Façades

Stark International is throwing an employee appreciation party for its staff.[1] While Iron Man deals with a drunk Arthur Pithins, the company’s head of public relations, Bethany Cabe turns down the slick talking Michael Trudeau. Bambi Arbogast, Tony’s secretary, has brought along her sister Uranus Bliss and introduces her to the company doctor, John Ehrman.[2] Not far away, Scott Lang watches with amusement as his daughter Cassie beats Erica Sondheim at a video game. As Jim Rhodes and Yvette Avril boogie on the dance floor, Pithins turns his attention to Vic Martinelli, the head of security. Vic is less tolerant with Arthur’s drunken behavior than Iron Man.[3] The party is a backdrop for a televised test of Stark International’s new sonic borer which will attempt to penetrate the Baltimore Trench.

As final preparations are under way, Bethany gets a phone call from Ling McPherson, her partner at the security firm. She is checking in to tell Beth how things are going with her current client, Harmond Taylor, who seems to have wanted company more than a bodyguard. After ending the call, Beth and Tony are begin flirting with one another when Bambi points out her boss to her sister. Uranus is furious to discover that Tony Stark is the man who she had embarrassing run ins with in the recent past and is unimpressed.[4] When the test finally begins, the entire rig suddenly explodes, prompting Tony to race out of the room to “go find” Iron Man. As Iron Man flies off to the accident, Bethany Cabe hopes he takes care of himself.[5] Iron Man soon arrives on the sene and after rescuing a number of the rig workers, puts out the flames.[6]

Later that evening, Harmond Taylor convinces Ling to come into his apartment for one last drink before calling it a night. Inside, she finds a number of armed men waiting for her. As it turns out, this was all a plan to trap Bethany Cabe, who canceled at the last minute and passed on the job to Ling. When Ling responds by pulling her gun, they quickly disarm her and decide to give her a serious beating.

Back at the rig, a technician investigates to see what went wrong with the test and alerts Iron Man to the fact that someone removed an energizer component, a deliberate act of sabotage. That’s when someone notices that Ted Calloway and one of the choppers has gone missing, prompting Iron Man to take off to try and find it. When Iron Man catches up with the chopper, Calloway blasts him with a weapon that traps the Avenger in an energy net. Iron Man manages to get free by channeling the energy through his armor, allowing him to get free. However, when he finally catches up with Calloway’s chopper he has already landed and got away. Iron Man has a feeling that this is only the beginning.

When Tony Stark finally returns to the office, the party is long over. Tony then gets a call from Vic who tells him that he found Calloway knocked out in a supply closet. Realizing the man he chased was an impostor, Tony is about to figure out who it might have been when he gets a call from Bethany.[7] She’s at the hospital where Ling is fighting for her life after the severe beating she received at the hands of her attackers. Before she can explain what happened, she overhears the doctors trying to resuscitate Ling and races by her side, leaving Tony wondering what happened.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Maggia, Spymaster, Bethany Cabe, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, Yvette Avril, Vic Martinelli, Arthur Pithins, Scott Lang, Cassie Lang, Erica Sondheim, Mike Trudeau, Ling McPherson

Continuity Notes

1. Hal Bright, the company janitor brags about how he got his pants from the Hulk. In order to help Bruce Banner escape from the authorities, Iron Man had him swap clothes with Hal. See Iron Man #131-133.

2. Ehrman mentions that Tony has a weak heart and is concerned about its condition. Tony’s ticker got shrapnel lodged in it way back in Tales of Suspense #39. Although he had it repaired with synthetic implants in Iron Man #19, it has occasional caused him trouble whenever he is under a great deal of stress.

3. Arthur angers Vic by suggesting they use Stark International’s PR machine to promote the security team. Vic’s uncharacteristic outburst is because he’s hiding under the witness protection program to hide from the mob and this might blow his cover, as we’ll see in Iron Man #146-147.

4. Tony encountered Uranus twice before this: Once when he pulled her out of an airplane bathroom so he could change into Iron Man in Iron Man #120 and when he accidentally knocked her over at an Atlantic City casino in issue #123.

5. This is yet another clue that Bethany has deduced that Tony and Iron Man are the same person. A fact that is revealed in Iron Man #139. She doesn’t reveal she knows the truth to Tony until issue #153.

6. Here, Iron Man recounts how he can resist the flames thanks to the refractory coating on his armor. A footnote reminds readers that this has been added to Iron Man’s armor back in Iron Man #135. This is not correct. This feature has been present in Tony’s armor as far back as Iron Man #110.

7. The impostor is none other than Spymaster, as we’ll discover next issue.