Iron Man #145
Raider’s Rampage
Tony Stark has arrived in Dallas, Texas for the annual Conclave of Engineers and Innovators convention. While checking into a hotel, Stark and his personal pilot — Jim Rhodes — are swarmed by members of the press who many questions for him.[1] Tony tells them that he will be giving a press conference after the convention and sends them on their way as he heads to his room. Once they are settled in, Jim takes off to try and romance some cheerleaders on the local football team.
When Tony arrives on the convention floor, he is quickly met by Edwin Cord, the owner of the Cord Conglomerate. He invites Tony to meet up with him at the Cord booth for a drink later. After Cord leaves, Tony is confronted by a SHIELD agent who warns Stark that Edwin is under investigation after his company compromised a security on a project and warns Tony to steer clear.[2] As he looks around, Tony is surprised to see Williams Innovations have set up a booth at the convention since they had been exposed as a front for the Maggia.[3] Tony is then approached by Augustine Cross, the current CEO of Cross Technological Enterprises. He wants to compare notes with Tony’s experience employing Iron Man as he himself recently hired his own super-hero, Hawkeye.[4] However, their conversation is interrupted by Roxxon representative Jonas Hale who wants to talk to Cross in private.[5] Dismissing Tony, Jonas hands him a Roxxon button which Tony promptly tosses in the garbage.
Meanwhile, in one of the hotel room, a group of mercenaries calling themselves the Raiders are putting on and testing their high tech armor. They are preparing for the demonstration of Iron Man’s armor scheduled for Sunday so they can attack and take down the Avenger.
As this is happening, Tony checks on the Stark International booth and catches his representative, Scott Lang, playing a game on a massive television screen instead of doing his job. That’s when the Raiders suddenly attack the convention floor. Lang foolishly tries to stop them even though he left his Ant-Man costume back in New York and is quickly knocked out.[6] This provides enough distraction for Tony to slip behind the Stark booth and change into Iron Man. Although he has the element of surprise, Iron Man is not prepared for the advance weapons of the Raiders. However, as the battle quickly turns, one of the Raiders uses his flame jets to start a fire, forcing Iron Man to put out the blaze. This allows the Raiders to make their escape. In the aftermath of the battle, Tony learns that the only booth attacked by the Raiders was the one for Stark International, leaving him to wonder why.
Trying to get the days chaos out of his mind, Tony retires to his room and tries to call his girlfriend Bethany Cab back in New York. She is strangely distant with him and sensing that something is going on, he asks her what’s wrong. She tells him that she’s just tired and ends the call, having decided not to tell him the truth.[7] In another room, Edwin Cord is reviewing the footage of the Raiders fight with Iron Man and is impressed with there performance and looks forward to Iron Man’s defeat on Sunday.
At the end of the following day, Tony spends time in the bar where everyone offers their sympathies for Iron Man’s poor performance the day before. This annoys Tony who decides to be ready for the Raiders if they should attack him again during tomorrow’s demonstration.
Sure enough, the Raiders attack again in the middle of the Iron Man demonstration. This time, Iron Man takes the fight outside so he can fight more freely without endangering the convention attendees. The fight takes a turn when one of the Raiders catches Iron Man in an energy siphoning net that causes him to crash through the roof of the nearby colosseum and the middle of a televised boxing match. Pulling the net off of himself, Iron Man manages to recharge his power using the stadium’s feeder cables. With his full power, Iron Man manages to defeat the Raiders in front of a live audience.
In the aftermath of the battle, Edwin Cord tries to use the footage to convince the SHIELD agents investigating him to buy the Raider armor. However, this is construed as a bribe to make SHIELD drop their investigation into the Mauler incident and put Cord under arrest.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Raiders, Jim Rhodes, Bethany Cabe, Edwin Cord, SHIELD, Augustine Cross, Jonas Hale, Scott Lang
Continuity Notes
Questions from the press here include:
Tony’s thoughts on Roxxon’s involvement in the anthrax incident in Iowa: The entire population of Allantown was wiped out by a burst of microwave radiation from a Roxxon owned space satellite in Iron Man #140. Iron Man destroyed the satellite but Roxxon covered it up with this anthrax story. See Iron Man #142-144.
Another reporter asks for details on a cancelled contract with NASA. This might be in regards to a Jupiter landing vehicle that Stark International was working on. The device was wrecked on two different occasions in Iron Man #116 and 142 respectively.
The SHIELD agent is referring to the events of Daredevil #167.
Williams Innovations went out of business way back in Avengers #9. More recently, their assets were purchased by the Maggia, as seen in Marvel Premiere #55. Tony had his own encounter with this new incarnation of the company during a battle with Madame Masque in Iron Man #137-139.
Here, Cross states that he took over the company after his father Darren Cross died of a rare heart ailment. This was chronicled in Marvel Premiere #47-48. Darren didn’t actually die but was kept in cryogenic stasis for years until he was revived in Ant-Man #1-5. Augustine hired Hawkeye to be his new head of security in Hawkeye #1-4.
Tony dryly states that he has met Jonas Hale before. He did so as Iron Man in Iron Man #120-121 and 143.
A footnote here reminds readers that Lang has been Ant-Man since Marvel Premiere #47.
Bethany is conflicted between her love of Tony and that of her husband Alex Van Tillburg after learning that he is still alive. She believes he died of a heart attack/car accident during a pill-popping bing, as revealed in Iron Man #128. In reality, he was kidnapped by Russian spies who wanted to learn his diplomatic secret as we’ll learn in Iron Man #152-153.
Topical References
The hotel that engineering convention is taking place is identified as the Park Sheraton Hotel. This should be considered topical as Sheraton is a real-world brand and the building in question has changed its name many times since this story was first published. At the time of this writing (January, 2022) it’s now called the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.
Jim intends to try and seduce some Dallas Cowgirls, the cheerleader team for the Dallas Cowboys football team. This should be considered topical as this is a real world sports team.
Edwin Cord states here that he met Tony a few years back at a Lion’s Club dinner. This should be considered topical because the Lion’s Club is a real world organization.
Tony’s hotel room is depicted as having a rotary phone. This should be considered topical as these types of telephones are now obsolete.
Edwin Chord is depicted watching the Raider/Iron Man fight on a film projector. This is another obsolete technology that should be considered topical.
Tony orders a Dr. Pepper at the bar. Real world product. Topical.
The colosseum that Iron Man lands in is called the Dallas Civic Center, which probably doesn’t exist or has since been renamed because I can’t find anything about it with my usual half assed Google searches. So you can probably assume the name is topical.
The boxing commentators are depicted as Howard Cosell and Mohamad Ali. Their appearances here should be considered topical. Cosell retired from sports commentary in 1985 and died a decade later. Not sure when Ali was a sports commentator or if that was a regular thing he did or not (I don’t know from boxing) but either way he died in 2016 and his appearance here should be considered topical as well.
Errors
Last issue the Conclave of Engineers and and Innovators was said to be in its 14th year. Here it is stated as being in its 24th year.