Ghost of a Chance

Tony Stark’s life has been threatened by the Ghost, an corporate saboteur who can become invisible and intangible, Tony Stark has spent the last three days living in paranoia. For the past three days he has been living in his Iron Man armor as it is the only place he feels safe. Concerned for Tony’s mental health, Jim Rhodes comes to visit him and learns what he got wrong. Tony is also stressed because he put all of his available cash in Accutech a company that has been targeted by the Ghost. If they can’t complete their new portable beta particle generator, he will lose it all.

Meanwhile, at the Roxxon Oil headquarters, Carrington Pax holds a board meeting to discuss the issues they have been having with their current operative, the Ghost. He has deviated from his mission to destroy Accutech and is focusing on a vendetta against Iron Man and Tony Stark. He has his secretary to call the untraceable phone number so they can speak with the Ghost directly. At that moment, the Ghost is tinkering with his gear at his hideout, hidden in a nearby junkyard. When Carrington tell the Ghost he is being fired, the Ghost gets angry and he warns Pax that if he interferes with his mission to destroy all corporations, Roxxon will become his next target.[1] Seeing that the Ghost has gone rogue, Pax asks his secretary to call their other operative.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark has retreated to his lab where he is hard at work upgrading his Iron Man armor. Jim Rhodes stays by his side and organizes food deliveries as Tony has been working around the clock for days. During one such order, the secretary is surprised to hear Tony is in his lab as she just saw him enter the private elevator to his office. Realizing they have an impostor in the building, Tony thinks that this might be the Ghost and tells Jim to get his gun since his armor isn’t in usable condition. He sends Jim off to get his own suit of Iron Man armor.

At that moment, in Tony’s private office, the Ghost enters the room through the wall and confronts the fake Tony Stark. The Ghost is shot and the impostor quickly reveals that he is actually the Spymaster in disguise. That’s when the real Tony Stark arrive and seeing Spymaster about to shoot the Ghost in the head, debates leaving him to do his dirty work. Deciding that he can’t have blood on his hands like this, Tony instead leaps back into the office with guns blazing in an effort to save the Ghost’s life. As Spymaster is busy defending himself, the Ghost crawls over to Tony’s desk and uses the power supply to recharge his armor.[2] Once his suit is fully charge, the Ghost then phases through the floor. Noticing that his target has escape, Spymaster pulls out a tracking device and begins following him. Surprised to see Spymaster go, Tony wonders what is taking Jim so long to show up.

In another part of the facility, Jim is struggling to find the nerve to put on his suit of Iron Man armor. However, he still has the scars on his chest from the last time he wore it and was horribly burned. Despite everything he’s been through in life he suddenly finds himself too afraid to put on the Iron Man armor. He reminds himself that he has to help Tony and convinces himself that he’ll put the suit on in a minute.[3]

Meanwhile, the Ghost materializes in the women’s washroom and when Spymaster finds him, tries to take a Stark employee hostage. When this fails, the Ghost tries fleeing again and the two costumed villains are once again confronted by Tony Stark. Jim Rhodes also arrives carrying the briefcase containing his suit of Iron Man armor and uses it to shield himself when Spymaster tries to shoot him. As the two villains continue the chase, Jim explains to Tony that he couldn’t bring himself to put on the suit and brought it to Tony instead. After a quick change, Tony — as Iron Man — heads off to confront Spymaster and the Ghost.

Realizing that they are no match against Iron Man, the Ghost offers to help Spymaster escape by giving him a portable device that mimics his phasing powers. However, as Spymaster tries to phase through a wall, the Ghost removes the device causing him to materialize. The shock of materializing into a solid object kills Spymaster instantly.[4] By the time Iron Man catches up, he only finds Spymaster’s dead body and a message from the Ghost saying that he’s madder than ever and will be back. When Jim catches up and sees what happened, Tony tells him that he’s not going to be waiting for the Ghost to strike again, as he’s going afer him instead.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Ghost, Spymaster, Jim Rhodes, Atha Williams

Continuity Notes

1. The Ghost’s pathological hatred of corporations is unexplained here. In Thunderbolts #151, the Ghost claims that he was exploited by a company who wanted to profit on his GhostTech and tried to kill him when he completed his work. According to the Ghost, he murdered all of his former employers and decided that all corporations were evil. After erasing all trace of his past life he created the Ghost persona to get his revenge, but also get hired by corporations also.

2. Here, Spymaster uses his razor discs and Tony recalls how deadly they are. He last encountered this weapon in Iron Man #210.

3. Jim took over as Iron Man for a period of time that lasted from Iron Man #169 to 195. The last time he wore the armor, in Iron Man #215-216, it was to escape a contaminated space station and return to Earth. The armor was damaged and Jim got burned on re-entry.

4. This story presents this character as though he is the original Spymaster. This was believed to be the case for years until the original Spymaster resurfaced in Dark Reign: Made Men #1. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #11 has a profile on the original Spymaster that reveals that the man who dies here is named Mark Sharen. Sharen was one of the original Spymaster’s Espionage Elite, trained spies we last saw in Iron Man #33-35 and Daredevil #73.

Topical References

• Here, Jim states that he served in the Vietnam War. This should be considered a topical reference. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, Jim instead served in the Sin-Cong Conflict.

• Tony makes a comparison between his current armor and the one that he is forced to wear here. Stating it’s like using a 1957 DeSoto when you usually drive a Ferarri. This statement is not necessarily topical since Tony is using it as a point of comparison (new cars = better than old cars) One could argue that the use of real world brands could be considered topical.