Iron Man/Captain America Annual 1998
Life & Liberty
Now
Iron Man and Captain America has tracked down a cell of Advance Idea Mechanics that are operating off an island in the Caribbean. While the two storm the island and engage with AIM’s foot soldiers, there is a tension between the two long time Avengers. The two trade barbs and when Iron Man offers to aid Cap on the ground, he tells Tony that he can handle things on his own, as long as he hasn’t offended Iron Man by thinking for himself. Iron Man is not happy with this but stops himself from making a retort. What he does realize is how one event earlier that day created a rift between the two of them.
Earlier
Two continents away, Captain America has just uncovered an AIM operation being run by the rogue telepath named Mentallo.[1] Mentallo had captured other telepaths and forced them to link up their powers to a machine that amplified his own mental abilities so that he can access the minds of every person on the planet.
As Mentallo was stretching out his mind and linking with every living person on the planet, Tony Stark was relaxing at his home, recuperating from his recent injuries.[2] Luckily, Tony was wearing a specially designed watch that protects him from any form of mental intrusion. This gave Tony a back door onto Mentallo’s mind link. The two engage in mental battle but Mentallo is far more superior in this arena. In order to protect himself, Tony wills his astral projection to take on the form of Iron Man, causing Mentallo to realize that Stark and Iron Man are both one in the same. Iron Man overpowers Mentallo and discovers that he can utilize the mental link to access the minds of everyone on the planet. Fearing that too many people know his secret identity, Tony makes the decision to wipe this knowledge from those who are in the know, friends and foes alike.[3] Soon, Mentallo’s mental link is shut down and SHIELD is called in for the clean-up. However, Captain America is unaware of Tony Stark’s involvement or what really happened due to the fact that Mentallo has been left in a vegetative state.[4]
Now
Although they are having their difference, Iron Man and Captain America clear their way through all the AIM foot soldiers. This is much to the annoyance of MODOK, AIM’s leader, who is watching from his bunker. He orders his men to get their act together and stop the two Avengers.
Meanwhile, Iron Man believes he is justified for wiping out all memory of his secret identity even though Cap was against it. When Steve snags an AIM flying ship so he can press on at the same speed as Iron Man, causing the Armored Avenger to take offence. When he assumes this is because Cap thinks his ideas are evil, Steve privately disagrees he just thinks what Tony had done was misguided.
Earlier
Following the Mentallo incident, Captain America called a meeting of the Avengers. Nobody was aware of what happened when Iron Man decides to reveal his identity to the entire team again. Seeing Tony Stark’s face makes them instantly remember that they used to know his identity but suddenly did not.[5] While the other Avengers are grateful that Tony still trusts them with his secret, Captain America demands to speak to him in private.
Steve is furious that Tony used Mentallo’s powers to erase the minds of others with as it was irresponsible. Steve points out that this is just as misguided as Tony was during the Armor Wars, which led to innocent people being harmed in the process. Stark finds this to be hypocritical since Steve got to enjoy getting his secret identity back when the Space Phantom did literally the same thing a few years earlier.[6] Steve points out that these incidents are not the same since Space Phantom acted on his own. While he understands the danger to loved ones that comes with a public identity, he cannot stand by Tony taking away people’s freedoms an unilaterally wiping people’s minds. Regardless of the fact that Iron Man had noble intentions it was still wrong.
Their argument is interrupted when they get a call from a SHIELD agent who has some leads on the telepaths that Mentallo had kidnapped. They all had very bizarre DNA and when she shows it to the two heroes, Iron Man knows exactly what he’s looking at and tells Steve to fire up a Quinjet. Iron Man then pulls up all available data on Doctor Mark Cushing. His last known location being on an island on the Caribbean. When they arrived on the scene the pair were shot out of the sky, which led to their clash with AIM….
Now
Iron Man and Captain America soon come upon what they thought was an AIM facility but turns out to be a high-tech living space for a collective of strange humans with golden skin. They are greeted with open arms by these strange people. Their leader, a man named Jason, then takes them inside to show them the final resting place of Mark Cushing, who they all call the benefactor, who had died recently.
