restored by a Beyonder-possessed Klaw, and deactivated yet again in battle with Hulk and the Wasp

The beyonder

Who Can Kill Ultron?

3. Mark “12 (An iteration of Ultron with much more emotion and humility)  used the last of his strength to summon Wonder Man, who destroyed Ultron-11 and rescued Pym. Mark died in Hank’s arms, and Pym mourned his deactivation as he would the death of a son.

4. While battling the Mighty Avengers, Great Ultron was driven off into the cosmos. They believed that they had destroyed him; however, the Phalanx Babel receptors attracted his disembodied consciousness into its singular consciousness.

Who can Kill Ultron?

The answer remains a mystery. Whenever Ultron’s been stopped or seemingly destroyed, he finds a way to rebuild himself of somehow get his sentinels or many agents to rebuild him. It’s all about his consciousness. Some heroes with the ability to destroy a mind will be the one to give the final blow. Perhaps Charles Xavier when Ulton has been weakened enough?

Our best  guess is that it will have to be a combined effort between the earth and galaxies mightiest heroes. Thor came the closest ever to kill Ultron for good. At a moment when Ultron’s shields where down Thor managed to use the force of Mjolnir to drain Ultron from his energy. The plan didn’t work in the end, but he came pretty close…