Prisons

Since his capture, Goliath has been held prisoner at the Avengers Compound in California. However, his attempts to escape from his cell are impossible thanks to its Adamantium construction. However, he makes his stay as annoying as possible. Such as demanding meals to fit his titanic size even though — as a being of ionic power — he doesn’t really need to eat.

After giving Goliath a pile of hamburgers, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are confronted by his lawyer, Runyon Castle, who demands that they release his prisoner. The two Avengers are reluctant to do so because his Goliath’s recent criminal activities, so his lawyer threatens to come back with a court order to force them to do so.[1]

Meanwhile, at a nearby airfield, an operative for AIM sabotages Tony Stark’s new space shuttle so that its onboard systems will short out while in flight. Unaware of this act of sabotage, Tony and his friend Jim Rhodes go over the plan. Tony suggests that he accompany as Iron Man or Jim bring his own suit of armor, but Jim needs to do this alone as himself after recovering from his recent injuries, besides he has no interest in becoming Iron Man again now that Tony has taken on the role again.[2] As they discuss this, the saboteur calls his master, the Scientist Supreme at Advance Idea Mechanics. Pleased, the Supreme Scientist goes to gloat to his brother, Yorgon Tykkios who has been imprisoned for disobeying orders.[3] He intends to sabotage Tony Stark’s attempts to set up a new space station to prevent Stark from discovering an AIM satellite already in orbit. Yorgon, who has aspirations to take over AIM from his brother, is disinterested in sarcastically congratulates the Scientist Supreme.

Later, Tony Stark pays a visit to Clytemnestra Erwin to see if she has made up her mind about joining his new business. Cly is still undecided because she is still getting over the death of her brother, Morley, something she still holds Iron Man responsible for.[4] Tony hopes she will reconsider and changes into his alter-ego so he can pay a visit to Avengers Compound. At that same moment, Jim is considering bringing the attaché case that contains his suit of Iron Man armor with him on the shuttle launch, but decides against it once again.

As Jim launches the shuttle, Avengers Compound is visited again by Runyan Castle who has come with the court order that will force the West Coast Avengers into handing over his clients to the Los Angeles police. Expecting a fight the moment they open Goliath’s cage, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are surprised when their prisoner goes along peacefully. However, when they insist on accompanying the officers back to the police station, their offer is refused.

However, as soon as the cops get outside the gates of Avengers Compound, Goliath increases his size and breaks free from the squad car. Realizing they are out gunned, Hawkeye and Mockingbird try to fend off Goliath as they retreat back to a nearby beach. That’s when Iron Man arrives on the scene, much to the couple’s relief. Iron Man’s new armor and weapons are more than enough to fend off Goliath.

Unfortunately, it’s at a critical point in the battle when Jim’s shuttle begins to malfunction sending him falling back through the atmosphere. About to burn up in re-entry, Jim radios Iron Man for help. With no time to spare, Iron Man creates a distraction to keep Goliath busy by placing Hawkeye and Mockingbird in Goliath’s adamantium cage and placing it on a nearby hilltop. Iron Man then races into the air and helps Jim’s shuttle safely land. With the danger passed, the Avenger returns to his comrades just as Goliath tosses the indestructible cage into the ocean in an effort to drown Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

After making a daring rescue, Iron Man takes a gamble and unleashes a plasma blast down Goliath’s throat. This succeeds in knocking Goliath out leaving the trio to figure out how to get their foe back in his cage while they wait for the authorities to send reinforcement.

Meanwhile, Yorgon Tykkio broods in his cell as he formulates his next big scheme to usurp control of AIM.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Goliath, Jim Rhodes, Cly Erwin, AIM

Continuity Notes

1. Hawkeye and Mockingbird recount two of Goliath’s most recent exploits: His attack on Los Angeles in Iron Man Annual #7 and joining the Grim Reaper’s Lethal Legion in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1-2.

2. The dynamics between Tony and Jim here are quite complex. Here are the details:

   • After being sober for some time, Tony fell off the wagon in Iron Man #167. His drinking problem became so serious that Jim had to take over as Iron Man in issue #169-170.

   • Since then, Tony sobered up in issue #182 and was later forced into returning to the role of Iron Man in issue #200.

   • Meanwhile, in Iron Man #195, Jim realized that his desire to be Iron Man was due to his desire to be a hero and the guilt of taking over Tony’s identity was affecting his mental health and willingly gave it up.

   • Jim had just recently recovered from injuries sustained in a bomb blast back in Iron Man #198-199.

3. Yorgon was locked up after he remotely piloted MODOK’s corpse and launched an unauthorized attack on Iron Man last issue.

4. Morley died in the same explosion that injured Jim in Iron Man #198-199.

Topical References

• The AIM saboteur states that he bought his favorite wrench at Sears ten years prior to this story. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world business, particularly since Sears has heavily scaled down its operations at the time of this writing (January, 2022) and its future existence is in jeopardy.

• The saboteur is being paid $11,000 to do his job, which comes to about $27k in 2022 money.