Façades, Ruses, and Masques

While on a rescue mission to save Bethany Cabe from Spymaster, Tony Stark discovers that the mastermind behind this plot is his former lover, Whitey Frost, aka Madame Masque. Partially changed into Iron Man, Tony asks why Whitney why she is doing this.

She tells him that she had no choice. She reminds him of how she was molded into becoming the leader of the Maggia, something that hardened her heart. However, she soon fell in love with Tony and while this was a period of happiness for her, she found herself dragged back into her old life by her father, Count Nefaria. She reminds Tony how her father was rapidly and agreed to help him attack Stark International and how her father died in the ensuing battle when Tony accidentally knocked an experimental landing vehicle on him in the fracas. Although she knew this wasn’t Tony’s fault, her heart was nonetheless broken and she needed time away to sort out her feelings. While soul-searching she came to realize that she would hurt everyone she ever cared for and decided to isolate herself from her feelings for others. She retook control of the Maggia and began rebuilding the organization, even going so far as purchasing the Dreadnaught robots to strengthen their firepower. She also kept tabs on Tony and when he started dating Bethany Cabe, Whitney decided that if she can’t have Tony, then nobody can. With that in mind, she set the plan in motion to kidnap Bethany in the hopes of eliminating her.[1]

As Madame Masque is telling Tony all of this, Jim Rhodes has been holding off her Maggia goods. Having stolen a forklift, he accidentally drives it into the room where Iron Man and Madame Masque are having their discussion. The sudden distraction gives Tony the opportunity to grab Bethany and fly her to safety. Getting to the Stark International helicopter that brought them to Connecticut, Iron Man tells Bethany to wait there until he comes back with Rhodney. However, she disobeys his orders and runs back to the Maggia front as she has a score to settle with Madame Masque.

Back inside, Iron Man comes to Jim’s rescue as he is being chased by two Dreadnaughts. As he faces off against the robots, the Avenger sends Rhodes to collect an energizer device that Masque had Spymaster steal for her.[2] As Iron Man holds off the Dreadnaughts, Jim finds the energizer but the device is snatched by Spymaster who tries to escape in a helicopter. Jim follows after him in a mini-copter. In order to escape Jim’s gunfire, the Spymaster tries flying his helicopter under a bridge but the rotor is too wide and he ends up wrecking his ride and crashing into the river below to his apparent demise. Although Jim presumes Spymaster died in the crash, the master of espionage pulls himself out of the river moments after Rhodes takes off. By this time, Iron Man has deactivated the Dreadnaughts by jamming their control frequencies.

With the immediate threat out of the way, Iron Man goes back outside to check on his friends just as Jim is returning from his fight with Spymaster. With no sign of Bethany, Iron Man quickly compares notes and they both realize that Beth went back inside the Maggia hideout. Inside, Cabe has tracked down Madame Masque and intends to shoot her to avenge her friend Ling McPherson, who was left in the hospital after a beating from Whitney’s men. Unfortunately, Frost gets the drop on Bethany and forces her to drop her weapon. When Bethany talks about Iron Man and Tony Stark as two different people, it upsets Madame Masque enough that she blurts out that they are the same person. That’s when Bethany reveals that she already knows and that she hasn’t told Tony that she knows because she respects his privacy. This angers Madame Masque, who believes that only someone who truly loves Tony — like her — can know the truth.

This anger erupts in a gunfight between the two women which ends when a bullet from Bethany’s gun manages to knock off Whitney’s facial mask, revealing her horribly scarred face. As Frost tries to cover her face in a panic, Bethany’s desire to kill her is replaced with feelings of pity. Realizing her desire for revenge would only make her exactly like Madame Masque, Bethany decides to spare her life and walks out of the room. She runs into Iron Man and Jim just as Madame Masque makes her escape in the mini-copter. Although Iron Man wants to go after her, Bethany convinces him to stay, telling him that Masque has already paid in full for everything she has done.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Maggia (Madame Masque, Dreadnaughts), Spymaster, Bethany Cabe, Jim Rhodes

Continuity Notes

1. Madame Masque does a huge dump of exposition here and there are a number of other facts in her story that are not revealed here. The details are as follows:

   • Whitney Frost’s origins and how her father, Count Nefaria, molded her to be the leader of the Maggia was originally told in Iron Man #8. Her first scheme against Stark Industries was chronicled in Tales of Suspense #97 through Iron Man #1. While escaping the authorities, Whitney was involved in a crash that horribly scarred her face in Iron Man #12.

   • Whitney became Madame Masque and fell in love with Tony in Iron Man #17-19. However, the two did not end up forging a serious relationship until she posed as Chrissy Longfellow. See Iron Man #91-107. It was during this period she learned that Tony Stark and Iron Man were the same person.

   • The couple remained together until Count Nefaria convinced her to help him escape his rapid aging. A battle that ended in Nefaria’s death and Whitney leaving Tony in Iron Man #115-116. Although Nefaria died here, he will be resurrected in Iron Man Annual 1999.

   • What isn’t revealed here is that during her time away from Tony, Whitney began fearing for her own mortality. As such she created a bio-duplicate of herself to act as her proxy. As such, this is not the real Whitney here, but one of her bio-duplicates. This secret won’t be revealed until Avengers (vol. 3) #32.

   • A footnote here states that the Dreadnaughts were originally created to fight Nick Fury and SHIELD. They first appeared in Strange Tales #154.

   • Tony started dating Bethany Cabe shortly after they first met in Iron Man #117.

   • Madame Masque has been stalking Tony since at least Iron Man #134.

2. While fighting the robots, Tony uses a tube of freon hidden in his suit that he states he hasn’t used in a long time. A footnote here states that the last time he used it was in Tales of Suspense #82. About that freon though… Check out the topical references below.

Topical References

• In this story, the freezing agent Tony uses against the Dreadnaughts is identified as freon. This should be considered a topical reference as companies have stopped using freon due to the damage it causes to the ozone layer. While scientists were aware of the damage it caused in the late 1980s, the full phase out of freon didn’t really kick in until 2020 because we’re all doomed ;P Anyway, since Tony is an environmentally conscious inventor at this point in his history, one would assume the reference to freon here would be topical because he probably would have stopped using it as soon as its environmental impact was discovered.