WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy #146, by Gerry Duggan and Marcus to, on sale now.

This week saw Guardians of the Galaxy, by Gerry Duggan and Marcus To, return to its original numbering as part of the Marvel Legacy relaunch. Not only does Issue #146 kick off a new storyline -- "Infinity Quest" -- it features a whole new direction for the Guardians, and a new team member to boot in the form of the Astonishing Ant-Man, Scott Lang. Plus, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon and Baby Groot have traded their now-familiar garb for Nova Corps outfits, now that they're officially full-fledged members of the intergalactic police force.

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But while the team is helping to rebuild the once proud and mighty intergalactic space cops organization, they have a mission of their own: Locate the Infinity Stones which, as it turns out, have been missing ever since reality was re-written in the conclusion of Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars. Alas, the Guardians aren't allowed to make much headway towards that challenging goal; as the issue opens, they're scattered, dispatched on various rescue operations.

Ant-Man and Gamora (much to the most lethal woman in the galaxy's dismay) are sent to rescue a fleet in need of help. But once they get there, what should have been a simple run-of-the-mill rescue operation quickly turns into a disaster, with the revelation that the villain responsible for the fleet's demise is a resurgent form of infamous Avengers villain Ultron.

Of course, when we last saw Ultron, he had physically bonded with Hank Pym, building a city for himself in the frozen wastelands of Alaska in the pages of writer Nick Spencer's Captain America-centric event, Secret Empire. So how could Ultron now be in space, attacking unassuming alien fleets?

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Aboard this spaceship, Ant-Man and Gamora come under attack by new versions of Ultron bots. While previous versions of these bots were created and molded by Ultron himself, this batch appears to be the result of some sort of virus. The Ultrons on the ship are all of the victims -- aliens who have been infected by an Ultron parasite, turning all of them into Ultron hybrids.

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Considering the fused Hank Pym and Ultron (aka Pymtron) was the first human/Ultron hybrid, it's quite likely that it is also the version of Ultron responsible for this attack. In fact, one of the last survivors of the fleet mentions "the first one came from Earth." This is a pretty blatant hint that Pymtron (or Ultron Prime, as the bots call him) may very well have launched a new, weaponized form of Ultron tech into space with the goal of infecting others. But if he did so, you have to wonder, why? What could compel him to reach out into space?

When we last saw Ultron in Secret Empire, he and Hank were very much in unison; physically merged, with one speaking for the other. But in the Guardians #146, one Ultron bot says, "Hank says, 'Hello. Or was it, 'Help?' Sorry the message is a bit garbled." This would indicate that there is now a discrepancy between the two, that Pym's personality might be buried, trying to fight his way out while Ultron is fully in control. With no more Hank to keep him in line or focus on his hate for the Avengers, perhaps Ultron is back to his old ways, looking to conquer the universe once more as he previously attempted to do in the 2007 cosmic crossover event, Annihilation: Conquest. After all, as Ant-Man and Gamora run to help, another Ultron bot states that "Ultron will overwrite the entire galaxy." Perhaps this a literal explanation of what Ultron is planning.

While Pymtron is the most likely culprit, however, the true answer could also lie deeper in Marvel and Ultron's history. In 2015's Avengers: Rage of Ultron, by Rick Remender and Jerome Opeña, we learned that the then-latest version of Ultron, Ultron-7, had been trapped in a spaceship in the distant past, and he had now returned to wreak havoc in the present after his shuttle eventually crashed. Ultron-7 returned to Earth, planning to infect every mind with his own consciousness -- which eventually led to him becoming merged with Hank Pym. The then-newly formed Pymtron was left in space for years, eventually returning to Earth during the All-New, All-Different Marvel era, in Gerry Duggan and Ryan Stegman's Uncanny Avengers series, hellbent on the Avengers' destruction once more. Is it possible that, while he was away in space, Pymtron left a few fail-safes in place, just in case something would happen to him?

If that is the case, then the attack in Guardians of the Galaxy #146 could just be the start of a new Ultron wave, an attack coning not from Earth, but from the other side of the galaxy. After all, considering Ultron-7 did originate on Earth, which means the survivor's claim that "the first one came from Earth" would apply. Perhaps this is an off-shoot of what Ultron-7 left behind during his time in space, something that has just been recently activated. And if these new infected bots are capable of communicating with Ultron Prime on Earth, as they seem to be able to do, there's simply no telling what kind of damage they can cause in space.

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Ultron has always been a recurring problem in the Marvel Universe, a mainstay villain for the Avengers to face every now and then. But now, it seems he has taken his fight directly to the Guardians of the Galaxy, and with an Ant-Man now on the team, his resurgence might not be a coincidence. Whatever is afoot in the far reaches of space, Ultron is once again on a collision course with a reckoning. However big... or ant-sized.