Iron Man (vol. 3) #25
Ultimate Devestation
Ultimo has been revived and is seeking to finish its job of wiping out the Rajak it began hundreds of years ago.[1] However, in order to reach the Rajak ship, Ultimo will have to stomp his way through the town of Spokane. Now Iron Man is working with the authorities to stop the massive robot’s path of destruction. Air Force jets are deployed, but their conventional weapons are no match against Ultimo’s nigh indestructible frame.
Iron Man — with some resources from Stark-Fujikawa — builds a device that will channel lightning from nearby clouds and pump it into the robot in the hopes it will work like last time he tried a similar stunt on Ultimo.[2] Unfortunately, Ultimo has come up with some kind immunity. Realizing he’s going to need reinforcements, Iron Man sends out a distress call to the rest of the Avengers. The team is still in Slorenia, assisting with the clean-up effort following the battle with Ultron.[3] The call is received by Captain America who says the Avengers will get there as soon as possible. Still, it’ll take time and Ultimo is traveling at a rate of 100 miles an hour.
Meanwhile, Carol Danvers (aka Warbird), wakes up in Virginia Mason Hospital with very little memory of how she got there. She remembers drinking, a fight with Iron Man, and vaguely remembers something terrible happening involving a commercial airliner.[4] When a nurse comes in, she tells Carol that she is incredibly lucky because she survived a severe case of alcohol poisoning. She also warns Carol that even though he internal organs are slowly recovering, they have been severely compromised from her alcohol abuse.[5] Simply put, if she doesn’t stop drinking, she is going to die. Regardless of the fact that the nurse wants her to enter detox and rehab, Carol demands her clothing as she needs to leave right away.
Back in Spokane, Rumiko Fujikawa has used the resources of her family company — Stark-Fujikawa — to stet up a base of operations to come up with a way to stop Ultimo. When she arrives on the scene she learns that a Stark Solutions team has arrived — including Iron Man, Happy Hogan, and Pepper Potts — but Tony Stark is nowhere to be found. Rumiko is upset to learn Tony isn’t here to help, like he did on Isla Suerte.[6] Pepper doesn’t like anyone bad mouthing her boss and reminds Rumiko that it is because of her and Morgan (Tony’s cousin) that Ultimo is now on the loose. Still, Rumiko’s words get to Tony, who is very well aware of the fact that Iron Man is interfering with his relationships again. He is once again wondering if he is addicted to his double identity much in the same way he has struggled with alcohol over the years.[7] As he prepares to leave and face Ultimo again, Pepper stops him as she knows him well enough that Rumiko’s words are bothering him. Pepper reminds him that he didn’t create this mess and to do what Iron Man always does, save the day.
Once Iron Man is gone, Happy makes an offhand comment about Tony and Pep being a good couple. His ex-wife has no idea what he is talking about and he reveals that he walked in on them kissing when the whole Ultimo scenario began. Pepper doesn’t deny it, but tells Hogan that, right after they kissed, both she and Tony realized that they were only friends. Besides, she reminds Happy that he has been spending a lot of time with Hannah Donleavy recently. Pepper isn’t wrong about this either and Happy wis about to walk away when he decides to hell with it. He asks Pepper if they can go to dinner if they survive Ultimo. Surprisingly, she says yet.[8]
Iron Man soon arrives at the location where Sapper’s ship has laid underwater since the 1840s. A SHIELD team has arrived and is helping them repairing and recharging the ship. It’s here that Iron Man learns that Golden-Blade isn’t a member of Sapper’s race — the Rajak. In fact, he is actually a fur trapper who was injured when the Rajak ship first crashed. Sapper saved his life by transferring his mind into a robotic body, just like Sapper themself. In fact, the entire crew of the ship were mortally wounded and had their minds transferred into data storage devices. Sapper has been trying to get their ship operational since the crash so they could return to the starts. With Ultimo heading their way, Golden-Blade and Sapper pledge their lives to preserving all lives that are threatened by Ultimo and agree to help fight off the creature. That’s when one of the SHIELD agents informs Iron Man that they have orders to dismantle the ship and take it into custody. Iron Man refuses to allow any such thing
That’s when Pepper Potts radios in and tells them that Ultimo has almost reached the city. With time running, Pepper wishes they could control Ultimo like the Mandarin has in the past.[9] This gives Iron Man an idea. He asks Morgan and Rumiko to gather all the data they had to tap into Ultimo before he came back online, as he is confident that he can do a better job at reprogramming the massive robot than Morgan could. He then tells Golden-Blade and Sapper to join him, warning the SHIELD agents that Sapper’s ship better still be intact when he gets back.
When they catch up to with Ultimo he is barely being held back from trampling Spokane by Air Force jets. While Rumiko and the others work on getting Iron Man needs, Sapper and Golden-Blade assist in keeping Ultimo distracted.
