The Mask in the Iron Man, Part 5: Blood Brothers

Through some kind of freak accident, Tony Stark’s suit of Iron Man armor has become sentient. Worse, it is obsessed with him to a homicidal degree.[1] Tony flatly rejected a partnership after the armor murdered Whiplash.[2] In order to force him to accept it, the armor has brought Tony to a private island owned by his late father, vowing that their Tony will learn to love it, or only one will leave alive.[3]

Tony has been held hostage for over a week and has refused to speak. Stripped down to his underwear, the suit has tied him to some trees. Growing short with him, the sentient suit seemingly blasts Tony with his repulsors, not realizing that what they are doing until it is too late.

Meanwhile, Rumiko Fujikawa awakens from a nightmare where something bad happened to Tony Stark. She is concerned for his well being as he was acting so strange the last time she saw him, like he was hiding something. She wonders what it is, why he won’t tell me, and wonders if he might be seeing somebody else.

Back on the island, the sentient suit of armor rages, not able to control the swell of emotions that has come with sentience. It also can’t understand why Tony won’t accept everything it does for him as it does it out of love. That’s when Tony — who was only grazed on the side of the had by the repulsor — points out that the feeling that it is experiencing is jealousy and envy. Stark says those are the ugliest emotional traits a living being can have. He says that the suit has mastered these feelings along with a lack of guts for not being able to bring itself to kill him. This infuriates the sentient suit of armor further and it insists that it does have guts, reminding him that it is an Avenger. Tony corrects it, it is just a suit — a tool — and that he is the Avenger. This angers the armor even more and it starts to strangle him. It stops when an Avengers alert comes in through the armor. It decides to leave and pose as Iron Mn, to prove that it is every much an Avenger that Tony is.

Tony is relieved that his rogue creation is gone, Tony lets out a sigh of relief. While he rests, a toucan flies down and begins pecking at his bonds. That’s when a tropical storm begins rolling in. Needing to get free before something happens, Tony manages to break free from his bonds. He manages to get free from the trees just moments before it was struck by lightning. Two days without food and water, Tony is ravenous and tries to go hunting but fails to catch a small rodent. That’s when he is reminded of his training sessions with Captain America. Who taught him the importance to get back up when he is knocked down, to use his mind and always be an Avenger. This memory motivates Tony to get back up and tries again.

This time, he uses his smarts and fashions himself a crude bow and arrow. With it, he is able to shoot one of the tiny critters so he has something to eat. As his kill cooks over an open fire, Tony thinks about how soft he has gotten over the years. How reliant he has gotten on the technology of his armor with each passing year. He wouldn’t let Wong-Chu crush his spirit, he didn’t let heart disease to beat him, so he’s not going to let this sentient armor beat him.[4]

When the sentient armor finally returns, Tony has used the meager resources of the try and stop it. Appearing to hide in a cave, Tony manages to snare the sentient armor in a net. It manages to shrug off the net, the blows from his sharpened rocks, and a pit of wooden spikes. Catching it in a leg snare, the sentient armor is finally damaged when Tony tries to pry open its face mask with his money clip, which he has fashioned into a crude crowbar by tying it to a stick. The sentient suit knocks him away, but Tony lunges at it again, this time with a sharpened rock. This time he manages to pry the face plate completely off. Tony is shocked to discover that the suit has constructed a mechanical face for itself underneath. It explains that if Tony won’t work with it, it will simply replace him once he is dead.

That’s when Tony begins to suffer a heart attack. Not wanting to die like a feeble old man, Tony tells the armor to kill him. The suit discovers that it can’t bring itself to kill Tony after all. Instead, it rips out its power supply and rams it into his chest. The wires all plug themselves into Tony’s heart, miraculously saving his life. Shocked that his creation would sacrifice itself like this, Tony promises he can save it, but the machine realizes the erors of its ways and tells Tony to just let it die. It’s final words are “God is in the details.”Surprisingly, Tony finds himself mourning the loss of the life he created.

Soon, Tony manages to repair his wrist watch which contains a distress beacon. After activating it, he buries the sentient suit of armor. He gives it grave marker, a wooden cross which reads “Here lies Iron Man, Avenger”. He then sits on the beach and waits for rescue.[5]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Ultron, Captain America, Rumiko Fujikawa

Continuity Notes

1. Tony’s armor became sentient in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26. It’s later revealed that it had done so due to being infected with the so-called “Ultron Imperative” a program that ensures the revival of the killer robot. This was unintentionally installed into the armor by Jocasta when Tony saved her in Iron Man (vol. 3) #18-20. This will all be explained in issue #48.

2. Whiplash was killed in Iron Man (vol. 3) #28.

3. Howard Stark and his wife Maria allegedly died in a car accident according to Iron Man #288. S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 suggests that the car accident may have been faked, however time of this writing (March, 2023) this has yet to be independently verified. Tony refers to Howard Stark as his father. However, it’s later learned in Iron Man (vol. 5) #17 that he was adopted.

4. Wong-Chu was a warlord who kidnapped Tony and withheld medical attention for his wounded heart in exchange for weapons of mass destruction. Instead, Tony built his first suit of Iron Man armor, as seen in Tales of Suspense #39. Tony lived with a wounded heart for a while until he underwent life saving surgery in Iron Man #19. He has always suffered from a weak heart. He was doing fine until he recently suffered a heart attack in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26. Also if you’re curious as to what the sentient armor did while it was away, check out New Warriors (vol. 2) #9.

5. This isn’t the last we see of the sentient armor. It will return again in Iron Man (vol. 3) #46-48.