Iron Man #23
The Man Who Killed Tony Stark!
Following the death of Janice Cord at the hands of the Titanium Man, Iron Man tries to work past this loss by going after the ship crew that illegally smuggled the villain into the country. Iron Man quickly sinks their ship and leaves the crew to be rescued by the Navy. Tony then visits the gravesite of Janice Cord and laments her loss. Little does he know that he is being observed by an assassin calling himself the Mercenary.[1] However, the Mercenary decides against shooting Iron Man with his sniper rifle as that he was only hired to kill someone else.
Later, Tony Stark decides he needs to go on a vacation to try and get over the loss of Janice. As he leaves, Jasper Sitwell offers his condolences, saying he can relate to Stark’s loss after the death of Whitney Frost. This makes Tony feel even worse because Whitney might actually be alive and that he had a brief romantic affair with her before she disappeared again.[2] As Tony drives away from Stark Industries, someone pops up from the back seat of his car and puts a gun to his head and orders him to stop. The person holding the gun is a woman named Cheryl Porter who needs Tony Stark’s help. She explains that her husband was part of the crew that smuggled Titanium Man into the country. She got married before she knew her husband, Geoff, was involved in illegal activities until she discovered their honeymoon would take place aboard the ship he worked on.
Overhearing how they were smuggling the Russian operative in America, she sought to warn someone and it was her who tipped Tony Stark to the Titanium Man’s arrival in the country. Unfortunately, she was caught in the act and the captain of the ship hired the Mercenary to eliminate her for betraying them. Geoff, for all his ills, was able to warn her before he rejoined the crew and she has been running for her life ever since. Having read SHIELD’s file on the Mercenary, Tony knows how dangerous the assassin is and promises to keep her safe. As they drive up to his cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, they are unaware that the Mercenary bugged Tony’s car and was listening in on their conversation.
Following Tony’s car, the Mercenary catches Vincent Sandhurst preparing to trigger an explosive he planted on the road. The Mercenary stops him from blowing up Tony’s car and demands to know what he is doing. Sandhurst explains how he got caught embezzling from his former employer, the late Janice Cord, and wanted to get revenge against Stark.[3] When Vincent suggests they work together, the Mercenary tells him the disgraced lawyer that he works alone and shoots him. Assuming Sandhurst is dead, the Mercenary continues on toward Tony Stark’s cabin.
Meanwhile, Tony and Cheryl have arrived at the cabin and Tony activates the security system to keep them safe. When the Mercenary arrives slips past the outside security thanks to a jamming device and kicks down the front door and opens fire at a chair facing the fire, thinking Stark is sitting in it. The chair suddenly whirls around revealing that it is Iron Man sitting in it. The Avenger explains that he was well aware that the Mercenary had bugged the car and set a trap for him. With Cheryl safe in the basement panic room, Iron Man battles it out with the Mercenary. Ultimately, the villain has a number of specialized weapons to stagger his foe until he can clamp on a magnetized device that drains Iron Man’s armor of its power.
With the hero down, the Mercenary disguises himself as Tony Stark so he can trick Cheryl into opening the panic room. With his guest in danger, Iron Man struggles to get to he nearest wall outlet so he can recharge his armor. The process of powering his armor blows every circuit in the cabin but it gets him back on his feet. However as he approaches the door to the panic room he hears gunshots and fears that he is too late. That’s when Vincent Sandhurst comes crawling out of the basement. Believing that he had killed Tony Stark, Sandhurst finally succumbs to his gunshot wounds and collapses back down the stairs. Going down to investigate, Iron Man discovers that Vincent had killed the Mercenary. He also finds Cheryl safe and sound and now that the danger is over, he escorts her back to town so she can support her husband as he navigates through the legal system for his crimes.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Jasper Sitwell, Vincent Sandhurst
Continuity Notes
The Mercenary’s real name is unrevealed in this story. He is identified as Archibald Tuskwin in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2.
Whitney Frost was the leader of the Maggia and used her position to try and seduce Tony Stark starting in Tales of Suspense #98. Instead she found SHIELD liaison Jasper Sitwell was an easier mark. She was exposed as the Big M Iron Man #8 and appeared to die in a plane crash in issue #12. Tony encountered her in her new identity of Madame Masque in Iron Man #19. Although she was swept away off the Aegean sea, she turns up alive next issue.
Vincent Sandhurst was caught embezzling money in Iron Man #12.
Topical References
Janice Cord’s tombstone states that she was born in 1945 and died in 1969. This should be considered a topical reference. Instead of specific dates modern readers should take this to mean she 24 years old when she died. Per the Sliding Timescale, Janice was born 21 years prior to the start of the Modern Age.
Vincent Sandhurst’s trap is depicted as a bundle of dynamite that is connected by wire to a detonator that is activated using a plunger. This is incredibly low tech by today’s standard given that we live in a world where you could build a remote detonating bomb in your own home. This plunger and TNT bundle thing should probably be considered a topical reference.
