Siege Perilous

This story continues from Iron Man #324…

Iron Man has been exposed as a traitor to his allies and now the heroes are bringing the hammer down on his and Kang’s plan to take over the present day.[1]

In the sub-basement of the Works, Cybermancer has VIRGIL — a powerful artificial intelligence from the future — give her a run down on the people who are coming her way.[2] They include the Scarlet Witch, US Agent, War Machine, Spider-Woman, and Fisher Todd. They have all been affected by Tony Stark’s betrayal and they are pissed.[3] Cybermancer is confident that these heroes will not have a chance at defeating them.

Moments later, the Scarlet Witch, US Agent, and War Machine storm the Works. They are greeted by an army of hard-light holograms in the shape of both Tony Stark and Iron Man created by VIRGIL to prevent them from getting into the sub-basement and shut down the temporal weapon that is set to go off. Observing the battle, Cybermancer is still confident that the heroes won’t make it into the basement.

In the atrium, Fisher Todd is making repairs to the computer systems after Iron Man and War Machine’s brawl tore up the place.[4] As he works, Spider-Woman comforts her daughter Rachel and tells Fisher about her entire relationship with Moonraker was a lie. Fisher can understand how hurt she feels because love can be painful. That’s when they hear the sound of battle and Fisher and Spider-Woman head off to help their comrades.

In the next room, the battle rages on. As the trio deal with the hard light holograms, War Machine sheds drones from his Warwear to infiltrate the computer systems and shut down the holographic projections. This task is impeded by Cybermancer who is remotely destroying the drones and kicking in the self-repair circuits. The trio are forced back where they are reunited with Fisher and Spider-Woman. When War Machine explains the efforts made to block his efforts to shut down the hologram projectors, Fisher figures they can stop them outright by blowing the main power junction. As they all head in that direction the holograms break off their attack as they are likely task-dedicated. Since they aren’t actively trying to access the elevator into the sub-basement, the projections stopped attacking.

Hopping onto one of the computers, the Scarlet Witch pulls up the base schematics and discovers that the power junction can be accessed by a heat-exchanger on the outside of the structure. Spider-Woman volunteers to go shut it down since she has the abilities to get in there. War Machine agrees to go along to provide her cover in case things get hairy. They also get a call from the Black Widow who reports that Century succeeded in teleporting her back to the Avengers temporary headquarters at Janet Van Dyne’s Southampton estate.[5] While Spider-Woman and War Machine venture into the heating shaft, Fisher Todd tries to distract VIRGIL by sending holograms of the Scarlet Witch and US Agent to try and breach the elevator. When this deception is quickly exposed, Cybermancer figures that Force Works is up to something and decides to head upstairs and deal with them directly.

Meanwhile, VIRGIL begins increasing the temperature inside the Works in an effort to smoke everyone out of the building. Needing to get down in to the basement as soon as possible the Scarlet Witch has Fisher change tracks and try to figure out how to muse the temporal device Moonraker used to get them out of Vietnam. At the same time, Cybermancer attacks Spider-Woman and War Machine in the heat shaft, preventing them from carrying out their task. By this time PLATO has managed to re-activate himself and while he is not sophisticated enough to defeat VIRGIL, he can figure out how to work the temporal device for them.[6]

By this time, Cybermancer has been defeated by Spider-Woman and War Machine, giving them access to the sub-basement. VIRGIL tries to repel the invaders but the Scarlet Witch and US Agent also teleport into the area. The two then trash the main computer shutting down VIRGIL and the temporal weapon. In the aftermath of the battle, War Machine scans the computers and learns that the weapon down here was just part of the doomsday weapon created by Stark and Kang, the rest of it is hidden in the Starcore satellite in Earth’s orbit. With their job completed here, the members of Force Works head to the east coast to join up with the Avengers while War Machine takes to the stars to shut down the Starcore satellite.

… This story continues in War Machine #23.

Recurring Characters

Force Works (Scarlet Witch, US Agent, Spider-Woman), War Machine, VIRGIL, Cybermancer, Fisher Todd, Rachel Carpenter, PLATO

Continuity Notes

1. I’m going to get this all out of the way right now: The Crossing presents a tale where Iron Man has apparently been a sleeper agent for Kang the Conqueror dating back to the early days of the Avengers. Kang, is allegedly trying to take over and alter the present day in preparation for some temporal war against an unknown foe. This is all later exposed as one big hoax created by Immortus, the future version of Kang, as part of a grand scheme to manipulate the Avengers destiny. Iron Man was never a sleeper agent, he was just brainwashed into thinking he was. “Kang” is really Immortus in disguise. This is all revealed in Avengers Forever #8.

2. The Suzie Endo that is Cybermancer is actually from an alternate reality who has taken the place of her counterpart in this reality. She Suzie-616’s place in Force Works #17. The truth about her is revealed in issues #21-22. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3 identifies this timeline as Reality-9528.

3. VIRGIL goes over a number of facts about the members of Force Works and their allies that are coming to shut them down. These facts are not as straight forward as they are presented. The details:

   • The Scarlet Witch is referred to as both a mutant and the daughter of Magneto. Wanda was led to believe her parentage in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. However, years later, it is revealed that this is all a lie. Wanda was actually experimented upon by the High Evolutionary as a child. To cover up his work he made it so she’d register as a mutant. It’s later revealed that her mother was Natalya Maximoff and to an as yet (as of this writing in November, 2022) unidentified father. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3.

   • Reference is made to the fact that Iron Man chose Wanda to be the leader of Force Works. That happened in Force Works #1.

   • US Agent is stated as wanting to get out from under the shadow of Captain America. John Walker previously had a stint as Captain America when the government stripped Steve Rogers of the identity. This lasted from Captain America #333 through 350. After he flubbed the job it was given back to Rogers. Walker became US Agent starting in Captain America #354.

   • Mention is made about how War Machine recently obtained a suit of Eidolon Warwear. This was after he lost his Stark built War Machine armor in War Machine #15-17. He obtained the Warwear in War Machine #18.

   • Fisher Todd’s employment along side Amanda Chaney happened in Force Works #4. Amanda was murdered last issue.

   • When discussing Spider-Woman it is stated that she just discovered that her romance with Moonraker was revealed to be a sham. Moonraker appeared out of nowhere in Force Works #16. The team acted as though he had been part of the team for months and that he was in a relationship with Spider-Woman. This was revealed to be a huge deception last issue. The reasons given were bullshit however due to the fact that this was another component of the deception created by Immortus.

4. Iron Man and War Machine had it out in War Machine #22, wrecking the place in the process.

5. Black Widow and Century went there in War Machine #22 to update the Avengers. Starting in Avengers #391, the Avengers had retreated from Avenger Mansion after a series of murders and frequent attacks by “Kang’s” forces. See Avengers: The Crossing #1.

6. Here, PLATO states that he wants to make up for being manipulated by the Recorder. He is referring to the events of Force Works #5 when the Recorder erased records of the Mandarin’s activities and force PLATO to keep quiet about it.

The Crossing Reading Order

Avengers #390, Iron Man #319, Avengers: The Crossing #1, Force Works #16, Iron Man #320, Avengers #391, Iron Man #321, Force Works #17, Avengers #392, War Machine #20, Iron Man #322, Force Works #18, War Machine #21, Iron Man #323, Avengers #393, Force Works #19, War Machine #22, Iron Man #324, Force Works #20, War Machine #23, Avengers #394, Avengers: Timeslide #1, Iron Man #325, Avengers #395, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1