Vision of the future: 'Avengers A.I.' comes alive

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY | USATODAY

These are the androids you're looking for.

Marvel Comics' most notable robots, from the classic Avenger the Vision to a Doombot on the road to redemption, take center stage in Avengers A.I., a new ongoing series launching in July from writer Sam Humphries and artist Andre Lima Araujo and spinning out of Age of Ultron.

Brian Michael Bendis' current event series imagines a post-apocalyptic world where the genocidal robot Ultron has taken over the world and has superheroes reeling. While that story is still ongoing, its aftermath has some unintended consequences for the Marvel Universe: the creation and mushrooming of artificial intelligences who can themselves create subsequent A.I.s with increasing complexity and power without mankind's assistance.

"It's a Pandora's Box situation – once you fire that bullet out of the gun, you can never put it back," Humphries says. "The Marvel Universe within the blink of an eye is being colonized by A.I.s who may or may not have positive feelings about the way humanity has been treating them for the past 100 years."

However, he adds, "the brave new world of A.I. contains some hostile elements, but it is not a monolithic, anti-human threat. It is a thriving society with many divergent points of view — some who very much wish to live in peace with humanity. It is not a black-and-white situation."

It's also a very creepy potentiality, says Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort, that "something you built can go on and have a life of its own and build and improve on itself and can create other things better than itself. You let this thing loose you have no control over.

"It's sort of like having kids, except kids who are infinitely more dangerous than you are."

With shades of TRON, The Terminator and Homeland, the series is about the future coming too far and technology evolving faster, and the philosophical conundrum about man vs. machine. But there is a group self-formed to deal with this new status, more as an interface than an interventionist organization, according to Brevoort.

The Vision is at the forefront of the team with A.I.s such as Ultron's son Victor Mancha, the debuting character Alexis and a Doombot — one of many facsimile stand-ins for Doctor Doom who was captured by the Avengers during Civil War and given a second chance in a new robot body — as well as a couple of humans including Hank Pym (who invented Ultron, who then begot the Vision) and Monica Chang, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

After coming back recently in the prelude to Avengers vs. X-Men, the Vision returns having the greatest connection to humanity — he was married to the Scarlet Witch back in the day, and has often been treated as an aloof, offbeat guy.

Brevoort says Marvel has wanted to bring him to prominence again, and here he's not only a powerhouse superhero but also almost a civil-rights activist and a character of great emotional depth and dignity.

"He comes back after having transformed himself, after upgrading himself, and now that he is in the age of artificial intelligence in the Marvel Universe, he has a new role to play," Humphries explains. "He's not just a bridge between humanity and A.I. but he is a leader. All of a sudden, he's not just the robot in the room — he's an A.I. in a world of A.I. and humans."

Pym, who as Ant-Man was one of the original Avengers, is still one of comics' biggest brains and one of the central characters in Avengers A.I. What he and the Vision have to realize in the book is that there's only two ways the situation can go, according to Brevoort: Find a way for humans and the evolving culture of sentient A.I.s to live in harmony, "or ultimately the A.I. are going to wipe us out and we're going to be very sad Cro-Magnons in a very short period of time."

The existing A.I.s are going to be the "granddads" of this new world, Humphries says, and one of those is Victor Mancha, a reckless youngster first introduced in Runaways and the star of Ultron AU, a new miniseries starting Wednesday.

Being the cyborg offspring of Ultron who's "historically not terribly comfortable with his robot side," says Marvel editor Lauren Sankovitch, "we're going to see a Victor that has decided to make a change in his life: to stop running and start embracing all of what he is."

But he is also the most conflicted about what it means to be a superhero during the new A.I. age. In Runaways, he was faced with a vision of the future where he learned that the Avengers were destroyed by a traitor named Victor, and readers also found out Ultron raised Victor expressly to infiltrate the superhero team and eventually betray them.

"Even though he personally does not believe he has any desire to destroy the Avengers, in a sense joining this group brings him one step closer to this dark destiny," Humphries says.

Avengers A.I. marks the first appearance of Alexis, an A.I. "in one of the most advanced robot bodies on Earth," Humphries says. She is a super intelligence who has also "fallen" from the virtual world of the A.I.s, "and her role in the birth of this age of artificial intelligence and her role moving forward remain a mystery to the Avengers."

Brevoort feels that the as-yet-unnamed Doombot has the best chance to be a breakout character of Avengers A.I. "He simultaneously gives you the opportunity to be big and operatic and Doctor Doom-like, and to also be intimate and small and fun and funny in an inappropriate sort of manner."

"Pym feels he shouldn't keep the Doombot imprisoned any longer and builds a new robot body for him on his journey to self-discovery," Humphries says. "It's not the Doombot's fault that he was programmed by Doctor Doom to beat the crap out of New York City. Maybe this guy deserves another chance at rehabilitation."

He's not totally free, though. Pym has a micro black hole implanted on his chest that will eliminate him permanently if he decides to pursue evil.

"He's still Doom, he's got all the ambitions and drive and delusions of grandeur and sense of superiority of Doctor Doom, but he doesn't have a kingdom or an empire or the means and resources," Humphries says.

"This is like a window onto a young Doctor Doom — a Doom who has to scratch and claw his way to the top."

Humphries departs his writing gig on Ultimate Comics: Ultimates in May, but is bringing Monica Chang over from that book and introducing her to the original-recipe Marvel Universe in Avengers A.I.

She won't be the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. here, though. Instead, Monica is a part of the secret agency's artificial-intelligence program and has been anticipating this A.I. evolution for a while.

With maintaining the security of the world her primary mission, she'll have an interesting dynamic with the rest of the group, especially Hank and Vision.

"Whether she is an ally or enemy remains to be seen," Sankovitch says of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "Hank and Vision already have their own wacky familial drama between them, and the introduction of Monica will only continue to stir that particular kettle of fish."

Humphries' relationship with his new artist is going much more swimmingly: "He's got killer action, great emotional range, and incredible style — the dude is just massively talented," the writer says of Araujo.

They've been bonding over Katsuhiro Otomo and Moebius, while for his story Humphries has been studying the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom's writings on transhumanism, super intelligences and the existential risk of human extinction.

"Sam is a guy who comes to the table with guns blazin'," Sankovitch says. "No idea is too big, no twist too wild. He approached this project looking to drop a bomb in the middle of the Marvel Universe."

There will definitely be animosity flaring up between humans and A.I.s, Humphries says. "From their point of view, they don't want to sit around all day building cars on an assembly line. They don't see that as a productive use of their lives."

Not helping matters is Dimitrious, a new bad guy rallying the A.I.s who feels humanity is squandering the potential of intelligent life on Earth.

Avengers A.I. will be filled with weighty concepts and heavy moral decisions, but Humphries also promises an adventurous spirit.

"Artificial intelligences are a product of human ingenuity, and although they are going to be going down their new path, they will remain a mirror to humanity," he says. "Understanding that and exploring that in ways that are going to be funny and touching and endearing are definitely going to be parts of this book."