The Five Nightmares, Part 6: Irrational Actors

Zeke Stane has come to Stark Industry’s Long Island facility to destroy Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) and his company to avenge the death of his father, Obadiah Stane.[1] Stane managed to blow Iron Man’s head off in their clash. However, when he rips open the suit of armor to get at Tony Stark’s body he quickly discovers he was fighting an empty shell.

In fact, Tony Stark is safely 12 miles away. He is now sending remotely piloted suits of Iron Man armor to deal with all of the suicide bombers that Stane has sent to various Stark Industry locations all over the globe. While the robotic suits deal with the other suicide bombers, the real Iron Man arrives in person at the Long Island facility and ambushes Zeke from above.

With the suicide bombers activating the repulsor bombs built into their bodies, Tony realizes that he doesn’t have any time left. With no time to spare, Tony instead activates a kill switch code that shuts bricks every piece of Starktech in the world. This not only shuts down the bombers, but utterly cripples his entire business operation.

Emerging from his armor, Tony intends to beat Zeke Stane with his bare hands. Stane is more than willing to settle things the old fashioned way. He beats the young man into submission, who justifies his actions because he was empowering people to fight back against evil oppressors. Unlike Stark when he was in the munitions game, Zeke doesn’t bill the people that he kills.[2] Tony doesn’t care what Stane or anyone else thinks of him. As SHIELD agents come to apprehend Stane, Tony tells the boy that his father was smarter and harder to beat.

In the aftermath of the battle, Maria Hill and Pepper Potts give Tony an update on the situation. Zeke Stane has been contained, but is not speaking. They are trying to figure out who his accomplace might have been.[3] Worse, the suicide bombers are all dead because the weapons implanted in their body was tied into their heartbeats. When Tony activated the electromagnetic pulse to disable their weapons, it also terminated their lives. Tony asks to be alone and the two women leave. Tony remember how, at the start of all of this, he had five nightmares that he hoped would never happen. Now, Zeke Stane has given him a sixth nightmare, by showing Tony the type of man he has to be to stop his other nightmares from coming true.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (Maria Hill), Pepper Potts, Zeke Stane, Sasha Hammer

Continuity Notes

1. This story makes multiple mentions to Zeke’s father, Obadiah Stane. Obadiah destroyed Iron Man’s life over the course of Iron Man #166-173. This included a hostile take over Stark International and pushing Tony to start drinking again. Tony eventually ended up homeless and almost died from his bender, but decided to get clean again in Iron Man #182. He went on to start a new company, making him a target of Stane once more. Their final conflict took place in Iron Man #198-200, ending with Stane’s suicide.

2. Stark Industries used to sell munitions. However, Tony eventually got his company out of the weapons game years ago in Iron Man #42.

3. Stane remains incarcerated until he is sprung from prison by the Mandarin in Invincible Iron Man #33.

Topical References

• The report on Stane’s plot is depicted as being recorded on a CD. This was a fairly common data storage format at the time this story was published. However, this format has fallen out of popular use and its depiction here should be considered topical.