The Mask in the Iron Man, Part 3: His Own Worst Enemy

Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, is dealing with two very serious problems. During his fight with Whiplash he suffered a heart attack and his armor has somehow become sentient.[1] Examined by Jocasta, his personal AI, she tells him that the prognosis is serious.[2] However, Tony is more concerned that how his armor has come to life. Jocasta can confirm that the armor has gained sentience. The theory is that a combination of the lightning from Iron Man’s battle with Whiplash and a software glitch caused the highly advanced suit of armor to gain a life of its own.

Tony has had the armor strapped down to be analyzed because he isn’t sure if the armor is dangerous or not. The Iron Man armor suddenly turns itself on and begins pleading its case.

As Tony is trying to get to the bottom of this mystery, he has been neglecting his work at Stark Solutions. As a result, Pepper Potts has been working long hours mostly apologizing to clients for Tony’s absence. At the end of the work day, Pep’s ex-husband Happy Hogan comes by to pick her up for a dinner and movie date.[3]

Back at Tony’s place, the Iron Man armor pleads the case for its continued existence. It explains how it came to being during Tony’s fight with Whiplash. It also reveals that the nightmare Tony had when he was briefly knocked out it accessed his memories to learn everything about him. This is why Tony had a nightmare about having his secret identity revealed, leading to the death of all of his friends.[4] Tony is appalled to learn that the machine war trying to learn from his fears. However, the armor explains that this is was all necessary to know how to best operate as his suit or armor and protect his best interests. They are interrupted by Pepper Potts, who is calling in to see if she can head home. Tony, wanting to get back to the sentient armor gives her permission to go. The armor notes that Pepper is a devoted employee, then reminds Tony that he hasn’t spoken to Rumiko Fujikawa since they had a fight on New Years Eve.

Tony then makes a frantic call to Rumiko, who is out in Florida, and hopes he isn’t calling too late in the evening. She answers the phone, but she isn’t interested in talking to him. She is upset because she opened up about how she was in love with him and he couldn’t even tell her he loved her back. When he asks to speak to her in person, Rumiko says she’ll be on the first plane to Seattle and that he can expect her at his place by morning. When he tries to put this idea off, she tells him to forget it and says she’ll be hanging out with Solomon instead. She then hangs up on him. That’s when the sentient armor speaks up, pointing out to Tony that he really does love Rumiko. It knows this from reading his mind. Angry over being hung up on, Tony snaps at the armor, telling it that it doesn’t know the meaning of the word. The Iron Man armor disagrees, saying that the feelings that Tony has for Rumiko are the same ones the armor has for Tony.

Meanwhile, Pepper and Happy are out having dinner. Pep is complaining about how much overtime she spends working for Tony. The thing is, Tony never asks her to work overtime, she just does. Listening to all of this, Happy suggests that perhaps the best thing Pepper can do is take a break from working for Tony. This would give both of them their decision to renew their romance a fighting chance. Pepper admits that she hasn’t been happy since they got divorced, but she needs to take this slow. Happy is willing to give her all the time in the world.

At that same time, Rumiko Fujikawa is complaining to Solomon, one of her close friends, about how Tony won’t open up about his feelings about her. Solomon listens to all of this and it is clear to him that Rumiko is deeply in love with Tony Stark. He tells her that he thinks she is complaining too much. If she wants to be with Tony, then she should follow her heart. Rumiko decides to follow Solomon’s advice and take the next plane out to Seattle, like she originally planned to do.

Concurrently, the sentient Iron Man armor is convincing Tony the benefits of having a sentient suit of armor at his disposal. It explains that it is trustworthy since it could easily bypass all the security measures and get free, but instead chooses to remain restrained in an effort to reason with him. Tony decides to think it over, there are a few more tests he can run to make sure the armor isn’t a threat. He admits he should have considered the possibility of creating sentient armor given how much more advanced each new iteration of his armor has become. That’s when Jocasta interrupts to inform Tony that something has violated the airspace around the property. When the armor suggests they work together to investigate, Tony admits that he is too curious to pass up this opportunity.

Suiting up in the sentient armor, Iron Man heads outside to see who is intruding on his private island. Once they are in the air, Tony admits that having an artificial intelligence running his armor makes doing things much easier and his concerns are appeased for the time being. The intruder turns out to be Whiplash, who has come back to finish off what he started a few days earlier. This time, his employer has equipped him with a new harness with multiple cybernetic appendages so that he can use multiple whips at once. With the aid of his new sentient armor he works on disabling this harness and disarming his foe.

When Tony demands to know who hired him, Whiplash refuses to name his employer. That’s when the armor takes over and begins slapping him across the fact with enough force to start knocking teeth out of his head. Not expecting this level of violence, Whiplash cracks and tells Iron Man that he was hired by Trevor Donahue. Tony is horrified that the armor would torture someone like this, but it insists that in order to keep Tony safe it needs to neutralize any threats to his well being. Whiplash pleads with Iron Man to spare his life, saying he is only doing this to get his son back. This plea falls on deaf ears and the Iron Man armor kills him.[5]

Tony is once again horrified, but the armor is only bemused to experience the concept of death first hand. It then dumps Whiplash’s body into Pacific Ocean and returns to the house.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Ultron, Jocasta, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Rumiko Fujikawa, Whiplash, Trevor Donahue

Continuity Notes

1. Both of these things happened in Iron Man (vol. 3) #27, although Tony didn’t notice his armor was sentient until last issue. Despite his theories here, the armor was infected with the Ultron Imperative, as explained in Iron Man (vol. 3) #48.

2. Mention is made of Tony’s long history of heart problems. They began back in Tales of Suspense #39 when a bomb planted shrapnel in his chest. Although he underwent surgery to repair the problem in Iron Man #19, his heart has struggled bouts of weakness over the years.

3. Pepper and Happy were divorced in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. The two have decided to give their romance another shot in issue #25.

4. Tony had this nightmare happened last issue. Although this was only a dream, it actually happened in an alternate reality. Not sure if it’s been referenced anywhere officially. The Unofficial Appendix lists it as Reality-29134.

5. As we learned in Iron Man (vol. 3) #8, Mark Scarlotti had lost custody of his son. As of this writing (March, 2023) Mark Scarlotti still remains among the deceased.

Topical References

• Tony theorizes that one of the reasons why his armor has become sentient is because of the Y2K Bug. Before the year 2000, there was a concern about the integrity of computer networks. See, when it came to programming dates on computers, nobody really though have programming them to have the calendar roll over from 1999 to 2000. Instead they’d roll over to 1900. This innocuous issue was amplified by the media and every conspiracy theorist and grifter smelled money by trying to make it seem like everything would collapse. People were prepping for doomsday, pulling money out of banks and… nothing happened. Anyway, I shouldn’t have to explain to you why this should be considered a topical reference now.

• Happy asks Pepper if she’s seen the movie Dogma, this was a 1999 comedy that was written and directed by Kevin Smith. The movie was about two angels trying to exploit a loophole in the Word of God to undo reality. This movie had come out around the time this comic was published, it’s reference here should be considered topical.

• Tony’s cell phone is depicted as a flip phone with an antenna to pick up signals. This should be considered topical as this type of cell phone is now obsolete.

• It is stated here that it was recently New Years Eve 1999 and it’s now the year 2000. Any references to that or that it is the start of a new millennium should be considered a topical reference as it is relative to the date of publication.