Iron Man (vol. 3) #19
Machinery of War Part 2: Smart Weapons, Foolish Choices
High above the Pacific North West, War Machine is flying across the sky, testing out his new armor enhancements created by Baintronics. He runs into two Air Force fighter jets and shoots them out of the sky with ease. He decides to spare the pilots so they can warn everyone not to mess with the new War Machine.
Meanwhile, Pepper Potts heads to the Seatle-Tacoma International Airport to pick up Jim Rhodes who has arrived from England with Glenda Sandoval. Jim has been investigating if his old friend, and Glenda’s husband, is the new War Machine or not. Glenda confirms that Parnell found the long lost War Machine armor, he handed it over to an inventor named Stuart Clarke. However, she remains unconvinced that the man in the armor is her husband as he promised her that he got out of the mercenary game.[1] As they leave the airport, Jim catches a news report about how Pepper’s ex-husband, Happy Hogan, has been in the media spotlight since helping the relief effort after the city was attacked by Fin Fang Foom. When Jim comments how Hap is doing okay for himself, Pepper quickly changes the subject.[2]
At that same time, Tony Stark is arriving at Baintronics to start his consulting job for the company. He is escorted to a computer terminal where has a video conference with Sunset Bain herself. She explains that his task will be to try and crack a new artificial intelligence that her team has been working on. She explains that the programmer who created it for her tragically died from a heart attack, taking the codes to get into the AI with him. She has hired Tony to crack the program and find those missing codes. Tony gets to work, and recounts that he only took this job to determine what connection Sunset Bain has with the new War Machine. It’s slow going at first because Tony is tried. He was up late comforting Carol Danvers, aka War bird, as she was coming to terms with the fact that she is an alcoholic. At the time, Tony suggested that Carol attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with him. However, Carol flat out refused as she wanted to deal with this on her own. Tony conceded, telling Carol that they’ll try things her way for now.[3]
After a cup of coffee, Tony gets down to work and as he begins trying to crack the AI security he finds its programming very familiar. Before he can recall where he’s seen it before he is interrupted by Sunset Bain who has come to check in on him. She tells him that he doesn’t need to work through his lunch break and begins seducing him on the spot. At first, Tony tries to push away but when she continues making advances, Tony suddenly can’t resist anymore and gives in. As Pepper arrives at Tony’s house with Jim and Glenda and explain what’s going down at Baintronics, Tony soon gets back to work. As he continues to decipher the AI code, he suddenly remembers where he saw it before. He recalls examining a similar code when he once examined Jocasta, the robot created by the evil Ultron to be his bride. However, despite her original purpose, Jocasta developed an independence of her own and fought back against her creator alongside the Avengers.[4]
Iron Man recalls she eventually met and fell in love with another self-aware robot named Machine Man. He also remembers how Machine Man was determined to restore her to normal after her body was destroyed by the High Evolutionary.[5] Tony was actually there for one of these attempts that was interrupted by the Termini. Iron Man last saw Jocasta’s head when he left it and a damaged Machine Man temporarily at Baintronics.[6] Rather than try to crack the code, Tony instead tries to communicate with it. Sure enough, the artificial intelligence is Jocsata after all. Tony’s attempts to communicate with her sets off an alarm, prompting Sunset Bain to order her guards to shut down Tony’s terminal and take him into custody. Unfortunately, by the time they arrive, Tony has already taken off. With Jocasta’s aid, Tony slips past security and takes off in a Baintronics armored vehicle.
As he flees the building, he gets a call from Pepper Potts who reports Jim Rhodes’ connection to Parnell Jacobs and how he might be the new War Machine. This makes Tony think back to his own long history with Sunset Bain. How when he met her when he was much younger and how she seduced him into sharing the secrets behind Stark Industries security systems. Shortly thereafter, the company was attacked by a group of mercenaries who stole a number of prototypes. Not long after that, Sunset dumped Tony and started up her own company. Seeing that her innovations were stolen from Stark Industries, Tony realizes that he was used by Sunset.[7] By the time he has finished his recollection he has reached the forest where he has stashed his Iron Man armor. Changing into his alter-ego, Tony heads back to Baintronics in order to rescue Jocasta from her captor.
