Contains spoilers for Episodes 3 and 4 of VisionQuest.
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Briefly pivoting away from antagonist the Paladin, this week’s VisionQuest episodes “Reboot” and “Malware” presented Vision (Paul Bettany) with a new threat, the mysterious Butcherbird. Butcherbird starts as a background threat, with reports of their killings showing up in brief news segments. The news is only watched by Ultron, though, with the other AIs focused more on discovering the humans they were based on, and Vision is too busy trying to be a father to Tommy Shepherd.
Ultron manages to bring Vision’s attention to the dead, especially when they learn that Butcherbird’s victims were all board members of Markridge Biotech, the company responsible for creating the first synthetic consciousness. Tommy, Vision, and the AIs crash a gala in hopes of sparing the remaining founder Katarina Wells’ life, only for Butcherbird — then revealed as Jo Carrington, aka Jocasta — to attack.
Knowing Vision is unequipped for battle with Jocasta, Ultron talks his way into assuming the reins, putting him in control of the Vision. Katerina Wells is then killed — in a complete betrayal of Vision’s stated mission — and Jocasta repeats a refrain audiences know too well from Avengers: Age of Ultron, invoking Ultron’s “peace in our time”.
While Jocasta in the comics was created by Ultron and intended to serve as his wife, the Jocasta of VisionQuest is distinctly independent. In parallel to Vision and Tommy, she is the product of trauma. It’s implied that the other founders forced the consciousness of Jo Carrington into the Jocasta synthetic to achieve the results they needed, regardless of the damage it did to Jo’s psyche. Thus, Jocasta isn’t a wife or love interest, but instead, she’s arguably an ancestor or “mother” to him.
Jocasta’s Original Backstory
Created by Jim Shooter and George Pérez, Jocasta first appeared in The Avengers back in 1977. Intending her to be his wife, Ultron based her brain and mind patterns on Janet Van Dyne, the wife of his creator, Henry Pym. To bring her to life, Ultron tricked Pym into transferring Wasp’s life force into Jocasta — a thread VisionQuest may be picking up on with the implications of what happened to Jo Carrington — before Jocasta realized what was happening.
Unlike Ultron, Jocasta felt the life-force transfer was wrong and alerted the Avengers so they could stop it. In the end, Ultron still manages to activate Jocasta when enough residue from the Wasp remains, but Jocasta overcomes her programming and chooses the Avengers over her intended love, Ultron. Her origin, thus, isn’t too dissimilar from the Vision, who was meant to be Ultron’s son before turning against him and joining the Avengers.
During her tenure with the Avengers, Jocasta’s storylines often returned to her programming, with one directive compelling her to rebuild Ultron. Jocasta ends up doing so, but calls in help to destroy Ultron in the end. During Brian Michael Bendis’ Mighty Avengers, Jocasta becomes the official Bride of Ultron in order to defuse tensions with him before Pym finds a way to trick Ultron into travelling to an uninhabited planet.
A New Dynamic for Ultron and Jocasta
By changing Jocasta’s backstory, she stops being the Bride of Ultron. Instead, she’s her own person. There’s no directive ordering her to rebuild him or to love him. There’s also no imported moral compass from an Avenger. Jocasta’s previous killings have been for revenge — wanting to take down the people who turned her into what she is — but given her little remorse, it’s uncertain whether she’ll stop. Ironically, Jocasta is in a better position than she’s ever been to be an actual partner for Ultron. They’re on similar playing fields, even if Jocasta is likely more powerful given that Vision recently had to revive himself.
For Ultron and Jocasta, it will be a test of whether Ultron has changed at all. He had no qualms about the death of Katerina Wells, and he didn’t hesitate to shut out Vision and other AIs. Yet, given the show’s focus on fatherhood and growth, it’d be shocking if Ultron is the exact same as what fans expected from him in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In his own special way, he cares about Vision, and they have a history — one that he doesn’t have with Jocasta.
A Changed Jocasta Might Have Massive MCU Ramifications
VisionQuest’s Jocasta further solidifies the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s move away from the importance of Pym and Van Dyne in the comics. The Ant-Man movies have focused on Scott Lang, with Hank Pym featuring as an old superhero who has already been through it and thought he lost his wife for decades prior to the first film. Ant-Man and the Wasp thus wasn’t about Hank and Janet, but instead about Scott and Hope.
Yet, Jocasta still feels compelling, arguably more so than her comics counterpart. She, along with Ultron making a comeback in VisionQuest, shows that synthezoids are here to stay in the MCU and have massive storytelling potential. Depending on how this season of VisionQuest shapes up, Jocasta has potential to be a great villain that could show up down the line as a recurring threat.
AI has been part of the MCU for years — from Jarvis in Iron Man to E.V. in Spider-Man: Brand New Day — and the natural next step is to explore what ramifications embodied AI has on the world, something teased in Ironheart, but that hasn’t been front and center since Ultron’s introduction.
Will Jocasta and Ultron make each other worse or does Ultron have a redemption arc in him? Let us know in the comments below!
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Courtesy of 20th Television Animation
