World’s Most Wanted, Part 1: Shipbreaking

The world narrowly avoided defeat from a massive alien invasion from the Skrulls. SHIELD was catastrophically compromised. In the final battle Norman Osborn was made a hero when he was the one who killed the leader of the Skrull Invasion. As a result Osborn was put in charge of the spy agency.[1] Maria Hill, who was a high ranking SHIELD officer during the invasion, is now ut of a job. Since her mother died giving birth to her, Maria Hill maintained a cold demeanor to show the world that she didn’t need anyone to get ahead. Now, when she needs someone there on her side the most, she finds herself alone. She packs up her things and as she leaves her former subordinates — all decked out in their new HAMMER uniforms — gleefully watch their former commander walk out. Agent Christopher Walsh even decides to take a picture to document the momentous occasion. Maria can’t help but slap back one last time before leaving.

Meanwhile, Iron Man (aka Tony Stark) heads to the repair bay where the former SHIELD helicarrier is being repaired. It was heavily compromised during the Skrull invasion and needs extensive repairs. Iron Man has come to lend a hand with the repair effort. The work crews are not really happy to see him, since Stark has been blamed for failing to stop the invasion. When they give him manual labor to do, Stark accepts it since there isn’t much else he can do. This is because when all Starktech in the world was compromised by a Skrull computer virus it also affected Extremis, and he can no longer interface with his armor, forcing him to control his armor manually, which is much more difficult. Between the invasion and Zeke Stane’s attack on Stark Industries, Tony hasn’t had time to make a new suit of armor to compensate for his new handicap.[2] That’s when the jet boots of Tony’s armor begin to malfunction, causing him to fall into the water with tons of debris. When he scrambles back to the surface, the workers tell Stark to get lost since he might get someone killed.

Tony heads for home where Pepper Potts is going over the changes to her body since Tony installed the arc reactor in her chest. It has healed her body and made her better than ever before. It has left her wondering where the machine stops and the person begins, and how much more she will change as a result of this life saving technology.[3] Tony then begins working on an upgrade that will increase her metabolism, core strength, reaction time, reflexes, and increase her IQ. When Pep asks if Tony is turning her into his dream girl, Tony jokes about it being some Icelandic triplets that he recently met. He then admits that Pepper has always been his dream girl. Pepper quickly changes the subject and asks Tony about how he feels handing over the keys to SHIELD to Norman Osborn.

Later that day, Tony heads to his former office where Norman Osborn and his assistant Victoria Hand are waiting for him. Hand gives the two men privacy, telling Osborn that he need only call if he needs her for anything. Once they are alone, things get ugly really quick. Osborn tells Stark to keep his distance or else he’ll break his traitorous neck. Norman wants to make sure that Stark has relinquished all HAMMER property and won’t leave any of his personal effects behind. What Osborn is most interested in is the superhuman registration database.[4] Tony points out to him that Osborn can’t just browse such sensitive information at his leisure, that it requires various warrants and permissions to be looked at. Having had enough, Tony sarcastically wished Osborn luck running the world, warning him not to squeeze too tight or too fast or else all the good parts will ooze out from between his fingers.

Tony sees himself out and heads down for his exit scan. Its during this examination, Tony catches up with Maria Hill and the two leave together. Tony tells her not to sweat losing her job because today is the first day of the rest of their careers, although he admits that he’s not sure what that means anymore.

The moment that Tony Stark is gone, Victoria Hand informs Norman Osborn that access to the SHRA database has been granted. Norman then tries doing a search for Spider-Man, but there are no results found. He then searches other heroes and no matter who he looks up, the database comes back with nothing. Norman then loses his shit over this. That’s when Victoria returns with a HAMMER agent who has reported that a virus became active the moment he tried accessing the SHRA database. It was some kind of kill code that wiped out the records from every database in the network. This is clearly the work of Tony Stark and Norman Osborn says that this means war.

At that moment, Tony Stark is meeting with Maria Hill and Pepper Potts at the run down Funtime, Inc. building on Coney Island. This situation reminds Tony Stark of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was one of the architects of the Holocaust during World War II. Stark points out that Eichmann was a high school drop out who claimed he was merely following orders. That’s the banality of evil, that people will just follow orders and laws even if they are ethically wrong. Tony admits that he sees the irony of the situation. Maria then begins to panic when she realizes that Norman Osborn has access to the SHRA database. Tony tells them the good news and the bad news: Tony says that he wiped out the database with a computer virus. the bad news is that Tony has the only surviving copy left and he has to destroy it before Norman Osborn can find it.

Tony then explains to them that when he was transformed by Extremis it upgraded his brain so it could handle and store a lot of data.[5] When Pepper asks where the copy of the SHRA database is located, Tony points at his head. This is not good. Maria then asks what will happen next. Tony figures Norman will declare war and then try to kill them all.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Pepper Potts, Maria Hill, HAMMER (Iron Patriot, Victoria Hand, Christopher Walsh)

Continuity Notes

1. This story follows the events of Secret Invasion #1-8.

2. Zeke Stane attacked Stark Industries in Invincible Iron Man #1-6.

3. Pepper was gravely injured in Invincible Iron Man #2 and required the installation of the arc reactor to save her life.

4. He is referring to the government database that contains all data on registered superheroes that have signed up following the passage of the Super-Human Registration Act. See Civil War #1-7.

5. Tony’s body was transformed by Extremis back in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6.

Topical References

• Agent Walsh’s cell phone is depicted as having a small screen and physical buttons. While these kind of phones still exist, they have fallen out of popular use and its depiction here should be considered topical.

• When Tony shows Pepper the three Islandic triplets he plans on going out with, Pepper refers to the photo as being part of his Girls Gone Wild slideshow. Girls Gone Wild was an infamous video series that began in 1997. A group of douchebags would go to party locations and ply young women with alcohol and try to convince them to flash the camera. It’s as scummy as it sounds.

• When talking about how evil Norman Osborn is, Tony compares him to Snidely Whiplash. Snidely was the villain in the Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.