Trade War

After his previous suit of autonomous Iron Man armor was recently destroyed, Tony Stark has built a new set and is putting it through its paces in his underground training room.[1] Tony is trying to make the most out of his situation as he is still regaining his mobility.[2] Still, the fact that he has to use his telepresence rig to pilot both Iron Man as well as a Life Model Decoy (used to hide his true condition from his enemies) has left him feeling like a worthless meat puppet.[3]

Tony Stark holds a meeting with the managers in charge of Stane International, a subsidiary of Stark Enterprises. Tony wants answers as to why they sold their nuclear materials to Advance Idea Mechanics, a known terrorist organization. They try to pin it on Jim Rhodes who, during his brief tenure as CEO of Stark Enterprises, ordered total divestment of nuclear technologies.[4] Worse, Felix Alvarez, Tony’s VP, advises him that AIM’s director Alessandro Brannex has refused every offer to buy back the technology that has already been shipped. Tony orders Bambi Arbogast to arrange a trip to Boca Caliente, AIM’s island domain. Before ending the meeting, he tells the Stane managers that they are fired effective immediately.

As Tony leaves the office, he runs into his phsio-therapist Veronica Benning. She is upset to hear that Tony is planning on going on a trip as this will be the third time he has canceled one of their sessions. She reminds Tony that unless he puts the work in, he’ll never be able to get out of his hoverchair. When Tony tells her that this is important business that can’t wait she storms off. Veronica tries to compose herself and reminds her to keep the gruff exterior even though she is now developing feelings for Tony and that the tough love approach is hurting her.

Later, Tony — via his Life Model Decoy — arrives in Boca Caliente where he meets with Alessandro Brannex at the airport. Brannex tells Tony that he only agreed to this meeting out of professional courtesy and has no intentions in selling back the equipment they bought from Stane. As this conversation carries on, MODAM — AIM’s resident cyborg — monitors the area. Her scans detect that fact that Alessandro is not speaking with the real Tony Stark, but a mechanical construct. She then sends a AIM commando team to the airport and they mow down the LMD on the spot.

This prompts Tony to launch his Iron Man armor on to the scene. As AIM sends soldiers on sky-cycles, Tony confuses them unleashing a swarm of drones that create holographic duplicates of Iron Man. This gives Iron Man the advantage over superior numbers. Seeing her soldiers fall in battle, MODAM decides to leave the safety of her monitoring cradle to join the fight.

Elsewhere on the property, Omega Red has arrived searching for a former Russian operatives named Olinka Barankova. Accessing AIM’s databases, he confirms that Barankova did indeed defect to AIM.

Meanwhile, Iron Man is ambushed by MODAM who comes in with guns blazing.[5] While conventional firepower has little effect against the hero, MODAM manages to incapacitate him with a mind blast. This mental bolt sends feedback through Iron Man’s armor and through Tony’s telepresence rig, causing his body to experience a seizure. However, before MODAM can finish him off she is attacked by Omega Red. He has discovered that she was once Olinka Barakova and explains that he has come to get revenge against her for some past wrong. MODAM tells him that if she was the woman he seeks all memories of her past have been wiped.[6] Regardless, since Omega Red is a current threat she tells the mutant to be prepared for combat.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, AIM (Alessandro Brannex, MODAM), Felix Alvarez, Bambi Arbogast, Veronica Benning, Omega Red

Continuity Notes

1. Tony self-destructed the his previous suit to destroy the technorganic menace known as Technovore. This happened last issue.

2. Long story short: Tony was shot in the spine and crippled. He had an experimental bio-chip implanted there. It was hacked and his nervous system ruined by enemies. He then went into cryo-stasis for a time until a cure could be fashioned. He was thawed out but lacks full mobility at this time. See Iron Man #242, 248, 258-266, 284 and 289 for the harrowing drama. Tony will be fully back on his feet in issue #300.

3. Tony mentions here how he has moved in to the Stark Industries building after his home was destroyed by the Controller. This happened in Iron Man #293.

4. Jim was briefly CEO of Stark Enterprises when Tony faked his death in issue #284. His decision to devest Stark Enterprises and its subsidiaries of all nuclear interests happened after he discovered that Stane was unsafely storing nuclear waste in Iron Man #287-288. He quit shortly thereafter out of anger when he discovered that Tony kept his survival a secret from him in issue #289.

5. Here, Iron Man states that MODAM is more dangerous than her predecessor, MODOK. MODOK was AIM’s first cyborg unit, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #94. Eventually, AIM began seeing MODOK as a liability and had him assassinated in Captain America #313. AIM first unleashed MODAM in Quasar #9. MODOK will be resurrected in Avengers #387.

6. The revelation that MODAM might be a woman named Olinka Barankova contradicts stories that previously established her as someone else. West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #36 and Solo Avengers #16 state that she was previously Maria Trovoya, the first wife of Hank Pym who (up until that point) was believed to have been murdered by communist agents years earlier, as depicted in Tales to Astonish #44. The possibility that she is Barankova is further confused when MODAM states next issue that AIM often falsifies records regarding their recruits to obfuscate their true origins. A profile for MODAM appears in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 which indeed states that the Trovoya identity was a falsification. However, does not confirm or deny her true identity.

Topical References

• The computer that Omega Red uses is depicted as having a CRT monitor. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.