Armor Chase

Obadiah Stane has succeeded in his hostile take over of Stark International, renaming the company after himself.[1] His first order of business is to summon Iron Man and order him to hand over his armor as it is now the property of Stane International. Iron Man refuses, insisting that the armor is actually owned by Tony Stark and until its deemed otherwise in court, he will refuses to surrender it. He then offers Stane the opportunity to try and take the armor off him, but Obadiah wisely chooses not to do so.

In one more act of defiance, Iron Man smashes out the window. Stane promptly calls his secretary to arrange to have it fixed. When Bambi Arbogast enters the room, she hands in her resignation, telling Stane that she will only work for him for the next two weeks or until he finds a new secretary, whichever comes sooner.

Meanwhile, news about Stane’s takeover of Stark International has reached SHIELD Director Nick Fury. Fury views Stane as a power mad luntatic on the same level as Hitler and decides to take some preemptive action to prevent Obadiah from getting access to Tony Stark’s Iron Man technology.

Back at Stane International, Iron Man has come to the same conclusion and decides to find his friend Morley Erwin to come up with a way they can get all of Tony’s Iron Man technology off property.[2] As he leaves Tony’s private lab, Iron Man is attacked by the Knight, one of Obadiah’s chess themed minions.[3] The battle is witnessed by two employees of the company who are debating on if they should quit out of loyalty to Tony Stark. When Iron Man is incapable of defeating the Knight and later retreats, the two workers begin to wonder if maybe working for Stane won’t be so bad after all.

While in the head office, repairs of the damaged window are well underway. When Vic Martinelli — head of security — tells Obadiah that he’ll be back on Monday morning, this is met with disapproval from Bambi Arbogast. Vic explains that he has no choice but to continue working for Stane because of mistakes he made in the past have guaranteed that he can’t find work anywhere else.[4] This does little to convince Arbogast who still disapproves. While in one of the labs, Jim has Morley repair the damage to his armor. Erwin insists that they need to get all the Iron Man tech off property as soon as possible, pointing out that Obadiah Stane is one of the largest weapons manufacturers and having access to and selling this technology to the highest bidders could have grave consequences for world peace.

At that same moment, Stane has some men trying to break into the sophisticated locks protecting all of Tony’s suits of Iron Man armor. However, it’s going to be no easy task since the locking mechanism was built by Tony Stark.

Where is Tony through all of this? Waking up on a cot in an abandoned building. Hung over and sporting a brand new black eye, Tony doesn’t even know where he is and where he got there. Having reached the depths of despair, Tony doesn’t really care because it doesn’t even make a bit of a difference.[5]

At that same moment, Nick Fury has ordered Jasper Sitwell to coordinate an effort to steal the Iron Man armor from Stane International. Sitwell follows orders under protest as such actions are illegal, but Fury doesn’t care, getting the armor at any cost is more important.

Back at Stane International, Yvette Avril has handed in her resignation. Elsewhere, Jim and Morley are trying to figure out how to get back into Tony’s lab now that the Knight is guarding it from outside. Erwin comes up with an idea to use a mechanical bore to dig under the building to get past his foe.[6] Although Iron Man gets inside the facility, the Knight is quickly tipped off and tries to stop him from escaping with the Iron Man technology. Luckily, SHIELD arrives with their blackout device. When they activate it, it throws off the Knight, allowing Iron Man to beat him back. He then activates the remote control devices he planted on all the remaining suits of Iron Man armor, so Morely can remotely pilot them out into the depths of international waters where they are out of Obadiah Stane’s reach.[7]

Destroying the remaining gear and plans to build new suits of armor, Iron Man then disables the Knight’s rocket powered steed and knocks away his lance. Without his weapons, the Knight is no match for Iron Man in hand-to-hand combat and is quickly knocked out. Iron Man then drags the Knight up to Stane’s office announce his own resignation. He also tells Stane to expect Jim Rhodes and Morely Erwin to quit soon enough as well. The hero then is about to fly through the recently repaired window and decides against it, opting to go out the front door instead.

An hour later, Jim has met up with Morley to figure out their next move. That’s when they are contacted by Nick Fury via the radio receiver in Iron Man’s helmet. Fury informs Iron Man that he is sending agents to recover the suits of armor from the floor of the Atlantic, promising to pay a reasonable price for them.[8] Not wanting this technology to fall into the hands of SHIELD either, Jim vows to Fury that he is going to stop him.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Obadiah Stane, Knight, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Jasper Sitwell), Bambi Arbogast, Vic Martinelli, Yvette Avril, Morley Erwin, Tony Stark

Continuity Notes

1. Stane had been trying to take over Stark International since Iron Man #162. He finally succeeded last issue. The company will remain Stane International until it’s required by its successor, Stark Enterprises, and shut down. See Iron Man #283 and 301.

2. Here, Jim states that Morley fixed Tony’s lab after it was trashed by Magma. This happened in Iron Man #169.

3. Jim recounts how Tony — as Iron Man — already fought on two different occasions. He fought the Knight in Iron Man #163 and 167 respectively. However, these were two different men. The original Knight was killed for failing to destroy Iron Man in issue #164. The Knight’s real name is not given here. Iron Manual Mark 3 #1 reveals that his name to be Raleigh Halward, his predecessor was named Fletcher Heggs.

4. What Vic is referring to is the fact that he is working under an assumed alias after entering the witness protection program after squealing on the mob. See Iron Man #146-147. That Vic can’t get work anywhere else because of this doesn’t really make any sense, unless Vic is worried that the mob might come after him again if he quits this job.

5. Tony had been clean and sober since Iron Man #128. However, he fell off the wagon in Iron Man #167. He will continue drinking until a brush with death in issue #182.

6. Here, it is mentioned that this device was last used during Iron Man’s first battle with Magma. This was back in Marvel Team-Up #110.

7. Nearly every suit of Iron Man armor up to this story are on display here. The model two (first seen Tales of Suspense #48), three (Tales of Suspense #66), four (Iron Man #85), five (Iron Man #142) and seven (Iron Man #152).

8. Fury states here that Tony Stark once refused to do business with SHIELD. This is not exactly true. When the modern incarnation of SHIELD first appeared in Strange Tales #135, Tony Stark provided all of their technology and weapons. However, this stopped when Stark decided to stop making munitions in Iron Man #46. When Tony was going through his first bout of alcoholism (Iron Man #119-128), SHIELD was trying to gain enough stock to gain majority control of Stark International so it can go back into weapons development. However, Tony sobered up and convinced his staff to walk out if Fury went through with it, forcing SHIELD to sell back all its shares, as seen in Iron Man #129.