Regime Change

Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD, has called a meeting with his command staff to discuss the situation in the island nation of Madripoor. It has recently been taken over by Ophelia Sarkissian, aka Viper, aka Madame Hydra.[1][2] As leader of Hydra, her ability to plan terrorist operations on Mandripoor makes her a deadly threat.

Maria Hill doesn’t understand why they don’t need more than a well placed sniper to deal with the situation, and Gaffer agrees. Stark explains that the situation requires delicacy. While SHIELD receives most of its funding from the United States it is a global peace keeping organization. Many member states in the United Nations have assets and investments in Madripoor due to its laissez-faire attitude to the law. An all out invasion could potentially drag out shady secrets that some nations would rather not become public knowledge.

They have been getting intel from Agent Huang, who believes that they could remove Hydra if the locals back a new ruler, someone they can trust. Maria points out that Huang hasn’t been in the country long enough to get the locals to trust him. However, Tony doesn’t expect Agent Huang to pull this off, since Tony is going to be the one to do the heavy lifting. The SHIELD brass thinks Tony is insane to put himself in the middle of all of that, not even Nick Fury would pull such a crazy stunt.[3] Tony reminds them that Madripoor is a playground for the idle rich and if there is any reputation Tony Stark is known for, it’s that.

Tony then goes down to Gaffer’s lab to get some spy equipment that will help him on his mission. He’ll have few resources since the SHIELD helicarrier must stay on international waters and Tony’s Iron Man armor will remain in geosynchronous orbit for quick deployment. Gaffer also warns Tony not to eat or drink anything without checking it first since Madame Hydra is known for her expertise in poisons.

Soon, Tony — with a team of female agents posing as revelers — arrive at port on one of Stark’s private yachts. Tony tells customs officers that he has come on vacation and after a search of his boat yields no contraband he is allowed to enter the country. Tony then goes to the fanciest hotels in Madripoor’s wealthy Upper Town. When he asks for the imperial suite, the check-in clerk tells him that it is reserved for the King of Jordan. That’s when Madame Hydra arrives and tells him to extend every courtesy to Stark. She then personally escorts him up to his room. She decides to trust the fact that he is only here on vacation, but knows that Extremis allows him to remotely access machines.[4] As such, she insists on injecting him with a drug that will temporarily nullify these abilities or he will not be allowed to leave his room. Tony complies to this without protest.

However, when she tries to kiss Tony, he stops her and politely rejects her offer of a romantic evening. She is disappointed, and as she leaves warns him to stay away from Lower Town since it is dangerous for tourists. She then shows Tony what he missed by kissing one of her own henchmen. A second later, he suddenly collapses dead on the floor from the poisons that are in her lipstick. When she is gone, the SHIELD team begins working on hacking into all the bugs and monitoring devices to make it look like they are partying in the room instead of leaving to rendezvous with Agent Huang.

They then go to a bar in lower town and intentionally start a bar brawl. The man who attacks Tony is Agent Huang, and the bar fight is to cover their contact. Huang says there are two people who the locals trust, a guy named Patch who hasn’t been seen in a while, and the local crime boss Tyger Tiger, who just happens to own the place.[5] That’s when Roughhouse and Bloodscream, two local assassins for hire. Bloodscream makes his way for Tony Stark, but one of his SHIELD agents — codenamed Nails — gets in his way. Bloodscreen briefly incapacitates her by drawing blood from her body with a touch. When he tries to do the same for Tony, Stark erect the body sheath interfact for his armor that is hidden inside his body when not in use. This creates a barrier between Tony and Bloodscream that prevents the creature from sucking his blood. When Bloodscream then expands his mouth in an attempt to bite Stark’s head off, Tony tosses a freon capsule in his mouth causing it to fill with choking ice cubes.

That’s when Roughhouse rips out a support beam, causing the building to collapse. Luckliy, Tony and his team manages to get out before it does. Outside, Madame Hydra is waiting for them with a team of police. They have captured Agent Huang and blame him for the brawl. She has decided to execute Huang right on the spot. Tony doesn’t want an Agent’s death on his conscience and is about to summon the Iron Man armor from orbit. However, Haung gives him a look that convinces him to stand his ground and Tony is forced to watch as Haung is beheaded right in front of him. Tony vows that no mater what, Madame Hydra’s rule ends that evening.

Tony and his entourage race back to their hotel suite, while Madame Hydra couldn’t act against them in public she will be coming in full force now and they need to be ready. He insists that Madame Hydra has to be openly humiliated and defeated otherwise Hydra will just prop up a new ruler in the event she dies. With a team of Hydra agents now rushing to their room, Tony orders the other agents to retreat, as he doesn’t want to lose anyone else. They rig the room to explode and the female agents flee in their SHIELD flight suits while Tony lays down cover fire to stall for time. Once his team is clear, Tony flees in his own wingsuit just seconds before the timer on the bombs go off.

