The Price

At the University of the Long March in Beijing, China, a lecture by Doctor Su Yin is interrupted by the leader of the country. He tells her that they have entered into a deal with American industrialist Tony Stark and that Yin is to focus all of her attentions trying to find a solution to his medical problem. Intelligence reports have indicated that Stark’s central nervous system is completely shot. The damage done astounds Dr. Yin and show agrees to do whatever she can to help the American.[1]

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is flying into Chinese airspace in his private jet. Tagging along is Jim Rhodes who is in Tony’s Iron Man armor to maintain the illusion that Tony and his alter-ego are two different people. Both men are nervous since the Chinese government’s suddenly allowing Tony to meet with Dr. Yin has to come with some strings attached.[2] Upon their arrival at the airport, they are greeted by Li Wang, a government liaison who has been assigned to show Stark around. Their arrival is closely monitored by the leader of the country who hopes that Iron Man will be able to stop the threat posed by the Mandarin.

The Mandarin is also aware of Iron Man’s arrival and the fact that Tony Stark has come as well as him equally as angry. His teacher, the wizard known as Chen Hsu, tells the Mandarin that the moment of his ascension is at hand and to not fall allow emotion to rule his actions. He assures his pupil that by the end of the week they will rule over all of China regardless of Iron Man’s presence.

Meanwhile, Li Wang escorts Tony Stark to the hotel he will be staying at for the duration of his visit. Along the way, Li tries to convince Tony Stark that America has nothing to fear from China and the pair discuss their ideological differences but cannot find a common ground. When they arrive at the hotel, Tony is greeted by an American who is conducting business in China. He is happy to see that Tony is apparently finally breaking into the Chinese market. Tony has done no such thing, and isn’t considering it anytime soon even though it costs his company a great deal of money each day. Regardless, Tony values freedom over profits and that is why he refuses to do business in the country.

Soon, Tony is shown to his room where he and “Iron Man” are left to freshen up before dinner. Once alone, Jim does a sweep of the room to make sure it isn’t bugged.[3] When the coast is clear, they compare notes and rehash the whole situation that brought them there.[4][5] Soon the pair are taken to a dining hall that has been converted out of a temple that was once the innermost sanctum of the former monarchy. When Tony finally meets Doctor Su Yin, he’s blown away by how attractive she is. Jim notices this and hopes the boss is careful. When everyone sits down to dinner, “Iron Man” lifts up his mask to eat with chopsticks revealing the face of a white man — a life-like mask worn by Jim to disguise his identity. Tony gets to know Dr. Yin a little better during the meal, learning that she was raised in the sciences at a very young age after the government determined she had an aptitude for it. Eventually, the Chinese leader gets down to business with Tony and reveals why he is allowing Stark to see Dr. Yin: They want to enlist the services of Iron Man.

When Tony and Jim head back to their hotel to think things over, Tony knows that they don’t really have some choice in the matter. However, he wants to go out as Iron Man to do whatever it is the Chinese want him for. Jim refuses to allow this given Tony’s fragile condition and rather than talk it out, he uses some knock out gas built into the Iron Man armor’s gauntlet to put out Tony so he can go on this mission instead. As Iron Man, Jim then heads to the meeting with the Chinese government to inform them that he is ready for the mission they want him to carry out. That’s when the leader of the country reveals that they want him to go after Iron Man’s oldest foe, the Mandarin!

Recurring Characters

Iron Man (Stark), Iron Man (Rhodes), Mandarin, Chen Hsu, Fin Fang Foom, Su Yin

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. Tony has been trying to get permission to see Su Yin since Iron Man #262, but has been stymied by the Chinese government. The reason the Chinese decided to finally allow him to meet with her is because the Mandarin is threatening to unleash Fin Fang Foom upon the country unless they secede rule over to him. See Iron Man #266.

3. Tony makes sure that Jim is in good shape after wearing the Iron Man armor for an extended period of time. Jim once spent an extended period of time replacing Iron Man from Iron Man #169-200. During that time, the suit was only calibrated to Tony’s brain patterns causing Jim to become increasingly irrational over time. This imbalance was later healed by Shama in issue #195. From there, Jim became afraid of wearing the Iron Man suit after he was almost burned alive during emergency re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere from space in issue #215.

4. Mention is made how Tony is a recovering alcoholic. He has suffered two benders in his time at this point. The first was from Iron Man #120-128 and again in issue #167-182.

5. When rehashing the whole bio-chip thing again, Tony mentions Kearson DeWitt and how he has some unknown vendetta against Stark. It’s later revealed in Iron Man Annual #13 that Kearson’s father was allegedly a brilliant inventor who died poor and unrecognized. DeWitt began to believe that Tony stole one of his father’s ideas to make his Iron Man armor. This is all nonsense as DeWitt is batshit insane.

Topical References

• The leader of the Chinese officials in this story is depicted as Deng Xiaoping. At the time this story was published he was the Paramount Leader of China. He resigned from the post in 1992 and later died in 1997. His appearance here should be considered topical.

• When commenting on China’s human rights abuses, Tony and Jim both mention the protests at Tiananmen Square. This was a complex moment in history, but the TL;DR version is that between April and June 1989, protestors wanted China to become a democracy and the military responded by sending the military to quell them. Many of the protestors were massacred. How many people will killed is often disputed (particularly by the Chinese government) and is estimated to be anywhere between 300 and 10,000 depending on what source you’re looking at. Don’t look at me though, I’m just Googling this stuff. At any rate, references to this happening recently in the context of the story should be considered topical.

• Tony states that no doing business in China costs his company 60 million dollars a day. This should be considered topical due to inflation. This amount would be worth about $130 million in 2022 money.