Iron Man #278
Operation: Galactic Storm Part 6: Decisions in a Vacuum
This story continues from Avengers #345
The on-going war between the Kree and Shi’ar empires has put the Earth in jeopardy due to the use of a stargate that is destabilizing the sun. In response, the Avengers have broken up into two delegations to petition each empire to stop using the stargate.[1]
Iron Man has joined up with the Kree delegation which includes Captain America, Goliath, the Black Knight, Hercules, Sersi, and Crystal. In a modified Quinjet they have travelled to Kree space. Upon their arrival they come upon a massive Kree space station. Captain America and Iron Man both agree that board the station to announce their presence is the right move. Attaching their Quinjet to the side of the station, the Avengers space walk to the airlock. Iron Man then hacks the computer port to get them inside.
The moment they are in, the Avengers are scanned by security and instantly recognized. This information is transmitted back to the Kree home world of Hala and to the Supreme Intelligence itself. Manipulating the empire in secret after being deposed, the Supreme Intelligence is pleased to see that the Avengers are now involved in the Kree/Shi’ar war.[2] The artificial intelligence then contacts the loyal Doctor Kev-Lar who is told to bring Shatterax online. Kev-Lar can do so as they are making the final cybernetic adjustments but warn that the process will shave 20 years off Shatterax’s life. The Supreme Intelligence hardly cares about this detail and tells him to move forward with the plan.
Back aboard the space station, the Avengers are unaware that they are being observed by another group of invaders. Detecting a computer uplink, Iron Man rips his way into the access port in a maintenance tunnel and uplinks into the computer. He then begins to hack into the Kree military network, telling the Avengers to get comfortable as this is going to take some time.[3] As Iron Man works, the rest of the Avengers are ambushed by a Shi’ar commando team.
Captain America leads the rest of the team into battle to buy Iron Man the time he needs. They quickly discover that Shi’ar prefer suicide over capture and activate disintegration devices upon defeat. Sersi tries to prevent this from happening by transmuting the Shi’ar commandos into frogs, but it doesn’t work. When the first wave is defeated, a second squad of commandos come swarming in.
Meanwhile, Iron Man manages to gain access to the Kree military band. Unfortunately, his presence is quickly detected by the Kree who inform him that security forces are being send to apprehend them and to surrender immediately. This is bad, and Iron Man races outside to face whatever opposition that is coming their way. The first arrival is Shatterax who is more than a match for Iron Man, particularly since Tony needs his Iron Man armor to sustain him now that his nervous system is completely shot.[4] Iron Man is unable to defeat Shatterax and with Kree war ships en route to their location, Tony realizes that there is no other choice but to surrender.
The Kree take Iron Man prisoner and bring him back inside the space station. There Tony tells the other Avengers to surrender. While they comply, Captain America is unhappy with Iron Man making a command decision even though he is not the leader of the group. Stark justifies himself by saying that he made a judgement call. He then suggests that they table the argument until later, if the manage to make it out of this alive.
… this story continues in Thor #445.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Avengers (Captain America, Goliath, Black Knight, Hercules, Crystal, Sersi, Quasar), Shatterax, Supreme Intelligence
Continuity Notes
The threat to Earth was discovered in Quasar #32, prompting the Avengers to form delegations in Avengers #345.
At the time of this story, the Supreme Intelligence went through a period of mental instability, resulting in it being supplanted by other rulers. The first was the alien Clumsy Foul-Up and later the Kree Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn. See Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #8, 31, and Avengers #346.
It’s later revealed in Avengers Forever #8 that this was the point where Immortus infiltrated Iron Man’s mind, implanting false memories to make him believe he has been a spy working for Kang the Conqueror since the early days of the Avengers. This deception will come to fruition during The Crossing event. See Avengers: The Crossing #1, Avengers #390-395, Iron Man #319-325, Force Works #16-20, War Machine #20-23, Avengers: Timeslide #1, and Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #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.
Topical References
When hacking in to the Kree satellite, Iron Man’s on board computer lists MS-DOS and Unix as interfaces it can hack. These should be considered topical references as these are real world products, particularly in the case of MS-DOS which has been discontinued by Microsoft back in 2018.
Operation: Galactic Storm Reading Order
Captain America #398, Avengers West Coast #80, Quasar #32, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #7, Avengers #345, Iron Man #278, Thor #445, Captain America #399, Avengers West Coast #81, Quasar #33, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #8, Avengers #346, Iron Man #279, Thor #446, Captain America #400, Avengers West Coast #82, Quasar #34, Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9, Avengers #347, Captain America #401, Quasar #35