He is intercepted by War Machine who tries to use his advanced weapons against Iron Man. However, the Avenger notes various vulnerabilities in the equipment and exploits them to his advantage. Annoyed that Stuart Clarke’s enhancements to the War Machine armor aren’t cutting it, Sunset Bain decides to use Jocasta against her would-be savior. Running the Jocasta program, she has it launch a combat program. Unable to resist, all Jocasta can do is apologize to Iron Man as a barrage of missile begin to rain down on him and War Machine.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, War Machine, Sunset Bain, Stuart Clarke, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Jim Rhodes, Glenda Sandoval, Jocasta, Warbird
Continuity Notes
Lots of backstory about Parnell Jacobs and how he got his hands on the War Machine armor. The details:
Jim Rhodes and Parnell were old war buddies. After their service they got into mercenary work but drifted apart when they disagreed over the types of merc gigs they took. This will all be explained next issue.
Years later, Jim became the origin War Machine when the armor was given to him by Tony Stark back in Iron Man #284. Rhodey operated as War Machine for a time until the armor was lost during a trip through time, as seen in War Machine #15-17. It had been lost ever since.
The new War Machine turned up in Iron Man (vol. 3) #11-12. Thinking War Machine’s voice was similar to Parnell’s voice, Jim has been searching the globe to confirm his suspicions.
Why is Stuart Clarke important here? Well the guy once built his own suit of armor to rival that of Iron Man. He had a brief career as the supervillain known as Rampage. See Champions #5-8, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18, and Wonder Man (vol. 2) #5-6, 17-18, and 20-21.
Pepper and Happy Hogan got married in Tales of Suspense #91. However, their marriage eventually hit the rock and the two got divorced as we learned in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. Happy was named the public liaison for the Maria Stark Foundation, which manages Tony’s philanthropy. Shortly after this, Seattle was attacked by Fin Fang Foom. During the attack, Happy helped emergency crews evacuate people and help the injured. With so many people displaced, Happy offered to put them up in hotels on behalf of the foundation, making him a local hero. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #16-17.
Carol’s drinking problem and Tony’s desire to help her is a little complicated complex:
Tony himself is a recovering alcoholic and has two documented instances where his boozing almost ruined his life, as seen in Iron Man #120-128 and 167-182. Tony was first seen attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Iron Man #313.
It was revealed that Carol had a problem with alcohol in Avengers (vol. 3) #4. This affected her performance on the team and when she was confronted about it she rage quit in issue #7. Tony has been trying to convince her to get help since Iron Man (vol. 3) #7. Last issue, Carol finally admitted to having a problem. Although she is resistant to the idea of going to AA, but Avengers (vol. 3) #26, she has caved and started going to meetings.
Iron Man is recounting the events of Avengers #162 and 171 respectively.
Jocasta met and fell in love with Machine Man in Marvel Two-In-One #92-93, it came to an abrupt end when Jocasta seemingly died at the hands of her creator. She was rebuilt by the High Evolutionary in Avengers Annual #17 but her body was destroyed when she and the Avengers tried to stop his schemes in that same story.
Machine Man got a hold of her in Iron Man Annual #11, and it was during the Termini attack in that story that Sunset Bain got her hands on Jocasta’s severed head.
During Tony’s flashback, Tony recalls a moment where his younger self asking Sunset Bain if that was her given name. Sunset responded by saying that she gave it to herself because she was a self-made woman. Here, it is stated that this back-and-forth became a bit of a running joke for the two of them and they would repeat it every time they encountered each other since that moment. This is to explain away the discrepancy between the last 19 issues of Iron Man (vol. 3) and Iron Man Annual #11. In the Annual, Tony and Sunset acted as though they were meeting for the first time. This story reframes the encounter, making their “introduction” to one another an in-joke between the two of them. It’s a perfect example of why continuity shouldn’t always be taken at face value.
Topical References
War Machine refers to one of the pilots as “Top Gun”, this is a reference to the 1986 action film of the same name. It starred Tom Cruise in the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, who was a fighter pilot. This could be considered a topical reference, but the movie has become synonymous to describe a fighter pilot who bucks against the rules so I guess that’s up to you.
When Jim assures Pepper that Tony won’t get into trouble trying to get data from Sunset Bain, Pepper scoffs at the idea and quips that every man thinks he’s James Bond. James Bond is the main character of a series of spy stories written by Ian Fleming. The character was popularized and became synonymous with spies when the stories were adapted to film. Since the character has been so ingrained into the culture, this reference wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical.
