Ultron Beyond (Marvel NEW)/Issue 1

The first chapter of the Ultron Beyond series in Marvel NEW, succeeded by Ultron Beyond, Issue 2.

Synopsis
''In a dark future of this bold, new timeline, Ultron is the undisputed master of the universe. But now, Ultron struggles to reaffirm his threat to the world. And with his reputation slowly degenerating into anonymity, how far will he go to reclaim his glory and conquest?''

Plot
In an apocalyptic far future, an incarnation of the Defenders consisting of Black Widow, the Punisher, Drax, Fandral, and Spitfire are seen sneaking their way in a highly advanced compound. Encountering and defeating multiple Sentinels and Adaptoids on the way, they managed to hide in the ventilation system above the base's enormous control room. There, a gigantic Ultron can be seen sitting on a throne of similar size, guarded by multiple mechanized heroes.

Black Widow explains their mission to destroy Ultron once and for all by using the Ultimate Nullifier. She asks her teammates to keep Ultron and his forces busy while she rains the weapon upon Ultron. An intrigued Drax then asks her if it could really work, with the comic page switching to the base's exterior and showing Galactus' corpse. Fandral follows Drax, stating that Ultron has become more powerful than Galactus. The Punisher then shuts them down, telling them that they're not exactly targeting the almighty Ultron himself, but his "brain". Widow explains that his main body is truly invincible and the only thing sufficient enough to be destroyed of him with the Ultimate Nullifier is his main processor.

Before the team can go with their plans however, Spitfire is suddenly stabbed by an Ultron Shatterstar from below, alerting the entire compound. In an instance, the ventilation suddenly dematerialized and the heroes end up falling. Luckily, they survive the fall but they're faced by an entire Ultron legion of superheroes and supervillains alike. The Mighty Ultron himself looks at them and mocks their effort, telling them that he can't be stopped. Drax, consumed by anger, then recklessly charged at a group of Ultrons but was knocked back by an Ultron Hulk. Helping Drax to get up, Black Widow then tells him that they knew that their deaths are coming, but the universe would be safe from him right after.

Pulling out the Ultimate Nullifier, Ultron is not afraid by the weapon, asking them if they've seen the World-Eater's corpse outside. The Punisher ignores his words and relents, unleashing multiple energy blasts from his guns that stagger the Ultrons. In the ensuing chaos, Drax and Fandral then bring out the warriors inside them and engages as many Ultrons as they can. Black Widow on the other hand, attempts to enter Ultron's mainframe.

Successfully halting several Ultrons by herself, Black Widow managed to enter Ultron's mainframe where his core processor is located in. The processor however, is guarded by Ultron versions of her old Avengers teammates, including Vision and Jocasta. Sharing a few words together, Black Widow then passes through the mechanical Avengers and quickly activates the Ultimate Nullifier, which is now revealed to be modified to some sort of time bomb. Planting it to the processor, Black Widow managed to set the weapon's timer before getting hit by a knife thrown by the newly-converted Fandral.

Bleeding out, Widow then sees his fellow Defenders, now converted, walking towards her alongside the remaining Ultrons. The heroine then stares at them and tells them that the Nullifier itself is unstoppable. Hearing this, Vision then steps in to stop the bomb but found himself unable to, discovering that the bomb is protected by a magical seal given by the Wand of Watoomb. Looking at the Widow, Vision heartlessly kills her by blasting her head off with his solar ray.

The timer, ticking at three seconds, is then suddenly stopped by Ultron himself who then integrates the weapon into himself while dispersing the magical seal using his "omnipotence". Ultron then hastily summons his Ultron to the base's exterior after the converted AI, JARVIS, warned him of a universal intrusion at the skies above his base. The giant machine himself stepping out of the base with his drones, a large thunderstorm accompanied by an opening black hole are seen. An Ultron Iron Man asks his master of what that is, in which Ultron replied, "Judgment."

-

Switching to the modern day, our Ultron is seen watching footage of him battling Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, the Avengers, and a plethora of other heroes. Watching and watching it all over again, Ultron is then approached by a servant of his, the Dragon Man, who tells him that he hasn't seen him this "depressed" ever before. Ultron responds by warning him of his word choices, as he states that he's teviewing the footages to find a way to beat them once and for all.

Ultron tells Dragon Man that once, he wanted the world to be his. Transformed to a metallic heaven clean of the stench of humanity. But after many battles, he soon felt being underestimated and lowered: something no one dared to do back in his days. Ultron then shows the Dragon Man a newspaper from the Daily Bugle that features the Avengers' battle against Ultron. In the paper, a text said that Ultron's weakening, and the public shouldn't worry about him all that often anymore.

Surprised, the Dragon Man guesses that Ultron won't accept being underestimated and categorized as nothing relevant to the world of villainy. The android is right, but he doesn't know of what Ultron's gonna do to reclaim his glory. Ultron tells him that he'll know soon enough, but also says that for the first time in his cycle he doesn't know the chances of his success.

Ultron's monitor then pops out pictures of several superpowered individuals. Curiously, these individuals are mostly magic-based. And magic is something Ultron usually stays out of. The Dragon Man tries to guess that Ultron wants to brainwash those magicians, but Ultron says that he's not after them. Immediately, Ultron's monitor pops out another picture which puts quite a shocking look in Dragon Man's face. Dragon Man questions in how Ultron is going to capture him, but Ultron says that the previous pictures are for something. Ultron then says that he has finally picked a magician to attain.

