Iron Man #140
Title
Tony Stark has decided to take a much need vacation to the Bahamas, taking his closest staff and friends along with him. However, events are conspiring to make this get away far from peaceful. After catching a swordfish, Tony and Jim sail back to Tony’s island estate unaware that a group of costumed men have taken a keen interest in Tony’s yacht and are now planning to steal it.
Once they arrive, John Ehrmann — Stark International’s resident doctor — tells them that Ling McPherson is recovering nicely after the beating she suffered at the hands of the Maggia. Bethany Cabe, Tony’s girlfriend and Ling’s business partner, pulls Tony aside to tell him that word came back from Bambi Arbogast — Tony’s secretary — that the police haven’t been able to track down Madame Masque after her attempt on Beth’s life. Tony asks a number of probing questions about the incident that Bethany knows is out of concern that Masque may have told Bethany his secret identity. Although Beth figured this out weeks earlier, she decides to keep it to herself, wanting Tony to tell her his big secret when he feels comfortable doing so.[1]
After dinner, everyone decides to go off on their own an have some fun. This gives Tony a chance to change into Iron Man and enjoy some alone time by flying around. As he sees the sights, Tony is happy to finally have a chance to relax for once.
However, this isn’t going to last as — at that very moment — the costumed men who were eyeing Tony’s yacht earlier have targeted another cruise ship. As they commandeer the vessel, the owner tries to pull a shotgun on them. However, his bullets prove useless against their leader who wears a powerful suit of battle armor and he is quickly knocked out by a blast of concentrated force.
The next day, Tony is out on his yacht with Jim and Bethany so they can do some scuba diving. However, Beth decides to stay aboard the ship to work on her suntan while the boys do their diving. While Tony and Jim are underwater, the yacht is attacked by the thieves. Their leader confronts Bethany and introduces himself as Force.[2] However, Bethany won’t surrender without a fight. Managing to make a break to Tony’s briefcase, she tosses it into the water in the hopes he will see it. As Beth is captured, Force decides to not take any chances with her friends and tosses two grenades in the water.
Down below, Tony spots his briefcase sinking to the ocean floor and suspects there is trouble. That’s when Jim notices the two sinking grenades and shoves Tony out of the way of the blast. Although Rhodes isn’t injured in the explosion he is knocked out. This allows Tony to change into his Iron Man armor and take Jim up to the surface. There he sees that someone is making off with his boat. Leaving Jim in their life raft, Tony flies after the thieves. When he catches up with them Tony witnesses them loading his yacht into a massive submersible. However, before he can stop them, a group of the boat thieves begin attacking him on flying jet skies. While Iron Man is busy dealing with this threat, the submarine disappears without a trace.
Meanwhile, in the quiet hamlet of Allantown, Iowa, life is carrying on at its usual lazy place in such a tiny town. Suddenly, everyone in town suddenly drops dead from some unseen force.[3]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Force, Bethany Cabe, Jim Rhodes, Ling McPherson, John Ehrmann
Continuity Notes
Lots of exposition going on here. The facts:
Tony had a romance with Madame Masque that lasted from Iron Man #107 to 116. It ended after Iron Man accidentally killed her father, Count Nefaria.
Madame Masque had Ling beaten and Bethany kidnapped in Iron Man #137-139.
What nobody knows at this time is that they didn’t face the real Madame Masque, but a bio-duplicate. Following the death of her father, Masque feared for her own mortality and created the bio-duplicate to operate as her proxy. The truth won’t be revealed until Avengers (vol. 3) #32.
A footnote here reminds readers that Force was last seen in Sub-Mariner #68.
The cause of death in Allantown is later determined to be caused by a misdirected microwave transmission from a Roxxon solar collecting space station. See Iron Man #142-144.
Topical References
Jim Rhodes is wearing a t-shirt advertising Moosehead beer. This should be considered topical as this is a real world brand.
There are a bunch of anachronisms in Allantown that would be considered topical because they represent obsolete technology such as a CRT television that requires an antenna to get a signal as well as an old fashion telephone switchboard that requires a human operator to patch calls. The TV is playing an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, which isn’t necessarily a topical reference as the show has been perpetually in syndicated reruns since the end of its television run 1971.
