Iron Man #321 — Nick Peron

Aug 8

Aug 8 Iron Man #321

Psi-Fi

This story continues from Avengers #391 …

Following a trio of murders at Avengers Mansion, the headquarters of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has been evacuated and locked down. Now, Tony Stark and Hank Pym are trying to learn the secrets of a mysterious door that appeared one day in the basement, as it may hold the secrets behind who the killer is and who is gunning after the Avengers.[1] After repeat attempts to scan the other side or breach the door have ended in failure, leaving them no closer to finding answers about the mysterious passage since it first appeared in the mansion some time earlier. Tony, blaming himself for the deaths that have occurred in his family home, vows to get some answers even if it means putting his life in danger to do so.[2]

As the two men continue to work on trying to breach the barrier, a mysterious woman has broken into the mansion and is lurking around upstairs. Eventually, Tony and Hank run out of ideas and seeing how Pym’s size-changing powers are causing him a great deal of strain, Tony suggests that they take a break.[3] As they go upstairs, the two talk about Hank’s renewed relationship with his ex-wife, Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp.[4] Tony has brought it up because he was concerned that something has been bothering Hank recently. Pym tells him that everything is fine except for a persistent headache he has been suffering recently that isn’t really painful just annoying as it feels like incessant tapping.

Three thousand miles away, a Stark Enterprises commercial airliner lands at the Los Angeles International Airport. It has come from Hong Kong to deliver Suzie Endo who has been transferred to the area by Tony Stark himself.[5] Suzie is excited for this new chapter in her life. She calls Tony on her cell phone and tells him that she just arrived. Stark says he is finishing up things on the east coast and will meet Suzie at her hotel when he gets back. As Suzie leaves Stark’s private hanger, she is unaware that there is a woman watching her from the shadows.[6]

Tony then calls Force Works at their headquarters, reaching Moonraker their newest member,[7] who is on monitor duty. He tells him that he wants the rest of the team front and center for an important announcement, but won’t go into further detail until everyone is present. Tony then contacts the Avengers at Janet Van Dyne’s estate to give them an update on the lack of progress he is making with the door. Hercules answers the call and when discussing the issue with Tony, the demigod makes passing mention of receiving a warning from a mysterious young woman. This comes as a shock to Tony, as he received a similar warning but he says nothing.[8] He quickly terminates the call and goes down to the security monitors to try and get to the bottom of the murderer responsible for killing Marilla, Luna’s nanny.

As Tony begins trying to scan security footage to learn the true identity of her killer, he keeps on blacking out, but thinks it is the power flickering due to storm that is raging outside. Eventually, Tony sees who Marilla’s killer actually is and the revelation horrifies him.[9] That’s when Stark blacks out again. When he wakes up again he finds himself standing in Hank Pym’s room and is horrified to discover that somebody slit Hank’s throat. After mourning his friend, Tony then begins searching the house for the killer responsible. In the hallway, he is suddenly ambushed by his old girlfriend Marianne Rodgers. Marianne has broken out of the mental health facility where she has been kept for months.[10] She then begins attacking Tony both physically and telekinetically, telling him that she knows his darkest secrets and he must die.[11]

Tony tries to race to his room where his Iron Man armor is being kept, but Marianne uses her mental powers to pull the armor away from him before he can put it on. As she lunges in for the kill, Marianne is suddenly stopped cold by a taser fired by Madame Masque — not calling herself simply Masque.[12]

Moments later, Hank Pym wakes up — alive and well — and goes looking for Tony. However, he finds only finds trace of a battle but not Tony himself.

