World’s Most Wanted, Part 6: The Shape of the World These Days

Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, is on the run after Norman Osborn — the Director of HAMMER — put out a warrant for his arrest.[1] On the shores of France, HAMMER has found what is left of Iron Man’s deep sea armor, giving away Tony’s position.[2]

Stark has fled into the town of Bayeux, France. He has been running from secret facility to secret facility to wipe out his mind. He has stopped here to shop an outdoor electronics market for material he needs. Unfortunately, somebody recognizes him and tries to report him to HAMMER. Tony rips the phone out of his hand and tosses it away before fleeing.

Meanwhile, at Futurepharm in Austin, Texas, Maria Hill is on a mission to recover a hard drive for Tony Stark.[3] However, she had discovered that the Controller has taken up residence in the building and has amassed an army of slaves. The most recent addition to his enclave is Maria Hill herself. Once a control disc has been placed at the base of her neck, Maria’s mind is suddenly flooded with memories of her past. She sees a parade of men who controlled her life: her abusive father, the principal who expelled her, the drill sergeant who berated her during basic training, former SHIELD Director Nick Fury who reminded her his agency wasn’t like the Marines, Tony Stark who regularly scolded her.[4] Lastly, she sees Christopher Walsh, a former SHIELD/current HAMMER agent who called her “sweet cheeks” on the day she was fired from the agency.[5] This angers her enough that she starts to fight back against the Controller and tries to remove the slave disc from the back of her neck.

Meanwhile, Pepper Potts — outfitted with armor built by Tony Stark — has been arrested by HAMMER and is brought back to Avengers Tower. Upon her arrival, her helmet is removed and she is shackled up in a cell so Norman Osborn can interrogate her personally. However, Pepper refuses to talk, pointing out that they are violating her fifth, sixth, and seventh amendment rights. She also refuses to let them look at her armor, not that she could if she wanted to because JARVIS — her onboard AI — shut things down the moment she was arrested. Osborn decides to get down to business, he tells her that he wants to know where Stark is. If she refuses to give Tony up, he will start torturing her friends and family. Pepper doesn’t doubt it, but tells him that she doesn’t know where Tony is since he put her in charge of his company, kicked her out, and then ran.

Back in France, Tony Stark is soon found by Shockwave, a villain with a bone to pick and a bounty to collect. Even though Tony isn’t wearing his armor he still has his jet boots and a repulsor to help him get away or fight back. Unfortunately, Shockwave manages to blast him in the back, causing him to crash into the home of an elderly woman. Tony incapacitates Shockwave with his repulsor and then beats feet.

While in Texas, Maria Hill finally rips off the slave disc. The Controller orders his slaves to capture her again but they are too slow so he decides to do it himself. Before he can nab her again, Maria leaps up and grabs an electrical chord and uses it to swing across the room, pulling the plug on the Controller’s power source. This causes the slave discs to shut down, freeing his slaves.

At Avengers Tower, Pepper allows her suit to be examined and tells Osborn that she is authorized under the Super-Human Registration Act and broke no laws.[6] Osborn reveals that he has had the technicians at his company — Oscorp — are working around the clock to reverse engineer Tony Stark’s Iron Man tech. Unfortunately, they cannot replicate Tony’s genius and the repulsor reactor that Pepper has implanted in her chest is the missing piece of the puzzle to unlocking Starktech.[7] However, she flat out refuses. Osborn responds by tell her that she is not to leave the United States, fly higher than 4500 meters or faster than 200 miles per hour. Lastly, she is not allowed to interfere with law enforcement, fire, or rescue efforts. If she violates these restrictions he’ll have her arrested on the spot and he’ll personally pry the reactor out of her chest with a screwdriver. It’s then that Victoria Hand informs Norman that there is a situation in Texas. Osborn tells the guards to get Pepper out of Avengers Tower and gives them order to shoot her down if she tries to fly.

Back in Texas, Maria Hill flees to another part of the Futurepharm facility as the Controller re-establishes control of his slaves. Maria finally manages to find the central control room. Plugging in the jump drive given to her by Tony and it tells her where to find the hard drive she came to recover in the first place. She quickly recovers it and flees the scene in a rusted out pick-up truck. She intends to call 911 to report the Collector before trying to find Captain America.

Meanwhile, the Hood and Madame Masque report into Norman Osborn and explain how Shockwave failed to capture Tony Stark in France. Norman understands and asks to speak to Madame Masque in private — at Avengers Tower. When she meets with Osborn, he shows her a device that they just got working again. It shows Osborn all the suits of Iron Man armor that are currently online, allowing them to track Tony Stark more easily. He wants to send Madame Masque after him because of their romantic past and unresolved issues.[8]

By this time, Tony Stark has managed to reach another one of his caches to continue his mind wiping process. He has recovered another old suit of armor and is working on trying to simplify its controls.[9] This is because he is losing his intelligence and won’t be able to handle complex tasks very soon. As he works Tony is suddenly struck by intense pain and collapses to the floor. He weakly calls out to Pepper before he blacks out.

At that moment, Pepper is atop Avengers Tower. JARVIS has come back online and asks her what she wishes to do next. She decides to damn the consequences and orders the AI to help her find Tony.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rescue, Maria Hill, HAMMER (Iron Patriot, Victoria Hand), The Hood, Controller, Shockwave, Madame Masque, (in flashback) Nick Fury, Ed Vernon, Christopher Walsh

Continuity Notes

1. This story follows the failed Skrull invasion of Earth. It ended with Norman Osborn killing the Skrull leader and being awarded Directorship of SHIELD, which he rennamed HAMMER, as seen in Secret Invasion #1-8. On his way out, Tony Stark erased sensitive top secret information to prevent Osborn from getting access to it and has been on the run since. See Invincible Iron Man #8-12.

2. This undersea suit of armor was first built in Iron Man #218.

3. 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.

4. Nick Fury was the Director of SHIELD until he went AWOL starting in Secret War #5. As explained in Mighty Avengers #12, Fury went underground because he uncovered the Skrull invasion of Earth and was trying to stop it. Tony Stark took over as SHIELD director after Civil War #7.

5. Maria Hill was fired from SHIELD/HAMMER in Invincible Iron Man #8 since the Skrull invasion happened on her watch.

6. Pepper was registered under the SHRA due to her management of the California superhero team known as the Order, see The Order (vol. 2) #1-10.

7. Pepper was seriously injured in a suicide bombing which lodged shrapnel in her heart. In order to save her life, Tony installed an arc reactor in her chest. See Invincible Iron Man #1-6.

8. Madame Masque, aka Whitney Frost, had a relationship with Tony Stark from Iron Man #104 to 116. It came to an end when Iron Man seemingly slew her father, the crime boss known as Count Nefaria.

9. Tony is working to simplify an old Model 4 suit of armor. This suit was first built in Iron Man #85.

Topical References

• The person who ratted Tony out in France is said to have done so for an iPhone. When this story was first written iPhones were brand new and sought after. This should be considered a topical reference not only because iPhones are incredibly common, but because that is a real world brand.

• Norman Osborn estimates that Pepper’s Rescue armor cost about 4 billion dollars to make. Adjusting for inflation it would cost about 5.6 billion in 2023 money.

Tanslations

There is dialogue in this story that is in another language that is not translated:

• “Je suis désolé — J’ai détruit votre appartement, grande-mère” = “I'm sorry - I destroyed your apartment, grandma.”