Captain America finally asks who Cushing is and Iron Man explains that he was a brilliant scientist who once worked for his “employer” Tony Stark. Forced to walk with the aid of arm braces due to a disability, Cushing was working on something he called Operation: Gengineering, that could cure the disabled. Tony had to pull the plug on the project because those who undergo the treatment cannot stop it or else they will die. Also of concern was the fact that the necessary cortex implants stripped away a patients individuality as they and the others undergoing treatment would form a hive mind. Furious at having his project scrapped, Cushing accused Tony of not being able to empathize with someone with infirmity and quit on the spot. Recounting all of this now, Iron Man can now see things from Mark’s perspective due to his problems with alcohol.[7]
From Jason they learn that Cushing came to this island to continue his work in private. He brought with him a group of individuals all suffering from disabilities and treated them withhis Gengineering project. He was successful in transforming everyone to the peak of physical perfection but this came at the cost of their individuality. However, the hive mind that now dictates their every movement is happy with its life and the benefactor is revered. They lived in peace for quite a long time until they were discovered by AIM. They captured Cushing to learn the secrets of his process but he refused to talk and eventually died under torture. The terrorist group then turned to his creations. They captured a group of them that they put under hypnosis and this were the individuals that were given to Mentallo to experiment with. As it turns out, the entire hive was under AIM’s mental control until Captain America and Iron Man’s attack on the island caused them to shake off the hypnosis that kept them under their control.
As this is all being explained to the two Avengers, MODOK continues to observe from his hide out. AIM can deploy another team of soldiers within the half hour but this will take too long for their leader. Instead, MODOK uses their computers to once again hack into the Gengineer hive mind and take control of the population again. The hive people, under MODOK’s orders, begin attacking Iron Man and Captain America. However, when it begins taking too long to kill the pair, MODOK decides to step in personally. He forces the hive to combine their mental powers to crate a giant mental construct that MODOK can control remotely with his mind. Grabbing Captain America, MODOK is caught off guard when Cap suddenly surrenders.[8] This is only a ruse, as Steve was just buying time to activate his photonic shield. Doing so disrupts MODOK’s own energy field, allowing Captain America to break loose. Iron Man then dive bombs MODOK’s energy form, completely disrupting it. The force of the blow also knocks out Jason and his people.
Iron Man then gets to work severing MODOK’s connection to the hive mind’s computer so he can restore Cushing’s society. Their work is interrupted by an astral projection of Jason. While the hive appreciates the effort to save them, AIM is already on their way with an army of reinforcements. Worse, calling in SHIELD and the Avengers will take too long. Rather than be forced to become slaves again, Jason pleads to the heroes to let his people die. However, Iron Man has many more years of technical knowhow since the days Cushing worked for him and he comes up with a means of shutting down the hive mind and getting a distress call to the outside in time. However, in doing so this would reverse the benefits of the gengineering process. Not only will this end the hive mind, but the individuals would find themselves back in their disabled bodies. Jason refuses to allow this to happen and insists that the only suitable escape is through death and accuses the heroes of taking their individual freedoms away if they do this.
Iron Man, wakened from the battle due to his injuries, suddenly collapses to the ground. He gives Captain America the final control codes to carry out the task needed and tells Steve it will be up to him. However, Captain America cannot bring himself to terminate so many lives and shuts down the hive mind. Soon, SHIELD has arrived on the scene to secure the area and take Jason and his people back to civilization. In the aftermath of this incident, Captain America still thinks Tony was wrong for erasing memories of his true identity but now has a better understand of where he was coming from and the two make peace with one another.
Later, Tony Stark is back at his penthouse to recover from his ordeal. He calls in his assistants Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan and shows them his Iron Man mask. This makes them also remember Tony’s secret identity. Tony can’t help but also notice a twinge of betrayal from the pair. Seeing this from his oldest friends, Tony also begins to understand where Steve was coming from, but he still believes that even though the choices they make are complicated it doesn’t mean they like the decisions they have to make either.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Captain America, AIM (MODOK), Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Wonder Man
Continuity Notes
The narration here states that Mentallo was a former SHIELD esper agent. This was the case until Marvin went rogue in Strange Tales #141. He has been a fugitive of the law ever since.
Tony got the shit beat out of him by Spymaster and the Espionage Elite in Iron Man (vol. 3) #7.
There have been many people who learned that Tony Stark was secretly Iron Man over the years. This story glosses over a lot of them as it mostly focuses on the villains who know the truth. This is not an exhaustive list as it doesn’t include anyone who is presently dead at the time of this story nor individuals from other realities or timelines. I am sure I’m also missing some people. Let me know if you find anyone else:
Iron Man #224 reveals that a woman named Joanna Nivena was aware of Tony’s double identity shortly after he became Iron Man and encouraged him to be a crime fighter.
