Iron Man (vol. 3) #31
The Sons of Yinsen, Part 1: This Ol’ Heart of Mine
Once upon a time, Tony Stark was a weapons manufacturer who went to a far off war to test his new weapons. He then got caught in an explosion, and injured his heart. He soon found himself a prisoner of the terrorist known as Wong-Chu who forced him to work on new weapons despite his wounded heart. He worked with scientist Ho Yinsen who built the first suit of Iron Man armor. Yinsen sacrificed his life so the armor could both save Tony’s life and fight his way to freedom.[1]
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Tony Stark’s heart was beginning to fail him while he was being terrorized by a suit of his Iron Man armor that had become sentient. When Tony began suffering a fatal heart attack, the armor implanted its power core into his chest, saving his life while sacrificing its own.[2] After running an analysis, Jocasta determines that the device fully assimilated Tony’s heart and replacing it with a mechanical one. Based on her assessments, Tony’s heart problems have been solved. Tony’s heart will never give him problems again as long as he remembers to keep it charged. It’s not done yet, as it is also apparently using the remaining raw materials to make other repairs to his body. This kind of disturbs Tony, but he decides to leave the mysteries of his new heart for now because he needs to find and patch things up with Rumiko Fujikawa.
Meanwhile, the high council of the Sons of Yinsen have met. They all unanimously agree that the “time of trials” begins. Their leader poses a toast to the prophecy and that the master watches over them all.
Later, Tony Stark arrives at the apartment of Rumiko Fujikawa carrying an armload of roses to apologize for his absence over the past few weeks. Since she doesn’t know that Tony is secretly Iron Man or that his armor was sentient when she last saw him, he gives a rambling story about how the “employee” in his Iron Man suit threatened his life and Tony had to deal with it. Rumiko, however, doesn’t want to hear excuses and asks if this is the only reason why Tony has come. Tony then meekly tells Ru that he loves her. This is what Ms. Fujikawa has been waiting for him to say and kisses him passionately. Now that this is out of the way, Rumiko tells Tony to go home and come back at a decent hour and take her out for dinner like a gentleman.
Once Tony’s outside, he gets a call from Jocasta who reports that there is a high priority threat that requires Iron Man’s attention. Tony returns to his executive office in Manhattan. There, Jocasta briefs him how she has picked up a radio transmission from the enigmatic Sons of Yinsen. Tony has been trying to get a line on them since he first encountered the group in Kyoto.[3] When Jocasta offers to prep his armor, Tony viscerally refuses. He has come to realize that his experience with the sentient armor has made him afraid of putting on a suit of Iron Man armor as sophisticated as the last one was. When he begins to doubt if he can still be Iron Man, Jocasta reminds Tony how he fought for his life on a deserted island against a high tech killing machine with nothing but rocks and sticks. When he asks for her advice, she tells him to deployment bay. When Tony goes to look he sees that Jocasta has prepped one of his older suits of Iron Man armor and agrees that this will be perfect.[4]
When Iron Man arrives at Kuala Lampour, the Sons of Yinesen are already attacking the city. As their army of Iron Man drones swarm the city, their mothership blares out a demand that they turn over a war criminal. As the Iron Man flies and begins smashing his robot duplicates. The older suit of armor doesn’t have quite as many automated systems, but Tony finds joy in using his own skills once more. He realizes that he had become too reliant on more advanced models, making things far too easy.
That’s when Iron Man finds a pair of men busting up what appears to be a sweat shop that uses child labor. They are wearing pieces of Iron Man armor and ceremonial robes not unlike the ones worn by Buddhist monks. When they see Tony, they are filled with a deep sense of awe. They then issue a command that makes the drones stop then they begin to bow at Iron Man’s feet. They all then flee back into the mothership which then flies up into the clouds. Iron Man follows after it and is shocked when he finds a massive floating city on the other side. Suddenly, the difficulty he had in tracking the Sons of Yinsen makes sense.
Following the mothership inside the floating city, narrowly avoiding getting crushed by the closing bay door. Iron Man finds himself trapped in a darkened room. Turning on his uni-beam’s flashlight he begins looking around the pitch black room. He is surprised to find not only a statue of Ho Yinsen, but one of himself. That’s when someone calls out Tony Stark’s name from behind. Iron Man turns and he is greeted by the “original twelve” of the Sons of Yinsen. Their leader, Sun Tao, reveals that they know he Iron Man is secretly Tony Stark.
Sun Tao explains that the founding members of the Sons of Yinsen were students of the late scientist. They have formed a religion that worships the late Yinsen, his scientific discoveries, and his philosophy. Not only that, but they consider Tony Stark the chosen one since it was he who assisted Yinsen in the creation of the first suit of Iron Man armor all those years ago. As Ho Yinsen’s first student, Sun Tao leads the Sons of Yinsen. As it turned out, Sun Tao was also a prisoner at Wong-Chu’s prison camp. He reveals that Ho Yinsen apparently survived getting shot by Wong-Chu while creating a distraction so Iron Man’s armor could charge.[5]
Tony asks why the Sons of Yinsen have appeared recently and why they are going after specific criminals. Sun Tao explains that they have information that will lead them to Wong-Chu, who Sun Tao explains is still alive.[6]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Jocasta, Rumiko Fujikawa, Sons of Yinsen (Sun Tao), (flashback) Ho Yinsen, Wong-Chu
Continuity Notes
This issue recounts the events of Tales of Suspense #39. This version of events show Tony Stark in the jungle with a compliment of soldiers in the pouring rain. This deviates from the previous origin revision in Iron Man #267-268. That version of the events say that Tony went into the jungle with Toshi Kanada, who ran Stark Industries factory. One could assume that Kanada is off panel in this flashback, while the soldiers are off panel in the previous accounting. This story is vague about the region and conflict being fought. Since History of the Marvel Universe #2, this has been clarified as being in Vietnam during the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war to use in place of Vietnam War references in early Modern Age tales published in the 1960s. Per the Sliding Timescale, those events occurred about a decade earlier.
Iron Man’s armor became sentient and terrorized his life over the course of Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-30. What Tony doesn’t know was that it was given life by the “Ultron Imperative” a program that will rebuild Ultron after his destruction. It was unknowingly installed in his armor when he rescued his AI, Jocasta, back in Iron Man (vol. 3) #18-20. This will all be explained in Iron Man (vol. 3) #48.
Iron Man previously encountered the Sons of Yinsen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #½.
The suit of Iron Man armor that Jocasta chooses for Tony is the 4th model that was first constructed in Iron Man #85. During the big reveal we also see three other suits in the background: The Model 2 armor built in Tales of Suspense #48, the Promethean armor built in Heroes Reborn #½ (also referred to as suit CE1), and a spare suit of model 16, which was built in Iron Man (vol. 3) #1.
It’s later explained that Yinsen’s body was stolen by a time traveling Doctor Midas. Midas then removed Yinsen’s brain and gave it to Wong-Chu. See Iron Man Annual 2000 for all the grisly details.
Tony believes Wong-Chu died when in an explosion after their battle in Tales of Suspense #39. To us readers, we know Wong-Chu survived but was apparently turned into a lady bug and crushed by the Mandarin in Iron Man #268. Apparently, this was only an illusion to torment Wong-Chu, as wil be explained in Iron Man Annual 2000.
Topical References
Rumiko’s television is depicted as a CRT model. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. They have subsequently been replaced by the Freedom Tower.
