Remote Control, Part 1

Now

Tony Stark is under fire and all he has is a gun to protect himself. He mad at himself for being in this situation. As he ducks behind a car for cover, he thinks back to how this all began…

Earlier

Tony Stark had reverse engineered the Son of Yinsen’s cloaking technology into a teleportation device.[1] Testing it out in the middle of the wilderness gives Tony a change to fine tune the device and nail down its accuracy. That’s when he gets a call from Pepper Potts, who tells him this years list of the 500 most wealthy individuals has just come out. Tony has come in at number two, only to be beaten out Tiberius Stone.

Tony knows Tiberius Stone personally, as they both went to private school together. Stone is the owner of Viastone, a multimedia company that owns multiple TV stations, internet companies, and magazines. The last Tony heard of Stone, he was off in Europe. Pepper then informs him that Ty has returned to the United States and is hosting a celebration and Tony has been invited. Hearing Tiberus Stone’s name after all these years brings back fond memories from boarding school. He and Ty had become fast friend and were always competing against each other. It didn’t matter if it was archenemies, sports, or women, the two young men were always in heated competition with each other even at the risk of their own lives. The two didn’t become really good friends until the death of Stone’s parents. Since Tony had also lost his parents the two found a bond over their mutual tragedy.[2] When Tiberius left for Europe Tony understood it to mean that Ty was leaving behind his painful memories so he could start a new life. Tony’s thoughts are interrupted when he is suddenly ambushed by two individuals in high tech armor.

Meanwhile, Pepper’s call comes after a night in bed with her ex-husband, Happy Hogan.[3] Happy has convinced Pepper to leave Stark Solutions so they can work on their marriage. The call she just made to Tony — way off the clock — is a prime example of why they need to put some distance between them. Pepper agrees to this plan, she is just waiting for the right moment to tell him. When she asks if they are doing the right thing, Happy thinks so because he thinks now would be the best time to try and have children again.[4]

Back at the scene of the battle, Iron Man has Jocasta run these suits of armor with anything in his databases. Unfortunately, there is no match with any known foes. When Iron Man finally incapacitates the two attackers he begins demanding answers as to who sent them. Rather then give a response, one of the men reaches out and hits the teleportation button on Iron Man’s chest plate. This sends the hero miles away and by the time he gets back, his two mystery attackers are long gone.

Later, Tony Stark arrives at the party being thrown for Tiberius Stone. It is a gala event where many of the city’s most successful business people in attendance. Everyone from Janet Van Dyne, to Warren Worthington III, to shadier business men like Wilson Fisk, Sebastian Shaw, and Norman Osborn. Tony endures a conversation with Shaw while he looks around the room for his girlfriend Rumiko Fujikawa. He interrupts her conversation with Osborn and Worthington so they can talk because Tony has the impression she is mad at him again. Rumiko is indeed furious with Tony, after he didn’t visit her in the hospital while she was recovering from an overdose of Max Power’s superhuman drugs. The reason was because Tony was defending the Earth from Ego the Living Planet as Iron Man, but he can’t tell her that.[5] What an explanation is not forth coming, Rumiko decides to dump Tony right then and there.

Before Stark can go after her, he is stopped by Tiberius Stone who is happy to see him after all these years. Ty explains that he has come back to the United States and wants to hire Stark Solutions to consult him on his acquisition of Donahue Developments. This is a company owned by Trevor Donahue, who previously sent Whiplash to kill Iron Man for some reason.[6] Taking on this job would allow Tony to investigate Donahue again and agrees to take the job. Ty then introduces Tony to his right-hand-man Milo Stevens. Tony also meets Ty’s bodyguard, who Tony finds familiar but can’t exactly place where he might have seen him before.[7]

That’s when the big unveiling for Stone’s newest endeavor begins. Ty introduces the gathered audience to his new multimedia technology called Dreamvision. Selecting a woman from the audience to use in a demonstration, Tiberius explains that Dreamvision is a new nanite-based augmented reality device that will reshape the way people consume media. By placing a special headset on the subject, the audience witnesses as the woman is digitally inserted as a pitcher into a baseball game that is broadcasting on television. He boasts that Dreamvision will give an unparalleled level of interaction with media, allowing viewers to interact with their favorite shows. The presentation is received with a lot of fanfare and in the back of the room, Tony can’t help but be proud of his old friend.

