Haunted, Part 3

Paragon (Cooper Roth), of the Nebraska Initiative, killed his teammate Gadget in exchange for the Prometheus Corporation using Extremis to cure his terminally ill mother. However, things haven’t gone according to plan. Not only has Iron Man (Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD) figured out he killed his teammate, he has returned to Prometheus to discover that his mother is dead.

The news is given to him to Tem Bejigin — the CEO of the company, who is secretly the Mandarin — and Cooper blames him. When Roth attacks, the Mandarin easily trounces him with a combination of his martial arts skills as well as the ten rings of power that are fused to his spine. Having subdued the young hero, “Tem” convinces him that Graviton (Frank Hall), who they tried to frame for Gadget’s death also killed his mother.

Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Iron Man is going over the last case Gadget was investigating before her death. She was looking into an spike in missing person’s reports. Over the last ten years there have been a total of about 329 missing persons per year. However, this year alone there have been a spike of 864 people. He can’t figure out why and he takes off his helmet and asks it if it can figure it out. When it gives no answer, Tony slams the useless thing against a computer bank. What he doesn’t realize is that he is being watched by Maria Hill, who has noticed that Tony is coming apart at the seams under the pressure of leadership.

That’s when the alarm begins going off as Paragon breaks into the ship to get at Graviton. Connor’s charge knocks them both into a training room. Once out of the dampening field keeping his powers at check. When Iron Man arrives and tries to stop Graviton, it is too late, and Paragon is dead. When Tony points out that Cooper was the only person who could have proved that Frank didn’t kill Gadget, Hall says he doesn’t care. He never thought he’d get a fair trial and exhausted by his superhuman existence, turns his gravitational powers on himself, which causing a rupture of the brain, killing himself instantly.[1]

Because of Hall’s apparent suicide, Tony has to give a briefing to the Commission on Superhuman Affairs. While Stark insists that the investigation is still open, Director Norman Osborn considers the matter resolved following Hall’s death. Osborn will not entertain the idea that a member of the Initiative would kill one of their own, and dismisses Stark’s evidence.[2] However, Val Cooper is interested in hearing more. While Stark has figured out that Cooper Roth was working for somebody, he hasn’t figured out who, but doesn’t intend to close his investigation until he does.

By this time, the Mandarin has checked on Maya Hansen, who has been continuing her Extremis research, unaware that “Tem Borijigin” has been secretly testing it on human subjects. He has come with the latest data on her “simulation models” and notices that she is still worried about the SHIELD helicarrier hovering nearby. He is happy to report that they have been able to increase its effectiveness so that it has a survival rate of 2.5 out of every 100. Maya is delighted to hear that they have managed to progress this far so quickly. However, she instantly feels bad because she hasn’t been pulling her weight recently. “Tem” reassures the young woman.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Superhuman Affairs is meeting with Secretary of Defense Jack Kooning. Since he is the one who allowed for Extremis’ development to continue, he is pressuring the CSA to get SHIELD out of Nebraska. However, Val Cooper has confidence in Tony Stark, despite the insistence of Kooning and the others that there is nothing more to investigate. That’s when he decides to call in Maria Hill to have her answer their questions about Tony Stark’s investigation.

Because of what Hill has told them, the CSA comes back and orders SHIELD to leave Nebraska and await their next orders. Dum Dum Dugan, Stark’s second-in-command, thinks that this is some kind of whitewash.[3] Stark tells Dugan that they are going to follow orders either way. Tony is frustrated and heads into his office where he discovers that someone is waiting for him inside. It’s Doctor Leonard Samson, the Initiative’s appointed psychologist. After Maria Hill’s briefing to the CSA, he has been ordered to perform a psychological evaluation on Tony. Samson plays back the security footage of Stark’s interrogation of Graviton (Frank Hall). He is particularly interested in Tony’s response when Hall said that Tony sees ghosts just like he did.

Tony defends himself, denying that he is seeing hallucinations. Noticing that Tony is in his Iron Man armor, he asks Stark to remove his helmet. Seeing how unkempt Tony is, Leonard asks how long he has been wearing the suit for. When Tony says it’s been over a week. Leonard decides that he has no choice but to assign two weeks of mandatory leave effective immediately. When Stark balks at this, Samson reminds him that he has the authority to force this on Tony under the Super-Human Registration Act. In fact, it was a provision that Tony himself had written. As part of his leave, Tony is also going to be required to wear an indestructible ankle bracelet that will shut down the his ability to mentally connect with machines, including his armor. If Tony refuses to wear it, he will be incarcerated at Prison 42 in the Negative Zone instead.

Soon enough, the SHIELD helicarrier is leaving Nebraska airspace. This is seen by Maya Hansen from her office at Prometheus. She is visited by Tem once again, who is pleased to hear that she can focus on her work again now that SHIELD is gone. He then floats the idea of coming up with a new delivery method for Extremis. Maya thinks she could be develop an aerosol version, she stops short of suggestion the nano technology she created for SHIELD spy cameras, saying it is proprietary to Stark. However, she decides to do it anyway when “Tem” suggests that she step out from Tony Stark’s shadow.[4]

However, even though SHIELD is gone, doesn’t mean Tony Stark is giving up on his investigation. He has remained on Omaha. He calls his assistant at Stark Enterprises and asks her to have one of his older suits of Iron Man armor — one that doesn’t require Extremis to operate — shipped to his location.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Doc Samson, SHIELD (Maria Hill, “Dum Dum Dugan”), Graviton, Mandarin, Norman Osborn, Val Cooper, Jack Kooning, Maya Hansen, Paragon

Continuity Notes

1. Graviton somehow survived this, appearing again in Secret Avengers (vol. 2) #2. How he survived is not explained, as of this writing in April, 2023. I would assume that he faked his death somehow. Maybe his gravitational powers sustain his life when his biology fails him? The guy has collapsed into a singularity and survived before, a brain hemorrage ain’t no thing.

2. Osborn was part of the CSA through his association with the Thunderbolts. See Thunderbolts #110.

3. This is not the real Dum Dum Dugan, but a Skrull spy who has been sent to infiltrate SHIELD as part of a coming Skrull invasion of Earth. For more on this, see Secret Invasion: Prologue #1 and Secret Invasion #1-8.

4. Maya Hansen invented Extremis some time ago, however she was forced to stop her work after it was learned that she allowed it to fall into the hands of a home grown terrorist, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6. She was given the offer to continue her work by Jack Kooning in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #18 and secretly brought to Prometheus. She is unaware that Tem is really the Mandarin. He wants Extremis so he can wipe out 90% of the Earth’s population, as we’ll find out over the next few issues.

Topical References

• Tony Stark examines the missing persons reports from 1996 to 2006. These dates should be considered topical as they are relevant to the date of publication. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Stark is looking at a decades worth of missing persons as opposed to a specific date.

• The Extremis test data is depicted as being recorded on a CD. When this comic was published this was a common method of data storage. While it still exists, it has fallen out of favor due to newer technologies and is on its way to obsolescence. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.