Iron Man (vol. 3) #18
Machinery of War Part 1: Sunset Intrigues
Credits
Following the defeat of Fin Fang Foom, Iron Man is assisted by the military and Baintronics, Inc. to remove the monster from the shores of Seattle. It is a difficult task requiring the dragon to be lifted by a massive crane and lowered onto a battleship to be removed from the scene.[1] Present is Baintronic’s owner Sunset Bain,[2] who greets Iron Man and tells him that she will be attending Tony Stark’s next big party in a few days. Since Iron Man is secretly Tony Stark himself, hearing that Sunset Bain is coming to his party makes him nervous.[3]
Sure enough, on the night of the big party, Tony is greeting guests in his home when he catches Sunset Bain as she enters the room.[4] He is completely blown away by how attractive she still is. She pulls Tony away from a General so they can talk business. She has learned that Tony is no longer working for Astrodye Systems and hopes that she can secure the services of Stark Solution’s consultancy work. This raises Tony’s suspicions that Bain might have had something to do with the attack on Astrodye by the new War Machine.[5] Sunset is trying to worm her way into a kiss from Tony when they are interrupted by a man named Abner Little. He explains that he has come to the party in the hopes of hiring Stark Solutions to assist in his expedition for a long lost treasure.[6] Tony politely turns Little down, saying that he has just decided to work for Baintronics instead.
Meanwhile, in Brookyn, New York, police have been called to the scene of Millwood Cemtery. There, a detective checks out the grave of Rafe Michel. Someone dug up this two-bit hood and stole his body. However, the NYPD is at a loss as to who would steal his body, or why.[7]
Later, Tony’s party is long over and Pepper Potts decides to use this opportunity to demand why her boss has agreed to work with the awful Sunset Bain. Tony explains his suspicions about the Astrodyne attack, and that working for her could help him find the evidence she was behind the attack. Pepper hopes he knows what she is doing and walks off. Tony also finds himself conflicted over how evil Sunset Bain is and how seductive she can be. Wishing Rumiko Fujikawa was around to keep his head on straight, he decides to give her a call and see what she is up to. Rumiko answer her phone immediately, and tells Tony that she’s vacationing in Fiji and invites him to join her. When he tells her he can’t because of work, she tells him that he knows where she is and if he wants to see her he’s going to have to come out on his own.
Tony wishes it were that simple, as he walks through his home he thinks that his choices are his own, but they aren’t easy ones and not everything seems to be in his control. Spotting a bin full of empty champaign bottles he recalls how things got out of control when he was drinking.[8] He resists temptation again, refusing to give in when he needs to be strong. The thoughts on alcohol then gets him wondering how Carol Danvers is doing as he has not heard from her in a while.[9]
At that moment, Carol — aka Warbird — is clashing with two of her old foes, Golden-Blade and Sapper, aboard a US Naval ship. She is just barely holding her own because she is drunk off her ass. Hearing about the clash, Tony arrives as Iron Man to lend a hand. Carol tells him to mind his own business and he realizes that she is drunk.[10] When he calls Danvers on this, she tells him to skip the lecture. While they are bickering, Sapper manages to ambush Tony by playing possum, prompting the battle to resume.
Meanwhile, Jim Rhodes is flying over the Atlantic on a commercial flight with Glenda Sandoval. He has been investigating the identity of the new War Machine and suspects that it is Glenda’s husband Parnell. Glenda insists that it can’t be her husband, because Parnell promised her that he was out of the mercenary business for good.[11] However, Jim has had multiple attempts on his life while he has been searching and even though he doesn’t want to admit it, all evidence is pointing to Parnell.
Speaking of the new War Machine, he is watching the new coverage of Ms. Marvel and Iron Man’s battle with Golden-Blade and Sapper. He is being outfitted with additional weapons and armor created by Baintronics to augment his already formidable firepower. While he is eager to test his new gear on Iron Man, Sunset Bain quashes that idea. Now that she finally convinced Tony Stark to work for her, the last thing she wants is for his bodyguard to get killed and create a distraction. She assures him that he’ll get his chance sooner or later, but needs to keep him close. War Machine complies, but points to the battle on TV and says they might not have to worry about Iron Man if he doesn’t get his act together.
At the scene of the battle, Iron Man restrains Golden-Blade while Warbird deals with Sapper. Carol decides the best way to stop her opponent is to rip off two cybernetic parts form either side of his head. When Golden-Blade tries to warn her not to do that, Iron Man’s scanners reveal that removing these parts will cause an overload. Carol ignores their warnings and when she pulls off the parts it causes a massive explosion that sends Carol slamming into the ocean. Iron Man is forced to let Golden-Blade and Sapper escape in order to rescue her. He takes Carol back to her apartment until she wakes up. After Tony explains everything that happened, Carol realizes that she fucked up big time because she was drunk.[12] Finally realizing that she has a problem, she breaks down into tears and asks Tony to help her.
