The Light at the End

The Living Laser has barged into the office of Jim Rhodes and demands to see Tony Stark to get his revenge.[1] That’s when Jim drops a huge bomb shell on the villain, Tony Stark is dead.[2] The Laser figures that’s why people were weirded out when he walked around the facility disguised as Stark over the past few days.[3] The Laser then decides he wants to face Iron Man instead and tells Rhodes to bring him out. Jim tells the Laser he fired Iron Man the moment he took over, wanting people who were loyal to him and not a dead man. This leaves the Living Laser to ponder what to do next. That’s when Jim offers him a job.

Jim says that the Laser’s scientific expertise would be a huge benefit to Stark Enterprises and working in a state of the art lab would be a better use of his time than constantly fighting the Avengers all the time. When Rhodes offers the Laser a million dollars a day to work for his company, the Laser decides to take the job. Jim then makes arrangements to bring the Living Laser on a tour of the facility. Little does the Laser know that Jim is actually setting up a trap for him. Slipping away for a moment, Jim puts on his War Machine armor which has just been coated in a prismapolymer refractive coating that can deflect lasers. He then attacks the Living Laser and forces him into a laser focusing chamber. Trapped inside, the Living Laser is bombarded with energy that destabilizes his form and pumps him into a communications laser that is transmitting out into the Andromeda Galaxy.[4]

Realizing what he had done, Jim pays a visit to his girlfriend Rae LaCoste to talk about the hard decision he had to make earlier that day. He has instant remorse about shooting the Living Laser in space and is angry that this is the price he has to pay to keep Tony’s dream alive. He believes that it’s not worth the cost, and nothing about what he has done makes him proud.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stark — Tony’s cousin — gets a call from his benefactor, Osamu Moroboshi. When Morgan assures him that the planted evidence implicating Jim Rhodes in the death of Tony Stark, he is reminded not to discuss matters on an unsecured line.[5][6] Getting off the phone with Stark, Moroboshi contacts his master. The robotic voice on the other end of the line considers the idea that Morgan Stark is unreliable and agrees that a more direct method of attack is advisable. However, it warns Osamu that failure will not be tolerated.[7]

Later, Jim Rhodes returns to the office where there is a message waiting for him by Abe Zimmer and Erica Sondheim. He goes down to the cryogenics lab to see what they want. They tell him that they have something to show him and warn him that none of this was their idea. Jim is then taken into the next room where Tony Stark is alive and well and recovering in a hospital bed. Still weak from his ordeals, Tony asks Jim how its going. Furious over having this kept secret from him, Jim quits on the spot.

Recurring Characters

War Machine, Living Laser, Tony Stark, Abe Zimmer, Erica Sondheim, Rae LaCoste, Osamu Moroboshi, Morgan Stark, VORTEX (unidentified, voice only)

Continuity Notes

1. The Living Laser wants revenge for his previous defeat that the hands of Iron Man in Iron Man #263.

2. Everyone believes Tony died back in Iron Man #284. In reality, his body was placed in cryogenic suspension until a cure for his medical condition could be found.

3. Sightings of Tony Stark around Stark Enterprises were seen in issues #286 and 287.

4. The Living Laser’s trip into space proves short lived as he’s back on Earth again in Alpha Flight #121.

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. Morgan Stark had Marcy Peterson plant the false evidence into Jim’s home last issue.

7. The robotic voice talking to Osamu Moroboshi is later identified as VORTEX an artificial intelligence, as seen in Iron Man #307. It is striking out at the physical world in an act of preemptive self-preservation.