Haunted, Part 7

Iron Man (Tony Stark) has uncovered a plot by the Mandarin to unleash an airborne version of Extremis that will wipe out 98% of humanity. While the Mandarin fled with Maya Hansen, Iron Man was left to fight an army of Extremis enhenciles. Rather than risk their getting out, Tony orders Maria Hill to drop a EVH. It is a nuclear device that minimizes fall out by collapsing into a mini-blackhole. She dropped it on the headquarters of the Prometheus Corporation with Iron Man still trapped inside.

At first, Tony believes he is dead as he sees the visions of Ho Yinsen and his son standing over him. However, this is another vision his mind creates to help him process the vast amounts of information he processes in his mind.[1] They both tell him to look to the clouds as an exercise in pattern recognition. However, the vision ends before Tony can make sense of it. Tony looks up and sees that he was knocked clear of the blast. When Maria Hill contacts him via radio, he tells her that he must have been knocked some three miles away from the blast.

That’s when Air Force jets arrive on the scene, they have come to investigate why a nuclear weapon was set off on American soil and orders SHIELD to stand down or they will engage. A battalion of tanks have also arrived to surround Iron Man.

Meanwhile, Maya Hansen wakes up on what appears to be the SHIELD helicarrier. Tony Stark enters the room and tells her that they are in big trouble. He quickly explains how Tem Borjigin, the man she had been developing Extremis for, was secretly the Mandarin the entire time. He was using her to create an airborne version of Extremis to wipe out 98% of the planet. After SHIELD dropped their bomb, the agency is caught up in serious trouble unless they can explain why it was warranted. He tells Maya that the only way they can resolve this issue is for her to explain how to disable the Programmed Cell Death that she encoded into the DNA of Extremis to prevent it from becoming an airborne pathogen. He tells her that it is the only way they can develop a vaccine. However, Maya refuses to do it, fearing that SHIELD might also turn it into a weapon. She will only do it as a last resort, otherwise she will make sure the secrets of Extremis die with her.

By this time, the SHIELD helicarrier has been forced to dock in New York, where Tony Stark must appear before the United Nations and explain why he unleashed a nuclear weapon on American soil. As the wait for the trial, Tony gives Dum Dum Dugan and Maria Hill his orders.[2] He needs someone to look into if the Mandarin has found a way to break Maya’s Programmed Cell Death code as well as a detailed run down of all the businesses his foe owes under the name Tem Borjigin. He tells them that if need be they should get Nick Fury level dirty to get what they need.[3] At that same moment, Doc Samson is being grilled by the UN about the whole incident. Both Henry Gyrich and Norman Osborn have some serious doubts about the validity of Stark’s claims since there is no concrete evidence. Taking a swipe at Osborn, Samson assures them that Stark is sane and that his warnings have merit.[4] Samson reiterates that the threat is real and that Extremis will wipe out most of humanity if unleashed. He insists that Secretary of Defense Jack Kooning can back him up. That’s when Val Cooper reveals to Samson that Kooning has gone missing. Osborn tries to use this to his advantage, pointing out how Samson and Tony Stark were the last two people to see him.

However, the truth is that Jack Kooning is trying to clean up his own mess. He has traveled to Myanmar. Driving into the wilds of Kachin province, his jeep is stop by local militants. They take him prisoner and lead him blindfolded into the jungle.

At that same moment, the man appearing to be Tony Stark continues to try and convince Maya Hansen to decode the programmed cell death. To prove to her that the Mandarin is a serious threat, he shows her footage of an interrogation conducted with one of the Mandarin’s scientists that they captured. He reveals that the Mandarin has a facility in China that he has been using to stockpile Extremis so he can unleash it upon the world. The idea horrifies Maya and it convinces her to finally reveal what she knows.

Meanwhile, Dum Dum Dugan is meeting with the Chinese representative to the United Nations. He is trying to convince him to help find the Mandarin’s facilities in China. However, after the way SHIELD illegally entered his homeland, he is not willing to help Dugan out, particularly since a search would interrupt the preparations for the upcoming Olympic games.[5] He contiues to refuse, even when Dugan threatens to reveal that he has been providing information to SHIELD for years. The official would rather punishment for that than what would happen if the games were interrupted instead. As Dugan is being escorted out of the office he checks in with Maria Hill, who has had no luck locating Jack Kooning either.

