Iron Man (vol. 2) #1
Heart of the Matter
This story continues from Heroes Reborn #½…
Then[1][2]
Rebel O’Reilly is running a test on the new Promethean Armor, a combat suit developed by his friend, Tony Stark. While monitoring the test, Tony notices that Rebel is pushing the suit past its safety parameters. Before O’Reilly can get the suit back under control it suddenly overloads and explodes.[3]
Now
Tony Stark has just been acquitted of any wrong doing in a class action lawsuit against him by his employees. This has caused an upset among the general public who view this as a miscarriage of justice.
Watching the news of this development are a trio of men who are working at a Stark International facility in Buffalo, New York. One of the workers, a man named Braydon, takes a keen interest in the news story and tells his co-workers that this is what happens when you put your faith in the laws of man. When they ask Braydon what they mean, he suddenly pulls a gun and begins shooting his co-workers. As his slaughters his colleagues, Braydon goes into a speech about how a coming revolution that will take power away from those who abuse in order to control their lives. After everyone is dead, Braydon reports back to his superiors and they both exchange the same salutation: Hail Hydra!
At that same moment in New York City, Tony Stark is throwing a part with his friends to celebrate his recent legal victory. Among them are lead scientist Bruce Banner, head of Stark Security Liz Ross, and PR consultant Harold “Happy” Hogan. Seeing the protestors on the ground from this high up, Banner can’t help but think they look like ants. Tony, who has no respect for them whatsoever tells Bruce that’s because that are ants. He sees the protests as a necessary evil that allows him to exploit his workers for his own benefit. Happy warns Tony not to say this sort of vile shit out loud as it can become a PR nightmare if the wrong person hears it. Tony waves this off since everyone in his inner sanctum is a trusted friend and has been vetted by Liz Ross. He then asks Bruce if any of this bothers him, Banner meekly admits that Tony must not be in the wrong if he won his court case. Tony then leaves the room as he has a press conference to attend.
Tony’s attitude angers Liz who vents her frustrations to Bruce. Banner tells her that Tony wasn’t always like this. Telling her about how they went to university together with the likes of Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom, and O’Reilly, and how they had a bright future ahead of them where they hoped to change the world for the better.[4]
Outside, Tony is about to take to the podium and deliver his post-victory press conference. This is observed by Stark’s psychiatrist Leonard Samson and Jasper Sitwell, Stark International’s government liaison. Sitwell tries to get the scoop of Samson’s psychological assessment of Stark, since it was instrumental on getting him out of legal trouble. While Leonard admits that he had his own roll to play in all of this, he doesn’t say much, citing client privacy. When Tony begins his speech he thanks his legal team, which includes Jennifer Walters, and then ends his speech by telling everyone to enjoy the party since the bill is being picked up by the State of New York.
All of this rankles Tony’s secretary, Virginia “Pepper” Potts, and when he tells her to get another case of champaign for the “monkeys in the media circus” she has had enough. Throwing her drink in his face, she calls out Tony for being a complete asshole.
Back at the Stark facility upstate, Braydon opens up the facility for his fellow Hydra agents including their leader, the enigmatic Madame Hydra. She arrives just as her team of technicians have managed to breach the top secret gamma chamber.
While at the party, Liz Ross wants to clean Pepper’s clock for insulting the boss in front of everyone. Bruce Banner tries to calm her down when suddenly she gets an alert about a security breach at the Buffalo annex. This also worries Bruce because this is where his new project is being worked on. Jasper notices them leaving in a hurry and when Jennifer asks him what’s the matter, he tells her that it’s probably nothing, or maybe everything.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Tony confronts Pepper in private and she tries to get him to understand that he has changed since Rebel’s death and that he needs to get some help and let people in. Rather than listening to Pepper’s advice, Tony fires her on the spot. Realizing that she can’t get through to him, Potts leaves without further incident. This is all overheard by Leonard Samson, who tells Tony that he was being exceptionally cruel. When Stark threatens to fire him as well, Samson points out that Tony has gone from an creator to someone who takes destroys everything. He warns Stark that one day he is going to wonder why he started taking things apart instead of putting them together. After a moments thought, Tony stands on the edge of his balcony asks Leonard if he is a man on top of the world or living on the edge. Samson points out of that the distinction doesn’t matter so long as Tony keeps pushing people out of his life, either way he’s heading for a fall from grace with nobody around to help him pick up the pieces.
By this time, Liz Ross and Bruce Banner have arrived outside the Buffalo annex by helicopter. Radioing command Liz determines that there is something wrong. Sure enough, once they are close enough the Hydra agents begin opening fire on the chopper. After blowing away the opposition, Liz spots Madame Hydra in the control tower and immediately recognizes her and tells Bruce to call for back up right away. Bruce tells her that he can’t and before she can ask him why, he knocks her out.
