1. Ultron Wants To Make Humanity Extinct (To Save The World)
The key to writing a good villain is to give him some actual motivation. In the good old days a supervillain would want to take over the world, or see evil reigning across the cosmos, simply because they wanted to. That was it. They were designed as agents of badness to push the story along, to give something for the hero to fight against. Never were they considered worthy of becoming fleshed-out, real characters. Even if you don't sympathise with Ultron's ultimate mission, you can see where he's coming from. He's reacting to the arrogance of his creators when he turns on them, the hubris they express in thinking they can save the world with such an easy solution. He's also coming from a somewhat logical place when he decides he's going to kill all humans. He thinks he's the hero. Because, from a mechanical point of view that hasn't been raised in human society, the number one threat to peace on Earth is...people. People make wars. People kill each other over nothing. At least in the animal kingdom there's the circle of life, a hierarchy that makes sense. Yes, Ultron's motivation is essentially that of a character from Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, but that's kind of cool. That's the sort of basic idea on which great performances were made. And you don't just hire James Spader to do a robot voice. You hire him to bring a proper, fleshed-out, real character to life. Who happens to be an insane robotic Frankenstein's monster.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
