World’s Most Wanted, Part 8: The Danger We’re All In

Tony Stark has been on the run since Norman Osborn — Director of HAMMER — issued a warrant for his arrest. In an effort to keep his secrets away from Osborn, Tony has been slowly wiping out his mind.[1] Borrowing the Crimson Dynamo’s armor, Tony has gone to his hideout in Kirensk region of Russia. There, Rescue (Pepper Potts) comes looking for him, but is attacked because Tony no longer remembers that he built Pepper’s armor. Luckily, Pepper is able to shut overpower him and convince him who she really is.

Little do they know that Madame Masque — sent by Norman to capture Stark — has them in their sights and is about to take out Pepper. However, she refrains from pulling the trigger when Tony and Pepper kiss. She continues to watch them as they head to Tony’s secret hideout, located beneath the land where a meteor struck the region in 1908.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Maria Hill has tracked down the Black Widow (Natasha Rominov) as part of her mission to get an important hard drive to Captain America (Bucky Barnes) on behalf of Tony Stark.[2] However, the fact that Maria is a fugitive from the law who is tied to the explosion at Futurepharm in Texas, Natasha doesn’t trust her. After telling Hill to get some professional help, Natasha tries to leave

At that moment, Pepper Potts wakes up and realizes she fell asleep. Tony is already plugged into his repulsor reactor to purge more memories from his mind. Since he is losing his intelligence and knowledge, he is writing notes for himself later. When Pepper asks how bad his memory loss is, Tony gives her an example by telling her that he remembers that he has 31 cars all over the world, but he doesn’t remember the make or model of any of them. He says it feels like he is losing the only superpower he ever had: his intelligence. He’s seen it happen to people in Iron Man’s line of work, but never thought it would happen to him. Now that he has become as normal as everyone else he hates how it feels. He then apologizes for sounding condescending.

Pepper tells him its okay and she wants to thank him for everything he has done. Not just for her, but for Jim Rhodes and Happy Hogan as well. That’s when Tony asks who Happy is, as he no longer remembers who he is.[4] Little do either of them know that Madame Masque is still outside preparing to strike. When Norman Osborn radios in for an update, Masque takes off her ear piece and tosses it in the snow.[5]

Back in the United States, the fight between Maria Hill and the Black Widow prompts a bystander to call HAMMER to report what she thinks is a super-powered terror attack. The agency deploys a team of wing-suited agents to pursue the pair. When the two end up in a dead end alleyway, the Black Widow is able to flee up onto the roof of a nearby building, leaving Hill to be arrested. However, when Maria pleads with Natasha to destroy the hard drive, rather than letting it fall into the hands of Norman Osborn, she decides to save Hill instead. Hill might be crazy, but she has convinced the Widow that her mission is one of vital importance.

While this is going on, Tony Stark has ventured outside to chop wood to keep him and Pepper warm. As he does so he begins reconsidering the idea of losing his intelligence and being normal, thinking that perhaps it won’t be so bad after all. When he heads back to the bunker, he finds evidence that someone has broken in. Racing inside he finds that Madame Masque got the drop on Pepper and has her tied up to a chair and hooked up to a car battery. Whitney threatens to kill Pepper before handing Tony over to Norman Osborn. After explaining his situation, Tony gets on his knees and pleads with her to spare Pepper’s life, suggesting that they could become lovers again and run away from it all.

Madame Masque, however, is a highly paranoid woman who is conflicted between believing Tony and thinking he was only using her. She decides to perform a test to learn the truth by removing her mask. If he can look at her scarred visage with genuine love, she will spare Pepper’s life.[5]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rescue, Maria Hill, Black Widow, HAMMER (Iron Patriot), Madame Masque

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 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.

3. At the time of this story, the original Captain America (Steve Rogers) is believed to have died in Captain America (vol. 5) #25. In his absence, Bucky Barnes took over the mantle in issue #33-34 of that series.

4. Happy Hogan was Tony Stark’s long time friend dating back to Tales of Suspense #45. In recent times, Happy was left braindead after an attack from Spymaster. Tony turned off Hap’s life support to end his suffering. See Iron Man (vol. 4) #13-14.

5. Madame Masque had her face horribly scarred when her escape ship crash landed while trying to flee SHIELD. She keeps her face hidden behind her mask at all times. See Iron Man #12. 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.

Topical References

• The woman who snitches on Maria and Natasha specifically references al-Queda, a real world terrorist organization that the United States was actively in conflict with at the time this story was published. As such, this should be considered a topical reference.