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Five things you must know for 'Avengers'

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY
Ultron (James Spader) threatens the Earth in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Saving mankind from a psychopathic killer robot threatening the globe? That's a job for the Avengers.

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the whole gang are back in the sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (in theaters Friday). Here are five things you need to know before getting your superhero-sized bucket of popcorn:

1. The bad guy has daddy issues. Ultron, a motion-capture role voiced and played by James Spader, is a peacekeeping machine created by Downey's A-list inventor Tony Stark that finds a new mission of destruction when he's booted up. He also has quite a few things to say to his "father," most of them snarky.

2. New characters bring twin trouble. Orphans Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have a rough road on the way to becoming good guys, and the former does a number on the Avengers, taking them on some interesting mind trips. (Look out for a few cameos from Captain America and Thor movies past.)

3. The ace archer hits his mark. The Avengers' bowman supreme Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) didn't have much screen time with the supergroup in the first film, but director Joss Whedon makes up for it in the sequel, giving him great lines and a couple of extra reasons why it's important that he help save the day this time around.

Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) shares a moment with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

4. There's a beauty-and-the-beast situation. The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, via motion capture) smashes like no else — including an epic throwdown with Stark in Hulkbuster armor — but he and alter ego Bruce Banner find themselves drawn to Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and the feelings are mutual.

5. The Avengers are heading to Infinity and beyond. A fixed idea of the Marvel movies has been the existence of six Infinity Stones through the cosmos, and their mythology expands in the new film, with one Avenger having an up-close-and-personal encounter with a single magical rock. That hero also might be the key to most of the team making it out alive for the upcoming two-part Avengers: Infinity War coming in 2018 and 2019.

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