Remote Control, Part 2

Now

Tony Stark is in a gun fight in the middle of the street. The only thing he has to protect himself is a pair of pistols. He tries shooting back at his would be assassins, but a stray bullet hits the fuel tank of a nearby car, causing it to explode. This knocks Tony off his feet. Needing to find cover, Tony ducks inside the World Trade Center in the hopes it’ll give him time to recover.

How did Stark get into this situation? Well, it’s complicated….

Earlier

Tony Stark had just attended a party being thrown by his old school chum Tiberius Stone for owning that years most successful business. This event was also used by Ty to unveil his new augmented reality device, Dreamvision. After the party, Tony went to the apartment of his girlfriend, Rumiko Fujikawa, to make up with her.[1] Entering the apartment, he catches Ru in bed with Ty.

Furious to catch his old friend in bed with his girlfriend, he demands an explanation. Tiberius claims that he had no idea that Rumiko and Tony had a thing. That’s when Ru interjects and reminds Tony that she just broke up with him and she’s free to fuck whoever she wants. Tony, on the other hand, can’t understand why Tiberius — who owns a multimedia empire — couldn’t have known that Tony and Rumiko were an item given the regular media gossip about his romance life. Tiberius pleads ignorance, saying that he doesn’t pay attention to what his news outlets report. Tony decides to give him the benefit of the doubt based due to the fact that they go way back. Ty appears to deeply sorry for what has happened and Tony can’t help but accept the apology.

The following day, Tony heads to Donahue Development to consult on its purchase to Tiberius Stone’s Viastone. After the previous night, Tony isn’t really in the mood for this, particularly since the owner of the company — Trevor Donahue — previously hired Whiplash to try and kill Iron Man.[2] Donahue is as smarmy as ever, hoping that his and Tony’s earlier altercation in San Francisco can be put behind them. Trevor then shows Tony around, and boasts about how he has made a fortune selling weapons to governments all over the world all thanks, in part, to the fact that Stark got out of the weapons business a long time ago.[3] That’s when he sees a suit of prototype armor that is on display. It is identical to the suits worn by the two men who attacked him the day before. When Tony calls Donahue on it, Trevor warns Tony to be careful not to make unfounded accusations. Tony doesn’t buy the innocent act and decides to leave.

When Tony returns to the office, he asks his assistant Pepper Potts to get everything she can find on Donahue and his business dealings. However, she and her ex-husband Happy Hogan are watching the news and tells Tony that they need to see this. The top story on one of the news networks owned by Tiberius Stone is about how Tony Stark and Iron Man have been linked to the murder of Whiplash. They have also obtained footage of Tony going to meet with Trevor Donahue and have been amplifying the connections to make it seem like Stark Solutions is in a “turf war” with Donahue Developments. The phone has been ringing off the hook with reporters seeking comment since the story broke. The police and Tony’s lawyer — Matt Murdock — have also called about the situation as it’s expected for Stark to make a statement with the police.

Suspecting that Tiberius Stone is setting him up, Tony calls him to demand what’s going on. Stone justifies his networks covering the story, saying that they have to remain impartial when it comes to reporting the news, even if it is a story about a friend of the owner of the company. The footage of the Donahue meet were pulled directly from the building security, suggesting that Trevor leaked the meeting to the press himself. Tiberius feels very bad about all of this, and promises Tony that he’ll come out in his support even though his legal team has recommended he keep his distance.

Tiberius is true to his word, but this does little to quell the media frenzy that has begun. All of Tony’s past controversies are dredged up as well as new ones, such as a man alleging that he is Tony Stark’s illegitimate child.[4] Tony is supposed to be watching from the sidelines. Soon, he makes a statement with the police as both Tony Stark and Iron Man. In both instances, there is a media frenzy outside and all questions are fielded by Tony’s lawyer, Matt Murdock. It’s not any different outside Stark Solutions, as Tony is swarmed once more. Annoyed with the reporters talking shit about his boss, Happy Hogan punches one of them out.

When Tony returns to work, he checks in with Roger Clark, a regular client. Clark informs Tony that due to the negative publicity, he will be no longer be needing Tony’s services. This is the last straw for Tony and he pours himself a drink. However, he manages to stop himself from taking a drink. That’s when Pepper comes in with another emergency. Luckily, this has nothing to do with Tony or Iron Man’s negative PR. Instead, it is a hostage situation at Viastone which includes its own Tiberius Stone. That perpetrator turns out to be the Radioactive Man, who Tony recognizes as Stone’s bodyguard that he met the day before. However, the villain isn’t the type to pull off a caper like this. He suspects that Milo Stevens, Tiberius’ right-hand-man as being the mastermind behind all of this.

