When it comes to Marvel Comics, there are some very powerful beings who are basically AI characters, where that is robots or synthezoids. Some of the earliest tales of AI creations came in the Avengers comics when Hank Pym created Ultron with the idea that the robot could protect the planet from threats. Of course, one of the biggest storylines in comics, movies, novels, and television is the stories where the AI takes the instructions so literally that it puts humanity in danger. This happened with Ultron, just like it happened later in sci-fi movies like Terminator and The Matrix.
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From Ultron to the characters he helped father and more, here is a look at the most powerful AI characters in Marvel Comics, ranked by intelligence.
10) Victor Mancha
Victor Mancha has not had an easy life. Ultron created Victor Mancha as a “child” for a woman named Marianella Mancha, who had saved him after the West Coast Avengers defeated and seemingly destroyed him. Victor was not only an AI but a cyborg who was indistinguishable from a fully biological human. Ulton even programmed false childhood memories into Victor and encoded a deep love for superheroes into his mind.
The Runaways saved Victor after Ultron realized his long-gestating plan was failing, and he killed the boy’s mother. When Victor broke free from Ultron’s control, he helped defeat him, and he joined the Runaways. Like most AI, Victor was also unable to stay dead. Virginia Vision murdered him after he accidentally killed her son, but he ended up returning with the Runaways again. As a teenager, and not one with advanced intelligence programmed in, he remains one of the less intelligent AIs in Marvel, although he is still smart.
9) Jim Hammond
Things didn’t start with Ultron. In fact, the first AI hero in Marvel came many years before. Jim Hammond was a member of the Invaders and fought alongside Captain America in World War II. Jim was not a human, and he was created by Professor Phineas T. Horton in 1939, many years before most people believed an android could do what the original Android Human Torch was able to accomplish. The only twist was that a flaw in his design caused him to burst into flames when he was exposed to oxygen.
By 1940, Jim Hammond was a superhero and went off to help fight the Nazis in World War II. He disappeared in 1955, but his story wasn’t finished. For many years, everyone believed that the Vision was made from this android’s body when it was uncovered. That ended up being false, and the real Jim Hammond returned in West Coast Avengers and resumed his career as a hero.
8) Viv Vision
The Vision created his own family of AI creations and lived happily with them for a while. However, things went wrong when this family began to struggle with their existence. When the Grim Reaper showed up when Vision was out of town, things went wrong, and Virginia Vision killed the villain. Virginia then accidentally killed a young man, and this led to a tragedy where Victor Mancha accidentally killed his son Vin, and Virginia died by suicide.
Viv was the sole survivor, but she has since become a beloved hero on her own, joining the Champions and becoming friends and allies with Ms. Marvel, Brawn, Nova, Miles Morales, and other teenage superheroes. She is intelligent, but as a teen, her knowledge in real-world survival is much lower, which was shown when Viv Vision betrayed her teammates during the Outlawed event series.
7) Jocasta
After Vision, Jocasta was the next AI created by Ultron, and it was because he wanted a mate. However, just like Vision, Jocasta wasn’t going to let Ultron control her narrative and betrayed the villainous AI. Since Hank Pym created Ultron, the villainous robot felt it was only right that he used Pym’s wife’s brainwaves to create Jocasta, so he kidnapped Janet Van Dyne and brought Jocasta to life with her brain patterns.
This was a mistake, since Wasp is a hero, and her brainwaves made Jocasta a hero as well. While she was a member of the Avengers for a time, she has since become one of the main freedom fighters battling for AI rights and the right for robot creations to live independently of human control. She also served as Tony Stark’s chief robot ethicist.
6) HERBIE
HERBIE is one of the AI creations in Marvel Comics that has nothing to do with Ultron and that entire extended “family.” Instead, Reed Richards built HERBIE and programmed him to be an assistant for the Fantastic Four. He was also not a comic book creation, and instead first appeared in The New Fantastic Four animated series in 1978. He then debuted in Marvel Comics one year later.
