Iron Man (vol. 2) #10
Dead Man Walking
Somewhere in deep space, Terrax — a herald of Galactus — is being held prisoner on an alien world. That’s when he hears the call from his master. Despite being shackled with uru chains, Terrax breaks free and slays his captors before taking to the stars to be reunited with his master.[1][2]
On Earth, Iron Man and his friend Rebel O’Reilly are flying to China to confront those responsible for bringing Rebel back to life. As he is living on borrowed time, O’Reilly has insisted on tagging along so he might die like a hero.[3] As they arrive over Hydra’s headquarters, they are intercepted by two armored Russian nationalists: The Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo.
Tony becomes concerned that Rebel is taking too many risks and decides to end the battle as quickly as possible. He does so by attaching two powerful magnets with polar opposites from one another onto each of their opponents. This causes both Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo to be violently repelled from the scene of battle in opposite directions. This angers O’Reilly who was confident that he could have handled the situation on his own. Noticing that Connor’s hear beat has now become irregular, Tony tells his friend that he doesn’t need to prove himself anymore, Tony already knows that he has the makings of a hero, he always had. With this out of the way, the pair fly down to the Hydra base below.
The entire battle had been monitored by Madame Hydra who orders her men to prepare for battle. This is observed remotely by Madame Hydra’s benefactor, the Mandarin, who is in turn being monitored by a third individual who is the true mastermind of this entire plot.
Meanwhile, at the New York office of psychiatrist Leonard Samson, Jennifer Walters has brought her cousin Bruce Banner for help with his condition. There they discover that Samson himself has been transformed by gamma radiation, becoming an abomination. Bruce has become even more radioactive since absorbing the immense energies from the Avengers gamma core.[4] Both Bruce and Leonard believe that giving each other a blood transfusion might balance out the gamma radiation in both of their bodies, potentially putting an end to their living nightmares. This is based on a hunch that this is somehow the way things are supposed to be. Unfortunately, when Banner tries to insert a needle into his arm to carry out the blood transfusion his anxiety goes up, triggering a transformation into the Hulk. Jennifer — also sensing that this is how things are destined to go — steps in and injects the needle into herself so she becomes the doner for Samson’s blood transfusion.[5]
Back in China, Iron Man and Rebel fight their way through the complex, making short work of Hydra’s forces. When Rebel catches up with Madame Hydra, the Mandarin comes out of hiding and kills her for failing him so spectacularly. That’s when Iron Man arrives on the scene and matches his weapons against the Mandarin’s power rings. The Promethean Armor proves more powerful, destroying the Mandarin in a powerful explosion and revealing him to be nothing more than a robot. The strain, however, was too much for Iron Man to handle and the hero collapses dead to the floor.[6] As Rebel rushes to his side, the real mastermind finally shows himself, and it turns out to be none other than Doctor Doom. With Iron Man now dead, Doctor Doom can now claim Stark International and all its secrets for himself.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Rebel O’Reilly, Jennifer Walters, Abomination, Hulk, Terrax, Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo, Doctor Doom
Continuity Notes
It should be noted that this is a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards to save the lives of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. As such Iron Man, Hulk, and Doctor Doom are the only original characters in this story. Everyone else featured here is actually a construct created by Franklin to populate his imaginary Earth. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 for more details on that.
This is alluding to the fact that Galactus is coming to consume the planet Earth. The events of that conflict will be detailed in the Heroes Reunited event that will take place in the 12th issues of the second volumes of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, and Captain America.
Rebel was killed during an initial test of Iron Man’s Promethean Armor back in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. He was later resurrected and turned into a cyborg, returning in issue #7. Last issue, Tony learned that Hydra had a hand in his resurrection but not who hired them to do it. As we’ll learn later this issue, it was Doctor Doom.
Banner was first transformed into the Hulk in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. He later absorbed even more gamma rays during the Industrial Revolution storyline which took place in the 6th issues of the 2nd volumes of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Iron Man, and Captain America.
Here, Jennifer reminds the Hulk that he had come to her for help. That happened in Iron Man (vol. 2) #8. That these characters feel as though doing all this is familiar and therefore destiny is based on a growing suspicion of everyone on the Heroes Reborn Counter-Earth intuitively doing things to make their lives mirror event on Earth-616. For example, in Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #4, the titular team also felt as though they intuitively knew how to use their powers as though they’d had them for years instead of weeks.
This isn’t really Tony Stark. As revealed next issue, he and Rebel swapped armors to throw off their enemies.
Topical References
In this story, Titanium Man references the fall of the USSR as though it happened in the recent past. This should be considered a topical reference relative to the date of publication. the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, seven years prior to this story. Modern readers should still interpret Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo as Russian nationalists who want to go back to their country to go back to the Cold War era Soviet Union, however any notion that the USSR only collapsed recently should be ignored.
The computer in Samson’s office is depicted as having a CRT monitor. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
