Dread Night of the Dreadnought!

After SHIELD has bought up the majority of shares of Stark International, Tony Stark holds a special shareholder meeting. The only person in attendance is Nick Fury, since SHIELD is the only other shareholder.[1] However, Tony has come prepared to screw Fury over. When Nick hands over design plans that he want put back into production, Tony says that he can’t because he sold the designs to the open market. He also hands over letter of resignation from nearly all the staff. Tony has also decided to take a much needed nine month vacation. This leaves Fury with an empty factory with no weapons to show for it. Realizing that there is nothing he can do, Nick realizes that he’s going to have to cut a deal with Stark.

Tony then goes up to his office and leaves Tony with Ms. Arbogast while he tells Bethany and Jim how it all went down, telling them that Fury agreed to back down and return Jarvis’ stocks and put the majority of the rest back on the market.[2] He then announces to his staff that they are returning to business as usual, leading to cheers all over the factory.

Even though he screwed Fury over, Tony agrees to go to dinner together to mend the fence. Nick insists on going to his favorite dive bar on the Lower East Side. There the pair come to a mutual agreement that they both love their country, but Tony will fight for it in his own way.[3] The meeting is cut short when Fury receives a priority alert from SHIELD and takes off in his flying car. Seeing the urgency in which Fury left and remembering what kind of priority this sort of alert details, Tony decides to follow Nick as Iron Man. Rushing to the washroom to change into his armor, Tony uses his onboard computers to track Nick’s flying car.

Meanwhile, Nick arrives at the Project Thirteen facility which has been attacked by some unknown force.[4] Inside, Nick finds dead agents and when he tries to call for help he discovers that something is jamming his communicator. That’s when he is ambushed by the Dreadnaought.[5] That’s when Iron Man arrives on at the facility and realizes that this was the place where he and Thor worked on bringing down the mad computer called FAUST. He arrives just in time to save Nick from the Dreadnought. While fighting the robot, it denies any knowledge of Hydra — the organization that created it to begin with — saying that it was sent by someone it calls the Director.[6]

The Dreadnought attacks Iron Man with its various weapons and discovers that they have little to no effect on the hero. In a ditch effort to destroy the Avenger, the Dreadnought grabs Iron Man and attempts to electrocute him to death. Unfortunately for the robot, Iron Man’s armor is well insulated and can absorb all the energy it dishes out. Unprepared for this, the Dreadnought ends up destroying itself when the extreme heat from the electricity fuses all its circuits together causing the robot to explode. In the aftermath of the battle, Nick thanks Iron Man for his help and tries to convince the hero into joining SHIELD. Iron Man reminds Fury that he is loyal to Tony Stark and to be satisfied that they both fight for justice. With that, Iron Man takes off, leaving Fury to deal with the mess.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Dreadnought, Bambi Arbogast, Bethany Cabe, Jim Rhodes, Nick Fury

Continuity Notes

1. SHIELD got weapons exclusively from Stark when their latest incarnation went public in Strange Tales #135 until Tony’s company stopped making weapons in Iron Man #46. The spy agency has been trying to secure majority stock in the company since issue #119 and succeeded last issue when Jarvis sold his two shares in a moment of need.

2. Bambi Arbogast’s full name is not given here. Her first name is revealed in Iron Man #137.

3. Tony declines an alcoholic beverage. He just recently got over a bout of alcoholism, as seen last issue. His sobriety will last until Iron Man #167.

4. For more on Project Thirteen and the threat posed by FAUST see Thor #269-271.

5. Fury mentions how he fought a Dreadnaught before. That was in Strange Tales #154.

6. The identity of the Director is not revealed here. Iron Man #138 identifies the Director as Madame Masque, aka Whitney Frost, aka Tony’s ex-girlfriend.

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