Iron Man #16 — Nick Peron

Feb 28

Feb 28 Iron Man #16

Of Beast and Men!

21 21 02 28 %h 54 07 im2de.png — Credits

SHIELD has recovered Jasper Sitwell, who just survived a plane crash. With Jasper in a coma, Nick Fury and Gabe Jones oversee a memory probe to learn what happened. They see how the ship — carrying Tony Stark’s cosmic ray generator — was attacked by the Unicorn. After pushing Tony Stark out of the plane with a parachute, Jasper was alone against the super-villain. He failed to stop the Unicorn from stealing the device. With the plane going down, Jasper grabbed a parachute and bailed out. Although he was close to the ground, he deploys the parachute. Despite this, it was a rough landing and Jasper was knocked out in the fall. Moments later, he was recovered by SHIELD agents. Fury and Gabe then went to investigate the ghost town following an explosion. In the rubble, they find scraps of Iron Man’s armor and the Unicorn’s costume and assume both were killed in the blast.

Earlier, the Red Ghost had abandoned his ally and detonated his hideout. Leaving in a ship with his new Super-Apes, the Red Ghost sets a course for Africa so he can use the cosmic ray generator to create an army of Super-Apes. However, Iron Man and the Unicorn survived the blast but their respective armors have been damaged. While the Unicorn’s power source was damaged, Iron Man’s weapon systems are inoperative. In order to get out, the pair are forced to work together. Running a cable from his power source to the Unicorn’s weapons, they are able to get free. The pair then take off after the Red Ghost.

By this time, the Red Ghost has just arrived in Africa where he uses his mist form to infiltrate a SHIELD facility hidden in the jungle. While his Super-Apes is gathering an army, the Red Ghost keeps the SHIELD agents busy by destroying their weapons with his mist. Soon the apes — Alpha and Beta — join the fray. On top of the normal gorillas in their army, between Alpha’s enhanced strength and Beta’s mental powers, the SHIELD facility soon falls to the Red Ghost.

Meanwhile, Iron Man and the Unicorn have hitched a ride on a trans-Atlantic flight to Africa. At first, Alpha and Beta comply with Red Ghost’s orders to attack Iron Man and the Unicorn. However, Beta’s enhanced mental abilities also cause it to become self-aware and decides to turn against its master. Beta orders Alpha to destroy the cosmic ray generator before he can bombard any more apes. The Unicorn then grabs the Red Ghost and escapes in his ship in order to force the scientist to finally cure him. With the danger over, Tony Stark uses the SHIELD facility to make repairs to his armor so he can head home. Meanwhile, Alpha and Beta go into the jungle where they plan on living peacefully with their fellow apes.