Heartbeaten

Tony Stark has been shot by his stalker, Kathy Dare. Clinging to life, the brilliant inventor is rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Jim Rhodes accompanies Tony to the hospital, but doctors stop him from following him into surgery. Jim then is swarmed by reporters who want to know if Tony Stark is dead or alive. Marcy Pearson — Tony’s public relations director — takes command of the situation and tells the media that Tony is still live and that an official statement will be coming out soon.

As the media waits for word on Tony Stark’s condition, they report that Kathy Dare has been arrested and brought to police headquarters for processing. Allowed to speak to a lawyer, Kathy is visited by Bert Hindel, who volunteered to represent her. However, his motivation is to sensationalize the trial as much as possible and making a killing on a book deal. Later, Hindel holds a press conference and claims that Kathy acted in self defense, accusing Tony Stark of being emotionally and physically abusive.[1] When Jim Rhodes sees this report he kicks out the screen on the waiting room television. Bambi Arbogast tells Rhodes to get it together and find Felix Alvarez, Tony’s lawyer, and find out what he can do to combat these false accusations. By this time, Tony is recovering from his first round of surgery and Bambi goes out to watch his room. She catches a janitor trying to take Tony’s picture and breaks his camera.

Also watching the news coverage is Scott Lang and his daughter Cassie. As Scott reassures his daughter that “Uncle Tony” will be fine. However, it gets Scott wondering what might happen to his daughter if his exploits as Ant-Man ever lead to him being seriously hurt or killed.[2]

Meanwhile, Rae LaCoste has enlisted the aid of Doctor Charles Ingwe to perform a delicate surgery on Tony Stark. Despite getting one of the most skilled micro-surgeons in the country, the medical team tells members of the press that Tony Stark is still in a life-or-death situation. Off stage, Marcy Pearson tries to convince Jim Rhodes to get Iron Man to show up and make a statement in the hopes that can give this whole thing a positive spin. Jim — who knows Tony and Iron Man are one and the same — gets upset that she is more concerned with optics instead of Tony’s well being. That’s when Felix Alvarez arrives with Tony’s will that states that Marcy is to take over control of the business in the event he is incapacitated. While Marcy goes up to address the media, Felix and Jim decide to go have a drink.

Seeing this address is Justin Hammer, who tells his assistant Phillip Barnett, to arrange to have the rarest flowers available and a get well soon card to send to Tony Stark, but only in the event he lives.

That evening, Tigra arrives at the hospital with some flowers. Although the rest of the West Coast Avengers have been distancing themselves from Tony Stark since the Armor Wars, she still cares for his well being.[3][4] However, when she enters the hospital her appearance quickly starts causing a scene. Leaving her flowers with the receptionist, Tigra heads out and grabs the latest edition of the newspaper which features a front page story about Tony Stark. This leaves her to wonder if they ever really knew who Tony Stark was.

The media, is still delving into Tony Stark’s past as well as the life as a business leader and his creation of Iron Man. They remind viewers how Tony inherited his family company, Stark Industries and built the company, renaming it Stark International. He also created the Iron Man armor and the hero went on to become a hero and a founding member of the Avengers. Stark continued to innovate for years, until his family business was lost to him during a ruthless corporate takeover by Obadiah Stane. They also touch on Tony’s recent bout of alcoholism where it appeared he would lose it all. However, he surprised everyone when he bounced back and built a new company, Stark Enterprises and returned to the playboy lifestyle. They then touch on his recent romances which include actress Brie Daniels, hairstylist Rae LaCoste, and lastly Kathy Dare.[5]

When commenting on Dare, they recount how she previously dated musician Stevie Gazelle, whose Malibu beach house burned down in a suspicious fire not long after their break-up. The news is then interrupted for a press conference being held by Tony Stark’s doctors providing an update on his condition.

