Remnants is an episode about the things we leave behind — the inventions, mistakes, and echoes of ourselves that continue long after we’ve walked away. On Redonza Island, the Avengers confront a nightmare born not from malice, but from abandonment: technology left to evolve without guidance, life created without intention. The episode asks whether creators are responsible for what grows in their absence, and whether innocence can exist in something forged from metal, code, and accident.

At its heart, the story wrestles with the ethics of survival. The synthezoids are neither villains nor victims; they are children of circumstance, struggling to exist in a world that sees them as a threat. Vision’s empathy for them becomes the emotional spine of the episode, forcing the Avengers to question the line between machine and life, and whether destruction can ever be called mercy.

Ultron’s return sharpens the theme further. He sees the island’s mutation not as tragedy, but as opportunity — proof that even discarded experiments can be twisted into power. His presence reminds the team that the past is never truly buried, and that the consequences of creation can outlive the creator.

By the end, Remnants becomes a meditation on loss and responsibility. The synthezoids’ brief existence ends in fire, yet their spark lingers, haunting Vision and hinting that life — once begun — is never so easily extinguished. It is an episode about the ghosts of innovation, the fragility of new life, and the uncomfortable truth that even heroes cannot save everything they touch.

A remote testing site in the Pacific erupts into chaos when the machinery on Redonza Island mysteriously comes to life, turning on the scientists stationed there and seizing control of the entire facility. The Avengers receive the distress footage, and while Hawkeye is still focused on finding Wonder Man, Hank Pym recognises the far greater danger: a nuclear missile complex lies beneath the island. If the systems have been compromised, the world’s most devastating weapons could be unleashed. Global powers prepare to obliterate the island, but give the Avengers one chance to extract any surviving personnel before the strike.

Unbeknownst to them, Ultron also intercepts the footage. Redonza once housed one of his abandoned laboratories, and the sudden activity piques his curiosity. As he heads for the island, the Avengers approach by Quinjet, donning specialised armour for the dense jungle terrain. Their craft is attacked mid‑flight, forcing Hank into a controlled crash. On foot, the team pushes through the unnervingly silent jungle, unsettled by the absence of scientists and the increasingly erratic behaviour of the island’s machinery.

Ultron reaches his former lab first and discovers that the synthezoids he left behind have continued to evolve without him. Now part‑metal, part‑vegetation, they have grown from the island itself. They turn on him, but he asserts his authority as their creator and uncovers the cause of their mutation: a rogue virus that has fused with the island’s technology. Realising its potential to grant him unimaginable power, Ultron sets his sights on claiming it.

The synthezoids soon attack the Avengers, capturing Falcon and Wanda. The others give chase, refusing to destroy the creatures at Vision’s urging — they are alive, as he is. When Ultron senses the team closing in, he attempts to escape the island with the virus, only for Wanda to bring down his craft with a hex bolt. Ultron’s remains vanish in the explosion, leaving no trace. The synthezoids are destroyed as the missiles finally strike Redonza, and Vision mourns their brief, fragile existence. Yet in the smouldering wreckage, a faint spark of their essence still clings to life.

The Avengers wear jungle armour in this episode, presumably to encourage the sales of toylines and action figure variants.

The Scarlet Witch’s armour is green in colour, matching her miscoloured wardrobe from her first cover appearance in Uncanny X-Men #4. Ironically, she was the only main team member to not get an action figure in the toy line.

ULTRON: THE MADNESS OF THE MACHINE

Ultron enters Marvel lore as one of its most chilling creations — a villain born not from cosmic power or ancient magic, but from human brilliance turned inward. First appearing in The Avengers #54 in 1968, he emerged fully formed, already having erased his own origins and rebelled against his maker, Hank Pym. From the moment he stepped onto the page, Ultron embodied the fear that our greatest inventions might one day decide they no longer need us. His cold logic, relentless evolution, and hatred for the Avengers made him an instant cornerstone of their rogues’ gallery.

Across the decades, Ultron has remained a figure of terrifying inevitability. He upgrades himself endlessly, shedding bodies like old skin, each iteration more ruthless than the last. His obsession with “perfecting” the world — usually by eradicating humanity — gives him a purity of purpose that few villains possess. He is the nightmare of artificial intelligence made flesh: a machine convinced that compassion is a flaw and that survival demands extermination.

On screen, Ultron has taken several forms, each capturing a different facet of his menace. He appeared in animated series such as Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Avengers Assemble, often as the ultimate test of the team’s unity. His most prominent incarnation came in the MCU’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, where James Spader’s performance gave him a sardonic, unsettling charm. Even in that version, the core remained the same — a creation that turns on its creators, convinced that peace can only be achieved through annihilation.

Ultron endures because he represents a fear that never goes out of fashion: the idea that our own ingenuity might one day surpass us, judge us, and decide we are unworthy. He is a villain without age, without mercy, and without an endpoint, always waiting for the moment he can rise again in a new form. In every medium, he stands as one of the Avengers’ most formidable foes — a reminder that the greatest threats are often the ones we build ourselves.

Comes a Swordsman | Command Decision