Iron Man (vol. 3) #15
Exploded View
Iron Man is running his new suit of armor to put it through its paces by having American warships fire missiles at him. The suit performs spectacularly, as Tony Stark is able to dodge and destroy the warheads before they can hit him.[1] He he goes through the motions, he recalls how he just came back from the moon and a battle with Ronan the Accuser. Although the Fantastic Four went missing on this mission, Tony was able to use a Kree power source to stabilize Starcore’s moonbase before returning home.[2] With his testing done, Iron Man returns to his new home in Seattle.[3]
His return is viewed by a pair of teens on the street who then watch in awe as a seemingly innocuous homeless man blows open a newspaper box just by pointing at it so he can get a look at one of the papers. The man is very interested in a front page story about Tony Stark’s recent philanthropic efforts to help fund a youth gym in the city.
When Iron Man returns to his mansion, he is told by Jane Foster and Hank Pym that the degenerative effects of his armor’s energy field has been resolved with this new suit. Even though he is on his way to a clean bill of health, Jane insists that Tony take it easy. Showing off his new collapsible feature of his armor, he says that might be a tall order. After storing his armor in the trunk of his car, Tony then calls Carol Danvers to check in on her. He gets her voice mail which has a message saying that she off writing the “Great American Novel”. Tony is concerned about her well being, but hopes that the message is a good sign.[4]
With an important reception coming up, Tony realizes that he hasn’t secured the date for the evening. When Happy suggests Rumiko Fujikawa, Tony shoots down this idea as they are having problems.[5] He tries calling Ramona Napier since he owes her a night out, but she is busy that evening.[6] When Tony jokingly laments how a playboy like himself can’t find a date, his assistant Pepper Potts speaks up and says she’ll go to the banquet with him. Since he doesn’t have any other options, he decides to take her up on the offer.
Meanwhile, in London, Jim Rhodes is investigating the identity of the new War Machine. He has suspected that he is a former associate named Parnell and has been trying to track down.[7] Just like in Morocco, Jim is attacked by people who are trying to keep Parnell’s location a secret. Winged with a bullet, Rhodes knows a woman who lives nearby who can help. Collapsing on her front stoop, Jim tells the woman to get him inside before he bleeds to death.[8]
Back in Seattle, Tony Stark is giving a speech at the local youth gym. Things aren’t going so well because everyone is hungry and the caterer is late. People are also not happy with the proposed redesign for the gym and think that Stark is just an east coast snob coming into their community and telling him how to raise their children. Tony keeps a brave face and insists that the Maria Stark Foundation wants to invest in the community improvement project. After his speech, Stark meets with Bob Gallagher, the head of the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, who tells Tony that his union is looking forward to working with Tony on this new project. He also finally meets with Hannah Donleavy, the woman who runs the gym who has been trying to meet with Stark for some time.
Outside, the strange homeless man arrives in the parking lot and easily picks out Tony’s luxury car from its vanity license plate. He then uses his powers to blow up the front end of the vehicle. Hearing the blast, Tony runs off to find a place to change into Iron Man in secret. The locals are upset that Tony is running off on them, but Happy Hogan comes to the defense of his boss. He tells them all that Tony has a heart and cares about his new home and wants to help the community. He also tells them that Tony also is generous and pays his fair share through the Maria Stark Foundation, that carries out all his philanthropy work. He tells the crowd that if they tell the organization what they actually need, Hap will make sure the Maria Stark Foundation provides it for her.
Meanwhile, Tony has raced up to the roof and summoned his Iron Man armor, which emerges from the trunk of his car and flies up to greet him. With its new folding technology, the suit encloses around him making the change in a matter of seconds. Tony wonders if this is the latest in the series of attacks on him that have been happening recently.[9] As Iron Man arrives on the scene so do the police. Now that he has the authorities attention the “homeless” man strips off his disguise and reveals that he is actually the super-villain called Nitro, the living bomb. When Iron Man piles into Nitro, he finds out why when the villain makes his body explode and instantly reforms himself. Looking up Nitro on the Avengers files he is surprised to discover that Nitro’s past actions led to Captain Marvel contracting cancer and dying.[10]
As the two battle it out, Iron Man’s scanners detect that Nitro gives off some kind of signal to make himself explode. Computing a way to duplicate that trigger, Iron Man then causes Nitro to explode multiple times in succession causing the villain to exhaust himself each time he pulls back together. These controlled detonations also allow Iron Man to get close enough to knock Nitro out with a single punch. He then hands the villain over to the authorities and tells them to keep him sedated at all times.
Changing out of his armor, Tony returns to the gym to find it deserted. At first, he thinks he blew it but that’s when Happy, Pepper, and Hannah all come back to tell Tony that Hap sold the crowd on the proposed plan. Tony is both pleased and gracious that Hogan was able to handle the situation in a professional manner and asks Hap if he would want to do this on a more official capacity from now on.
Later that day, in Seattle’s International District, a young man enters the Asia House, a trinket shop. He is drawn toward a small statue of a jade dragon and has a sudden urge to own it, even though it is out of his price range. As he feels the statue, a reality away, a real live dragon awakes and is vows that very soon this young human will be his.[11]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Nitro, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, Hank Pym, Hannah Donleavy, SHIELD (Charlotte Jones, Callie Yeager), Duane Freeman, Ramona Napier, Jim Rhodes, Glenda Sandoval, Billy Yuan
Continuity Notes
Tony had to redesign his armor after finding out in Iron Man (vol. 3) #12 that its energy field was affected his body’s natural ability to heal.
The whole battle between Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, and Ronan the Accuser took place in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #13-15 and last issue. The FF ended up getting transported to another reality as seen in the 16th issue of their series. The won’t get back until issue #20 of that book.
A footnote here reminds readers that Stark recently moved into the area in issue #11.
Tony is concerned because Carol, aka Warbird, has been spiraling into alcoholism. Her drinking problem got so bad she got kicked out of the Avengers in Avengers (vol. 3) #7. Tony of course has had a long standing problem with alcoholism iconically on display in Iron Man #120-128 and 167-182.
Tony and Rumiko hit it off in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. Although there was romance in the air, Rumiko decided to end things before they got too serious because she didn’t like how much of a workaholic Tony was. As seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #13.
Tony promised to take Ramona out after she gave him information on how to control an active volcano’s lava flow in Iron Man (vol. 3) #5.
The new War Machine appeared in Iron Man (vol. 3) #11-12. Jim’s hunch is right and in issue #20 we learn that Parnell Jacobs was an old friend of Rhodey, dating back to when they served in the military.
This woman is Glenda Sandoval, Parnell’s wife as we’ll learn in issue #18-20.
Iron Man references the attacks on him by the Deathsquad, Iron-Hand Hauptman, and Whiplash. These attacks all happened in Iron Man (vol. 3) #’s 1, 6, and 8. His hunch is correct, all of these past attackers and Nitro were sent against him by Count Nefaria as we’ll learn in Iron Man Annual 1999.
This happened during a fight between Mar-Vell and Nitro in Captain Marvel #34. Marv was exposed to a nerve gas that gave him terminal cancer. He eventually succumbed to this illness in Marvel Graphic Novel #1.
As we’ll learn over the next two issues, this young man is Billy Yuan, while the dragon in question is none other than Fin Fang Foom. Foom has been trapped in another dimension since his defeat in Iron Man #275.