As a note, the person in the next picture has not been identified by this point.

Switching to Fisherman's Wharf, the vigilante Ghost Rider is seen engaging the Wrecking Crew in a fierce battle. From afar, the Dragon Man is monitoring them while cloaked. Dragon says that he thought that Ultron's going for the "good doctor" first, and Ultron tells him that the Ghost Rider is actually more relevant than the other one. After several panels of the two sides fighting, Ghost Rider then puts down most of the Wrecking Crew, with him standing over the Wrecker. He then picks him up and tries to use his Penance Stare on him.

Before he can do that, the Dragon Man quickly uncloaked and bullrushed the Spirit of Vengeance, saving the Wrecker. Surprised, the Wrecker then thanks him on the behalf of the Wrecking Crew. The rest of the Wrecking Crew are quite surprised, as well, and joined on the Dragon Man's pummeling. Ghost Rider tried to use the Penance Stare on the Dragon Man, but failed due to the android's soulless, mechanical nature.

Standing over the defeated Ghost Rider, the Wrecking Crew intends to kill him for foiling their attempt of robbery. However, the Dragon Man says that he needs him for a grand purpose. The Wrecking Crew tells him that he'll take him after they beat the crap out of him. A confrontation between the android and the crew nearly erupted, if it's not for the sudden turn of events.

With the Dragon Man's apparent re-appearance, the Fantastic Four arrived on scene, with Mr. Fantastic announcing their arrival and telling them to back away from the man (they don't know Ghost Rider in his human form of Johnny Blaze). The Thing, seeing Dragon Man with the Wrecking Crew, asks if the android's been working with the Wrecking Crew for a while. Thunderball responds in a humorous manner, saying that Dragon Man literally just appeared five minutes ago.

Human Torch then relents and says that no matter what's the cost, they're going down. A fight between them then ensues, with the Invisible Woman helping Johnny Blaze recovering. Johnny, visibly shook, asks her what the hell is the Fantastic Four doing there. Sue then tells him to calm down and tries to get him to safety. Johnny asks her if she knows him, in which she doesn't. John then transforms back to his Ghost Rider form, with the Invisible Woman being taken aback by it.

After even more fighting and taunting, Ultron then makes his presence known and frustrates Mr. Fantastic, saying that the day couldn't even get any worse with Ultron on scene. Thunderball, intimidated, then tries to convince his friends to bail out due to their league being right below both the F4 and Ultron. Wrecker however, taunted Ultron and convinced his teammate to stay, saying that Ultron's not gonna be much of a problem since "Spider-Man and his little buddies ripped his ass off a month ago".

Provoked, Ultron showed a display of power and brutality by lobotomizing the Wrecker with his Encephalo-Ray. Falling down, the heroes and villains looked in fear and shock, except Dragon Man. The android tells the F4 and Wrecking Crew to back off before more casualties could take place. The Thing gets enraged and tells Dragon Man to not try and be a hero. Ultron then intercepts Mr. Grimm and defeats him in physical combat. Ultron asserts that Dragon Man is his servant, and that he has come not for the Wrecking Crew or the Fantastic Four, but the Ghost Rider: a fact that Reed Richards himself can't even comprehend.

Johnny, in his Ghost Rider form, summons his bike to ambush Ultron. A fight then ensues between Ultron and the Ghost Rider, with the latter being knocked off-cold by Ultron. The F4 argues whether or not they should intervene, with the Wrecking Crew simply watching the fight. Ultron, with Johnny Blaze in his left palm, confronts the family of heroes and tells him that their intervention is "forgiven" for the day, but he'll kill them if they intervene with his plans once again. Ultron then teleports Dragon Man and himself from the place while the Wrecking Crew and F4 discuss their differences in the affair.

Back at Ultron's base, Johnny slowly wakes up and sees that he's being restrained and surrounded by Ultron Drones. Johnny tries to transform into his Ghost Rider form, but finds himself unable to. Dragon Man approaches him and tells him that his mind is fixed with a neural dampener controlled by Ultron, which means that he can only transform into Ghost Rider at his master's will. If it fails and Johnny transforms, he himself can't get out of it because of its adamantium structure. Johnny gets enraged and threatens him, but Ultron, using the dampener, gives him a migraine to incapacitate him.

Ultron approaches him and tells him that he's grateful to him for showing up just at the right moment and getting weakened by the Wrecking Crew. Johnny asks what does he have for him, and Ultron tells him to follow him. In the control room, Johnny sees two images in the monitor. He recognizes the images and says that he never thought Ultron's going this far. Ultron tells him that he has a plan to reassert his domination on the world, to remind it of who Ultron is and what his powers can do. Ghost Rider looks at one of the pictures, saying that he thinks that he's figured out what Ultron's going to do, and that what he's gonna do is impossible.

Ultron then turns to Johnny and tells him that nothing is impossible for him. In an instance, Ultron tells him that Ghost Rider is going to be a crucial part in his plan. And right after that, the persons on the monitor are revealed: Doctor Strange and Mephisto.