The Hollow Man

Preparing for the coming war against the Chinese government, the Mandarin undergoes rigorous training to make sure he is at his fighting peak. Removing his ten rings of power he battles four highly skilled warriors in hand-to-hand combat and slaughters them all. The victory isn’t enjoyable, but a necessity to ensure that his chi is focused beyond the power granted to him by his rings.

In America, Jim Rhodes runs another test on Tony Stark’s body to determine the extent of the damage done to his central nervous system.[1] Unsurprisingly, the prognosis hasn’t changed and Tony can barely move his own body without the assistance of his Iron Man armor. Trying to make sense of the Marrs Corporation’s attack on his body, he still cannot make a connection between their pawn Kearson DeWitt, who wanted revenge against Tony for some past transgression.[2] Tony is frustrated by his current level of disability, and Jim tries to calm him the best he can.[3] With an important business meeting coming up, Tony can’t rely on Jim using an image inducer to pose as him. Luckily, he has developed an exo-mesh to wear under his clothes that will allow theoretically allow him mobility without needing his Iron Man armor.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, Natasha Romanov — aka the Black Widow — wakes up from a fitful dream. Not thinking much of it she goes about her daily routine of personal grooming and exercise before sitting down to breakfast and watching the morning news.[4] When the weatherman mentions the day’s date it causes Natasha to stop dead in her tracks as she realizes that something called Oktober has been activated.[5]

Back out west, the Stark Enterprises board of directors wait impatiently for Tony Stark to arrive and discuss business. This turns in to a heated debate about the company’s focuses on attacking the Marrs Corporation, apparently apropos to nothing. Tony outlines how the corporation targeted Stark Enterprises first and that he wants to crush Marrs even though there is no financial incentive to do so.[6] When this leads to protests, Tony reminds them all that he is in charge and he can replace any one of them. Seeing that Tony is starting to sweat from the pain he is feeling, Jim decides to conclude the meeting and clear out the board room so he can rush Stark back to his lab.

Stripping off Tony’s suit and the layer of synthetic skin he put over the mesh, Jim does a scan and discovers that a short in the hardware caused 60% of the suits functions to burn out. This forces Rhodes to dress Tony in his Iron Man armor so he can move while they make repairs to the mesh. Tony is once again frustrated by his current situation but Jim manages to compose himself. That’s when they get an urgent call from Bambi Arbogast. Using his image inducer to appear normal, Tony answers the call and it told that they have just received an urgent communique from the Chinese government. Intrigued, Tony tells Bambi to forward it to him at the lab. It is from the Chinese Premiere who informs Tony that his government has had a change of heart regarding his request to see Doctor Su Yin, a specialist who might be able to cure his condition.[7] However, Tony knows that the Chinese are going to want something in exchange. While this is his only hope, he tells Jim that they are going to have to be very careful moving forard.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Kearson DeWitt, Jim Rhodes, Black Widow, Bambi Arbogast, Mandarin, Chen Hsu, Fin Fang Foom

Continuity Notes

1. TL;DR: Tony was shot in through the spine in Iron Man #242 leaving him disabled from the waist down. He cured himself with an experimental bio-chip in issue #248. This chip was used by the Marrs twins as a backdoor to override Stark’s nervous system with an artificial one that allowed them to take control of his body. Iron Man uncovered and foiled this plot over the course of Iron Man #258-266. Tony’s condition will persist until Iron Man #290.

2. It’s later revealed in Iron Man Annual #13 that DeWitt’s father was allegedly a brilliant inventor who died poor and unrecognized. Kearson later got it in his head that Tony Stark stole some of his father’s ideas to create his Iron Man armor, because he is batshit crazy.

3. Tony likens his current disability to the original injury that led to his becoming Iron Man — shrapnel from a bomb that was lodged close to his heart. This happened in Tales of Suspense #39 and plagued Tony until he got a complete heart transplant in Iron Man #19.

4. The narrative of the story here states that Natasha was once a Russian spy who since defected. This had been the case since her first appearance in Tales of Suspense #52 until she changed sides and went freelance in Avengers #30.

5. In Iron Man #276-277 we’ll learn that Oktober was a Cold War era plot to have a spy infiltrate the NORAD missile defense base and launch nuclear weapons at Russia in order to trigger retaliation and mutually assured destruction. As it turns out, Natasha was the sleeper agent for the Russians.

6. The Marrs Corporation was responsible for Tony’s bio-chip being hacked and his current health condition. His fiscal attacks on the Marrs Corporation began in Namor the Sub-Mariner #14.

7. Tony has been trying to get permission to see Su Yin since Iron Man #262, but has been stymied by the Chinese government.

Topical References

• The television in the Black Widow’s home is depicted as a CRT model. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.

• Likewise, Bambi Arbogast is depicted as having a computer that has a CRT monitor as well. This should also be considered topical.

• When transmitting the message from to Chinese embassy to Tony, Bambi Arbogast uses a fax machine. While this technology was quite common when this story was published in 1991, it has since been more widely replaced by e-mail and other electronic methods of communication. While some organizations still use fax machines a business like Stark Enterprises probably wouldn’t. Anyway, this is a technology long overdue for obsolescence and as such its depiction here should be considered topical.