Stratosfire!

The structural integrity of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge has been compromised following a car accident. With drivers stranded on part of the bridge, Iron Man races in to make rescues. When some of the bystanders fall off the bridge they are suddenly teleported to safety by Stratosfire, a new microwave powered superhero backed by the Roxxon Oil Company. The pair then work together to prevent a damaged tanker carrying fuel from exploding in the bay. Although Iron Man is thankful for the assist, he takes offense when the media is more interested in speaking with her.

When Tony Stark returns to Stan Enterprises, he is annoyed that Marcy Pearson — his publicist — isn’t doing more to gather intel on Stratosfire. She explains that this new hero only appeared a few weeks ago and that she is doing her best. Clearly annoyed, Tony tells her to do better. Seeing how upset his friend is, Jim Rhodes tells Marcy that Tony is just under a lot of stress. Jim tells Tony that he was a bit harsh with Marcy, and Tony agrees and promises to apologize. He tells Jim that he’s just rattled because Stratosfire is very similar to another Roxxon made superhuman, the Sunturion. He reminds Jim how Sunturion manned a Roxxon solar power collector that proved to be lethally dangerous when transmitting microwave energy to Earth. Tony recounts how, as Iron Man, he tried to shut down the satellite. When it ended up getting pulled into Earth’s atmosphere, Sunturion seemingly sacrificed his life to help Iron Man destroy the satellite before it could harm anyone on the planet’s surface.[1] As Stratosfire’s powers are very similar, Tony is concerned that Roxxon might have an alterior motive.

Meanwile, Stratosfire — aka Sandy Vincent — returns to her apartment that she shares with her best friend, Babs Bendix. While Sandy enjoys being Stratosfire as it allows her to do good in the world, Babs is concerned that Roxxon is just using her. Their conversation is interrupted by a video call from Roxxon CEO Jonas Hale, who tells Sandy that she is needed. He also implies that he had been listening in on their conversation and warns Babs to mind her own business. Teleporting to Roxxon headquarters, Sandy is informed that she is to go to the country of Costa Gavaras to shut down a refinery there so that Roxxon can set up shot in the region. Stratosfire is reluctant to do so, because innocent people might get hurt, but Hale reminds her that they are re-stabilizing the country from revolutionary forces. Besides, he reminds her that Roxxon gave Stratosfire her power and they can just as easily take it away.

While Stratosfire is carrying out her mission, Tony Stark goes out for a lunch date with Diane Carruthers. Diane wanted to meet Tony to introduce her is Babs Bendix. Babs tells Tony everything she knows about the Stratosfire project and her fears that Roxxon might not be on the up-and-up with her friend. Little do either of them know is that Babs is being tailed by a Roxxon operative who reports back to Jonas Hale.

The following day, Stratosfire makes a public appearance at the mayor’s office where she delivers a cheque from Roxxon to help with the effort to repair the Bay Bridge. During the appearance, she overhears some reporters talking about cutting the news about the death of a Roxxon employee who was reported to have drown. When Sandy learns that the drowned woman was Babs, she realizes that Babs was right all along not to trust their employer. Teleporting to Roxxon headquarters, Stratosfire confronts Jonas Hale and wrecks the place. She quits and warns them not to interfere with her again. After she leaves, the other heads at Roxxon want to initiate the Zed Control to shut down Stratosfire’s power, but Jonas Hale would rather let the competition deal with Stratosfire.

The following day, Stratosfire appears at a nuclear power plant being picketed by protestors. She then begins using her powers to teleport the nuclear reactor away. Iron Man soon arrives on the scene to try and stop her, but Stratosfire uses her powers to overload his armor and escape. Although Iron Man doesn’t disagree with her desire to make the world a peaceful place, she disagrees with her methods and hopes to stop her next time before she crosses a line and hurts somebody.

Back at Roxxon, Jonas Hale is under even more pressure to deal with Stratosfire. He still doesn’t think the Zed Control is necessary because he has an ace-in-the-hole he can still play. That night, a Roxxon owned plane flies over the Gulf of Mexico. Using a microwave dish, it begins drawn energy from the Gulf’s water.

