Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #20

Mar 17

Mar 17 Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #20

In Absenta

World War Hulk continues from World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #4 ….

The Hulk has returned to Earth after being exiled and he has come for revenge against the men responsible.[1] One of those responsible was Iron Man (Tony Stark) the current Director of SHIELD. With their leader missing in action,[2] Dum Dum Dugan has taken command of the spy agency and has ordered they engage with the Hulk directly.[3]

As the scramble to figure out what weapons they can use, the Hulk leaps onto the helicarrier and rips through its hull. Once inside, he shrugs off a sonic cannon and demands to speak with whoever is in charge. When Dugan orders the Hulk to release Tony Stark, it makes the brute laugh. This also confirms that Nick Fury is no longer running SHIELD. When the Hulk explains that Fury was one of the people responsible for exiling him into space, Dugan reveals that it wasn’t the real Nick Fury, but a Life Model Decoy.[4] The Hulk decides to go back to Stark and confirm that this is the truth. He warns them that if they are lying he will come and bring SHIELD down around their ears. When Dugan makes more threats, the Hulk tells him to save it and leaps away.

When the Hulk is gone, Dum Dum Dugan orders his staff to find him Agent Lindsay and Clay Quartermain and have the meet him in the war room. Lindsay thinks they should just leave the Hulk alone. Once he has had his revenge, he’ll probably leave. Quartermain disagrees with this assessment, as he has personal experience dealing with the Hulk in the past.[5] The only thing they can count on when it comes to the gamma-spawned monster is that he is predictable. Just letting them take Manhattan and doing what they want won’t guarantee that he and his followers will leave. Dugan is inclined to agree and orders his staff to compile a list of weapons they have that might be effective against the Hulk. He also asks someone to get in touch with Gabe Jones, who is in the field with a recon team, maybe he might have something for them to use.[6] Until they have this information for him, Dugan says he will be in the Director’s office — almost calling it his when doing so.

Once he is alone, Dum Dum opens up the display case where a spare suit of Iron Man armor is. He talks to it as though he is speaking with Tony Stark himself. He admits the difficulties he has had working for Stark since he took over as Director of SHIELD. He admits he blames Tony for the whole superhuman civil war and the death of Captain America.[7] He also admits that he hates Tony for Nick Fury leaving, even though he had nothing to do with that. However, now that he is in charge of SHIELD in Stark’s absence, Timothy can empathize with the position Tony was placed in.

Suddenly, the Iron Man helmet comes online and begins talking. It’s Tony Stark who is able to send a message through Extremis to his spare suit of armor. He tells Dugan that he has been taken prisoner and incapacitated with a slave disk. He isn’t sure how long he has before the Hulk and his followers turn their attention to him so he uses his voice activation code to show the secret doomsday plan that he has put in place in case something like this. Dugan looks and is horrified by what Stark is asking him to do. He wants Dugan to have SHIELD build a series of pylons around the Manhattan that, when activated, will open a massive portal to the Negative Zone. This will drop the entire island into the anti-matter barrier which will destroy it and everything on it. Dugan is to what the weapon is doing a secret from everyone. Before Stark can say anything else, his captors come for him and communication is cut off.

Dum Dum then goes back out onto the bridge and begins organizing the construction of Stark’s doomsday weapon. He tells them all that he is aware that some of the agents have misgivings about having Tony Stark as their Director, but tells them that they respect the chain of command no matter what. With his team stepping up to it, Dugan returns to Stark’s office. There he watches the Iron Man helmet and pleads with Tony to contact him back.

… World War Hulk continues in World War Hulk: X-Men #1.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (“Dum Dum Dugan”, Clay Quartermain, Agent Lyndsay), Hulk

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.
Tony had tried to defeat the Hulk in a suit of Hulkbuster armor, but failed. See last issue and World War Hulk #1-2.
This is not the real Dum Dum Dugan, but a Skull subversive who took his place. This is all part of a planned invasion of Earth. This duplicity is revealed in Secret Invasion: Prologue #1, and Secret Invasion #1-8.
Nick Fury has been AWOL since it was revealed that he led a secret unsanctioned mission into Latveria in Secret War #1-5. While everyone thinks he went underground because of this, in reality he uncovered the Skrull invasion plan, as will be explained in Mighty Avengers #12. SHIELD had been employing a LMD of Fury as explained in New Avengers #1.
Clay Quartermain has had a long history of being a SHIELD liaison with efforts to deal with the Hulk. He was part of the first Hulkbusters that formed in Incredible Hulk #187. He mentions the Gamma Bomb scandal here, see Incredible Hulk #345-346.
We saw Gabe Jones on the ground in World War Hulk #2.
The Civil War was sparked by a law that required superhumans to register with the government. It split the community in half. Tony was for registration while Captain America was against them. Ultimately, Cap surrendered to the authorities when he discovered the majority of people supported the new law. Cap was seemingly killed after his arrest. In reality, he was unmoored from time. See Civil War #1-7, Captain America (vol. 5) #25, and Captain America: Reborn #1-5.