Iron Man (vol. 2) #7
Look Back in Anger
Madame Hydra meets with her benefactor, the mysterious Mandarin.[1] As he manipulates everything around him, he is displeased that Hydra’s agent, Whirlwind, almost killed Tony Stark.[2] The Mandarin reminds her that Stark must be capture, not killed, as he has plans for the brilliant inventor. Nearly drowned by her master, Madame Hydra promises that Stark will be kept alive at all costs. As the Mandarin leaves, Madame Hydra notes that he looks different every time he appears to her and wonders what secrets he is hiding from her.
Meanwhile, at the newly opened Avengers Mansion, Iron Man takes Thor on a tour of the sub-basement of the facility.[3] While Thor doesn’t understand the purpose of putting an armory underground, he can see that Iron Man carries a heavy burden on his shoulders and offers his advice. Iron Man admits that there are things about his past that he is not proud of but not even a god could solve them. Thor understands but still has some advice for he fellow Avenger: Don’t look to the past in anger as the future is where all the answers lie.
After Thor departs, Iron Man is visited by Pepper Potts — the only person who knows that he is secretly Tony Stark. Pepper is in awe with the Avengers, and tells Tony that joining up with them was a good idea. With other work to do, Stark tells Pepper to accompany him upstairs and to call Happy Hogan, he also warns her not to come down into the sub-basement without an escort in the future.
While at a government safehouse, Jasper Sitwell has kidnapped psychologist Leonard Samson to question him about Bruce Banner. Banner was believed to have been dead until he contacted Samson a short while ago and Sitwell wants answers.[4] He wants to know where Banner is hiding and if Samson refuses to divulge that information Jasper intends to inject him with a dose of gamma isotope to see what happens.[5]
By this time, Tony Stark has returned to the Stark International office in mid-town Manhattan. After dealing with some business he meets with Happy Hogan to get an update on the company’s public relations. Hogan tells Tony that his approval rating has gone up since Iron Man became his bodyguard, especially now that he is backing the Avengers. However, there is still the issue of the town of Uppercreek Falls, which was economically devastated when Tony bought Arthur Park’s fiberoptics company and shut down the local factory.[6] When Pepper shows up, he tells her to pencil a visit to Uppercreek Falls and heads out for the night. Pepper is quick to get Tony out the door so she and Happy can have a romantic moment alone.
Outside, Tony is heading to his car when he notices that the front page story in the newspaper is outing Bruce Banner as the Hulk. After the incident on Avengers Island, Tony can think that the only person who could have leaked this information to the public was SHIELD director Nick Fury.
By this time, Happy and Pepper are in the afterglow of their romantic interlude when suddenly, something attacks Tony’s office. Hearing the explosion from the street, Tony is relieved to see that Pepper packed his armor in his briefcase. Slipping into a nearby alley, he quickly changes into Iron Man and heads to the scene. He finds Pepper in the wreckage and she believes that their attacker has killed Happy.[7] Iron Man is then confronted by a man in a suit of armor who admits that he targeted Hogan because he thought it was Tony Stark, seeing Iron Man he now knows he miscalculated.[8]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Hydra (Madame Hydra, Mandarin), Pepper Potts, Leonard Samson, Jasper Sitwell, Happy Hogan, Rebel O’Reilly, Thor
Continuity Notes
Not everyone here is who they appear to be. 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. Some characters are the genuine article, while others are constructs created by Franklin. See Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4 for the details. The specifics are:
The only original character in this story is Iron Man himself.
Even Thor is a construct of Franklin Richards, the real Thor took a while longer to cross over onto Counter-Earth and won’t appear until Avengers (vol. 2) #9.
The Mandarin is not a human at all but a robot being controlled by Doctor Doom as we’ll learn in Iron Man (vol. 2) #10.
Whirlwind was hired by Hydra to attack Tony Stark in Iron Man (vol. 2) #3, he nearly killed Tony during their encounter in issue #5.
Previously, the Avengers were backed by SHIELD and operated off of Avengers Island from Avengers (vol. 2) #1-6. After the island was heavily damaged during an attack by the Hulk, Iron Man joined the team in Captain America (vol. 2) #6 and made the team go independent. He offered up his old family mansion to be their new headquarters in Avengers (vol. 2) #7.
Banner was believed to have been killed in a gamma bomb explosion in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. In reality, he was transformed into the Hulk.
Banner hasn’t been seen since he transformed into the Hulk and heavily damaged Avengers Island. He apparently sacrificed his life to prevent the gamma core from the exploding, as seen in Avengers (vol. 2) #4-6, Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #6, Iron Man (vol. 2) #6. However, he survived and will turn up again in Incredible Hulk #450.
Prior to becoming Iron Man, Tony had turned into a ruthless businessman while coping with the apparent death of his bestie Rebel O’Reilly in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. After buying out Parks Fiberoptics and shutting down the factory prompted Arthur Parks to transform himself into the Living Laser and attack Stark. The Laser was stopped by Iron Man. See Iron Man (vol. 2) #3-4.
Happy wasn’t actually killed here. We’ll learn in Iron Man (vol. 2) #12 that he was only injured and needs to be hospitalized.
This new armored individual is revealed to be Tony’s former bestie, Rebel O’Reilly. Who died when an earlier model of Tony’s Promethian Armor exploded in Iron Man (vol. 2) #1. It’s later revealed in issue #10 that Rebel was resurrected by Doctor Doom as part of a plan to learn Stark’s technological secrets.