Tony and his team land in the jungles outside the city. They then put on some quick disguises so they can double back and begin their search for Tyger Tiger. That’s when they are surrounded by guerillas. As it turns out, they don’t have to go looking for Tyger Tiger, because she has found them instead. Tony tells her his plan to install her as the new ruler of Madropoor. She thinks the idea is suicide as the locals won’t go with the idea. Tony points out that Hydra skims a great deal of money off all transactions — both legal and illegal — from the locals and her removal will actually be a benefit. He also assures Tyger Tiger that SHIELD will not interfere with her once she is in power, saying that their only interest in Madripoor is stopping Hydra from funding its terrorist operations. He says that if the people of Madripoor call for Madame Hydra to step down, Tony can also convince the UN to let SHIELD intervene on their behalf.

Tyger Tiger needs time to think it over, time that Tony and his team doesn’t have. Even though Extremis is nullified, he can still sense electronics in the vicinity. He asks Tiger to accompany him to the spot alone. He then shows her what he detected, Hydra building some kind of doomsday weapon in a secret facility in the mountains. This convinces Tyger Tiger to follow through with Tony’s plan.

Tony then returns to Upper Town alone where he demands an audience with Madame Hydra. When brought to her throne room he tells her that he decided to come to her directly so she can stop sending others to try and kill him. When Madame Hydra tries to attack, Tony puts up his body sheath for protection. However, when he tries to summon his Iron Man armor Madame Hydra reveals that she knew it was in orbit over them this whole time and is jamming his signal. Stark is out of his league in physical combat with Madame Hydra, who boasts about how his mission to fail. She also brags about how she plans to leech the people of Madripoor for years. That’s when Tony reveals that he had a drone recording her entire rant and has beamed it to every screen on the island.

Learning the truth about their ruler angers the people of Madripoor, and Tyger Tiger seizes on it to lead a riot to the royal palace. As Madam Hydra orders her men to deal with the rabble it distracts her long enough for Tony to ounce his signal off his broadcast to summon his armor. When she turns around to shoot Tony, the armor is standing in the way and deflects the bullet. As his armor forms around him, Iron Man is attacked by Roughhouse and Bloodscream, allowing Madame Hydra to escape. When Iron Man defeats the two foes, Hydra manages to get their new cannon ready, but Iron Man blows it up as well.

With that, Hydra’s is forced off Madripoor and soon, Tyger Tiger is to be crowned the new ruler of the island. In the aftermath of the battle, Tony meets with Tyger and reveals that he knows all about her, in fact it is her background as Jessica Hoan that convinced him she’d be the best person to rule the country. When Tyger reminds him that she won’t be his puppet, he says he didn’t want one, he just wanted what was best for the people of Madripoor. Charmed by Tony’s honesty, the two almost share a kiss. Unfortunately, they are interrupted when Tony is alerted to a situation that is brewing on Mount Wundagore. Since that’s never a good thing, he suits up as Iron Man and flies off.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, SHIELD (Maria Hill, Gaffer, Tia Senyaka, Joan Eaton), Tyger Tyger, Hydra (Madam Hydra), Roughhouse, Bloodscream

Continuity Notes

1. Here, Tony states that Ophelia Sarkissian might be Madame Hydra’s real name. It actually is, per her profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12.

2. Madame Hydra became the ruler of Madripoor back in Wolverine (vol. 2) #125-127. The footage that Tony shows them is of the time that she attacked the SHIELD helicarrier. That was in Marvel Team-Up #82-85.

3. Nick Fury was the previous SHIELD Director. At the time of this story, he had gone underground after it was revealed he led an unauthorized invasion of Latveria, as seen in Secret War #1-5, or at least that’s what everyone thinks. In reality, as explained in Mighty Avengers #12, Fury stumbled upon a Skrull invasion of Earth. For more on that see Secret Invasion #1-8.

4. Tony was transformed by Extremis as seen in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6.

5. Patch is the alias that Wolverine uses when he is in Madripoor. He was first depicted using this alias in Marvel Comics Presents #9. At the time of this story, the last time Wolverine was in Madripoor was in Wolverine: Origins #16-19.

Topical References

• One of the undercover SHIELD agents is depicted listening to an iPod. This was a popular portable music player around the time that this comic was published. However, as smart phones became common place, they also became the device people normally use to listen to music. The iPod fell out of favor and Apple discontinued the device in 2022. It’s appearance here would be considered topical.

• We also see cell phones that are depicted as having tiny screens and physical buttons for dailing. While you can still get phones like this, they have fallen out of popular use thanks to (you guessed it) smart phones and are on their was to obsolescence. Its appearance here should be considered topical.

• When at a Lower Town night club, Tony asks the bartender for a bottle of Dom Perignon. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world brand.