Meltdown!

Following the apparent demise of Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes has been left in charge as the CEO of Stark Enterprises.[1] Jim’s first order of business is to call a board meeting with management. There he tells them all that he doesn’t see anything wrong with Stark’s current operations and tells them that he will be taking a mostly hands-off approach with the day-to-day operation. The other managers are relieved by this news and all decide that Tony did the right thing selecting Rhodes as his replacement.

Later, Jim gets a call from Rae LaCoste, one of Tony’s former flames and she invites him out to dinner. As it turns out, she is interested in dating Jim. She tells him that Tony was just a friend and that she wants to pursue a romance with Jim. Rhodes decides that’s what he wants as well.

That evening, a Stane International nuclear production facility is attacked by a new super-powered eco-terrorists calling himself Atom Smasher. Getting through the security and taking over the facility, Atom Smasher orders one of the guards to call the media.[2]

At that moment, Jim is having second thoughts about pursuing a relationship with Rae. He is concerned about what people would say about a mixed race relationship. Rae doesn’t care about what others think. Jim decides that he doesn’t either. However, before they can get down with it the phone rings. Jim tells the person on the other end of the line that it had better be good. It is and Jim quickly starts getting dressed. When Rae asks him what’s going on, he asks her if she remembers Chernobyl.

Back at Stark Enterprises, Marcy Pearson is cleaning out her desk after getting fired by Jim Rhodes.[3] She vows that she will make Jim pay for doing this to her. On her way out she sees someone who resembles Tony Stark and it startles her enough that she drops a book on the floor.[4] When she kneels to pick it up she is approached by Morgan Stark — Tony’s cousin — who wants to make her an offer she can’t refuse.[5]

Soon, Jim Rhodes is back at Stark Enterprises with senior management watching the news coverage of the Atom Smasher situation. The eco-terrorists has announced that he intends to stop the production of nuclear materials that are slowly poisoning the planet. Since Stane was recently acquired by Stark Enterprises, Jim decides that they have no choice but to deal with the growing situation.[6] After the meeting is dismissed, Jim changes into his War Machine armor and heads to the Stane facility to try and stop a disaster from happening.

Deep below Stark Enterprises, Tony Stark has been secretly kept in cryo-stasis until such a time his central nervous system can be repaired. The only people who know this are Erica Sondheim and Abe Zimmer who have discovered that Tony’s brain is still active despite being completely frozen. Abe theorizes that deprived of all of his senses, Tony is likely reliving old memories.

Zimmer isn’t wrong, as Tony has been spending his conscious hours reliving his past. Currently, he is reliving his childhood at a time when his father, Howard Stark, has decided to send Tony off to private school. While his wife Maria is deeply upset by this decision, Howard insists that it is necessary to make Tony a hard man when he grows up, using the old family adage that Stark men are made of iron.[7] Tony’s first day at private school was a tough one as he was immediately singled out and bullied by the other kids. When one of the administrators finds Tony’s favorite toy — an metal robot he built himself — it is confiscated as such things are not allowed. Tony soon settled in to his new environment and learned as his father did. He learned about discipline and strength of character. Still, he was an imaginative little boy and he found enjoyment reading about the legendary King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. This fascination ultimately led to his creation of the Iron Man armor later on in life.

In the waking world, Jim (as Iron Man) arrives at the Stane nuclear facility and goes inside to confront Atom Smasher. However, the eco-terrorist sees him as nothing more than a corporate shill and would rather fight than try to negotiate. In the ensuing battle, Atom Smasher causes the roof to collapse, pinning Iron Man under tons of debris. Before Jim can get free, Atom Smasher tells him it is time to die and unleashes a full power energy blast at point blank range.

Meanwhile, managers of the Stane facility are watching the situation unfold on the television. They realize that unless they do something their ethically questionable operations will come to light, leading to uncomfortable questions needing to be answered. Deciding to take matters into their own hands, they decide to use their connections to the Pentagon to call in the armored soldier called Firepower to do some clean-up on their behalf.

Recurring Characters

War Machine, Tony Stark, Atom Smasher, Bambi Arbogast, Rae LaCoste, Marcy Pearson, Erica Sondheim, Abe Zimmer, Morgan Stark, Tony Stark impostor, (in flashback) Howard Stark, Maria Stark

Continuity Notes

1. Tony was believed to have died due to on going health complicates coming from a ruined central nervous system as seen in Iron Man #284. In reality, Stark has been secretly put into cryogenic stasis. He will be cured and revived in issue #289-290.

2. Atom Smasher’s real name is never given in this story. However, Iron Manual Mark 3 reveals it to be Kevin Leonardo.

3. Before Tony’s “death”, Marcy was certain that she’d be the next in line to run Stark Enterprises as CEO. This all changed when Stark named Jim to succeed him in issue #284. When Marcy gave him a choice between running Stark Enterprises or their relationship, Jim ultimately fired her.

4. This Tony Stark impersonator is actually the Living Laser in disguise as we’ll learn in issues #288-289. He is unaware that Tony is dead and is lurking around preparing for a counterattack after Iron Man defeated him back in issue #263.

5. Everyone presumes that Morgan Stark is Tony’s biological cousin. Years later, it is revealed that Tony was adopted by Howard and Maria Stark as a baby. This would mean that he and Morgan are not actually blood relatives. See Iron Man (vol. 5) #17 and International Iron Man #6-7 for the details.

6. Stane International was originally Stark International, Tony’s original company. Obadiah Stane took over and renamed the company after a hostile take over in Iron Man #173. After Stane’s death in Iron Man #200, the company eventually ended up in the hands of Justin Hammer. Stark (as Iron Man) forced Hammer to sell Stane International to Stark Enterprises in Iron Man #283.

7. Here, Howard and Maria Stark are identified as Tony’s biological parents. However, years later it is revealed that Tony was actually adopted. See Iron Man (vol. 5) #17 and International Iron Man #6-7 for the details.

Topical References

• The references to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 in this story are not necessarily topical in nature. This is because the disaster is being referred to in the past tense as though it happened some time ago. On that same bent, Chernobyl has become synonymous for nuclear disasters that its often used as short hand to make comparisons potential nuclear disasters.