Iron Man (vol. 3) #41
Aftermath
Reporter Trish Tilby is reporting outside of Avengers Mansion, where Iron Man fled after being charged with the murder of Whiplash.[1] When the Avengers suggest that Iron Man turn himself in, a battle breaks out in full view of the public. Eventually, Iron Man is brought down by a bolt of lightning from Thor. As the police arrive to take Iron Man into custody, the mayor commends Tiberius Stone for his help in capturing the dangerous criminal.
However, this is all just a Dreamvision fantasy being run by Tiberius Stone.[2] When he is interrupted by his assistant Smithers with a list of suggestions for their latest subliminal advertising. Annoyed by the interruption he quickly goes over them and then warns Smithers that the next time anyone interrupts him like this again, they’re fired.
What of the real Tony Stark? He is sitting in a bar nursing a club soda. Even though he defeated Tiberius Stone, his reputation still took a huge hit as a result. He is now the butt of the joke for late night talk show hosts. His long time friend Jim Rhodes finds him and admits that he is concerned that Tony is hanging out in a bar, particularly given his history of alcoholism.[3] Even though they’ve had differences in the past, Jim still considers Tony one of his best friends.[4] He tries to reason with him about the situation, that everyone has skeletons in their closet. That’s when Tony notices a guy getting handsy with a woman at the bar. He recognizes the guy as the same dude who hassled Rumiko back on New Years Eve.[5] Since Tony owes him one, he skips the formalities and knocks him out with a single punch. When Tony continues to pummel on him until Jim pulls him off.
Tony then gets a distress call from Jocasta, his AI assistant, who tells him that the Blizzard is attacking Coney Island. Tony isn’t sure how he can go up against the Blizzard since his usual suit of armor was slagged during a recent battle with the Radioactive Man.[6] Jocasta tells Tony that she already thought of that and that’s why she is sending the armor that is stored in his Manhattan apartment.[7] Realizing what armor she is talking about he instantly has reservations.
At that same moment, Tiberius Stone is back in Dreamvision where he has conjured up a fantasy where he is being waited on by all of Tony Stark’s past romantic partners.[8] He is interrupted by Rumiko Fujikawa — Tony’s most recent ex — who dumped Stark to date Ty. She is both concerned that he is spending so much time in Dreamvision and annoyed that he hasn’t been paying much attention to her. He assures her that he is only working out the bugs out of his latest invention. He apologizes for neglecting her recently and promises to schedule in some time together tomorrow. This appeases her enough to get her to leave. Tiberus then scoffs at the idea that he is starting to get addicted to Dreamvision before plugging himself back in.
By this time, Iron Man has suited up in one of his oldest suits of red-and-gold armor and arrives at Coney Island to stop Blizzard. When the bystanders see him in this old suit they stop fleeing in terror and all begin jeering at him because they are all terminally stupid people. The Blizzard, on the other hand, is afraid that Iron Man might kill him like Whiplash and Radioactive Man and tries to flee.[9] As he does so, he puts people on the roller coaster in jeopardy. When Iron Man stops to save their lives, the Blizzard realizes that the hero couldn’t possibly kill him in such a clunker piece of armor. He then uses his freezing powers to break the Ferris Wheel loose.
After saving the people trapped on the Ferris Wheel, Iron Man follows him into the local aquarium. There, the Blizzard shatters a tank in the hopes the shark inside will do the hero in. This does very little to slow Iron Man down and he eventually catches up with the Blizzard outside. There, he beats the villain into submission while an angry mob gathers. When the police show up, they call on them to arrest Iron Man as well. Fed up with all this negative publicity, Iron Man leaves the Blizzard for the cops to deal with. The media has another frenzy reporting on the story as Iron Man and Tony Stark’s publicity tanks even further than ever before.
Sick of having to deal with this, Iron Man calls a meeting with Jocasta, Pepper Potts, and Happy Hogan. He decides to call it quits, informing them that he is dissolving Stark Solutions, giving away his fortune and disappearing from the public eye.[10] From now on, the world is going to have to get along without Tony Stark.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Blizzard, Jim Rhodes, Jocasta, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Tiberius Stone, Rumiko Fujikawa
Continuity Notes
Whiplash was actually murdered by a sentient suit of Iron Man’s armor, as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #28.
Smithers questions why Stone is using Dreamvision after security had to pull him free of it recently. He is referring to when Ty used Dreamvision to try and defeat Tony Stark. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #37-40.
Tony struggles with alcoholism. This was first explored in Iron Man #128.