Kooning, meanwhile, has been brought to the militia camp. It’s run by an old friend of his named Xang Kong. Jack has come for help for an old fashion clean-up job, for old times sake. Xang initially agrees to provide support and equipment. However, when Jack reveals that their target is the Mandarin, this horrifies Xang.

By this time, Maya has written up how to disabled the programmed cell deal in Extremis and recorded it for the man she believes is Tony Stark. Once it is in hand, “Tony” suddenly changes into the Mandarin, revealing that this was all an elaborate illusion to trick her into giving him what he wanted. He contacts his operative working out of I-Clime Labs, a company in Hopeh Province, China. He will be uploading the data to them shortly so they can put Extremis into decommissioned missiles that will be able to spread Extremis to every corner of the globe.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Doc Samson, SHIELD (Maria Hill, “Dum Dum Dugan”), Mandarin, Henry Shearing, Henry Gyrich, Val Cooper, Noman Osborn, Jack Kooning, Maya Hansen, Xang Kong

Continuity Notes

1. Tony has been seeing images of those he failed since Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #15. In issue #25, Doc Samson deduced that this was his mind’s way of making sense of the vast information he collects through Extremis. Ho Yinsen was the man who helped Tony build his first suit of Iron Man armor, he died way back in Tales of Suspense #39. His son surfaced years later and died while trying to get revenge against the people he blamed for his father’s death, see Iron Man (vol. 4) #7-12.

2. The man who appears to be Dum Dum Dugan here is actually a Skrull spy that has infiltrated SHIELD as part of a planned invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion: Prologue #1 and Secret Invasion #1-8.

3. Nick Fury was the previous Director of SHIELD. At the time of this story, Fury has gone AWOL following the events of Secret War #1-5, when it was revealed that he staged an unauthorized invasion of Latveria. In reality, Fury has actually gone undercover because he discovered the Skrull invasion plot and is attempting to stop it. See Mighty Avengers #12.

4. Leonard Samson’s suggestion that Norman Osborn is crazy is not hot air. Osborn has been a lunatic since he was exposed to the Goblin Formula many years earlier. See Amazing Spider-Man #40.

5. Iron Man led a team on an unauthorized mission into Chinese territory to find a terrorist named Karim Najeeb, unaware that he had been killed and used for a trap set by the Mandarin. See Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #15-18.

Topical References

• The fighter planes used by the Air Force are depicted as Lockheed Martin F-25 Lightnings. These aircraft first started being used in 2006. While they are still in production as I write this (April, 2023), they will one day be retired out of service.

• One of the newscasters covering the event is depicted as Wolf Blitzer. Blitzer has been a reporter for CNN since 1990. At the time of this story, he was a senior correspondent and one of the networks most visible personalities. That said, even though Blitzer is still reporting for the network as I write this, this should be considered a topical reference as he is a real life person.

• The UN representative for China states that his country is hosting the Olympics that summer. This is in reference to the 2008 Olympic games. Since a country can host the Olympics more than once (as China did so again in 2022), this would only be considered topical is the implied reference that this is the then upcoming 2008 games.

• Xang offers Jack the services of a plastic surgeon who he claims could make Kooning look identical to actor Denzel Washington. Washington is an American actor who was at the height of his popularity at the time this comic was published. This should be considered a topical reference because Denzel is a real world celebrity and you could replace his name with a more contemporary actor.

• Maya burns the data on Extremis on a CD, which was a common media storage format at the time this story was published. You can still use them today as I write this (April, 2023), however, they have fallen out of common use in favor of better formats. As this is a medium that is on its way to obsolescence, its depiction here should be considered topical.

• The missiles that are being used by the Mandarin are identified as decommissioned SA-N-7 Gadflies. This wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference because it is specified that they are decommissioned ordinance.