Armor Wars II Part 3: Put Them All Together and They Spell Laser!

In the ruins of the Stark Enterprises atomic research facility, Iron Man has discovered that he hasn’t been terrorized by the undead Titanium Man after all, but the Living Laser in disguise.[1] The Living Laser is happy to learn that he is facing the real Iron Man and not some successor in the role.[2][3] Trapped in a underground walled with reflective surfaces, Iron Man finds himself bombarded on all sides by the Living Laser.

Meanwhile, the Mandarin has come to San Francisco seeking out an elderly wizard named Chen Hsu. The old man has been expecting him ever since he swapped out one of the Mandarin’s rings with a forgery, and expected him to come sooner.[4] Chen Hsu then willingly gets the real ring out of its hiding place — a statue of a dragon — and hands it back to the Mandarin. The would-be world conqueror can instantly tell the difference by the touch. When he puts the real ring on the sudden surge of power suddenly makes him collapse to the floor.

Back at Stark Enterprises, Iron Man has managed to rip off one of the reflective walls to redirect the Living Laser’s attacks back at him. Even though he is composed of laser energy himself, this still hurts and he stops his bombardment. He then charges at his foe and begins pummeling Iron Man, something made easier when the Laser increase his intensity to the point where the hero can’t see. Iron Man struggles against the Laser until he remembers that he can set his repulsors to an antagonistic frequency that temporarily fells his foe. However, the Laser is soon back on his feet and he manages to fire a pin-point beam that cuts through Iron Man’s armor and through his shoulder.

As Tony Stark is fighting for his life, his vital signs are being monitored by Kearson DeWitt and his team of scientists. They have been charged with hacking into Stark’s bio-chip and remotely pilot his body at times.[5] However, their only limitation is that they cannot see things through Stark’s eyes and cannot fathom what he might be doing that has him so pumped up. That’s when Desmond and Phoebe Marrs — DeWitt’s financiers — show up and demand a progress report.[6] DeWitt explains that they can now remotely control 97% of Stark’s motor functions. Desmond decides that he wants a demonstration and orders the scientists to shut Tony Stark down right away.

At that moment, Iron Man suddenly collapses to the ground and becomes unresponsive. The Living Laser is shocked that his opponent would resort to playing possum. He is ready to kill Iron Man then and there but decides that it would not be a worthy victory and decides to return when the hero is back on his feet so he can destroy Iron Man in a fair fight.

Eventually, the Stark Enterprise staff recover Iron Man from the pit and rush him to the medical facility. There one of the staff doctors tries to get life sign readings and deems Iron Man dead. However, Tony Stark is very much alive, just completely incapacitated and cannot respond.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Living Laser, Demond Marrs, Phoebe Marrs, Kearson DeWitt, Mandarin, Chen Hsu

Continuity Notes

1. The Living Lightning posed as Kondrati Topolov, aka the Gremlin, and the second Titanium Man in the last two issues. He took on the role in X-Men vs. the Avengers #1. He seemingly perished in a battle with Iron Man in Iron Man #229. As of this writing (August, 2022) Topolov has remained among the deceased. Why did he assume that guise? Well…

2. At the time of this story, Tony Stark had recently gone on a mission to deactivate all the unauthorized use of his technology. This move made him incredibly unpopular with the government who tried to stop him. Tony then faked Iron Man’s death and then tricked the public into thinking that he hired a replacement. See Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340.

3. The Living Lighting states that he just recently returned to Earth. The laser had been lost in the multiverse after fleeing into the Watcher’s view screen on the moon. See Quasar #6 and 30 for the details.

4. Around this time, the Mandarin used loyal footsoldiers named the Hand (no relation to the Japanese ninjas) In Iron Man #241-242 these loyal followers would be given one of the Mandarin’s rings on mission. As we learned last issue, one of these men swapped out the ring given to him with a less powerful forgery created by Chen Hsu. In Iron Man #274, Chen Hsu is later revealed to be a member of the Makluan crew that came to Earth. The rings the Mandarin now wears were stolen from their ship, as explained in Tales of Suspense #62.

5. Recently, Tony was shot through the spine by a jilted love named Kathy Dare in Iron Man #242. This left him confined to a wheelchair until he had an experimental bio-chip implanted in his spine to repair the damage in issue #248. He has been stricken with bouts of phantom pains since Iron Man #256. As we’ll find out between this issue and Iron Man #266 that this bio-chip was a trap set by the Marrs twins — rivals in business — to replace Tony’s nervous system with one that they can used to remotely control his body. Even after this plot is foiled, Tony will suffer lasting effects from it until he is fully cured in Iron Man #290.

6. Desmond and Phoebe state that they have been pre-occupied with business in New York City. The pair have been pre-occupied with ruining Namor’s new business venture, Oracle, Inc. For more on that see Namor the Sub-Mariner #1-10.

Topical References

• One of the people who live near Stark Enterprises, when seeing the Living Laser’s light show, wonders if it is coming from the Spielberg house — because comic book civilians always think shit like this is a movie being filmed for some dumb ass reason. She is referring to film director Steven Spielberg who is best known for his employment of expensive special effects in his films. He was at the height of his popularity at the time the comic was published. References to him in this story should be considered topical. Although Spielberg is still alive as I write this (August, 2022) he is 75 years old. He’s not going to be making movies forever.