To Live and Die in LA!

Donny Gill, aka the Blizzard, is being transferred from the county jail to the courthouse when suddenly, the building is attacked by the Rhino. The villain has come to break Donny out of prison on behalf of their boss, Justin Hammer. However, while making their escape, the dimwitted Rhino trashes their escape vehicle.[1] The pair flee the scene while the Rhino tries to remember what the back-up plan is, leaving Donny to wonder what he has gotten himself into.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is involved in a race at the Santa Rosa Speedway. Thanks to guidance and engineering skill of Jim Rhodes, Tony is able to win first place. As Tony is in the middle of making a date with the Race Queen, Kathy Dare shows up. Jealous of the other woman, Kathy dumps a bucket of ice water on her head. This angers Tony because the tabloids are all snapping photos. Tony tells her to go home and then tries to deflect from the scene by telling the media that he is going to match the prize money, which Tony is donating to a charity.

When Tony returns to his dressing room, Jim expresses his concern with how obsessive Kathy Dare has been over Tony. Stark dismisses it as nothing to worry about and changes into his Iron Man armor as he has to show up for a TV commercial shoot arranged by Marcy Pearson, Stark Enterprises head of public relations. Unaware that Iron Man is actually her boss, Marcy is furious when Iron Man shows up late. During the shoot he overhears the news about the Rhino’s jailbreak but figures that the police will be able to deal with things on their own while he’s busy filming.

Meanwhile, at Maggia headquarters, Madame Masque — aka Whitney Frost — is going over some paperwork when she is visited by another woman armed with a gun. Before Madame Masque can raise the alarm, she is fatally shot by the assailant who takes Whitney’s trademark golden mask.[2]

By this time the commercial shoot is over and so Iron Man returns to Stark Enterprises and changes back out of his armor. When Tony checks in with his secretary, Bambi Arbogast, he learns that other than a number of calls from Kathy Dare, his new lawyer Felix Alvarez is waiting for him in his office with a representative of the State Department. They have come to discuss Iron Man’s recent containment of the Koontz incident.[3] Stark agreed to send his alter-ego into space to destroy an American bio-weapon in exchange for the government dropping all the lawsuits filed against his company.[4] When Hooper, the State Department rep, tries to renege on the deal Tony threatens to take the story to the media. When Alvarez backs Tony up on this, the State Department agrees to follow through on their promise. Tony is very pleased with Felix’s performance and is glad he took him on after he fired his previous lawyer, Bert Hindel.[5] After the meeting, Bambi Arbogast asks if Tony could go over the financial figures from Barstow Electronics with accounting, but Tony has personal business to deal with.

Elsewhere on site, Jim Rhodes and Marcy Pearson have the company jacuzzi all to themselves so they can have some much needed time to themselves. When Tony brings up the Rhino break-out situation, Marcy decides to change the subject with a little romance.

Later, Tony Stark is parked out on a deserted stretch of road contemplating on the losses he suffered during his Armor Wars. While it was indeed expensive, he is more concerned about the toll it has taken on his personal relationships. That’s when Steve Rogers arrives to talk things out, as the two found themselves fighting against one another over Iron Man’s quest. The two agree that they had opposing views but decide to put it behind them. Steve assures Tony that no matter whatever happens he’ll always be willing to lay his life on the line for Iron Man. After Steve takes off, Tony can’t help but feel empty inside figuring that this is what war does to you as the conflict never really ends in your mind.[6]

As Tony drives into the city, he catches another radio bulletin saying that the Rhino and Donny Gill are still on the loose. He decides that he can’t ignore this any longer and changes into Iron Man. By this time, the Rhino and Donny are trying to get on a plane at Los Angeles International Airport. However, the authorities have them pinned down. When Iron Man arrives on the scene, he discovers that while the Rhino is invulnerable to attack he is still susceptible to temperature. Using a tanker of jet fuel, Iron Man traps the Rhino in a circle of fire and keeps him contained until he passes out from the extreme heat. Unfortunately, while Iron Man was busy dealing with the Rhino, Donny Gill managed to escape on a plane that is now heading for Tijuana.

Later, Tony Stark meets with his Felix Alvaraze, who informs him that a foreign technology firm called Electronica Fabrizzi is ideal for purchase. However, other investors have stayed away from the company after a series of incidents which has Tony concerned. Little does he know that the company is being terrorized by his old foe, the Ghost.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rhino, Jim Rhodes, Kathy Dare, Marcy Pearson, Bambi Arbogast, Felix Alvarez, Justin Hammer, Blizzard, Ghost, Steve Rogers, Madame Masque

Continuity Notes

1. Donny Gill recognizes a riot tank from when he previously attacked the jail house. This happened while Blizzard, Blacklash, and the Beetle were trying to silence Force, who had defected from Justin Hammer’s employ. See Iron Man #223-224.

2. The woman who is murdered isn’t the real Whitney Frost. In fact, she is a bio-duplicate, as is her killer. As explained in Avengers (vol. 3) #32, Frost started using bio-duplicates as her stand-ins as she feared her own mortality.

3. Iron Man went into space to destroy the government bio-weapon, a created created to destroy enemy satellites last issue.

4. When Tony discovered that his Iron Man technology was stolen and being sold to other armor users, he went out as Iron Man to brick all the unauthorized use of his technology. This included super-villains as well as government agents and foreign operatives. This resulted in many lawsuits being filed against Stark Enterprises due to their association with Iron Man. Tony distanced himself by “firing” Iron Man and faking his death and claiming he was replaced by someone else. See Iron Man #225-231.

5. Bart Hindel was fired over his inability to manage Tony’s legal affairs. That happened last issue as well.

6. Iron Man and the Captain found themselves on opposing sides during the Armor Wars event as seen in Iron Man #228 and Captain America #341. Here, Steve is referred to as the Captain as this story takes place during a time when Rogers was forced to give up his Captain America identity in Captain America #332. That remained the status quo until issue #350 of that series.

Topical References

• The narrative in this story compares Madame Masque’s power as being on par with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and First Lady Nancy Reagan. This should be considered topical as Thatcher ended her term in 1990 and later died in 2013, while Nancy Reagan finished her role as First Lady in 1989 and died in 2016.