With Friends Like These…

Tony Stark is woken up in his bedroom in the middle of the night by the Black Widow who managed to break in. She reveals that she knows that he is secretly Iron Man and that she needs his help. Tony explains how he is living on borrowed time after his nervous system had been left decimated by a bio-chip hack and how his attempts to find a cure have failed.[1] Regardless of Tony’s current prognosis, Natasha insists that she needs Iron Man as he is the only one who can help her stop World War 3 from kicking off in just under two hours.

Tony takes her down to his private lab where he changes into his Iron Man armor. After confirming he is physically capable of carrying out the mission in his suit, Tony then preps a one-man craft and straps it to his back so he can fly the Widow to their destination as quickly as possible. Putting his jet boots on full speed, Iron Man races towards the Rocky Mountains to reach the NORAD missile defense base as quickly as possible.

It doesn’t take long before security at Thunder Mount to pick up Iron Man on radar. The commanding officer hops on the radio and demands that the bogey explain what they are doing. Iron Man tries to explain that he and the Widow need access to NORAD in order to stop a Russian sleeper agent called Oktober from accessing the nuclear launch computers at the facility. The commanding officer thanks Iron Man for the warning but tells the hero to turn back as they will handle the situation. Iron Man refuses their orders, forcing them to take defensive measures to prevent him from breaching the secure facility.

Despite the surface-to-air missiles and automated weapons at NORAD, Iron Man’s technology is far more superior and he is easily able to evade and destroy these obstacles. Breaching the front gate, Iron Man and the Black Widow force their way inside. There, Iron Man fights through the interior defenses and traps. The whole time security is monitoring their movements. The commanding officer fears that if the two intruders make their way to the “Zero Zone” they’ll inadvertedly trigger NORAD’s self-destruct system, something that cannot be stopped once activated.

Reaching the missile control room, Iron Man is surprised that they haven’t run into Oktober at any point making their way down. Fearing that the sleeper agent may have found a way into the secured room, Iron Man uses his onboard computer to hack into the computer lock on the door. Once they are inside, Iron Man is surprised to discover that the room is deserted. That’s when Natasha activates a device that scrambles Tony’s brain, causing him to collapse to the floor. As it turns out, Natasha was Oktober all along.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Black Widow

Continuity Notes

1. Tony Stark does a huge recap dump about the last two major story arcs:

   • Armor Wars II: Wherein the Marrs Corporation hacked into a biochip in Tony’s spine to try and take control of him. His resistance to this caused seemingly irreparable harm to his nervous system. See Iron Man #258-266.

   • The Dragon Seed Saga: Where Tony sought was allowed to get the aid of Doctor Su Yin in exchange for helping the Chinese government deal with the Mandarin and the Dragon Lords. Tony defeated the foes but was told that the damage to his nervous system was permanent. See Iron Man #270-275.

   • Tony’s condition will continue to deteriorate until he is cured in Iron Man #290.

Topical References

• Some of the technology depicted at NORAD, such as computers that record information on reel-to-reel tapes, should be considered topical as this technology is obsolete.

• In this story, Russia is referred to as the USSR. This should be considered a topical reference as the USSR dissolved just prior to this story being published in 1991.