Unbeknownst to Tony Stark, his company sold some nukes to AIM, so now Tony goes to the AIM island to get them back. Actually, he sends armor-by-remote because he’s still confined to a wheelchair. And therein lies the problem.
Being a cyberbeing herself, MODAM detects the ruse.
So, big fun fight!
It turns out that Omega Red knew MODAM back when she was a human named Olinka Barankova. She has no memories of that time, but Omega has held a grudge.
The two fight, and Iron Man does something heroes almost never do…
…He decides to let the villains kill each other, since he doesn’t care who wins as long as he gets his nukes back.
Way to keep your eyes on the prize, Tony!
Sadly, after he gets his weapons back…
…He goes back and neutralizes both villains. He really should have let them kill each other.
Upon returning to Stark International, he fires the imbeciles who sold nukes to AIM, refocuses his supporting cast, and rushes off to save an employee who got caught in an earthquake at a Stark power plant. Once there, he learns that his old enemy Vibro (who sunk into the Earth in his last appearance), merged with some nuclear material to become Earth Mover.
I think when people live under the Earth in Marvel they become strangely sympathetic because, like Mole Man, Earth Mover appears to be doing dirty deeds but realltom tey he’s trying to stop Ultimo, who kills him.
So, Vibro returns just to die.
And it turns out, it’s not Iron Man—it’s a robot. And Ultimo tears robot Iron Man apart. We’re heading into issue #300, so something special has to happen. And it’s….
And not just War Machine. It’s also everyone who, over the past 300 issues, has ever worn the armor returns to put on a suit, including Eddie March–the first black Iron Man.
So we have a whole Iron Man team. And Iron Legion.
And, of course, Tony puts on a new, updated, better-than-everyone-else’s suit.
And of course we end with a cliffhanger telling us that there’s (another) big Stark scandal and trouble is a-comin’.
Creators: Len Kaminksi and Kevin Hopgood
Grade: C
For the complete history of the MU, year by year, go here.