A Clash of Iron

Enslaved by a mannequin symbiote, the Invisible Woman assists her captor, Ronan the Accuser, in attacking the Watcher's Citadel located on the Moon's Blue Area. The fury of their attack is detected at the nearby Project: Starcore facility where SHIELD agents scramble to try and keep the facility online. Converned by this the Project: Starcore staff decide to contact their employer, Stark Solutions and inform them what is happening on the Moon. On a private island on Lake Washington, Stark Solutions owner Tony Stark is throwing a party when he is informed by his aid Pepper Potts that there is a priority call. Answering it in his study. There Tony recounts how his Iron Man armor is now slowly killing him with an energy field that it is generating. Working on a redesign, Tony decides to use it to go into space, knowing his Starcore staff would not call him over a false alarm.

Meanwhile back on the moon's surface, NYPD Detective Charlotte Jones is leading the remaining members of the Fantastic Four through the tunnels beneath the moon to the Watcher's Citadel. When they ask if she is sure she knows where they are going she recounts how she travelled these tunnels not so long ago alongside the Inhumans and X-Factor during a battle against Apocalpse. With Johnny growing impatient, Reed uses the built in computers in his uniform to show the status on the surface. Seeing his sister being forced to fight alongside Ronan, Johnny flames on and speeds ahead of the rest of the group. Reed stops Johnny and tells him that they must not rush in half-cocked and they must maintain the element of surprise. When Johnny laments that its his sister who is in trouble, Reed reminds him that he is very aware that the life of his wife is at stake and tells Johnny they will do everything in their power to save her. While outside the Watcher Citadel, Ronan and Sue are interrupted by an attack by SHIELD soldiers. The blasts from their weapons wound Sue but instead of bleeding out she heals up instantly but also begins to transform into something less than human. However the SHIELD soldiers demands that Ronan stand down are ignore and the Kree warrior easily decimates them as Sue watches in tear filled horror.

Down below the rest of the Fantastic Four continue to press on. Based on Reed's readings the chaos waves being generated utilize the same sort of reality harmonics as traversing through to the Negative Zone. Reed feels that should he continue Ronan is at risk of warping reality. Johnny is not concerned about the ramifications, just finding his sister. Using his flame powers to melt a tunnel to Sue, he uncovers something very shocking: A secrect chamber where Alicia Masters is putting the final touches of a sculpture of the male members of the Fantastic Four. She is joined by Caledonia who commends her on her work saying that it is a fitting tribute and hopes it is to the liking of the Baroness von Doom. Suddenly Reed and the others are shocked when Sue enters the room -- wearing armor inspired by Doctor Doom -- with a grown up Franklin and a young woman named Valiera in tow. Moreso that the male members of the Fantastic Four are apparently dead and Sue has since married their greatest foe, Doctor Doom, the father of the young woman. Thinking their are out of synch with time, Reed attempts to approach this scene and is detected by both Franklin and Valiera who can see them very easily. Realizing there isn't much time, Franklin tells Reed that when the time comes he has to "let Galactus go!" before sending them back to their proper era.

As Franklin and the others disappear, Iron Man teleports before them. Finding his new armor strange, Stark explains that it is a new design and that he teleported to the moon via space fold technology created by Reed. As he is explaining this, back at Starcore the SHIELD agents discover that some strange electromagnetic pulse from Earth is affecting the systems on the moon. As the SHIELD agents assess the situation, they fear that the environmental systems could shut down killing them all. Back in the tunnels, Iron Man realizes that something is blocking his ability to communicate. Thinking this must be some kind of impostor, the Thing attacks, and much to his surprise -- Iron Man's armor fights back on its own. Unable to control his suit, Iron Man forces himself to retreat so he can run diagnostics and learn what happened to his armor. As he does so, both Ronan and the Invisible Woman manage to breach the Watcher's citadel and get inside. Back in the tunnels, Iron Man runs a full diagnostic and learns that the space fold transporter was not intended for someone with sophisticated armor like his and has caused it to malfunction.

However as the Fantastic Four catch up to them, Reed figures out what is going on and orders the Thing to restrain Iron Man. Activating the space-fold device a second time, Reed teleports them all into the Watcher's Citadel, reversing the malfunctions in Iron Man's armor. With Iron Man now on their side, Reed asks for his aid in helping them stop Ronan from completing his mission and rescue his wife.

This story is continued in Iron Man (vol. 3) #14....

Recurring Characters

Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Iron Man, Charlotte Jones, Pepper Potts, Ronan the Accuser, SHIELD, Callie Yeager, Valeria von Doom

Continuity Notes

• Tony recounts how his current armor is slowly killing him. This is a reference to the Model 16 armor. He discovered this to be the case in Iron Man (vol 3) #11.

• Charlotte Jones mentions her time on the moon alongside X-Factor and the Inhumans battling Apocalypse. This happened in X-Factor #65-68.

• The reality visited by Reed, Johnny and Ben is indexed as Earth-99315 in Marvel Encyclopedia: Fantastic Four.

• Valeria von Doom is actually an adult version of Valeria Richards the stillborn second child of Reed and Sue. Valeria didn't survive the child birthing process as depicted in Fantastic Four #267. This is revealed in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #49. Franklin ultimately uses his powers to restore Valeria to her newborn state so Sue can give birth to her again in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #50.

• Although the Fantastic Four on Earth-99315 state that Sue married Doctor Doom, if it was truly Victor von Doom in the armor becomes ambiguous as in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #25-31 Reed Richards gets trapped in Doctor Doom's armor. Because Doom's Generals from Counter-Earth needed to be reigned in, Richards posed as his oldest enemy and staged a mock wedding with Sue to make her the "official" consort of Latveria. It is theorized that this might explain why the Fantastic Four of Earth-99315 accepted the fact that Doom had married Sue and had a child withe her. However a clear explanation for this is unavailable.