No S.H.I.E.L.D. to Protect Me!

Iron Man has uncovered a plot by four SHIELD agents who have been trying to get controlling stock of Stark International in order to force the company to start building munitions again.[1] With everyone aboard the SHIELD helicarrier knocked out, including a NATO symposium, one of the rogues holds Nick Fury hostage. Iron Man is ordered to surrender or Fury will get shot. Quick thinking, the Avenger hacks into a nearby security camera with his armor and causes it to overload. The resulting explosion temporarily blinds the rogue SHIELD agent long enough for Iron Man to knock him out and save Fury.

That’s when fighter planes begin strafing the SHIELD helicarrier. Flying outside, Iron Man discovers that they have inadvertedly drifted into Russian air space without authorization and are being viewed as a threat. As Iron Man fights off the jets, Nick Fury and the crew begin waking up from the knock out gas. Seeing what situation they are in, Fury orders the engine room to get them out of there as quickly as possible. When the jet fighters fail to stop the intruders, the military fires ICBMs at the helicarrier. Luckily, Iron Man is able to destroy them by throwing a church steeple at the explosives. He then prevents the helicarrier from crashing into the side of a mountain while trying to get away by using his jet boots to help push the massive ship higher into the air.

With the helicarrier out of harms way, Iron Man tells Fury about the conspiracy being carried out by the rogue agents. Fury orders the men taken to the brig and assures Iron Man that he will make sure they face punishment for their unsanctioned actions. Iron Man then takes off so he can change back to Tony Stark. Having had his fill of flying, Tony has Fury drop him off at the nearest Stark International facility, which happens to be located in Paris. There, Tony goes over the data he stole from SHIELD’s computer and what he finds shock him.

As it turns out, SHIELD — under the direction of Nick Fury — has been trying to buy up stocks in Stark International. Calling Fury, Tony demands answers so to why the spy agency is doing this. Fury admits that while the rogue agents went about it the wrong way, their idea to take controlling stock over Stark International was a good idea. Fury explains that in order to stay ahead of enemy nations, SHIELD needs Tony’s company building weapons again. Since Stark himself refuses to return to this business model, Fury intends to take control of the company and forcing it to create new weapons for SHIELD.

When Fury ends the call, Tony completely loses his shit and punches his fist through the monitor screen. The sudden crash draws in the office secretary if everything is all right. Bandaging his bleeding hand, Tony assures her that nothing is wrong and he just needs time to himself to think.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Buck Richlen, Val Adair)

Continuity Notes

1. Stark International built weapons for years until Tony began to understand the damage caused to innocent lives through war. Since Iron Man #46, his company has shifted focus away from weapons and into purely scientific endeavors.

Topical References

• This story makes a number of dated Cold War references:

  • Particularly when it refers to Russia as the Soviet Union. The USSR dissolved in 1991 and any reference to it being the current political situation in Russia in this story should be considered topical.

  • Likewise the Russian Air Force is depicted as piloting MiG-17 fighter planes and firing R-7 Semyorka ICBM missiles in this story. More topical references since these types of weapons and equipment have long since been discontinued.

• Fury makes a quip about holding the next NATO meeting as a Holiday Inn. This should be considered topical as Holiday Inn is a real world hotel chain.

• When Tony examines the data he stole from SHIELD, it is depicted as being printed out on a ribbon of paper with a bunch of holes punched in it. Believe it or not, back in the early days of computers, data was sometimes stored on card or paper that had holes punched in them that represented data that the dinosaur computers of the era could read and interpret. Obviously, its depiction here is laughably topical.