Iron Man #258-266 (1990-1991): Armor Wars II


John Byrne takes over to write Armor Wars II, in which Living Laser seeks revenge on Iron Man.

At the same time, Mandarin attacks him as well.

Also Fin Fang Foom.

During all these attacks, Tony is only able to move around due to an implant (remember, he got shot a long time ago and was fully paralyzed). The Marrs twins–the same bad corporate siblings from Byrne’s Namor comic–manage to keep shutting off that device via remote control.  Which is really, really dumb.  Why would Tony allow anyone to have control over the device that un-paralyzes him?

Jim Rhodes fights that side of the battle, figuring out who within Stark International sold out the boss, and taking him down—putting the Iron Man armor back on at one point.

Hank Pym and Wonder Man help out during one of Tony’s episodes being paralyzed.

Eventually, the saboteur is uncovered and Living Laser is defeated, but the Mandarin plotline continues into the next issues. Where we leave it in this arc is that Mandarin controls Fin Fang Foom, and is using him to force the Chinese government to cede control to Mandarin, or else he’ll release Foom like Godzilla on Tokyo.

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