Iron Man #325 — Nick Peron

Aug 8

Aug 8 Iron Man #325

Face to Face

This story continues from Avengers: Timeslide #1….

After learning that Iron Man has been a sleeper agent for Kang the Conqueror for years,[1] the Avengers have gone back in time to find a younger version of Tony Stark that hasn’t been tainted by evil. They have recruited a 19 year old Tony Stark and set him loose in his adult-self’s private lab in the hopes he can develop a way to stop their former comrade.[2] As the young Tony looks around in awe, his progress is being monitored by Hawkeye and Masque. Masque is uncertain if this younger version of Stark will be of any use, but Clint has faith the boy will succeed.[3]

Meanwhile, deep within his Arctic bunker, Tony Stark tries to rest during this momentary reprieve. The events of the past few days — the revelation that he has been a traitor to the Avengers this whole time — weighing heavily upon his mind. He now sits in his command chair exhausted. His weary mind thinks back to how he wanted to change the world for the better and wonders where things started to go wrong along the way.

Elsewhere in time and space, deep within Chronopolis, Mantis is comforting her son Malachi with stories about her past.[3] She tells him that she was born in Vietnam and how she met his father, Kang the Conqueror. She tells him how she first fought against Kang alongside the Avengers when they first met, but eventually learned the errors of her way and sided herself with the time master.[4] As they talk, Kang and his son Tobias are in a training session with some of his Chrononauts. The pair easily slaughter their attackers, but Kang uses this opportunity to lash out at his son for failing to stop the Avengers from recruiting Tony Stark’s younger self to their cause. He warns Tobias to never fail him again or his life will be forfeit. As Kang explains the importance of their mission and how their victory will shape the future, Mantis decides to leave the palace to check on Tony Stark. As she travels to his bunker, she thinks about how she blames the Avengers for not being around to prevent her first child — the Celestial Messiah — from being taken from her, and how this has been her motivation to ally with Kang and seek out the destruction of her former friends.[5] She comforts Tony, telling him that the only reason why nobody can seemingly take the pain from his heart is because nobody has actually ever tried.

Meanwhile, the Avengers have returned to their long abandoned headquarters. There, Giant-Man and the Vision discover that the mysterious door that once stood in the sub-basement is now gone with no evidence that it was ever there to begin with.[6] Upstairs, the other members of the team — the Black Widow, Wasp, Hercules, and Quicksilver — are going over the rest of the mansion with a fine toothed comb in the hopes of finding any evidence. Quicksilver finds that this is going nowhere and he goes upstairs to join his wife Crystal in their daughters room. Crystal is deeply upset and worried about Luna who has been taken away by Tuc, a young man claiming to be Luna’s older brother from the future. While Crystal would like to think that Tuc will keep Luna safe, Crystal can’t help but remember the adult Luna they encounter and how she died in battle, making her fear for her daughter’s fate.[7]

That’s when Captain America returns and tells the team that Hawkeye has found a lead that will assist them and mobilizes the team to assault Tony’s Arctic bunker once more. However, as the Avengers and Force Works head to the Quinjet they discover their path has been blocked by government agent Henry Gyrich and an army of Mandroids. With the Avengers are kept busy by this new attack, Hawkeye and Masque have brought the young Tony Stark to the bunker. There they are attacked by adult Tony’s new assistant the Machinesmith. After Masque takes him down, Tony is able to hack the front door and get them inside the massive fortress. From there, they find the store room where Stark has been keeping all of his suits of Iron Man armor.[8]

As young Tony marvels over all of the suits of armor, they are attacked by Iron Man. However, his ambush is spoiled by Marianne Rodgers who joins the fight. While Iron Man is busy with Masque, Hawkeye, and Marianne, young Tony puts on the newest suit of Iron Man armor created by his future self.

By this time, the Avengers and Force Works are wasting too much time fighting Gyrich and his Mandroids. Luckily, Century returns from his trip through the timestream and helps the Avengers get away thanks to his teleportation powers. They arrive too late to stop Iron Man, who has overpowered his younger, inexperienced self. They watch in horror as the adult Tony rams his fist into the younger Tony, seriously wounding him.[9] As the Avengers prepare for attack, Kang and his armies then appear on the scene ready to bring this conflict to an end and user in the future.

