Heart of Stone

Maximillian Stone was an employee of Stark Enterprises new geothermal research facility located in the Mojave Desert. When the facility was suddenly struck by an earthquake, he and the other crew are about to evacuate when someone notices that command system has shut down, requiring someone to manually shut the facility down. With countless lives in danger, Max went ahead to shut things down while everyone else evacuated.

Although he succeeds, the ground rips open under his feet and Maximillian Stone plunges into a pool of molten lava. However, rather than being killed Max is transformed into a creature of stone. As he incubates in the lava, a sentience in the molten material speaks out to him and warns him that there is a grave danger that must be stopped. With Stone and the sentient lava both dying, the two agree to merge so they can live on as one and save the Earth from the threat posed to it. After this merger, Maximillian Stone breaks free to the surface in his new form. Now calling himself Earthmover, he vows to protect the planet no matter what.

The Unquiet Earth

Since his recent recovery, Tony Stark has been undergoing physio-therapy in order to strengthen his body so he can walk once more. The process has been long and painful but both Happy Hogan and Veronica Benning have been pushing Tony to succeed despite the pain and the challenges ahead.[1] Trying to walk with the aid of exercise bars, Tony stumbles but is caught by Veronica. There is a tense moment as the two have grown attracted to each other. However, Veronica is trying to maintain ethical standards and quickly decides to end the session. After she and Happy get Tony back into his hoverchair, Veronica takes off. With her conflicted feelings she decides to go to Erica Sondheim — Stark’s resident doctor — for advice. She ends up walking in on Erica making out with Abe Zimmer. Embarrassed and amused, Veronica quickly walks out but is happy for that the pair have found each other as they deserve some happiness. That’s when she decides that she should also be entitled to be happy.

Meanwhile, a depressed Tony Stark heads down to his private lab. There he is greeted by his new artificial intelligence system, the Heuristically Operative Matrix Emulation Rostrum, or HOMER for short. He has HOMER give a run down of how its current projects and workloads are progressing. Tony is impressed when the AI has also went out of its way to create a database of predicted geo-political trends for the next 100 years, mostly because it was bored. He then asks the computer to assist him with a new priority, taking a new approach to an old system.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, Marcy Pearson has been struggling to find a job ever since Jim Rhodes fired her from Stark Enterprises. She is annoyed that Tony Stark found out that she was trying to screw with his company by falsifying evidence that would frame Jim for murder.[2] That’s when she gets a phone call from someone asking if she would like to engage in activities that would be inconvenient to her former employer. Still hungry for revenge, Marcy is very interested in what the caller has to offer.

Back at Stark Enterprises, Tony Stark’s work is interrupted by a call from the geothermal facility. It is then he learns about the accident and how Doctor Stone is still trapped inside the facility. He tells the staff to hang tight as he’s on his way. Using his telepresence gear, Tony sends his autonomous suit of Iron Man armor onto the scene. As he digs through the wreckage, he ends up encountering Earthmover. Max tries to explain himself but discovers that it is difficult to speak in his new form. Taking the creature as a threat, Iron Man begins blasting it with his repulsor rays. This leads to a brawl between the two as Earthmover struggles to figure out how so speak.

The battle rages on until two giant metallic hands tear their way out of the geothermal tunnel and climbs to the surface. Seeing the massive robot causes both Iron Man and Earthmover to stop dead in their tracks. Gazing at the massive giant, Iron Man is horrified to discover that Ultimo lives again.[3]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Earthmover, Veronica Benning, Happy Hogan, Erica Sondheim, Abe Zimmer, HOMER, Marcy Pearson, Ultimo

Continuity Notes

1. 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.

2. When Jim was appointed CEO of Stark Enterprises in Iron Man #284, Marcy was angry that she didn’t get the top job. She gave Jim an ultimatum: the job or their relationship. Jim chose the job and fired her on the spot. Marcy then sought revenge and got involved in a conspiracy with Morgan Stark to try and frame Jim for the death of Tony Stark, as seen in Iron Man #288. This is part of a larger scheme to by the artificial intelligence known as VORTEX, but we won’t learn that until issue #307. At any rate, when Tony came out of the deep freeze he became aware of Marcy’s attempt to frame Jim and confronted her about it in issue #292. VORTEX is still pulling her strings here.

3. Ultimo has been trapped below the Earth’s surface since Iron Man dropped the damn thing in a volcano back in Iron Man #96. Here, the narrative states that Ultimo has existed for 5 thousand years, contradicting the Mandarin’s previous claim that he created Ultimo back in Tales of Suspense #76-77. Iron Man (vol. 3) #24 reveals that Ultimo came from outer space. The Mandarin merely found the massive robot and used it to his own ends as many of the Mandarin’s claims have turned out to be utter bullshit.