Hearing this, Bambi Arbogast wakes everyone in the waiting room up so they can attend the conference in person. Doctor Ingwe takes the podium and tells the members of the media that Tony Stark is expected to survive from his gunshot wound. However, the bullet passed completely through him and caused extensive nerve damage and as a result he tells everyone that Tony Stark will never walk again.[6]

Recurring Characters

Tony Stark, Kathy Dare, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, Marcy Pearson, Felix Alvarez, Rae LaCoste, Bert Hindel, Justin Hammer, Phillip Barnett, Ant-Man, Cassie Lang, Tigra

Continuity Notes

1. Although not outright stated here, Bert Hindel’s motivations here are because he was once Tony Stark’s lawyer, before he was fired in Iron Man #237.

2. This worry is actually quite valid, as Scott would later be seemingly killed in action in Avengers #500. Cassie, then a teenager would be came a heroine named Statue in Young Avengers #1-6, to honor her father. Later she would travel back in time and bring her father forward in time moments before his death, as seen in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6.

3. When Tony discovered his Iron Man technology had been stolen and sold to others, he went on a crusade to destroy all traces of his inventions. This made him very unpopular forcing the West Coast Avengers to kick him off the team. Tony also “fired” Iron Man from his company and faked his death, claiming that the original was replaced by a new man in the armor. See Iron Man #225-231.

4. Tigra expresses her confusion over Iron Man’s true identity. This is because she learned that Iron Man and Tony Stark were the same man back in Avengers #215-216. As stated above, Tony faked Iron Man’s death in Iron Man #231.

5. The news coverage on Tony Stark goes into a lot of his personal history. The details:

   • It states that Tony inherited the family business. As revealed in Iron Man #288, his parents died in car crash which may or may not have been an accident. It has been suggested that Howard and Maria Stark might have been killed by either the V-Battalion (Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1) and/or Roxxon and Hydra (Iron Man: The Iron Age #1).

   • However, the statement that Tony inherited the company from his parents is not entirely accurate. Tony was adopted by the Starks and was not their biological children, as revealed in Iron Man (vol. 5) #17. International Iron Man #5-7 reveal that Tony’s biological parents were actually SHIELD agents named Amanda Armstrong and Jude (last name unknown as of this writing).

   • After operating under the Stark Industries name for years, Tony changed the name to Stark International in Iron Man #73 to reflect the company’s growing global operations.

   • Tony created his Iron Man armor back in the Stark Industries days, circa Tales of Suspense #39. As Iron Man he was a founding member of the Avengers, as seen in Avengers #1.

   • Stark International was taken over and renamed Stane International in Iron Man #173 by Obadiah Stane.

   • Tony’s recent bender is also mentioned here. Tony almost lost it all drinking his life away from Iron Man #167 until he decided to get sober in issue #182.

6. Never say never. Although Tony is indeed unable to walk here, his damaged nerves get repaired with a prototype biochip. See Iron Man #248.

Topical References

• The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.

• The paparazzi that tries to take photos of Tony in the hospital is depicted using a camera that uses film. This should be considered topical given that film cameras are not as common thanks to the advent of digital cameras and the ubiquity of cameras built into cell phones.

• Scott Lang has two movie posters up on the wall of his house. One for Return of the Jedi, and the other for the Howling. For some reason, the Howling is listed as being produced by 20th Century Fox. It wasn’t. At any rate, the references to Return of the Jedi and 20th Century Fox wouldn’t be considered topical since they, like Marvel Comics, are now owned by Disney. The Howling would be topical, however.

• Likewise, the Lang household is depicted having a VCR. This should be considered topical as it is yet another example of obsolete technology.

• This story references many real world news sources, the references of which should be considered topical. These are: The Los Angeles Times newspaper, and NBC’s The Today Show. There is also a depiction of ABC News. This would not be considered topical since the ABC network is now, like Marvel Comics, owned by Disney.

• At least one of the TV personalities is mentioned by name: Bryant Gumbel. Gumbel was the host of the Today Show from 1982 through 1989. The others are also probably based on real people but I’m not going to bother looking them up. These should all be considered topical for the usual reasons.

• Bryant is about to talk about an embarrassing incident involving David Letterman. Again, another topical reference since Letterman is a real life person.