… This story continues in Avengers #395.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man (young and old), Avengers (Captain America, Wasp, Giant-Man, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Vision, Black Widow, Hercules, Crystal), Masque, Century, Anachronauts (“Kang”, “Mantis”, “Tobias”, “Malachi”), Machinesmith, Marianne Rodgers, Henry Gyrich

Continuity Notes

Throughout The Crossing it is revealed that Tony had apparently been a sleeper agent for Kang the Conqueror since after the villain’s first appearance back in Avengers #8. While under this influence he committed acts of murder in Avengers: The Crossing #1 and Force Works #19. His betrayal to the Avengers was exposed in Iron Man #323. It’s later revealed in Avengers Forever #8 that this was all a deception created by Immortus to keep the Avengers pre-occupied as he slowly manipulates their destiny.
The Avengers went back in time and recruited the young Tony Stark in Avengers: Timeslide #1. As explained in Marvel Legacy: The 1990s Handbook #1, this created a divergent reality and as such, Teen Tony comes from Reality-96020. This story states that young Tony comes from “about ten years ago”. Avengers: Timeslide #1 states that Tony was 19 at the time he was taken from the past and he was brought forward to the future by about 10 years. Per the Sliding Timescale this is not accurate at all. It would actually be closer to 14 years. See below for more.
In reality, this is not the real Mantis. She, Tobias, Malachi and Kang are all impostors. While Kang is secretly Immortus (the future version of Kang) in disguise, the others are actually Space Phantoms posing as the individuals in question. See Avengers Forever #8, again.
The faux Mantis is telling an abridged story about how the real Mantis clashed with Kang alongside the Avengers while she was being groomed into becoming the Celestial Madonna. Kang was seeking the Madonna in order to be the father of her future offspring who would be deemed the Celestial Messiah. See Avengers #130-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4.
This is actually true to the real Mantis. After she birthed her son, the boy was taken away from her by the Cotati so they could raise the child themselves. Mantis ended up searching for her son for years, as first told in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #4. However, the real Mantis would eventually be reunited with her son as we’ll see in Avengers: Celestial Quest #1-8.
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.
Tuc kidnapped Luna in Avengers #393, while the adult Luna was killed in the following issue. These pair are not actually future versions of Quicksilver and Crystal’s children, but more Space Phantom impostors, per Avengers Forever #8.
It’s a huge collection of past Iron Man armors. Those that can be identified include models 1 (in both grey and gold variants. Tales of Suspense #39-40), 2 (Tales of Suspense #48), 3 (Tales of Suspense #66), 4 (Iron Man #85), 5 (space armor, Iron Man #142), 6 (deep sea armor, Iron Man #218), 8 (the Silver Centurion armor, Iron Man #200), 9 (Iron Man #239), 10 (deep space armor, Iron Man #278), 11 (War Machine, Iron Man #281), 12 (Autonomous armor, Iron Man #290), 13 (Modular/Hulkbuster, Iron Man #300), 14 (Arctic Armor, Iron Man #318), and 15 (Iron Man #319)
This injury seriously damages young Tony’s heart. He will be saved by a chest plate that will keep his heart beating, much like the one first used by adult Tony Stark when he first became Iron Man. See Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1.

Topical References

The present day in this story is referred to as taking place in the 20th century. This should be considered a topical reference. This is due to the fact that the Sliding Timescale of the Marvel Universe continually pushes the Modern Age forward in time. As such, it is now such that the Modern Age doesn’t not occur until after the start of the 21st century.

Young Tony Stark’s Timeline

This story states that 19 year Tony was plucked out of time “about ten years” ago according to this story. However, when measuring this up to past and later stories that more accurately measure Tony Stark’s lifetime pre-Modern Age, this 10 year figure is off.

For example, International Iron Man #7, Tony Stark was born 23 years before the start of the Modern Age. This would have made him 19 four years before the start of the modern age, and about 23 years old in Tales of Suspense #39. See my Pre-Modern Age Timeline for more on this.

Per the Sliding Timescale, this story (published February, 1996) places it as happening in “Year 9” of the Modern Age. If we were to accept the “ten year” measurement of this story, it wouldn’t be accurate as it would place Tony as being 19 a year prior to the start of the Modern Age, far too young than how he would look in his first appearance.

This is just another example to Terry Kavanagh’s terrible writing. The “ten year” measurement should be considered a grossly vague estimation and not a literal one as it is actually more like 14 years.