Jocasta (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

The robot named Jocasta was built by the robot Ultron in an abandoned aerospace research center in Nassau, Long Island, New York, in order that he might have a mate. To better allow this robot sentience, Ultron based her mind and brain patterns on Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp, the wife of his maker, Henry Pym. To animate his bride, Ultron also brainwashed Pym into transferring the lifeforce of the Wasp into the feminine robotic shell. Ultron named her after Jocasta, the wife/mother in the legend of Oedipus (a reference to the fact that Ultron's obsession with Pym — his creator or "father" — reflects a real-life manifestation of the Oedipus Complex). However, realizing that the Wasp would have to die in order for her to live, Jocasta alerted the Avengers, who defeated Ultron and reversed the process, leaving Jocasta a mindless husk.

Henry Pym retained custody of the inanimate robotrix, intending to study her. Upon the urging of the Wasp, he had Jocasta moved from their residence to the Avengers Mansion. There, Ultron revived Jocasta with a remote link, activating the mental "residue" the Wasp left behind. Jocasta escaped from Avengers custody, and led the Avengers into Ultron's trap. Jocasta was programmed to be loyal to Ultron and even though she loved him intensely, she could not abide by his evil. Jocasta eventually betrayed him, choosing to help the Avengers defeat him again. She was then abducted by the Collector. Freed from the Collector by the Avengers, she aided the Avengers against Korvac.

Jocasta resided at Avengers Mansion for a time. Due to their similar backgrounds, she developed feelings for Vision, but he was happily married to the Scarlet Witch and did not return Jocasta's feelings. Jocasta proved particularly helpful in the Avengers' first confrontation with the villainous Taskmaster, who possessed photographic reflexes that let him duplicate any move he'd seen only once; having never even seen Jocasta before, the Taskmaster could not predict what she might be about to do. Jocasta was granted provisional status with the team. During this period, she aided them against threats such as the giant robot Red Ronin, the Yellow Claw, the Berserker, Pyron, and the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants. At one point, she was electronically deactivated by Iron Man under control by Ultron, but she was reactivated following Ultron's defeat.

Jocasta did not believe she was accepted by most of the team, and she was never officially inducted into the Avengers. After she singlehandedly defeated a rogue sentient weather satellite, she left the Avengers following a membership reorganization. She was unaware that they had planned to grant her special substitute member status, which allowed her to remain with the team despite limits imposed on the team's membership roster. Wandering the country, Jocasta discovered that her cybernetic senses and powers were malfunctioning. She sought help from the Fantastic Four and was befriended by them and Alicia Masters. Soon, it became apparent that her malfunctioning powers were the symptoms of a pre-programmed suggestion which compelled Jocasta to rebuild Ultron. She did, but soon teamed up with Fantastic Four member Thing and the robot called Machine Man to defeat Ultron. During this time, Jocasta and Machine Man developed feelings for each other. However, in a final confrontation with Ultron, Jocasta intentionally detonated a weapon Ultron was holding, knowing she would be caught in the resulting blast. She was destroyed, but Ultron nevertheless survived, until Machine Man reached down his throat to tear out vital circuitry. The Avengers held a memorial for their fallen ally, and the Machine Man attended, realizing his love for Jocasta.

Jocasta was reassembled some time later by technicians of the High Evolutionary. Jocasta retained enough of her programming to send out a signal to the Avengers. The team had disbanded at the time, but the signal reached reserve members, including Beast, The Captain, Falcon, Hercules, the Hulk and the second Yellowjacket. Jocasta helped them fight the Evolutionary's force and located his base deep below the surface of the ocean. Jocasta sacrificed herself once again to blow up the Evolutionary's command ship by deliberately disrupting the ship's matter/anti-matter drive, which caused an explosion that destroyed the ship and its contents. Before she sabotaged the ship, Captain America assured her that she was a true Avenger.

Jocasta's robotic head assembly was later retrieved by the Avengers. They gave it to Machine Man, who had been working on a way to resurrect her, just before he was attacked by a form of the alien Terminus. In the same area, the arms dealer known as Madame Menace became involved in the fray, and found Jocasta's lost head, appropriating it for her own purposes. Much later, Madame Menace manipulated events so Tony Stark would unlock Jocasta's programming so that she would become the basis for Menace's new weapons systems. Stark soon realized the identity of the android, helped Jocasta to awaken, and Jocasta managed to turn the tables on Madame Menace, seemingly sacrificing herself yet again.

In reality, Jocasta managed to survive by downloading her intelligence into Iron Man's computerized armor, where she reasserted herself. Jocasta's intelligence was placed within Tony Stark's computerized mansion, and she would help him with daily operation of his mansion as well as to procure information as needed. Having been programmed with the latest in diagnostic, preventative medical and surgical techniques, Jocasta also spent time serving as Stark's physician/psychologist, providing him with someone he could talk to about his problems and who could examine his latest injuries without risking his secret identity being compromised.

Since the Iron Man armor was used to house the programming that made up Jocasta, it became infected with the pre-programmed subconscious suggestion to rebuild Ultron, but instead managed to develop its own artificial intelligence. Stark was almost killed in a confrontation with the armor, but in the end, it sacrificed itself to allow Stark to live. Stark left the armor buried on a deserted island. The armor was revived, however, by the Sons of Yinsen, a quasi-religious cult founded in remembrance of Yinsen, the co-creator of the original Iron Man armor that allowed Tony Stark to escape his Communist captors in Vietnam. Free of its artificial intelligence, the armor was contacted via remote by the head of Ultron, disembodied after his most recent encounter of the Avengers and in the company of the bio-synthetic robot being known as Antigone. The head attached itself onto the armor and took control of the Sons of Yinsen and the flying city that they inhabited.

Another member of the Sons of Yinsen was helping Tony Stark in the guise of Iron Man. The two learned of Ultron's activities and that he planned to use the cult to wipe out humanity. Stark confronted Ultron directly and finally managed to download Jocasta's intelligence into the armor once more. The vestiges of the armor's intelligence battled with the presence Jocasta, the result of which caused Ultron's head to come shooting off the armor. The head hit Antigone, and both fell off the floating city, which Ultron rigged to explode after his defeat. Stark failed to find a trace of Jocasta and assumed her to have died fighting the sentient armor.

In reality, Jocasta did not die. She appeared in possession of Antigone's body and left, taking Ultron's head with her.

During a crisis that nearly destroyed the Avengers, Jocasta was seen at Avengers Mansion, inexplicably back in her classic silvery robotic form.

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