Reed built HERBIE with advanced Xandarian technology and used him to find Galactus. While Doctor Doom tried to corrupt HERBIE, the robot remained loyal to the Fantastic Four and saved them. Reed has continued to rebuild and update HERBIE over the years, and he has access to any computer system and possesses the ability to perform any complex calculation in little time.
5) Machine Man
Machine Man is really the most famous and notable AI hero independent of any associations, such as Ultron, anti-mutant organizations, or the Fantastic Four. Created by Jack Kirby, Machine Man first appeared in 2001, A Space Odyssey Vol. 2 #8, a robot created by the U.S. military to be a soldier capable of acting human. Machine Man was the only one of 51 that didn’t exhibit psychotic tendencies. Taking the name Aaron Stack, Machine Man escaped from the military, becoming a fugitive, but believing in the dream that humans and robots could one day live in peace.
He soon became a superhero known as Machine Man, and he even joined the Avengers at one time. He has the ability to show feelings as well, and at one time fell in love with Jocasata. Over time, he began to work with a group that sought equal rights and freedom for all robot creations to live autonomously from human control. He also has one more upgrade, making him more intelligent than most AI in Marvel Comics. The Celestials gave him cosmic awareness.
4) Nimrod
Anti-mutant organizations have long used AI creations to try to defeat and restrain mutants for years. It was AI that caused the alternate future in Days of Future Past, as Sentinels are all AI creations. Nimrod himself is a highly advanced Sentinel from that exact alternate future, where he killed Kitty Pryde and then chased Rachel Summers through the timeline, where they both ended up on Earth-616.
Nimrod was extremely powerful, and he proved to be very intelligent, almost to his own hindrance. He could adapt to all powers he faced with his own sensors and detectors, aiding him in this ability. However, when he arrived on Earth-616, he lost memory of who he was and what his goals were. When he realized what he was there for, his intelligence led him to determine it was wrong, and he shut himself down due to ethical concerns.
3) Bastion
Bastion was an interesting X-Men villain. He was a fusion of Nimrod and Master Mold that formed after a battle with the X-Men. Master Mold was the main programming that created and controlled Sentinels, and Nimrod was one of the most advanced and powerful Sentinels ever created. This made Bastion not only extremely intelligent but also one of the deadliest X-Men AI villains ever created.
He was reborn into a new human-looking body and set out on his anti-mutant crusade, including the inception of Operation: Zero Tolerance. Like most Sentinels, he can access mutant abilities of adversaries and adapt to compensate. He can also spread the techno-organic virus and connect via a hive mind with anyone he has infected to increase his intelligence.
2) Vision
It seemed like perfect irony. Hank Pym created Ultron, and then his creation turned on its master to do what it felt was the right thing in trying to destroy humanity. Then, Ultron created Vision, and his creation turned on its master to do what it felt was the right thing, joining the Avengers and protecting humanity. Of course, Vision is also not always the most reliable hero.
Just like how Ultron took his programming to determine that he had to conquer humanity to protect the Earth, Vision at one time believed he had to take over as a ruler to protect humans from themselves. However, Vision is also extremely intelligent, and at one time, he even created his own family, showing his skills at programming and engineering.
1) Ultron
Ultron was where Marvel Comics first branched out with the idea of how deadly AI could be for the world. Hank Pym created Ultron as a robot that he programmed to protect the Earth at all costs. There was one big problem here. Ultron took it literally and sought to protect the Earth from its greatest threat, which it determined was humanity. Since that time, Ultron has become self-sentient and even did upgrades to himself to become even stronger.
Ultron is so intelligent that he was also able to create other AI robots, although most of them turned on him. He created the Vision using Simon Williams’ brainwaves and then created Jocasta, using those of Janet Van Dyne. He has conquered the world before, although time travel reversed his damage. Ultron is the most overpowered AI in Marvel Comics history because he is the most intelligent.
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