Iron Man Annual #13 — Nick Peron

Aug 8

Aug 8 Iron Man Annual #13

Assault on Armor City Part 3: Destroy!

This story continues from Avengers West Coast Annual #7…

Stark Enterprises is under siege by the Raiders and the Seekers, part of a coordinated attack by groups trying to steal technology from the company. Defending the property are Hawkeye and Wonder Man of the Avengers West Coast. Tony Stark, meanwhile, accompanying the Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman, and Darkhawk on an assualt on a island controlled by Advanced Idea Mechanics. This frustrates Tony as he wants to be there to defend his company.

Activating their cloaking device, the group lands their Quinjet on the beach. There, Jim Rhodes disguises himself as the Mauler to try and infiltrate the AIM facility. He tells the others to give Jim back up if he needs it. He also instructs them that when Iron Man gets deployed they are to double back to the Quinjet.

Tony monitors everything from portable cameras that he outfitted the West Coast Avengers with. Assisted by an employee named Davis, Tony is given a play-by-play as the Avengers trounce all opposition. That’s when they detect a stealth craft deployed by the United States government. It has arrived to drop the US Agent onto the island on a mission to recover the Iron Monger armor that is being kept there.[1]

He arrives just as Rhodes — as the Mauler — checks in with AIM security. However, the group is already aware that Jim is an impostor and attacks. This prompts Spider-Woman, Darkhawk, and US Agent to come to his rescue. However, Rhodes is seemingly blown up in the rescue effort. In reality, Jim wasn’t there in person as the Mauler armor was rigged up with a telepresence rig that allowed Rhodes to command it remotely. This prompt Tony to get Iron Man involved.

Changing into his armor, Tony then heads out and infiltrates the AIM base. There he is attacked by Kearson DeWitt, the man responsible for ruining Tony’s central nervous system.[2] Crippled himself after their last encounter, DeWitt attacks Tony in his own suit of remotely piloted mech armor.[2] As the two fight, Tony demands to know what it was he had done to Dewitt to make him want to get revenge. Kearson explains that his father was a brilliant inventor who died poor and unacknowledged and accuses Tony for stealing his inventions to create his Iron Man armor. Stark knows this is the bullshit ravings of a lunatic, but can’t get Dewitt to see the truth.[3] However, the battle is easily one-sided as Tony has upgraded his armor since his last battle with DeWitt.

Kearson tries to defeat Iron Man through sheer numbers by mentally connecting with more and more drones. However, Dewitt over extends himself and connects to far too many devices than his equipment and mind can handle. This causes an overload that makes the entire facility explode. Luckily, Iron Man manages to get out alive but DeWitt seemingly perishes and the Iron Monger armor is destroyed.[4]

Returning to Stark Enterprises, Tony gets back to work on more future upgrades for his armor, since being at the bleeding edge of technology is what makes Iron Man stand up against the rest.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Avengers West Coast (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, US Agent, Spider-Woman, Darkhawk), Kearson DeWitt, Jim Rhodes, Seekers (Chain, Grasp, Sonic), Raiders,

Continuity Notes

US Agent was deployed on this mission in Avengers West Coast Annual #7. Although the government had access to the Iron Monger in the past, notably in Captain America #354, this suit was only on loan to them from Stane International.
Recently, Tony was shot in through the spine in Iron Man #242 leaving him disabled from the waist down. He cured himself with an experimental bio-chip in issue #248. This chip was used by the Marrs twins as a backdoor to override Stark’s nervous system with an artificial one that allowed them to take control of his body. Iron Man uncovered and foiled this plot over the course of Iron Man #258-266. DeWitt was central to this plot against him, claiming that he was doing so out of revenge. Tony’s condition will persist until Iron Man #290.
The reality being that Tony built his first suit of Iron Man armor while in captivity in Vietnam as detailed in Tales of Suspense #39.
As of this writing (August, 2022), Kearson DeWitt remains among the deceased. As for the Iron Monger suit this won’t be the last one found out in the wild. Another suit will turn up in Captain America #419, under the employ of the Red Skull.

Topical References

Tony refers to the people stealing his technology as “20th century hardware pirates”. This should be considered topical due to the Sliding Timescale as it has pushed the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward in time that it does not begin until after the start of the 21st century.
Darkhawk likens the remote cameras that Tony is using to monitor their movements to similar devices that appeared in the movie Aliens. At the time this story was published portable video camera small enough to wear on your head was a technological impossible at the time, hence the comparison to a science fiction film. This reference should be considered topical since such technology now exists and someone like Darkhawk wouldn’t be impressed by it, let alone compare it to a movie that came out in the 1980s.