Back at the party, Tony Stark is sitting upstairs alone thinking about everything that has been said to him tonight. He is joined by Jasper who tells him that he’s missing the party. Tony asks Sitwell if he thinks he is a bad person. Sitwell points out that Tony is a genius inventor who created a corporate empire from nothing and that he is much bigger than simple concepts of “good” or “bad”, saying that people in this position of power need to put themselves above such ideals in order to do what needs to be done. That’s when an alarm goes off about the situation at the Buffalo annex. Tony wants to check it out, but Jasper assures him that Liz Ross has everything under control but if Tony is still concerned he can go and check things out.
At the annex, Madame Hydra is thanking Bruce for his assistance in taking over the facility. However, she has had a complete change of plans. Rather than destroying the gamma bomb that Banner had created, she intends to detonate the weapon in order to spread fear. Bruce is horrified to hear this because a detonation will claim many innocent lives. Madame Hydra then knocks him out and then traps him inside the gamma bomb before priming it and leaving. When Liz Ross comes to she discovers that Bruce has been trapped inside his own weapons. Worse, all of the safety overrides have been disabled and there is no way to shut down the count down or free Banner in time before the bomb goes off. With no other choice, Bruce realizes that the only choice to reduce the loss of life is to drop the bomb deep below the 13 mile buffer where it will hopefully harm nobody when it goes off. Liz can only watch helplessly as Bruce lowers the bomb. Moments later it goes off causing enough of a flash from deep below the Earth that Liz has to shield her eyes.[5]
Meanwhile, Tony Stark has insisted on tagging along with Jasper Sitwell to investigate the situation in Buffalo. When they arrive outside the facility they are horrified to discover that it has been destroyed by the gamma bomb, leaving behind a green glowing crater. More amazing, they spot a massive green skinned monstrosity leaving the accident site. When they shine spotlights on the monster it becomes agitate and throws boulders at the helicopter, causing it to crash land. Pulling themselves out of the wreckage, Tony discovers that he has a large chunk of shrapnel jutting out of his chest and will bleed out unless he gets immediate medical attention. Tony manages to slip away and head to a part of the annex that is still intact. There he finds the Promethian armor that has long been mothballed in this facility. Despite the fact that it is potentially unstable, Tony has no choice but to put it on as it is the only thing that can prologue his life.
At that same time, Jasper has followed the green monster back to another part of the facility where it is keeping Liz Ross prisoner. Sitwell is surprised to see that the green behemoth is attracted to the woman. That’s when Tony arrives in his Promethian armor and orders the monster to let her go. Calling Stark “Iron Man”, the monster warns him to leave them be or else he will be smashed!
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Rebel O’Reilly, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Liz Ross, Leonard Samson, Jasper Sitwell, Jennifer Walters, Hulk, Hydra (Madame Hydra)
Continuity Notes
Tony Stark has found himself living a re-imagined version of his life after his younger self sacrificed his life to stop Onslaught in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. There are some issues with Tony Stark himself that won’t get addressed until later:
Prior to the Heroes Reborn event, it was revealed that Tony Stark was apparently a sleeper agent for Kang the Conqueror. In order to stop him, the Avengers went back in time and recruited Tony’s younger self. During the final battle, the adult Tony Stark sacrificed his life and the his younger self was stranded in the future. See Iron Man #319-325, Avengers #390-395, Force Works #16-20, War Machine #20-23, Avengers: The Crossing #1, Avengers: Timeslide #1, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1 as well as Avengers Forever #8.
It was this younger version of Tony Stark that sacrificed himself during Onslaught, yet we see a seemingly restored adult Tony Stark here. Avengers Annual 2001 will go on to explain that when Franklin Richards transported the Avengers and Fantastic Four to his pocket dimension, he resurrected the adult Tony Stark and then merged him with the younger version. It’s a half-assed explanation for sure, but there you go.
This would also be a good time to mention that every other character in this story with the exception of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are all constructs created by Franklin Richards to populate his pocket dimension, as explained in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
This is not the end of Rebel O’Reilly. Reb has a problem with staying dead. He’ll be brought back to life by Doctor Doom. See Iron Man (vol. 2) #7-10 for all the details on this.
The exploits of the so-called “Knights of the Atomic Round Table” also included Hank Pym. Their exploits at State University are expanded upon in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #5 Iron Man (vol. 2) #9. However, it’s all moot because these past memories are fabrications implanted in everyone’s minds by Franklin Richards to sell the illusion that this pocket dimension has existed longer than it actually has. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, again.
Iron Man (vol. 2) #12 will later reveal that exposure to gamma radiation here gave Liz an aggressive form of terminal cancer.
Topical References
Bruce Banner estimates that the gamma bomb will put over 20 million lives at stake. This population count should be considered a topical reference since the population around Buffalo, New York has continued to grow over the years since this comic was published in 1996.
