Yesterday… and Tomorrow

Released from the hospital after being shot, Tony Stark has lost the use of his legs and will have to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair.[1] Tony is quiet the whole ride back to Stark Enterprises where he is scheduled to have a meeting with senior management. Jim Rhodes and Bambi Arbogast are both worried how Tony will handle his new life, however when the meeting starts — despite his cumbersome wheelchair — he acts as though nothing has happened to him. Tony even pours his own cup of coffee as he wants to show to everyone that this new change will not affect his life.

Meanwhile, at Roxxon headquarters, Jonas Hale has learned of Tony Stark’s new disability. He believes that this is a weakness they can exploit to commit acts of sabotage against one of their biggest competators.

Without Iron Man to defend his company and its subsidiaries, Stark Enterprises becomes a target to various acts of sabotage that are hampering their latest work. Down in his private lab, Tony meets with Jim and tries to convince him to become Iron Man once again. Unfortunately, Jim can’t bring himself to do it, telling Tony that his time as Iron Man is behind him.[2] Although Jim hates letting down the boss, he comes up with an idea.

Meanwhile, Tony returns home to his mansion and tries to set up a date with Brie Daniels. The actress turns Tony down saying that she has a meeting with the VP of a major Hollywood studio but Tony can tell that she is concerned about her public image if she were to go out on a date with someone with a disability.

At that moment, at Barstow Electronics (a Stark subsidiary) Jim Rhodes pays a visit to Clay Wilson. Wilson used to be the armored villain known as Force until Tony saved his life and set him up with a new identity.[3] Jim has come to Wilson and convinces him to pitch-hit for Iron Man, who he says is away on a secret mission. Clay agrees to take on the role since he owes Tony Stark so much and is given Tony’s suit of stealth Iron Man armor to wear.

That evening, the Fixer breaks into AccuTech, another Stark subsidiary, to sabotage it on behalf of Roxxon. He is caught red handed by Jim Rhodes and Wilson in the stealth Iron Man armor. Although they are able to stop the Fixer from completing his job, Clay’s inexperience with Iron Man’s armor prevents the pair from capturing the saboteur, who escapes.

The following day, Tony pays a visit to his current girlfriend, Rae LaCoste, at Doos and Don’ts, her hairdressing studio. He invites her on a date to the beach and at first she reluctantly declines because she has an important client coming in. This upsets Tony because he is once again being rejected for his disability. However, Rae has a change of heart and catches up with him at his specially modified van and says she’d love to go to the beach with him after all.

The day after, Tony is back at work at Stark Enterprises when the facility is attacked by the Fixer. Although Jim Rhodes and “Iron Man” are able to repel the Fixer once again, a Stark employee is injured by a concussion bomb. Feeling totally helpless, Tony feels even more useless than ever before. Later in the day, Tony attends a physio-therapy session where he meets a man who is completely immobile due to his own disability making Tony realize that he doesn’t have it quite so bad as others who are still trying to make the best of their situations. The disabled man reminds Tony of his own prison back when he first became Iron Man years ago. This gets him thinking about a woman named Joanna Nivena.

He thinks back to a few days before he was shot and crippled by Kathy Dare.[4] Tony was in attendance of an auction being held aboard a private yacht. There, Tony was reunited with Joanna and the pair decide to go for a walk to catch up. Out on the deck, Tony thinks back to how he was dating Joanna back before he first became Iron Man. He recalls how a trip to Southeast Asia resulted in getting injured by a tripwire. He was then captured by the local militia leader Wong-Chu and was forced to build weapons for him. Working with another captured scientist, Ho Yinsen, Tony instead built his first suit of Iron Man armor not only so they could use it to escape, but also as a medical device that would keep the bomb shrapnel in his chest from piercing his heart. As Iron Man, Tony was able to escape from Wong-Chu’s captivity, but at the cost of Ho Yinsen’s life.[5] Tony then wandered the jungle trying to get back to American territory when he came upon a soldier named Jim Rhodes who helped him get back, the starting point of their long association and friendship.[6]

Once back in the United States, Tony worked tirelessly to reduce the bulk on the metal chest plate he now had to wear all the time so he could hide it under his normal clothing. However, when he was reunited with Joanna Nivena, he refused to let her hug him and became suddenly distant. Joanna could tell that there was something wrong and wished Tony would open up to her.

Meanwhile, Stark attempted to get used to his new condition and during this adjustment period he decided that now would be the perfect time to quit smoking. The constant weakness and the need for recharging his chest plate soon became unbearable. One night Tony couldn’t sleep comfortably and tried taking the chest plate off, but as his heart strained under the press, Tony found himself crawling back to the device in order to save his life.

Tony then decided to try and use his new suit of armor as the next innovation for his company, Stark Industries. He put on a press conference where he showed off his armor, dubbed the “human machine”. After the conference, Tony then called Joanna and told her that he needs some time apart from her. That evening, Tony was working in his lab to improve his armor when some thieves broke in to steal some of his technology. Putting on his armor, Tony easily trounced then, even after they tried using spare gauntlets and jet boots to try and fight back. Realizing his armor technology could fall into the wrong hands, Tony decides that he can’t mass produce and sell his latest invention.

Eventually, Joanna came back to him and convinced Tony that they needed to talk. Still keeping his injury a secret, Tony tells her that it is his business responsibilities that are taking up much of his time and since Joanna wants to get married, he isn’t sure the demands of his job would be any less should they tie the knot. Joanna tells Tony that that’s not important now and suggests that they just take things slow and easy. The pair agree to go out on a date to watch a tennis match.

