Haunted, Part 4

Tony Stark has been investigating the murder of an Initiative rookie named Gadget in Nebraska. While it looks like the work of Graviton, a villain who subsequently committed suicide. While his superiors thought it was an open shut case they pulled SHIELD from the region. Worse, Tony’s increasingly erratic behavior has led to him being put on mandatory 2 week leave with an anklet that dampens his Extremis abilities.[1]

Not wanting to give up, Tony has remained in Omaha. He has set up in a cheap motel where he goes over Gadget’s last case, the investigation into the disappearance of over 800 people who have disappeared in the state over the last year. However, no matter how much he goes over the information, he still can’t seem to find what they all have in common. That’s when Tony is visited by another one of his visions. This time, he is visited by Sal Kennedy, who begins talking about the four clinical trail phases involved in human testing.[2] Tony tries to get him to stop, when Sal mentions phase three uses a testing pool of 300 up to 3000 individuals and conducted twice to double check the drug’s effectiveness. Before Tony can get him to explain what he means, Sal says he doesn’t like what this job is doing to him, and disappears.

That’s when Tony gets a call from his secretary back at Stark Industries. She confirms that one of his older suits have been shipped out and it’ll be arriving in the early evenng. She also tells him that Doc Samson has been calling for him, but she has been giving him the run around. Tony hopes that Samson buys the cover story she has been feeding him.

Samson doesn’t, in fact, he is at the local Initiative Field Office. He is convinced that Stark is still in the state and has asked Captain Ultra (Griffin Gogol) if he will help him. Griffin is already understaffed and reluctant to help. Leonard decides to use his psychology skills to trick Gogol into helping him out. He relates to his situation, recounting how he used to hunt down the Hulk.[3] When he correctly says that he is a fan of the same sports team that Gogol is, Captain Ultra decides that he can help out.

Meanwhile, at the Prometheus Corporation, Maya Hansen has managed to develop an airborne version of Extremis. However, he test models have shown that in this form it will constantly self-replicate becoming a pathogen that will spread globally. Due to its current state, that would mean it would wipe out 97% of the human population. She figures that she can prevent this by coming up with a means of programmed cell death to counteract this. However, the Mandarin is only interested in the first part of this and tells her that she has exceeded his expectations.[4]

By this time, Tony Stark is secretly meeting with Dum Dum Dugan, who has been on Stark’s side this entire time. Tony has figured out why there are so many people disappearing, they are all test subjects. However, there is some metric by which they are being taken. He needs Dugan to run the names through every database and run their genetic data to find out what that commonality is. Dugan knows someone discreet he can run this by and can have the answer to him within a few hours.[5]

Back at Prometheus, the Mandarin has taken Maya’s recent development down to his lab technicians. He hopes that they can find a way to disabled the programmed cell death. Unfortunately, being able to decode Maya’s work will take some time. That’s when “Tem” gets a call from Jack Kooning, who warns that Tony Stark is still in Omaha. He was tipped off when a shell company owned by Stark Industries shipped something into the area. “Borjigin” thanks Kooning for his call and says he will arrange the appropriate precautions.

Meanwhile, Tony has gone out to the local airfield to collect his armor when Dugan calls him back with the results of his search. He was able to determine that the last wave of missing persons all had the same junk DNA, but there is no way to know why that’s important. Tony thinks he knows and asks Dugan to match the results with his. Tony then lets Dugan go so he can boot up his old suit of armor and update its systems.[6] He is realizing how long this all used to take. Putting on the helmet, he is warned of a threat by the proximity alarm. He gets it on just in time to take the brunt of a blow from a superhuman punch. Tony has already deduced that he is being attacked by someone who has been enhanced by Extremis.

Tony manages to get one of his gauntlets on to defend himself. However, the Extremis enhanced individual is far too powerful. Luckily for him, Doc Samson and Captain Ultra has found him. Seeing Tony in trouble, the pair come to his aid. This creates enough of a distraction that Tony is able to finish putting on his suit of armor. Iron Man is able to get the drop on his attacker and knock them out.[7] With the battle over, Iron Man runs the identity of the man who attacked him. He turns out to be Michael White, one of the people who have gone missing. Unfortunately, he has down syndrome with the mental capacity of a 3 year old, making him incapable of giving them any useful information.

Back at Tony’s hotel room, he shows Samson and Captain Ultra all of his proof. Samson believes Tony’s theory that someone is using the missing people to test Extremis. He wants to know who would be so cruel as to do this this to someone with Michael White. Tony is certain he knows who it is, but doesn’t want to say for fear that Samson might want to have him locked up.[8]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Captain Ultra, “Dum Dum Dugan”, Doc Samson, Mandarin, Maya Hansen, Jack Kooning

Continuity Notes

1. Graviton is identified as having died. This seemingly happened last issue. However, he some how managed to survive a gravitationally induced brain aneurism. He’ll turn up alive again in Secret Avengers (vol. 2) #2.

2. Sal Kennedy was recently killed by a bio-weapon that was created by the Mandarin in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #18. We’ll discover in Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #27, these apparitions are all in Tony’s head. It’s Extremis’ way of helping him find patterns in complex situations.

3. Doc Samson has been helping hunt down the Hulk on and off for years, starting in Incredible Hulk #141.

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.

5. This is not the real Dum Dum Dugan, but a Skrull spy who has been sent to infiltrate SHIELD ahead of a planned invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion: Prologue #1 and Secret Invasion #1-8.

6. This suit of Iron Man armor is the Model 4 armor, first built in Iron Man #85.

7. Here, Captain Ultra complains about fire. Dude has been a pyrophobic since his first appearance. See Fantastic Four #177.

8. Tony is hinting here that he believes it is the Mandarin. The reason why he thinks Samson will call him crazy is because officially the Mandarin is believed to have died during his last conflict with Stark in Iron Man (vol. 3) #9-10.

Topical References

• Dum Dum Dugan is depicted using a flip phone, which were common around the time this story was published. While you can still go out and get one as I write this (April, 2023) they have fallen out of common use and are on their way to obsolescence. It’s depiction here should be considered topical.

• The computers at Prometheus are depicted as having CRT model monitors. This should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology.

• Speaking of dated cell phones, the Mandarin is using a one with physical buttons and a small screen. Another topical reference, obviously.

• The airplane hanger that Tony visits has a Texaco sign hanging from it. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world brand.