After the party, Tony buys some flowers and heads to Rumiko Fujikawa’s apartment in the hopes of patching things up with her. However, when he enters her apartment he catches her in bed with Tiberius Stone!

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Tiberius Stone, Rumiko Fujikawa, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Jocasta, Trish Tilby, Norman Osborn, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Warren Worthington III, Wilson Fisk, Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym

Continuity Notes

1. For more on the Iron Man’s encounters with the Sons of Yinsen see Iron Man (vol. 3) #½, 31-32, and Annual 2000.

2. The people who Tony believes are his biological parents, Howard and Maria Stark, actually adopted him, as revealed in Iron Man (vol. 5) #17. His birthparents were actually Amanda Armstrong and a man known only as Jude as revealed in International Iron Man #5-7. The Starks believed to have died in a car accident, as detailed in Iron Man #288. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. #5 suggests that this accident might have been faked. However, as of this writing (March, 2023) this claim has yet to be independently verified.

3. As explained in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4, Hap and Pepper have been divorced ever since she cheated on him. The pair have been working on rekindling their romance since issue #25.

4. Pepper has had troubles conceiving a child (although this doesn’t get spoken of until Iron Man (vol. 3) #54), this is why their first attempt at starting a family involved adopting children as seen in Iron Man #165. The children were re-homed due to Happy and Pepper’s crumbling marriage.

5. Max Power was an alien selling drugs that gave the user temporary superhuman powers, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #34-36. The reason why Tony didn’t visit her in the hospital because he was busy saving the world as Iron Man as seen in Maximum Security #1-3.

6. Whiplash was hired by Donahue but was killed by a suit of Iron Man’s armor that had become Sentient. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-29.

7. As we’ll discover next issue, this is Chen Lu, aka the Radioactive Man. Iron Man first fought him way back in Avengers #6.

Topical References

• The magazine that is publishing the 500 list is identified as Fortune Magazine. Fortune is a wealth and finance magazine that began publication in 1929. It’s most well known feature is the Fortune 500, an annual list of the 500 most wealthy companies in the world. This should be considered a topical reference because this is a real world publication.

• Tony names off the people who he thinks have beaten him at the #1 spot. One of these individuals is Bill Gates, who — at the time of this publication — was the founder and CEO of Microsoft, which was one of the most wealthy companies around the time this comic was published. This should be considered a topcial reference as Gates stepped down as CEO. These days, Microsoft isn’t even in the top 10.

• When Tiberius Stone unveils Dreamvision he gets heckled by reporter Trish Tilby. She quips that she had heard that Ty had bought another media company, not Ikea. Ikea is a chain of ready-to-assemble furniture kits. As this is a real world brand, its reference here should be considered topical.

• As a for instance, Tiberius Stone projects the volunteer into a 7th game of the World Series as a pitcher for the New York Yankees. At the time of this story, the Yankees made the World Series in 1999 and 2000 in recent history. However, they did not have to play seven games. The last time they had (at the time this was published) was back in 1964. Incidentally, the Yankees would go back to the World Series that November and play 7 games in the 2001 season. At any rate, references to the Yankees and any real life baseball stats should be considered topical because this is a real world sports team and the stats relevant here are relative to the date of publication.

• Tiberius Stone also references a number of popular movies and TV shows that people could interact with. They include:

  • The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, is a 1966 western that stars Clint Eastwood. This film has gained a cult following over the years and is considered a western classic in some circles. It cemented Eastwood as the esthetic for contemporary westerns. This wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference given the film’s status.

  • Seinfeld: Was a popular sitcom starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld. It ran from 1989 o 1998. The series was a smash hit and was still quite popular at the time this comic was published. It continues to run in syndication to this day. This is a topical reference given the context.

  • The X-Files: Was a popular sci-fi drama series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The series followed FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they investigated cases of a paranormal bent. It had a winding storyline about an alien colonization conspiracy. It ran from 1993 to 2002, spawned two feature films (in 1999 and 2008) as well as a more recent two season revival from 2016 to 2018. It was also quite popular at the time this comic was published. It’s reference here should also be considered topical.