Might Avengers #21 reveals that Hank Pym learned Iron Man’s secret identity by accident in the early days of the Avengers, but kept that secret for years until Tony revealed the truth himself.
Happy Hogan was the first person to learn Tony’s secret identity back in Tales of Suspense #70.
Tony’s former girlfriend Marianne Rodgers figured out Tony’s secret thanks to her mental powers in Iron Man #41.
Per New Avengers: Illuminati (vol. 2) #1, Mister Fantastic, Professor X, Black Bolt, the Sub-Mariner, and Doctor Strange all learned Tony’s secret identity when they formed a delegation to the Skrull galaxy to warn the aliens not to mess with Earth again following the Kree/Skrull War.
Thor and Iron Man deduced each other’s secret identities in Avengers #113.
Happy Hogan later revealed Tony’s secret identity to his wife Pepper Potts in Iron Man #65.
Tony revealed his identity to Michael O’Brien in Iron Man #97.
He also revealed his identity to Madame Masque in Iron Man #104. However, she suspected the truth since issue #19. It’s later revealed in Avengers (vol. 3) #33 that she was one of the few people able to prevent Tony from erasing memory of his identity.
Bethany Cabe began figuring it out in Iron Man #139 and revealed that she knew the truth to Tony in issue #152.
Captain America, Tigra, the Silver Surfer, and the Molecule Man all learned Iron Man’s secret in Avengers #215-216.
Iron Man revealed his identity to the Wasp in Avengers #224.
Jim Rhodes learned the truth when Tony briefly passed the Iron Man mantle on to him in Iron Man #169.
He later revealed his secret to Hawkeye and Mockingbird in Iron Man #193.
This is where things get murky as Tony is pretty cavalier with his true identity during his tenure with the Avengers West Coast from West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1-31. Allowing Wonder Man to find out, and Hank Pym to stop maintaing a pretense.
Following the events of the Armor Wars in Iron Man #225-231, Tony faked Iron Man’s death and publicly claimed that he hired a replacement. This created a bit of confusion among those in the Avengers who knew the truth. However, Tony stopped the pretense in Avengers West Coast #72. From here it gets murky as to who in the Avengers knew Tony’s true identity. There aren’t any big reveals, but the concern over this secret identity thing among teammates becomes less of an issue. It’s safe to assume that all active members of the East and West Coast Avengers and Force Works between that point and Avengers #395 learned at one time or another.
Valentine Shatalov, the 6th Crimson Dynamo learned the truth when he and Tony Stark briefly swapped bodies in Iron Man #255.
The Black Widow revealed that she knew Tony’s true identity in Iron Man #276.
The Controller found out in Iron Man Annual #15.
The Mandarin discovered the truth in Iron Man #312.
The Machinesmith learned the truth when he was forced to become Iron Man’s assistant in Iron Man #320.
Spymaster found out after planting a bug at Stark Solutions sometime between Iron Man (vol. 3) #6 and 8.
Lastly, Tony revealed his identity to Carol Danvers, aka Warbird, in Iron Man (vol. 3) #7.
Mentallo will have bounced back from this condition when we see him again in Thunderbolts #26.
Here, Iron Man asks if anyone knows how to get ahold of Hawkeye. At the time of this story, Clint Barton had just recently left the Avengers to mentor the Thunderbolts. See Avengers (vol. 3) #9 and Thunderbolts #21.
Steve Rogers had decided to reveal his true identity to the world in Tales of Suspense #95. However, this made him a target out of costume and when Hydra started gunning for him Steve faked his death and made everyone believe that Steve Rogers was a fake identity as seen in Captain America #110-111. It was later revealed that this flimsy ruse actually worked because the Space Phantom had used a device to make the world forget that Steve Rogers was Captain America, although Steve wouldn’t learn this until Avengers #106-107.
Tony has struggled with alcohol addiction his entire adult life and has had two notable benders that nearly destroyed his life. See Iron Man #120-128 and 167-182.
MODOK recounts his first battle with Captain America. This took place way back in Tales of Suspense #93-94.
Topical References
Mentallo states that the entire population of the planet is 6 billion people. This should be considered a topical reference as this was the population count around the time this story was published in 1998. It has continued to grow since then. As of this writing in September, 2022, the population is sitting at nearly 8 billion people.