… This story continues in Force Works #17.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Giant-Man, Hercules, Masque, Marianne Rodgers, Suzie Endo, Moonraker, Cybermancer (unidentified)

Continuity Notes

There is kind of a lot going on off the top and it is quite complicated ride to explain how he got here. The dope:
- First of all, the mystery door in the basement of Avengers Mansion is the product of a lot of fucking around with the team’s headquarters. When the original Avengers Mansion was sunk in the Atlantic circa Avengers #311 (long story), the team built a brand new headquarters in its place circa issue #329. There was this whole story arc about multiversal foes called the Gatherers that ended with the new headquarters being trashed. A Watcher named Ute thanked the Avengers for stopping the Gatherers by replacing the damaged building with a duplicate of the original mansion from another reality. See Avengers #373-375. Got all that? Good.
- Anyway, the Avengers began investigating this replica and found something weren’t exactly the same as their old headquarters. The Black Widow discovered this mystery door in Avengers #382.
- The door is the center of an attack on Avengers Mansion that happened in Avengers: The Crossing #1 and Avengers #391 that saw the deaths of Yellowjacket, Marilla, and Gilgamesh by a band of alleged time travelers that appear to be working for Kang the Conqueror. This isn’t revealed until Avengers #393. About that….
- It’s later revealed that the entire Crossing event wasn’t the work of Kang, but his future self Immortus. Immortus fabricated nearly everything that happens in this storyline as part of a complex scheme to keep the Avengers busy as he manipulated events to suit his whims and their destiny. This is all laid out in Avengers Forever #8.
It’s mentioned here how the door defended itself when Deathcry tried to breach it, seriously injuring her in the process. This happened in Avengers #385.
Hanks size changing formula has always created a strain on his body dating back to first becoming Giant-Man back in Tales to Astonish #49. The risk to his health became such a concern that Hank gave up size-changing all together since Avengers #140. Hank even retired from costumed heroics in issue #230. He had been a “science adventurer” since West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #21. Hank went back to being Giant-Man recently in Avengers #366 to help the team stop the Kree Lunatic Legion from destroying the Earth. He did so despite the risk to his health. This is the last time the health implications of his powers are mentioned. It’s later explained in Avengers (vol. 3) #31 that Hank had been slowly improving his formula so it no longer caused his body and further strain. This came at the expense of no longer being able to shrink and grow objects with a touch.
Giant-Man and the Wasp’s romance life is a whole can of worms and a few details about it are mentioned here:
- Hank and Janet had been married for years dating back to Avengers #60. However, after years of failures, Hank took out his frustrations on Janet and struck her in issue #213. Janet divorced him immediately after this shameful incident.
- It is mentioned here that shortly thereafter, Janet and Tony dated for a hot minute. This happened in Avengers #224. This was during a period when Janet wasn’t aware that Tony was also Iron Man. She ended their romance when she learned the truth because it was wholly inappropriate.
- Hank and Janet remained apart for a few years. However, the couple had been giving their romance a second shot starting in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42.
Suzie assisted Iron Man and Force Works during their battle with the Mandarin as seen in Marvel Comics Presents #170, Force Works #6, War Machine #10, and Iron Man #312. Tony was so impressed by her work he offered her a support position working with Force Works in Force Works #16.
The mystery woman observing Suzie here is later identified as Cybermancer in Force Works #21. She is a version of Suzie coming from as possible future timeline. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 identifies as existing in Reality-9528.
It’s later revealed in Avengers Forever #8 that Moonraker is Space Phantom in disguise, planted within Force Works as part of the master plan of Immortus.
Hercules and the other Avengers received warnings from a young woman. This was in Avengers: The Crossing #1. Tony received a similar warning from the same woman last issue. She is supposed to be the adult version of Luna Maximoff but, per Avengers Forever #8, she is just another Space Phantom putting on a performance for Immortus.
The reader is left guessing who the killer actually is, however it’s Tony himself, as we’ll learn in Iron Man #323, or you could have guessed just by looking at the artwork because they did a really bad job setting up this mystery.
Marianne Rodgers was Tony’s ex-girlfriend dated for a time between Iron Man #36 through 51. Driven mad by her growing telepathic abilities, Rodger was institutionalized in Iron Man #59. Although she was briefly released circa Iron Man #97, she has been institutionalized since Iron Man #107.
This is not really Madame Masque, aka Whitney Frost, but Masque a rogue bio-duplicate created by the real Whitney Frost. This will all be revealed in Avengers (vol. 3) #32.

Topical References

Suzie Endo’s cell phone is depicted as a 90’s era model complete with an antenna to receive signals. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.