Iron Man (vol. 3) #85

Mar 17

Mar 17 Iron Man (vol. 3) #85

Turf War, Part 2: Uninvited Guests

Iron Man (Tony Stark), in his role of Secretary of State, has to recover Arsenal Beta, a doomsday robot built decades earlier by his father, Howard Stark.[1] The robot has been hidden under Avengers Embassy, however Senator Zimmer has forced Stark not to reveal to the Avengers know about it.[2] However, things have gone south when the Avengers liaison activated a jamming signal just as Iron Man found the Arsenal robot, inadvertedly activating it.

Cut off from Tony Stark, Senator Zimmer begins to freak out. If the Avengers find Arsenal and its purpose — to wipe out New York if it were taken over by the enemy — gets out, the public could lose total confidence in the government.

At that moment, the Vision has arrived late for a meeting at Avengers Embassy. People outside are complaining that their cell phones are no longer working. The Vision determines the source of the jamming frequency is coming from the mansion. The synthezoid promises to go inside and found out what the situation is. As he phases through the barrier wall that separates the Embassy from the street, Iron Man comes crashing out one of the windows. With the Arsenal robot activated, Iron Man has no reason to keep its a secret anymore. He instructs the rest of the team — which includes the Wasp, Black Panther, Falcon, and Ant-Man — on the robot’s origins.[3] As Iron Man and the Avengers try to get the Arsenal beta unit under control, they have to pull Henry Gyrich to safety. A former member of the US government himself, he demands Iron Man explain why the government had him wake up this long dormant robot.

Back at the Pentagon, the technicians on sight determine that the Avengers have activated some kind of jamming device. This is bad not just because they have lost contact to Iron Man, because it also inadvertedly activated Arsenal Beta. However, there is something about the robots programming code they can’t make sense. Zimmer figures that if they run it out to Stark he’ll be able to understand it. When they ask how they’re going to get the info to Stark, Zimmer reminds them that Iron Man isn’t the only superhero they have on government payroll.

Meanwhile, Arsenal has broken through the barrier wall and is about to get on the street, and trample on the Wasp while he’s at it. As Iron Man tries to get her out of harms way, a beam of energy lances down from the sky and strikes Arsenal, knocking the robot off its feet. The blast was fired by Warbird, who has arrived with a compliment of American soldiers to help the Avengers contain Arsenal.[4] This only keeps Arsenal contained momentarily, as it soon gets back up and beings activating more weapon systems to answer to this new threat.

Getting the documentation on Arsenal to Iron Man, he looks over the strange information and realizes that it is the call sign for an old shortwave radio station. Since Arsenal came online when the Avengers activated their jamming single, Tony deduces that Arsenal was receiving this signal consistently, once it went out it was assumed America had fallen and its scorched earth programming kicked in. While the other Avengers keep Arsenal busy, Warbird destroys the jamming tower. This causes Arsenal to start receiving the shortwave signals again and promptly shuts down.

Soon, government agents are on site to dismantle Arsenal and take it away. In the aftermath of the battle, Falcon and the others can’t understand why Tony didn’t just tell them about it, because Avengers Embassy used to be his family home. Gyrich understands perfectly, and tells Stark to get used to this because he cannot work for the US government and the UN backed Avengers at the same time. Gyrich finds it very amusing that Tony Stark is now living in his world. After Iron Man leaves, Gyrich goes back to what he was trying to sort out before this fiasco: The Avengers garbage pick-up situation. Unable to wait until the head of the garbage collector’s union to come back from the Antillies, Gyrich asks Jarvis to book him a ticket to go to her instead.

Later, Tony Stark is giving a speech to commemorate D-Day at the D-Day Museum. He uses the opportunity to say some words to throw shade at Joe Zimmer. After the speech, Stu Conrad thanks Tony for coming out and giving the speech at the museum, since the President himself is off in Normandy. Tony takes the opportunity to wonder what he is actually accomplishing to make the world a better place. While he has been able to get some of his initiatives through, he is constantly fighting with red tape while running between one crisis or another. Stu suddenly shakes Tony’s hand and congratulates him for finally becoming a politician. He points out to Tony that being in charge doesn’t mean always bein in control. The job makes you realize that something as mundane as a rainy day can affect an election.

He has confidence that Tony has what it takes and thinks Stark will still be around after the next election. He quotes Bobby Kennedy, who once said that one fifth of Americans are against everything all the time. He then quips that Tony isn’t invincible, but if he wants to survive in Washington, he’ll need to grow a little armor. Tony responds by asking if all the Bobby Kennedy quotes means Stu is a closet Democrat. Stu tells him to be quiet, otherwise he’ll be out of a job.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Avengers (Wasp, Vision, Black Panther, Warbird, Falcon, Ant-Man), Arsenal Alpha, Edwin Jarvis, Henry Gyrich, Stuart Conrad, Joe Zimmer

Continuity Notes

Howard Stark is referred to as Tony Stark’s father. In reality, he adopted Tony, something that won’t be revealed until Iron Man (vol. 5) #17. His biological father was revealed to be a man known as Jude, as will be revealed in International Iron Man #7.
At the time of this story, the Avengers had recently been designated a UN agency. As a result, Avengers Mansion has been deemed sovereign ground. See Avengers (vol. 3) #61. Senator Joe Zimmer has an axe to grind with Tony Stark, as we saw in Iron Man (vol. 3) #77. This is because his brother, Abe Zimmer, died while working for Tony Stark in Iron Man #320.
Iron Man reminds the Vision how they fought the Arenal robot’s “brother”, the alpha unit. See Iron Man #114 and Avengers Annual #9.
Warbird quit the Avengers after being offered a job at the Department of Homeland Security. See Avengers (vol. 3) #70.

Topical References

People’s cell phones are depicted as analogue models with push buttons and visible antenna to pick up signals. This should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology.
Computer monitors in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
When coming up with ways to fix the problem, Senator Zimmer says he’ll send them the Victoria’s Secret catalogue if it’ll fix the problem. Victoria’s Secret is a brand of high end women underwear. This should be considered topical because this is a real world brand.
At the end of this story, Tony gives a speech at the D-Day Museum with World War II veterans in attendance. This becomes increasingly impossible due to the Sliding Timescales. Living World War II veterans that are still alive as I write this (April, 2023) are around 100 years old and soon they’ll all be dead. Modern readers can assume that these aren’t WWII vets, but veterans from other conflicts coming to commemorate and remember fallen soldiers from the war. Soldiers do that kind of thing.
Stu Conrad states that a rainy day in Jacksonville could have changed the last election. This is a reference to the contentious 2000 Presidential Election. The vote count came down to recounts in Florida and how those votes were counted. Depending on who you ask, Republicans stole that election. References to the “next election” is in reference to the 2004 Presidential Election that was upcoming around the time this comic was published. Both of these allusions should be considered topical as they refer to events that happened roughly around the time of publication.