While there, the match is attacked by a terrorist group called the American Freedom Front. Knowing that Tony had packed his suit of armor in his attaché case, Joanna tells Tony to use it against the terrorists. Tony does just that and with the advanced technology in his armor he makes short work of the terrorists who are then promptly arrested. This gives Tony inspiration to use his armor to become a hero and fight crime. It also rekindles his desire to continue his romance with Joanna. However, Joanna herself has had a change of heart as she now sees how Tony has changed and that he’d never settle down and raise a family with her now. Thus ended their relationship.

Finishing his recollection, Tony discovers that he still have feelings for Joanna. However, he soon learns that she is married with children. He is happy to see that she finally got the life she always wanted. Having won the earlier auction, Tony decides to have the portrait he purchased sent to Joanna’s family as a gift.

… Recollecting this all now, Tony agrees that he changed a lot since those days and that he has the courage within to face his new disability head on.[7] Returning to his lab, Tony begins working on a new suit of Iron Man armor that will allow him to regain the mobility he has lost.

A few days later, the Fixer returns to Stark Enterprises in a massive battle platform. Once again, Jim and Clay are there to repel the attack, but the Fixer’s vehicle is too powerful. That’s when Tony Stark arrives in his new suit of armor and easily incapacitates the battle station and captures the Fixer. Clay is happy to see Iron Man back in action and while he enjoyed playing the part for a while he looks forward to returning to his normal job. Once Wilson is gone, Tony confides in Jim that while he has solved the immediate problem with being Iron Man, he now has the challenge of learning to live his life outside the armor.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man (Stark), Iron Man (Wilson), Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, Brie Daniels, Rae LaCoste, Garrison Quint, Kathy Dare, Jonas Hale, Justin Hammer, Fixer,

Continuity Notes

1. Tony was shot by his stalker Kathy Dare in Iron Man #242. His disability won’t last long as the use of his legs will be restored with a bio-chip in issue #248.

2. When Tony fell off the wagon in Iron Man #167, his drinking made him incapable of being Iron Man, forcing Jim to take over the role starting in issue #169. Although Tony got sober in issue #182, Jim continued being Iron Man until discovering that it was having a negative impact on his mental health and gave up the role in Iron Man #195. Shortly after that in issue #215-216, Jim was forced to wear an Iron Man suit to return to Earth from orbit and was burned on re-entry. He quickly discovered that he was scared of putting on the suit again ever since.

3. Until recently, Wilson — as Force — worked for Justin Hammer. Growing tired of his life of crime, Wilson came to Tony Stark and Iron Man for help. They helped fake his death and set him up with a new identity and a job. See Iron Man #223-224.

4. Neither the Marvel Chronology Project nor Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Iron Man are very clear when this first flashback — where Tony bumps into Joanna after years of being apart — happens. My presumption is that it takes place during the events of Iron Man #242 between panels 4 and 5 on page 21, between Iron Man’s defeat of the Mandarin and setting up a Stark Enterprises location in Hong Kong and his returning home and getting shot by Kathy Dare.

5. This is a retelling of Iron Man’s origins from Tales of Suspense #39. This is the first time a retelling generalizes the origin story. When it was originally written, Tony was stated as being involved in the Vietnam War. However, as the Sliding Timescale has pushed the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe forward in time this has grown to become an impossibility. Here, the conflict is left general and is only stated as happening in a country in Southeast Asia. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, Tony’s origins are now rooted in the Sin-Cong Conflict, allowing for his origin taking place in Vietnam a factual reference as opposed to a topical one.

6. The story of Iron Man’s first encounter with Jim Rhodes was chronicled in Iron Man #144.

7. There is a one panel montage of some of Iron Man’s more recent exploits on display here. They are:

   • His clashes with the Ghost from Iron Man #219-221 and 239-240.

   • His recent battle with the Rhino in Iron Man #238.

   • His clash with Doctor Doom which took place in Iron Man #149-150.

   • His clashes with Justin Hammer which date back to Iron Man #120.

   • Lastly, Iron Man’s recent clash with Firepower that took place in Iron Man #230-231.

Topical References

• Brie Daniels turns down a date with Tony stating she has a meeting with the Vice President of Paramount Pictures. This should be considered a topical reference as Paramount is a real world production company.

• Rae’s important client is pop-singer Michael Jackson whom she is giving a perm. This should be considered a topical reference as Jackson died in 2009.

• One of the patients at Tony’s physio therapists office is a man in an iron lung. This should also be considered a topical reference as this type of technology is now obsolete due to advances in medicine and the elimination of Polio, one of the leading causes for someone being put in an iron lung. Modern readers could assume that Tony is assisting someone with a different disability that would also prevent them from being able to change the channel on their TV.

• Speaking of the man in the iron lung, he asks Tony to change the channel because he can’t stomach a character named Downey. I’m not sure what this reference is in relation to, but it’d be pretty funny if it were a reference to actor Robert Downey Jr. who would go on to play Iron Man in various Marvel Studios films starting in 2008. Dude in the iron lung then asks Tony to put it on the Flintstones. These could be considered topical references unless you want to think this poor guy is forced to watch old re-runs on TV.

• And speaking of TVs, the one he is watching is a CRT television. These are about as obsolete as his iron lung.

Errors

• In the flashback that details Tony’s relationship with Joanna Nivena his company is incorrectly identified as both Stark International and Stark Enterprises. As this flashback takes place after Tales of Suspense #39, it should be called Stark Industries. Stark Industries was renamed to Stark International in Iron Man #73 while Stark Enterprises is a separate corporate entity that was fully founded in Iron Man #215.