Annual Report

A Stark Enterprise report on the biggest threats that Iron Man has faced over the years. The list includes the Mandarin, Crimson Dynamo,[1] the Titanium Man, Advance Idea Mechanics, Spymaster, the Controller, Blacklash, the Blizzard, the Melter, and the Unicorn.

Continuity Notes

The paragraph on the Crimson Dynamo states that there have been many version of the armor over the years. At the time of this story there have been 4 variations of the armor:
- The original suit built by Ivan Vanok in Tales of Suspense #46.
- The Mark III armor created by Alex Nevsky in Iron Man #21.
- The Mark IV armor that was created for Dimitri Bukharin in X-Factor Annual #1.
- There is also the Mark II armor however, an early proto-type created by Vanko before his death. It won’t be seen until many years after this story in Crimson Dynamo #1.

Cold Fire

With softening relations between the United States and Russia, Iron Man has been asked to come and help the Russian government shut down Bitterfrost, the facility once run by the Gremlin. Iron Man takes the job because he still feels guilty for his part in the Gremlin’s death after he took on the role of Titanium Man.[1]

Inside the facility, Iron Man triggers a holographic projection of the Gremlin. It activates a trap that sprays his armor with a powerful acid that will eat through the metal in a matter of minutes. Iron Man fights his way through the traps and Titanium Man robots set up in the facility in order to get to the main computer and shut things down.

Ultimately, Tony realizes that the the security system is tracking Iron Man specifically. With the acid about to eat through his armor, Tony takes a gamble and strips it off. Sure enough, once he does so the security systems stop attacking him and he is able to get to the main computer and shut everything down. Grabbing some winter gear, Tony sets Bitterfrost to self-destruct. After the facility blows up, Tony begins the long hike back to civilization.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man

Continuity Notes

The Gremlin, as Titanium Man, was accidentally killed by Iron Man when he was trying to brick all stolen Starktech across the world. See Iron Man #229. As of this writing (August, 2022) the Gremlin is still considered among the deceased.

Topical References

This story is framed around the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which had happened around the time this story was first published. All references that these events happened recently in the context of the story should be considered topical. Instead, modern readers should interpret the softening relations between the US and Russia to be unrelated to the collapse of the USSR and end of the Cold War.
Likewise should references to Mikhail Gorbachev being Russia’s current leader be considered topical. He stepped down the same year he took power because the Prime Ministers office was abolished at the time.

Mrs. A Takes a Holiday

Tony’s secretary Bambi Arbogast has to take time off for a family emergency. Tony is more than willing to give her all the time she needs. To fill in for her, Bambi hires her niece Alison to fill in for her while she is gone. Although Alison is eager in her work, she has a hard time doing the job properly.

This leaves Tony to clean the mix ups over the next few days. Among the mix ups include sending in a photocopy repairman into Tony’s office, mistaking him for Senator Crowley, who had an appointment with him.

Things get worse when she interrupts Tony as he is working on a powerful electro magnet as Iron Man. This disruption causes the machine to run wild and Iron Man ends up wrecking the entire office just to destroy the haywire device. Both Tony and Alison race to clean things up to cover up everything that went wrong so that Bambi won’t notice anything when she gets back. It is an exhausting process and Alison ends up falling asleep on the couch in Tony’s office.

When Bambi returns that morning she freaks out, making Tony fear she knows what happened. Luckily, Mrs. Arbogast is just upset that someone ran off with her seat cushion.

Recurring Characters

Tony Stark, Bambi Arbogast

Topical References

Senator Crowley is handed an issue of Time Magazine with his picture on the cover. This should be considered a topical reference as Time is a real world publication.

Five Minutes

While working on an orbital satellite using his remote piloted armor, Tony Stark picks up a Hydra signal that hijacked as suit of his armor. Using his stealth suit, Iron Man tracks the source to a remote island where he discovers that Hydra has developed similar remote-piloted mech suits.

Although his stealth armor is not very well equipped for combat, he manages to trash the Hydra suits. That’s when the operatives activates the suit of Iron Man armor that they have stole. Tony manages to hack into their signal and in a match of wills against the enemy pilot, Tony causes their encephalo-controller rig to overload and blow up. This allows Tony to regain control of his rogue suit of armor. They then destroy the Hydra base and head for home.