World’s Most Wanted, Part 3: No Future

Norman Osborn, the Commander of HAMMER, has held a press conference where he announces that he has issued a warrant for the arrest of his predecessor, former SHIELD Director, Tony Stark. Osborn claims that this is to question him regarding allegations of collusion with a recent Skrull invasion attempt. In reality, Osborn is abusing his power in order to get access to top secret data that Stark has hidden from him.[1]

While fielding comments, Osborn says he’ll look in Jim Rhodes — aka War Machine — a known friend of Stark.[2] He also assures them that all Iron Man tech will be confiscated and retrofitted by Oscorp so that it can be used in the service of HAMMER. He vows that the technology will no longer be the personal plaything of Tony Stark.

Kat Farrell from the National Pulse asks if there will be any criminal charges leveled against Stark. Osborn points out that he has fled arrest and damaged millions of dollars of HAMMER equipment. When asked about Stark Industries, Norman recounts how the company was on its last legs after recent events and it is irrelevant now.[3]

At that same moment, Pepper Potts has just been given control of Stark Industries and is working on winding the company down. The staff is down to just a skeleton crew and HAMMER has seized assets and equipment. Selling off business that survived all the terror attacks of late have been liquidated and things are running on autopilot for the time being. When she asks her assistant why Tony Stark saddled her with the task of scuttling his family business, the aide suggests that Stark left it to her because of all the people in the world, he trusts her the most.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark is hiding out at the abandoned Funtime, Inc. Building where he is undergoing the first step in a process to erase his mind in order to destroy all the secrets that Norman Osborn seeks to take from him. While this process is running its course, he asks Maria Hill to go to the Futurepharm building in Texas. There she is to plug in a jump drive to the computer terminal. It will identify an important hard drive he wants her to recover for him.[4] He tells her that when she recovers the drive she needs to give it to Captain America. However, Tony doesn’t know of a method of reaching Cap without tipping off Norman Osborn, but figures that she will be resourceful enough to figure something out. When he cracks a joke, he defends doing so, saying it’s either that or start crying. Meanwhile, Tony will have to go from armory to armory, using their repulsor tech to complete his mindwipe. However, he have to always be on the move because when he fires up the reactors, Osborn will know his location and come after him. He also has to make sure that the armories don’t fall into Osborn’s hands as it will give him access to the suits of Iron Man armor there.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Tony and Maria begins making out with one another, figuring this will be their last chance at human comfort before going on what could possibly be a suicide run.

Elsewhere, Pepper is still working on at Stark Industries. She watches an interview with Victoria Hand, Norman Osborn’s right-hand at HAMMER. She implores Stark to turn himself in or else they will be forced to treat him like a fugitive. When she evokes the names of heroes who have died under Tony’s watch, Pepper throws a paper weight at the TV.[5] Pepper then begins trashing in the office because she can’t figure out what Tony really wants her to do. She ends up knocking a photo of her, Tony, and Happy off the wall revealing a secret doorway that leads Pepper into a room where a new suit of armor is waiting for her.

Meanwhile, in Restoration Park, Norman Osborn — dressed in his Iron Patriot armor — and Victoria Hand wait for Tony Stark to arrive and surrender himself to HAMMER. With them is a throng of reporters to document the scene. Osborn waits until 15 minutes past the deadline as the longer they wait, the better they look. Once he is satisfied enough time has passed, Osborn flips down his helmet. He tells the gathered press that HAMMER is now issuing a warrant for Tony Stark’s arrest for crimes against humanity, collusion with an alien menace, flight from justice, conspiracy, criminal neglect, and treason against planet Earth.

Once he gives the order, HAMMER squads begin raiding Stark Industry locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Rome, Berlin, Hong Kong, Seattle, and Manhattan. They begin turning these offices upside-down, brutalizing employees, and destroying anything of now value. As this happens, Osborn tells the media that he will not rest until Tony Stark has been captured and brought to justice. The heavy handed tactics are allowed to happen because Osborn claims that Stark might be harboring Skrull subversives. At the Manhattan office, the HAMMER team is trying to find Pepper Potts in order to question her about Tony Stark. When they head to her office, her assistant tries to stop them from barging in. The HAMMER team beats him up and put a gun to his head, demanding to know where Pepper is. That’s when the assistant directs them to the secret room inside her office.

At that same moment, Maria Hill wakes up after her romantic interlude. She discovers that Tony is gone and has left her a note. Its orders to set the hideout to blow up and run like hell. She begins rigging bombs to the spare suits of Iron Man armor stored in the facility, and notes that one of them is gone. Maria flees into the night seconds before the building blows up. Elsewhere, Iron Man is flying off to the next one of his caches.[6] Above Stark Industries HQ, Pepper Potts has put on the suit of armor left for her by Tony. All three know that no matter what happens next, there is no turning back now.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rescue, Maria Hill, HAMMER (Iron Patriot, Victoria Hand), Kat Ferrell

Continuity Notes

1. The Skrull invasion was primarily chronicled in Secret Invasion #1-8. The invasion decimated every piece of Starktech with a virus, which crippled SHIELD. When Norman Osborn killed the Skrull leader, he was hailed a hero and promoted to take over SHIELD, which he renamed HAMMER. Tony Stark wiped out all sensitive information from SHIELD’s database in Invincible Iron Man #8.

2. Mention is made of Jim Rhodes being Tony’s bodyguard and right hand man before becoming War Machine. The two have been friends since Iron Man #118. Mention is made that Rhodes even operated as Iron Man in the past. He had two major stints from Iron Man #169 to 195. He took on the mantle again from Iron Man #284 to 290. He started going by War Machine in Avengers West Coast #94.

3. On top of the Skrull invasion, Stark Industries was also decemated by Zeke Stane and his team of terrorist suicide bombers, as seen in Invincible Iron Man #1-6.

4. This hard drive is a back-up of Tony Stark’s mind which will be integral to restoring him back to normal following his mind wipe. See Invincible Iron Man #20-24.

5. Victoria Hand mentions a number of individuals that were considered dead at the time of this story. They are:

   • Bill Foster, aka Goliath, who was killed by an out of control clone of Thor in Civil War #4. As of this writing (May, 2023), Goliath has remained among the deceased, although he was recently turned into an undead revenant in Strange (vol. 3) #7.

   • Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, who was believed to have been killed in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. However, he was actually unmoored from time as we’ll learn in Captain America: Reborn #1-5.

   • Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, who was seemingly killed in Secret Invasion #8. She was actually stranded in the Microverse and will be rescued in Avengers (vol. 4) #31-33.

6. The suit of armor that Tony is wearing here is the Model 16, which was first built in Iron Man (vol. 3) #1.

Topical References

• Tony’s jump drive is depicted as using a USB 3.0 connection. While this type of connection is still in regular use as I write this (in May, 2023), it is slowly falling out of common use for smaller connection types. As such, its depiction here should be considered a topical reference.

• Maria Hill refers to herself and Tony Stark as Norman Osborn’s “Bonnie and Clyde”. She is referring to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, a criminal couple that were active during the turn of the Great Depression. This wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference as they are historical figures.