Iron Man #203
The Maze
One Month Ago
At the secret laboratory under Stane International, Obadiah Stane has Doctor Theron Atlanta conduct an experiment upon Madame Masque and Bethany Cabe. The process would swap the minds of the two women as part of Stane’s on going plot against Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. The process is a complete success and Madame Masque forgives Stane for forcing her through the process without telling her.[1]
Now
Iron Man is heading to the Los Angeles International Airport to pick up the woman he thinks is Bethany Cabe, unaware of Stane’s mindswap. At the arrivals gate, Madame Masque waits for Tony Stark’s arrival, intending to murder him on the spot to avenge the death of her father, Count Nefaria.[2] However, she was not expecting Tony to arrive as Iron Man and scoop her up and fly her back to his rented home. When they arrive they are visited by Clytemnestra Erwin, who is still deeply upset about the death of her brother Morley and how little Tony has done to acknowledge it.[3] When she asks Tony to take off his Iron Man mask so they can talk person-to-person, he complies little knowing that Madame Masque has pulled a gun and is waiting for the right opportunity to shoot.
Cly then reveals that the private investigator she hired has also figured out how Obadiah Stane managed to freeze Tony’s bank accounts and lock him out of his personal wealth.[4] However, Stane had planted a program that would erase all record of Tony’s money in the next ten days unless he does something about it. Tony figures he can get the help of Hank Pym and his ability to shrink things down in size so he can deal with it. Unable to get a clear shot, Madame Masque is annoyed when Tony puts his helmet back on and takes off to get his fortune back.
Meanwhile, on Long Island, Bethany Cabe — trapped in Madame Masque’s body — is on the run from the law. Sneaking onto a small airfield, she commandeers a plane, forcing the pilot to fly her to Los Angeles at gunpoint.
By this time, Iron Man has returned to Avengers Compound where he tells Hank Pym of his situation. Hank believes that by using his Pym Particles to shrink Iron Man down to microscopic size he could travel inside the data lines to the central banking computer and physically destroy the program poised to erase his fortune from existence.
Inside the central banking computer, Iron Man discovers that it is defended by tiny drone ships protecting the physical hardware. At his diminished size, the Avenger’s weapons are no match for the proportionally massive ships. After some cat-and-mouse around the computer hardware, Iron Man manages to hard wire himself into the power supply to super-charge his armor. This gives him enough of a boost that he destroys the drones. With the immediate threat out of the way, Tony is able to hack into the system and obtain the account number where Stane hid his fortune. Retreating back to Avengers Compound and returning to his normal size, Iron Man tells Hank that his mission was a complete success.
Iron Man then returns to his villa to tell “Bethany Cabe” the good news. As he is stripping off his armor, Madame Masque pulls her gun on him. However, before she can shoot, the real Bethany Cabe leaps in through the window and shoots Masque in the arm. Tony is completely confused by the who situation and demands to know what’s going on.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Madame Masque, Bethany Cabe, Cly Erwin, Henry Pym
Continuity Notes
This mind swap happened behind the scenes of Iron Man #198. The woman everyone thinks is Madame Masque is actually a bio-duplicate of her, as explained in Avengers (vol. 3) #32.
Count Nefaria died in a battle with Iron Man back in Iron Man #115-116. Although it was an accident, Madame Masque still blamed Tony for what happened.
Morley was killed in Iron Man #199 from a bomb planted by Obadiah Stane.
Obadiah Stane started systematically ruining Tony Stark’s life starting in Iron Man #162. By issue #173, he had taken over Tony’s company. By issue #167, Tony had been forced back into drinking and his life went down the drain. In issue #179, Tony discovered that his assets had been frozen. He cleaned himself up after issue #182 and was forced into a life-or-death battle with Stane in Iron Man #200. When Stane lost, he committed suicide.
Topical References
In this story, Iron Man travels through a phone line in order to access the bank’s computer. Back in 1986, the primary method for computer-to-computer communication was via regular telephone lines. This should be considered a topical reference since the advent of both the internet as well as high speed internet connections that don’t rely on the telephone system.