Meanwhile, Carol Danvers heads into a bar, thinking she could have one drink, despite the doctors warning her that her next drink could kill her. That’s when she sees live news coverage of Iron Man’s battle with Ultimo. Thoughts of drinking are pushed aside as she decides to do what she can to help. With a flash of energy, Carol’s street clothes change into her Warbird costume. Going outside, she interrupts some line workers and asks them to give her access to the live wires they are working on. This recharges her powers and she races off to help Iron Man, hoping it makes u for the commercial airliner she jeopardized the night before.
By this time, the Air Force is now authorized to use missiles against Ultimo, but the monster not only shrugs them off, but laughs at them for such a futile attempt. That’s when Warbird arrives on the scene. Iron Man is apprehensive about letting her help, even though she insists that she is sober. That’s when Pepper radios in to tell them that the equipment is ready. Tony then tells Warbird to fly to the Stark-Fujikawa plant and get the equipment they need since she can get there faster than anyone else. Looking forward to making amends, Carol takes off, promising not to let Iron Man down. Tony really hopes that doesn’t turn out to be the case.
Iron Man, Golden-Blade, and Sapper then keep Ultimo distracted until Warbird returns with the device. Attaching it to Ultimo’s back, Iron Man is able to hack into the massive robot’s operating system and begin the process of shutting it down. As he begins breaking through all the firewalls in Ultimo’s programming, the robot begins speaking to them. It refuses to answer Iron Man’s orders as he is not one of the creators who brought Ultimo to life. With a school bus full of kids about to be trampled upon, Iron Man finally cracks Ultimo’s security and orders him to shut down. The robot complies, toppling to the ground harmlessly.
In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man helps Sapper and Golden-Blade finish the repairs on their ship. Once complete, the ship blasts off and returns to the stars. Flying back to the scene of the battle, Iron Man watches the authorities disassembling Ultimo to be removed.[10] Thinking about how he was worried that being Iron Man was becoming an addiction, Tony realizes that he was wrong. He thinks about all the good things Iron Man does, the lives he has saved. He now believes that being Iron Man isn’t an addiction, it’s a calling.
The following evening, in Seattle, Tony Stark is attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when Carol Danvers enters the room. Tony is pleased to see her and soon Carol is making her first steps to recovery by admitting to everyone in the room that she is an alcoholic.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Warbird, Ultimo, Rumiko Fujikawa, Morgan Stark, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Sapper, Golden Blade, Avengers (Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Firestar)
Continuity Notes
As explained last issue, Ultimo targeted the Rajak for unspecified reasons. They chased the giant robot to the Sol system where they fought over and crash landed on Earth.
Ultimo was taken down using a similar method of overloading him in Iron Man #298-300.
Ultron wiped out the city of Slorenia in Avengers (vol. 3) #19-22.
Carol has been struggling with alcoholism since Avengers (vol. 3) #4. She almost caused a commercial airliner to crash while blackout drunk last issue.
Carol thinks to herself about how her hybrid Kree physiology is what has allowed her to survive her deadly binge drinking so far. At the time of this story, Carol believes that her Kree physiology was transferred to her when she and the original Captain Marvel were caught in a Psychemagnatron explosion in Captain Marvel #18. In reality, Carol is actually half Kree by birth, per Life of Captain Marvel (vol. 2) #4. In reality, the Psychemagnatron awoken her latent Kree genetics.
Rumiko is unaware that Iron Man and Tony Stark are the same person. She refers to the time that Tony helped save the people of Isla Suerte from a volcanic eruption. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #4-5. She won’t learn the truth until Iron Man (vol. 3) #56.
Tony Stark has struggled with alcohol abuse all of his life. His addictions issues were first explored in Iron Man #128.
Back in the early days, there was a love triangle between Pepper, Tony and Happy. Starting in Tales of Suspense #45. Eventually, Happy won Pepper over and the two got married in issue #89. They were married for years until Pepper cheated on Happy, leading to the couple getting divorced in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. Hap started going out with Hannah Donleavy shortly after they first met in Iron Man (vol. 3) #12. Meanwhile, Tony and Pepper shared a kiss between the last two issues before realizing they should just be friends.
Ultimo was previously found by Mandarin who reprogrammed the robot to do his bidding, starting in Tales of Suspense #78.
This is not the end of Ultimo. The robot will rear its ugly head once more in Avengers: The Initiative #1.
Topical References
The Air Force are depicted flying F-22 fighter planes. This should be considered a topical reference. While these fighters are still in service, production stopped in 2011 and the remaining fleet will eventually be retired.
The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.
A bar patron is wearing a Seattle Mariners sports jacket. This should be considered topical as a Mariners are considered a real world sports team.
There are also advertisements for Miller and Guinness. This should be considered topical as these are both real world beer brands.
