Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #19

Mar 17

Mar 17 Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #19

World War Hulk continues from World War Hulk #1…

Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD, has been called to the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, to answer questions about SHIELD’s budget. On his way in, he gets a call from SHIELD’s space defense unit to advise him that they have detected a UFO of an unknown origin. Whatever it is, its massive and apparently made out of stone.

SHIELD deploys a number of Iron Man drones to make first content. Little does anyone know that this ship contains the Hulk and his Warbound, who are coming to Earth to get revenge on the men responsible for exiling the Hulk to begin with.[1]

Arch-E-5912 informs the Hulk that there are multiple bogies approaching their ship that resemble one of the men who exiled him from Earth. The Hulk knows that these are all drones and when they begin hailing their ship to find out their intentions, the Hulk tells Arch-E to show them. Arch-E then unleashes an electromagnetic pulse that seemingly knocks out all the drones. The sudden shut down of the drones causes Tony Stark to experience a headache and he excuses himself from his meeting.

The ship then rams into the drones, destroying them except for the only one that wasn’t affected by the EMP. This remaining drone was based on Iron Man’s stealth armor and it lands on the surface of the craft to try and find out who is inside.[2] However, the moment it touches down on the hull of the stone ship, the Hulk reaches out and smashes it to pieces. Deeply alarmed that something could destroy his armor with their bare hands, Tony demands to be put in touch with the President. By this time, the stone craft has landed on the Moon. By the time Stark makes it back to his SHIELD issue flying car, the Hulk has already trounced Black Bolt — leader of the Inhumans — and his stoneship has now appeared over Manhattan.

That’s when a holographic image of the Hulk appears in Times Square. He announces to the people of Earth that he has return to get revenge on the men who exiled him into space. They are Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt. He explains his experiences on Skaar and the destruction of that planet. He blames the heroes for everything that happened and wants to see them dead. He orders the total evacuation of Manhattan so he can hunt down and kill his foes. Showing them the beaten body of Black Bolt, he tells them that if anyone gets in his way he will pummel the planet just as he did the Inhuman leader.[3]

Arriving on the SHIELD helicarrier, Tony gets a sitrep from Dum Dum Dugan, who suggests that ever doomsday weapon in the book.[4] However, when it becomes clear that Stark is going to confront the Hulk in an effort to prevent any loss of life, Dugan tells him he’s crazy. Suiting up in his Iron Man armor, Tony tells Dugan that all available SHIELD agents are to assist the evacuation of Manhattan. When Dugan tries to protest this, Iron Man tells him he has his orders.

As Dugan storms off, Agent Lindsay agrees with Dugan that Stark has the wrong idea.[5] He admits that many of the other SHIELD agents agree that Tony Stark is unfit to run the agency. In fact, they think that if anyone should be running things, it should be Dugan. All Dugan will say is that Fury should never have left. That’s when another agent tells him that they can launch tactical nukes at any moment. When Dugan goes back outside to tell Iron Man about this, Tony still stands by his decision. In fact, he also states that unregistered heroes will be authorized to help out during this time of crisis.[6] With that, Iron Man takes off, telling Dugan that he was preparing for an eventuality like this.

Iron Man then leaves the helicarrier and flies down to a secret facility where he has a number of Iron Man suits in storage. In his private garage, he begins putting the final touches on the thing that he has been working on. In the meantime, the evacuation is quickly put in motion. Registered and unregistered heroes put aside their differences and assist with the evacuation of Manhattan. Eventually, Iron Man completes his new suit of Hulkbuster armor. Once it is complete, he crawls inside and heads into the freshly evacuated city.

When the 24 hours are up, the Hulk leaps out of the stone ship. He is instantly attacked by Iron Man, who orders the other heroes to get the people who stubbornly refuse to leave. A the two titans brawl, Iron Man tries to weaken the Hulk by injecting him with nanites suppress his powers. He also broadcasts to the world and admits that he did exactly what the Hulk accused him of, but he did it to protect the rest of the world.[7] He also vows, as the Director of SHIELD, that he will do everything he takes to shut the Hulk down.[8] The two combatants then crash into Avengers Tower, demolishing it on impact. Unfortunately, the nanites have no effect on the Hulk and he is even more enraged as ever before.

… World War Hulk continues in Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #11.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (“Dum Dum Dugan”, Agent Lyndsay), Hulk, Arch-E-5912, “Black Bolt”, Doc Samson, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man, Wonder Man

Continuity Notes

The Hulk was exiled from Earth by the Illuminati, a secret group of heroes that work behind he scenes to try and deal with planetary threats, see Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #88-91 and New Avengers: Illuminati #1. The Hulk ended up on the Planet Skaar where he was enslaved until he fought his way to freedom. However, the powercore of the ship that brought him to the planet was damaged and exploded killing many, including the Hulk’s pregnant lover. See Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #92-105.
The stealth suit of Iron Man armor was first built in Iron Man #152. This was a special suit that was specifically designed to evade detection.
Hulk’s battle with “Black Bolth” and his ultimatum to Earth all occurred in World War Hulk #1. However, this is not the real Black Bolt, but a Skrull impostor who took his place to infiltrate the Inhumans before a planned invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion #1-8 and Secret Invasion: Inhumans #1-3.
Speaking of impostors, Dum Dum Dugan is another Skrull spy, as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion: Prologue #1.
Nick Fury’s name is invoked here. Fury was the long time Director of SHIELD until recently. Following the events of Secret War #1-5, Fury went into hiding after it was uncovered that he secretly tried to invade Latveria. In reality, he uncovered the Skrull invasion plot and is trying to thwart it. See Mighty Avengers #12.
At the time of this story, superheroes are required by law to registered by the government. However, there are those who disagreed with the law and are currently operating outside it. See Civil War #1-7.
The brawl between Iron Man and the Hulk is also depicted in World War Hulk #1.
Here is an obligatory reference to Tony being a recovering alcoholic is made during his big “I’m going to save the world” speech. See Iron Man #128.

Topical References

It is stated that Nick Fury gave orders based on sixty years of experience. The number of years of Fury’s experience should be considered topical as it is denotes the passage of time between World War II and the date this comic was published. The number of years will always be subject to change due to the Sliding Timescale, which constantly pushes the Modern Age forward in time. This causes the number of years between the end of World War II and the start of the Modern Age to grow over time.