Steel City Nightmare!

Tony Stark has come to inspect an metal forge in Pittsburg in order to decide if he wants to purchase it. Accompanying him is Wonder Man who, prior to getting his powers, as one of Stark’s business rivals and the previous owner of the facility.[1] They are shown around by the plant manager, Vincent Paretta, who shows them the day to day operations. One of the employees, Joe Conroy, is exited to see a super-hero back at the foundry, recounting the time Thor came to repair his hammer. This gives him an opportunity to show off the chunk of Uru metal that the thunder god left behind which Joe fashioned into a keychain.[2] Excited to get Wonder Man’s autograph for his daughter, Joe races to meet the hero unaware that one of his co-workers, Tim Turpin is lurking around the corner. When Joe comes by, Tim smacks him in the face with a ore spoon, sending him over the catwalk railing and into a pool of molten metal where he is presumably incinerated upon contact.[3]

The accident causes the vat of molten metal to begin tipping over, spilling its contents and putting other workers at risk. Before Tony Stark can slip away and change into Iron Man, Wonder Man grabs the briefcase containing Tony’s armor and tosses it at the control panel so the vat stabilizes. Simon then leaps down and uses a number of steel girders to form a make-shift dam to shore up the molten slag that managed to pour out. He then comes to the rescue of another worker who is trapped under a gigantic press. Although Wonder Man pulls him to safety, he himself gets trapped holding the press up. Luckily, Tony Stark is able to help, yanking Simon out from under the press, something Williams could not have done on his own.

Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion in New York, a local tries to get an audience with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to see if they will do something about his noisy neighbors. However, he ends up getting tied up by the front door’s security system when he tries inserting a credit card into the ID card slot. When Henry Gyrich and the Beast come to this idiot’s rescue, the tell him that the Avengers don’t deal with such trivial problems and suggest he try the NYPD before sending him on his way. After this amusing distraction is dealt with, Gyrich — who is still not happy with the team’s restored autonomy — is satisfied that the security system is up to snuff and leaves, telling the team that he will be back to check up on them from time to time.[4]

With the restrictions on the team removed, Captain America and the rest of the Avengers begin deciding who to summon back onto the roster. The Falcon suggests Hawkeye since he was pretty upset when he was bumped off the team. However, when Sam tries calling Clint Barton at home he discovers that his number has been disconnected.[5] The Wasp has just as much luck trying to convince her husband, Hank Pym, to rejoin the team as Yellowjacket. However, Hank is more interested in his experiments and abruptly ends the call when his latest work begins bubbling over. As Captain America laments how they can’t seem to recruit members when they need them, the Beast suggests they try Wonder Man and go out to Pittsburgh to personally invite him back onto his team. That’s when the Vision announces that his wife, the Scarlet Witch is taking a leave of absence. He then escorts Wanda to the door and sees her off with a kiss.[6]

Back in Pittsburg, the foundry adds a new metal ingot to a line of them on the property. Vincent Parette explains to Tony that when men die on the job there is typically nothing left to bury so they erect an ingot from the metal that killed them as a memorial. After the ceremony, business at the foundry resumes as normal. Moments later, the ingot that contains the remains of Joe Conroy begins to glow and suddenly melts away. Emerging within is a glowing humanoid — transformed by the Uru metal on Joe’s keychain — begins going on a rampage to avenge Joe’s death. When the glowing entity made of liquid metal is first seen, it is quickly dubbed Inferno by the plant workers.

While Wonder Man rushes out to try and stop the monster, Tony Stark slips away to change into Iron Man. Simon quickly discovers that this creature is too hot to handle and is incredibly powerful to boot. Realizing that they are in over their heads, Wonder Man then activates an emergency beacon given to him by the Avengers. The signal is picked up by Ms. Marvel and Jarvis in the communications room at Avengers Mansion. Ms. Marvel quickly alerts Captain America about the signal and as she does so the emergency signal suddenly terminates, spelling trouble for Wonder Man.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Beast, Ms. Marvel, Falcon), Maggia (Vincent Paretta), Inferno, Henry Gyrich, Tim Turpin

Continuity Notes

1. Before becoming Wonder Man, Simon Williams owned his own technology firm before an embezzlement scandal put him out of business. See Avengers #9.

2. Thor came to this foundry to repair Mjolnir back in Journey into Mystery #120.

3. The reason why Tim Turpin murders Joe is not really explained until next issue. It turns out that Vincent Paretta was using the foundry to help the Maggia launder money. He foolishly started a gambling pool among the employees without giving the Maggia a cut. As Joe was losing big. Fearing that Conroy might talk to the police or the Maggia, he hired Turpin to kill Joe in order to prevent that from happening.

4. Gyrich was assigned as the team’s liaison from the NSA in Avengers #168. He immediately considered the team’s operation a massive security risk, and began imposing restrictions on the team until they fell in line. This eventually led to a government council deciding the Avengers fate in issues #190-191, who ruled in favor of the Avengers need for autonomy in order to do their job, much to Gyrich’s chagrin.

5. Under Gyrich’s regime, the Avengers were forced to reduce the number of active members on their team. As such, Hawkeye was booted off the team in favor of the Falcon, which really annoyed Clint. See Avengers #181. However, Hawkeye quickly found a new job working as head of security at Cross Technological Enterprises in issue #189.

6. Wanda’s leave of absence is so that she can sort out what she wants to do with her life as she has been considering retiring from heroics in order to start a family. She has been seriously considering this after her brother Quicksilver and his wife Crystal announced that they were expecting their first child in Avengers #188. Wanda will remain off the team until issue #199. Here, she is referred to as Wanda Frank. This is because, at the time of this story, she was convinced that she is the daughter of Robert Frank, the wartime hero known as the Whizzer, per Giant-Size Avengers #1. In reality, she is actually the daughter of Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified man, see Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 and 12.

Topical References

• When stopping the flow of molten ore from harming the foundry employees, Wonder Man states his method was inspired by a old Max Flesher cartoon he saw that the Regency Theater. He is referencing the Superman cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios between 1941 and 1942. At the time, these cartoons were shown in theaters before the main feature. Simon’s reference here should be considered topical in that he states that she saw them in the theater, particularly at the Regency in New York. The Regency shut down in 1999 and the building was later torn down for new commercial space. The reference to the Superman cartoons is not necessarily topical since he refers to them as “old cartoons”, as such the only thing topical here is how and where Simon saw these cartoons.