Tony changes into Iron Man in order to rescue Tiberius and hopefully find out who is responsible for the hatchet job that is being done on his public image. When Iron Man arrives on the scene he discovers that someone jacked up Radioactive Man’s powers as he can now generate enough heat to melt Iron Man’s armor. Still, Iron Man fights back and quickly overpowers Radioactive Man, who starts reaching critical mass. The hero quickly grabs the villain and heads toward Central Park where he can go off without harming anyone. Following him is Milo Stevens and a news crew in a high tech flying SUV. However, Iron Man gets to Central Park faster than they can follow thanks to the new experimental teleportation system built into his armor.

Once there, Iron Man tries to knock out the Radioactive Man with a single high-powered punch.[5] Unfortunately, the blow doesn’t even stagger the villain who reaches critical mass. This is just as Milo and his goons arrive on the scene. The resulting nuclear explosion blows up he SUV and threatens to envelope Iron Man as well.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Tiberius Stone, Rumiko Fujikawa, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Radioactive Man, Trevor Donahue, Matt Murdock, Trish Tilby

Continuity Notes

1. Rumiko is pissed at Tony for not visiting her in the hospital after a drug over dose. He couldn’t tell her that, as Iron Man, he was busy saving the world from Ego the Living Planet. All the stuff with Ty happened last issue. See also Iron Man (vol. 3) #33-35 and Maximum Security #1-3.

2. Donahue sent Whiplash to eliminate Iron Man only for the assassin to get himself killed by a now sentient suit of Iron Man armor. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-29. Tony agree to help with the purchase of Donahue’s business for Ty last issue.

3. Tony got out of the weapons making business waaaaay back in Iron Man #46. Which, according to the Sliding Timescale, was about 7 years prior to this story.

4. Tony Stark has racked up quite a lot of controversies over his career and a lot of them are mentioned here. They include:

   • Alcoholism: Tony has had two notable benders that affected his life. The first was in Iron Man #120-128 and the other from issues #167-182. Tony has been more-or-less sober ever since.

   • The loss of his family business: Stark has lost his business twice as well. The first time was during Tony’s second bender, he lost Stark Industries to Stane International during a hostile take over, as seen in Iron Man #173. Tony started Stark Enterprises in issue #182, he later bought Stane International in Iron Man #283. Later, when Tony Stark died in Avengers #395, his company was sold off to the Fujikawa corporation in Iron Man #329. Since Tony’s resurrection (TL;DR Onslaught Marvel Universe #1, Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, and Iron Man (vol. 3) #1) he started a new company, Stark Solutions. This will become a new iteration of Stark Enterprises in Iron Man (vol. 3) #45. He later regain full control of Stark-Fujikawa in Iron Man (vol. 3) #56.

   • The Armor Wars: When Tony discovered that designs for his Iron Man tech leaked, he went out as Iron Man to brick all unauthorized uses of his technology. This also included government operatives, putting him at odds with the law. In the end, Tony faked Iron Man’s death and tricked the public into thinking he hired someone new to wear the armor. See Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340.

5. Iron Man putting all his armor’s power into a punch is a trick he once used on the Hulk, as seen in Iron Man #131-132.

Topical References

• The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted here. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. They have since been replaced with the Freedom Tower.

• When Pepper telling Tony that the police want him to make a statement, Happy quips “In other words, they don’t think you’ll skip town in a White Ford Bronco.” This is a reference to the infamous OJ Simpson murder trail. In 1994, Simpson was the lead suspect in the murder of his ex-wife Nichole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. Prior to his arrest, Simpson tried to flee town in his white Ford Bronco. The police pursuit was recorded on live television. Hence the reference. This should be considered a topical reference as a more contemporary analogy could be used in its place.

• Tiberius Stone is depicted as having a computer with a CRT monitor in his office. As are the TVs in this story. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.

• Tiberius Stone likens his network reporting on Tony to when NBC reported on Marv Albert. Albert was a football and basketball commentator that worked for NBC for over 20 years. When Albert was accused of sexual assault in 1997. Even though he worked for NBC, the network still covered the story. In the end, Albert was given a suspended sentence and NBC pulled him for two years, and you wonder why #metoo is a thing.