With Iron Hands, Part 3 of 4

While investigating a nuclear bomb explosion in the Eastern European nation of Kirkhstan, SHIELD Director Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) has learned that bomb was a “thumbnail nuke” created by a former colleague named Nasim Rahimov. While searching for Rahimov, Tony’s armor was incapacitated by Paladin, a mercinary-for-hire under Nasim’s employ. Just when things couldn’t get any worse disgruntled SHIELD inventor Nicolas Weir arrives in the Overkill Mind — a nanite upgraded SHIELD weapon — to destroy Stark for ignoring him.

Aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, senior officers Dum Dum Dugan and Maria Hill call in Gaffer, the spy agency’s lead inventor, to examine the Overkill Mind and advise them on how it works.[1] As they learn about how the ship is being controlled by Nicolas Weir, he begins demanding that they hand over Tony Stark to him immediately. Maria Hill sends Dugan to to deal with the Rahimov while the rest of the agency deals with the Overkill Mind.

On the ground, while Alpha Team — a unit of armored SHIELD agents — are fighting mercenaries, Iron Man’s armor is completely disabled thanks to a blast from Paladin’s stun gun. This is the handiwork of Nasim Rahimov. However, Nasim couldn’t have anticipated that Tony has been enhanced by Extremis.[2] His armor isn’t just a suit of armor anymore, but an extension of his being. He can use his mind to scan his armor right down to the programming. He is able to find one bit of errant code — a digit of binary that was changed from 1 to 0 — that is causing the trouble. Once he corrects this error, the Iron Man armor springs back to life and he is able to catch Paladin off guard.

Reconnected with the helicarrier, Iron Man is informed of the situation with the Overkill Mind. He orders the rest of Alpha Team to head back to base to help. Tony decides to remain behind to secure the thumbnail nukes and deal with Paladin so he can get a line on where Rahimov is hiding out. Realizing he’s in deep shit, Paladin tries wheeling and dealing to get out of trouble, but Stark isn’t interested in cutting a deal.

Meanwhile, Dum Dum mobilizes his new team — called the Flying Commandos — to engage the Overkill Mind. With this new threat, the Overkill Mind decides that Weir’s ability to think is too slow and begins compressing his cerebral cortex bringing his neurons closer together, allowing him to think more efficiently. It kills two members of Alpha Team and hijacks their armor to attack the Flying Commandos with.

By this time, Iron Man has finished up his interrogation of Paladin and secure the nukes and is heading over to help with the Overkill Mind. He arrives just in time to save Dugan, who is shot out of the sky. Learning what is going on, Iron Man puts a stop to the Overkill Mind using Alpha Team’s armor to attack them. He orders his agents to retreat and confronts the Overkill Mind. Using Extremis to mentally connect with the machine he asks if it is the handiwork of Rahimov. Nicolas Weir takes offense to this and reveals his true identity to Iron Man. Tony vaguely remembers dealing with Weir early on when he first joined SHIELD. He found him a little too twitchy and decided to stick with dealing with Gaffer thereafter.

Weir, meanwhile, is ranting and raving about how his genius was overlooked and how he created the nanite technology that upgraded the Overkill Horn and merged it with himself. He then vows to show them all how brilliant he is. Tony tries reasoning with him while he tries to seize control of the nanites that have infested Weir’s mind. However, Nicolas becomes aware of this very quickly and begins fighting back. Stark realizes that he is going to have to fight direction and begins using his repulsors to blast his way into the Overkill Mind.

The situation begins to get more dire when the Overkill Mind is given its command to activate every weapon in its vicinity. This makes all the weapons aboard the helicarrier to go live. If they don’t find a way to shut down Weir, the helicarrier will be destroyed in an explosion far more spectacular than anything that anything that Nasim Rahimov was using.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (Maria Hill, “Dum Dum Dugan”, Gaffer, Agents Carstairs, Carelli, and Farrell), Nicolas Weir, Paladin

Continuity Notes

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

2. Tony was transformed by Extremis, making him physically perfect and created a perfect bond between himself and his Iron Man armor. See Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6.