Iron Man #192
A Duel of Iron
As an unhinged Jim Rhodes battles Vibro at an airshow as Iron Man, Tony Stark realizes that he will have to wear the armor again in order to stop his best friend from harming innocent people.[1] Despite the fact that Jim’s armor is much more advanced than the suit he is wearing, Tony hopes to talk sense into his friend.[2] Before he leaves, Clytemnestra kisses Tony for good luck. After Tony takes off, Morley asks if she is falling in love with Tony, something she isn’t entirely sure of.
Meanwhile, at the air show, the battle between Jim and Vibro continues. Telling people to evacuate, Jim then saves a pilot when Vibro uses his power to knock an experimental plane out of the sky. However, Vibra shocks him with a vibrational blast making him drop the plane. Luckily, Tony Stark arrives and prevents the plane from crashing.
After Jim is is caught in a massive explosion when Vibro blows up a bunch of planes. When Tony arrives he recalls how Vibro’s powers are tied in to the San Andreas fault line. He then uses his repulsors to lift the villain into the air high enough to cut him off his powers and then tosses him out of range. By this time, Jim has pulled himself out of the wreckage and he is not happy that Tony has showed up in another suit of armor. Morley and Cly try to convince Jim to come back to Circuits Maximus to talk things out, but Jim accuses Tony of trying to take back being Iron Man and attacks him. Just as Tony predicted, his armor is no match against the more advanced suit worn by Rhodes. However, when Jim tries to use the uni-beam, Tony picks up a reflective scrap of metal to bounce the beam back, damaging Jim’s armor.
This allows Tony to take to the air where he hopes to draw Jim away from the crowd. Fighting in the air, Tony manages to disorientate his friend with a sonic blast, which allows him to get close enough to hack into Jim’s armor to override many of his powers. Remotely activating the image projector in Jim’s armor, Tony then rips off one of its power pods. Fleeing into a nearby building, Tony realizes — to his horror — that it is a winery. The smell of alcohol reminds him of his recent struggles with booze. Racing outside, Tony is ambushed by Jim who takes back the power pod and reattaches it to his armor. However, this is going according to plan as Tony rewired it to deactivate Jim’s armor, ending the battle.
With Jim finally stopped, Tony now has the opportunity to talk things out with his best friend. Jim admits that he has grown to like becoming Iron Man because he has always craved being a hero, ever since he was a child growing up in poverty in Philadelphia. It’s why he went to flight school and enlisted in the military. Now that Tony is back, he is afraid he will have to stop being Iron Man and he won’t be a hero anymore. Tony understands having a need something and not have it. Stripping off his own armor, he assures Jim that he never wants to put the armor back on again.[3] Reactivating Jim’s own armor, Tony tells him he won’t stop him from doing whatever he plans doing next. Tony his happen when Jim reaches out and shakes his hand.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man (Stark), Iron Man (Rhodes), Morley Erwin, Cly Erwin, Vibro
Continuity Notes
There is a lot of drama here off the top. The details are as follows:
After falling off the wagon in Iron Man #167, Tony Stark gave up being Iron Man forcing Jim Rhodes to take over the role in issue #169-170.
As explained in Iron Man #187, the cybernetic interface in the Iron Man armor was never calibrated for Jim’s brain and eventually started causing him to suffer headaches, mood swings and a change in personality. Although this was later fixed, the side effects will persist until Jim is cured in issue #195.
Although Tony decided to go sober in Iron Man #182, he has refused to retake the mantle of Iron Man. At the time of this story he believed that his double identity is the cause of his alcoholism.
However, after working on his sobriety, Tony will later discover that his addictions stem from the generational trauma caused by his alcoholic step-father. See Iron Man #313 for all the deets.
This armor is an exact replicate of the armor he built way back in Tales of Suspense #39.
Never say Never in comic books Tony, as you’ll be forced back into being Iron Man in issue #199-200.
Topical References
Here, Jim states he fought in the Vietnam War. This should be considered a topical reference. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, Jim now has fought in the Sin-Cong Conflict.