This sex pest was last seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26.
Jim and Tony have been friends ever since Rhodey saved Stark from the Southasian Jungles, as seen in Iron Man #118. The pair have been friends for years. They have had a bumpy patches in the past, like when Tony faked his death from Iron Man #284-289, it took until Iron Man #312. The second time wasn’t really Tony’s fault as he was being mind controlled by Immortus-posing-as-Kang during The Crossing.
When Iron Man’s most recent suit of armor became sentient (as seen in Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-30) he became afraid of using newer technologies. He went back to using his Model 4 armor (first seen in Iron Man #85) starting in Iron Man (vol. 3) #31. This suit was wrecked in a battle with Radioactive Man in Iron Man (vol. 3) #39.
The suit of armor in question is the Model 2 armor, the first suit of red-and-gold ever built. This suit was first seen in Tales of Suspense #48 and ushered in the usual colour standard for all subsequent suits ever since (with few exceptions).
Tiberus seems to be really hyper-focused on Tony’s past girlfriends. It’s kinda gross. However, nearly every girlfriend Tony has had in the Modern Age is on display in this equally gross fantasy:
Janice Cord: Was the daughter of Drexel Cord who ran Cord Manufacturing. The two first met in Iron Man #2. They began forming a relationship after Drexel’s death and Tony was looking to buy the company. Janice tragically died after getting caught in the middle of a battle between Iron Man and the Crimson Dynamo in Iron Man #22.
Meredith McCall: Was an old childhood flame of Tony. As their fathers were business rivals they were forcibly broken up, as detailed in Iron Man #28. Although they briefly reconnected as adults, they never really got back togeather. Meredith joined up with the Masters of Silence in Iron Man Annual #14. We last saw her between Iron Man #326-331 where she was a teacher at Columbia University.
Marianne Rodgers: Tony first met Marianne in Iron Man #36. She was discovered to have telepathic abilities that she could barely control. He broke up with her when she abandoned him when he was in danger in Iron Man #51. Her powers drove her mad and she was institutionalized in issue #59. She was last seen in Iron Man #320-325 when she was roped into a plot by Immortus to alter the destiny of the Avengers.
Whitney Frost, aka Madame Masque, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #97 as the Big M, a Maggia leader who was trying to seduce her way into Tony Stark’s life and steal secrets from his company. She later became Madame Masque in Iron Man #17. Always attracted to Stark, the pair dated from Iron Man #104 to 116. Following the apparent death of her father — Count Nefaria — Whitney left Tony and returned to a life of crime.
Bethany Cabe, was a body guard who first met Tony in Iron Man #117 and they began dating shortly thereafter. She left Tony when she discovered that her late husband, Alex Van Nyberg, was still alive as seen in issue #152-153. They briefly got back together in Iron Man #319-320.
Indries Moomji, was an operative of Obadiah Stane who was hired to seduce Tony and then break his heart from Iron Man #163-167. The was part of a plot to take Stark International from Tony. Moomji succeeded in her goal and hasn’t been seen since time of this writing (March, 2023).
Kathy Dare, was obsessed with Tony Stark in Iron Man #253. When Tony realized she was too possessive and dumped her. Dare responded by shooting Tony through the spine in issue #242. When Tony faked his death in Iron Man #284, Kathy was so upset that she committed suicide in issue #286.
Rumiko Fujikawa: Tony’s most recent girlfriend, they first met in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. After she suffered an overdose in issue #34, Tony wasn’t there to visit her in the hospital because he was busy saving the world as Iron Man (as seen in issue #35 and Maximum Security #1-3). She dumped him in Iron Man (vol. 3) #37. The two will make up and get back together in issue #56.
Iron Man’s sentient armor killed Whiplash in Iron Man (vol. 3) #28, a death that Iron Man is currently taking the blame for. The general public believes that Radioactive Man is dead after he exploded in Central Park in Iron Man (vol. 3) #38. However, we saw that he survived in issue #40.
Tony will live under an assumed alias until he is convinced to take his life back in Iron Man (vol. 3) #45.
Topical References
When threatening Smithers, Tiberius Stone specifically states that anyone who interrupts him won’t even be able to get a job at UPN. United Paramount Network was a TV network that began in 1995 and broadcasted until the end of 2005. It was taken over by the WB, which then rebranded the CW. This reference should be considered topical.
The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now a obsolete technology.
Tony is watching The Late Show With David Letterman with the host doing one of his famous Top 10 lists. This should be considered a topical reference as this show ran from 1993 to 2015.
