At the Mercy of my Friends!

Following his battle with Spymaster, Tony Stark has decided to upgrade his Iron Man armor once again so he is not caught off guard like last time. As he works, Tony recalls how his company used to manufacture weapons almost exclusively for SHIELD until the company changed directions. This reminds him that he has to get ready for a NATO symposium hosted by the spy agency and begins sprucing himself up.[1]

Tony is informed by his secretary, Ms. Arbogast,[2] that Bethany Cabe is here to see him. Tony is happy to see Bethany, but has to be on his way, so she agrees to accompany him to Stark International’s private airfield. There, Tony meets up with his pilot, Rhodey, and decides to take the company helicopter up to the SHIELD helicarrier on his own so his flying skills don’t get rusty.[3] As Tony makes his approach, he doesn’t know he is being observed by a quartet of SHIELD agents who were responsible for hiring Spymaster to assassinate him.[4] When he lands, Tony is greeted by Nick Fury, who finds it odd that Tony has his briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Tony declines to explain himself and before the NATO meeting gets a notification from Stark International. Asking to be excused, Tony is escorted by an Agent named Val Adair — one of the rogue agents — who insists on escorting Stark to the communicator.

Insisting on privacy, Tony instead gets to work hacking into SHIELD’s database to see if they know anything about Spymaster’s recent attack on his company. The only unusual thing he can find is data about Stark International’s shareholders. Since he doesn’t have time to look any deeper, Tony copies the data over to his Iron Man armor hidden inside his briefcase. Tony then slips away from his escort. Val races back to his fellow conspirators and tells them that he lost track of Stark. They also discover that Tony hacked into the database. Needing to act right away, the four men put on rebreathers and flood the entire helicarrier with knock-out gas. With everyone knocked out, the four rogues pick up Tony Stark and toss him out an airlock, hoping he will fall to his death.

The sudden rush of air wakes Tony up in mid-free fall, leading to a mad scramble to open his briefcase and change into Iron Man. Luckily, Stark succeeds and activates his jet boots moments before he would have ended up being a red smear in the middle of a German village. Flying back up to the helicarrier, Iron Man forces his way in through the bulk-head, killing the lights at the same time. As he stalks the rogue SHIELD agents in the darkness, he overhears how they wanted to obtain controlling stock in Stark International in order to force the company back into munitions manufacturing as they believe that is the patriotic thing to do. When Iron Man prepares to strike he is surprised when his chest-beam suddenly activates on his own, blowing his cover.[5] Iron Man quickly takes down three of the rogue agents but their leader — Buck Richlen — manages to flee into the room where the NATO meeting is being held. There he holds Nick Fury at gunpoint, threatening to shoot the SHIELD director in the head unless Iron Man surrenders.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Adam Manna, Buck Richlen, Val Adair) Bethany Cabe, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast

Continuity Notes

1. Stark International used to produce weapons and it was instrumental in designing weapons and technology for the public version of SHIELD which was formed in Strange Tales #135. In more recent years, Tony had begun to see the destruction caused by his weapons and as of Iron Man #46, shifted the company’s direction into purely scientific pursuits.

2. Bambi Arbogast’s first name is not given here. It will be revealed in Iron Man #137.

3. “Rhodey” is James Rhodes, who will later go on to become War Machine. Jim’s full name is revealed in Iron Man #122.

4. In this story only three of these rogue SHIELD agents are identified in any way, with only buck Richlen and Vald Adair’s full names being given. Adam Manna’s last name is revealed in the SHIELD profile from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #10.

5. Little does Tony know that his armor is being hacked by Justin Hammer, a rival businessman, as we’ll learn in Iron Man #120.

Topical References

• Tony is depicted as getting the notification from Stark International from a pager. While that was a relatively new technology when this story was published in 1979, the technology has become obsolete thanks to the advent of cell phones. It’s use here should be considered topical. I guess you could assume Tony got a text massage and