Meanwhile, Sunset Bain is sending her War Machine off so he is not around when Tony comes to work for her in the morning. She wants to hire Stark Solutions to assist in decoding an artificial intelligence. What Tony won’t know is that he will be decoding the mind of Jocasta, the robotic former Avenger that has been in Bain’s possession for quite some time now.[13]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, War Machine, Sunset Bain, Warbird, Pepper Potts, Golden-Blade, Sapper, Fin Fang Foom, Abner Little, Rumiko Fujikawa, Glenda Sandoval, Jim Rhodes, Jocasta
Continuity Notes
Iron Man fought Fin Fang Foom over the last two issues. From here, Fin Fang Foom gets dumped off on Monster Island where he will be seen again in JLA/Avengers #1.
Here, Sunset Bain recounts the time Iron Man saved her facility from the Termini. That happened in Iron Man Annual #11.
Tony’s apprehension toward Sunset Bain stems back to when he was younger. She seduced him in order to steal secrets from Stark Industries. When she got what she wanted, she dumped him and used the stolen information to start her own company. This will all be explained in Iron Man (vol. 3) #19.
Tony’s narration of events make mention of how he recently helped Warbird fight the Doomsday Man in New Orleans a few days before his big party. This was in Avengers (vol. 3) #16-18.
Tony’s hunch is correct, as we saw in Iron Man (vol. 3) #11-12. Sunset hired the new War Machine to attack Astrodyne to open up Tony’s schedule so she could convince him to work for her.
Abner Little’s dig is a prelude to the Eighth Day storyline that will be chronicled in Iron Man (vol. 3) #21-22, Thor (vol. 2) #17, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #11, and Juggernaut (vol. 2) #1.
The mystery behind Rafe Michel is a bit complicated. So lets break it down:
Rafe Michel was a militant Black Rights activist and a member of the Silver Skulls gang. He clashed a lot with the Falcon. Later on in his career, Rafe was possessed by the ionically powered alien named Lucifer. He ultimately died in battle against the Falcon. See Captain America #143, 151-154, 160-161, and 177-178 for Rafe’s whole story.
The grave robber is later revealed to be Count Nefaria in Iron Man Annual 1999. See, back in Avengers #164-166, Nefaria turned himself into a being of ionic power. One side effect of the process caused him to start aging rapidly. He withered into an old man and seemingly died in a battle with Iron Man circa Iron Man #114-116. Nefaria later came back to life as a sort of ionic vampire that needs to drain the ionic power from others in order to maintain his youth and stay alive. We first saw him doing this to Charlie Grey another Lucifer pawn in Iron Man (vol. 3) #16.
This month’s obligatory recovering alcoholic mention. In case you forgot about Tony’s past drinking problems check out Iron Man #120-128 and 167-182.
As seen in Avengers (vol. 3) #4, Carol Danvers — aka Warbird — has had developed a bit of a drinking problem herself. She was confronted about it issue #7 of that series and she rage quit the Avengers. Tony has been trying to guide her into dealing with her addiction since Iron Man (vol. 3) #7.
Carol mentions the first time she fought Golden-Blade and Sapper. This happened way back in Ms. Marvel #13.
Jim has been investigating the identity of the new War Machine since issue #12. We’ll learn in Iron Man (vol. 3) #20 that Jim and Parnell Jacobs were old war buddies who parted ways after leaving the service when the two came at odds about what kind of mercenary work they took.
Tony says that he knows what it is like to go into action drunk. Tony did so on two occasions and screwed up just as bad as Carol did here. See Iron Man #128 and 168-169 for those sloshed sagas.
Jocasta’s body was destroyed back in Avengers Annual #17, leaving only her severed head intact. It came into the possession of Machine Man who was trying to fix her. During the Termini attack in Iron Man Annual #11, Machine Man was damaged and he and Jocsta’s head were briefly kept at Baintronics. While Machine Man and Iron Man were busy with the Termini, Sunset Bain took possession of Jocasta’s head and has had it ever since.
Topical References
When his social gathering is over, Tony begins singing lines from the song “The Party is Over” by Nat King Cole. This song was written by Jule Styne in 1956 and was first performed by Judy Holiday. It’s been covered over 100 times and without any context you can’t really tell whose version Tony might be singing. Still, it is a such a classic song that I suppose you don’t have to necessarily consider a topical reference.
Tony’s cell phone is depicted as a late 90s flip phone that has an antenna to pick up signals. This technology is more or less obsolete following the advent of the smart phone. It’s appearance here should be considered topical.