The next morning, Iron Man is the guest at the unveiling of a new aircraft carrier at the San Diego shipyard. This ceremony is picketed by anti-war protestors. When Stratosfire appears, Senator Boynton asks Iron Man to stay back and let the military handle her. However, when their weapons can’t harm her, Iron Man decides to get involved. Sandy manages to grab ahold of Iron Man and threatens to microwave him inside his own armor. That’s when — much to Tony’s surprise — Sunturion arrives and saves him from being cooked alive. When Stratosfire escapes again, Iron Man wants to chase after her but Sunturion convinces Tony to work with him by calling him by his real name.

The two head back to Stark Enterprises so they can speak in private and out of armor. When they arrive, Sunturion — aka Arthur Dearborn — reverts back to his human form and explains that Roxxon was able to reconstitute his body from his residual energy.[2] He also explains that when he learned Iron Man’s secret identity when he merged his energy form with Iron Man’s armor during their last encounter. Scanning computer connections, Dearborn deduces that Stratosfire will likely attack a space shuttle launch that will carry Roxxon materials into space. This proves to be correct and when she threatens the launch, both Iron Man and Sunturion are there to stop her.

Deciding that the situation is gotten out of control, Jonas Hale tries to activate the Zed Control, that uses Sandy’s own powers to kill her. However, Stratosfire managed to find a way to jamm the Zed Control’s signal, rendering it useless. With the shuttle still at risk, Iron Man tries to reason with Sandy, by reminding her that while Roxxon is evil, the astronauts on board the shuttle are innocent. While she is distracted, Sunturion grabs her from behind and tries absorbing her energy. This allows the Zed Control to activate and Stratosfire suddenly explodes in a bust of energy. The blast also strips Sunturion of his powers, requiring Iron Man to swoop in and save him.

In the aftermath of the battle, the shuttle makes it to space to deliver its payload. Its here that Arthur tells Iron Man that he lost his ability to turn into Sunturion. Overhearing this, Jonas Hale assures Dearborn that Roxxon will look after him as he has been loyal to the company. Talking in private, Arthur promises Tony that he’ll keep his secret. Arthur also admits that although Sandy was psychotic, he believes that the world situation — everything from war to resource scarcity — fed into her mental illness and wonders if perhaps there wasn’t some kind of brilliance behind it as well. Iron Man admits that he thought about this himself but will get back to him when he figures out an answer.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Sunturian, Jonas Hale, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, Marcy Pearson

Continuity Notes

1. Iron Man’s clash with Sunturion was chronicled in Iron Man #142-144.

2. Here, Arthur mentions Roxxon’s failed second Sunturion (aka Mike Stone), who appeared in Daredevil #224.

Topical References

• When stopping the fuel tanker from exploding, Iron Man uses freon gas to freeze it. This should be considered topical as the commercial use of freon has long since been banned due to its negative impact on the environment.

• Tony drinks a Perrier, a bottled water. This should be considered topical as Perrier is a real world product.

• The donation Roxxon makes to repair the Bay Bridge is stated as being $10,000. That would be about 24k in 2022 money.

• Although not mentioned by name, the mayor of San Francisco is depicted to resemble Dianne Feinstein, who was mayor of San Fran back when this comic was published in 1987. This should be considered topical as her term as mayor came to an end in 1988.

• Here, Dearborn states that the purpose of NASA’s rocket booster test is in response to the Challenger explosion. Space Shuttle Challenger blew up mid-launch in January of 1986. This should be considered topical.

• Likewise, NASA is depicted launching a space shuttle orbiter in this story. This fleet of space shuttles were all retired in 2011. At of the time of this writing (January, 2022) NASA is still working on prototypes of their replacement shuttles, the Orion, and have been using commercial space ships for missions at the time being. Modern readers could assume rather than the retired space shuttles, NASA is launching whatever the current present day equivalent would be.

Supplimentary Material

This Annual features a two page feature on Stark Enterprises. It goes into its history and construction, lists some of its staff including Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, Bambi Arbogast, and Marcy Pearson. It concludes by showing a map of the facility.

Topical References

• The description in this story states that Stark Enterprises has a monorail system under construction that is expected to be completed in the spring of 1988. The date should be considered topical.