Big Bang Theory, Conclusion

Tony Stark has abandoned his old life to get away from all the negative publicity. Under the alias “Hogan Potts”, he was working for Askew Electronics where he found himself investigating a series of bombings targeting tech companies.[1] Investigating as Iron Man, he has uncovered that this was being orchestrated by Advanced Idea Mechanics who were trying to eliminate the competition before going legit. As Iron Man confronted MODOK, he was incapacitated by their bomber, the corporate saboteur known as the Ghost.[2]

During the fight with MODOK, a mental bolt shut down Jocasta — Tony’s AI assiastant — but the Ghost’s phasing powers triggered a system reboot. Thinking their foe is at their mercy, the Ghost tries to shoot Iron Man, but the hero is able to put up a force field to shield himself.

Although he is wearing a brand new suit of armor, Tony is fighting two of his most deadly foes at the same time, no easy task. Stark decides to take out MODOK by unleashing every on board missile and drone bomb at his foe. The Ghost is still very much in the game and he justifies destroying Askew Electronics, even though they were a relatively small company.[3] Their SKIN technology — a nanite controlled liquid metal that Iron Man now uses for his new armor — would have made them a very wealthy corporation, and they needed to be stopped before gaining that level of -power. Iron Man points out that SKIN could have benefitted so many people as it had many medical applications.

By this time, MODOK has recovered from the barrage, he charges up for another mental blast. Detecting the energy build up, Iron Man stuns the Ghost with a sonic blast and uses the saboteur as a human shield to take the mental jolt that was meant for him. With the Ghost down, Iron Man then activates his energy blade and gets up close and personal with MODOK. After he cuts through he cyborg’s force field, the Ghost tries to come up from behind with his intangibility trick again. Iron MAn is read for it and grabs the Ghost’s wrist. He then forces his foe to plunge his hand into MODOK’s head. With both of his foes defeated, Iron Man asks Jocasta to call the authorities.

That’s when AIM goons enter the room and begin opening fire. This distracts Iron Man long enough for the Ghost to put his immaterial hand through Iron Man’s chest. This stuns Iron Man long enough for the Ghost to make his escape. With the power levels of his mechanical heart running low, Iron Man needs to end the battle quickly and unleashes all of his on board weapons all at once to take out the remaining guards. Racing home, Tony runs out of power and blacks out. His suit autonomously flies him back to Tony’s new apartment where the automated systems recharge his heart. When Tony wakes up he thanks Jocasta for being there to keep him alive. That’s when Jim Rhodes comes by for a visit he has come to deliver some very important information.

The following day, Calista Hancock and the recently unemployed staff of Askew Electronics are invited to the head office of the Maria Stark Foundation for an important announcement. They all show up, but Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts that all will be explained in a moment. That’s when Tony Stark enters the room and they all learn he has been masquerading as their co-worker, Hogan Potts. Tony gives them a story about how he went incognito to learn first hand how valuable a company Askew was and, despite the destruction of their head office, he has decided that he is going to purchase the company. In other words, he has just saved the company and they are all still employed. Calista Hancock is furious with Tony keeping his true identity a secret from her and she whispers her displeasure before storming out of the office.

With the major announcement out of the way, Tony asks everyone to leave except for Johnny Morley. Stark steps out of the room for a moment, and Morley figures that he’s being commended for being a friend to “Hogan Potts” while he was working at Askew. Seconds later, Iron Man enters the room and reveals that he knows that “Johnny” is actually the Ghost. With his cover blown, the Ghost activates his costume and tries to use his phasing powers on Iron Man again. This time, however, Tony has prepared a counter measure against such an attack. Rather than causing Tony pain, the process feeds back on the Ghost, incapacitating him instantly.

With the Ghost defeated, security arrives to take him into police custody. With the situation over, Pepper and Happy can’t understand how Tony was able to buy Askew after he gave away his fortune and shut down his company. That’s when Stark reveals that the late Trevor Donahue left Tony his fortune and company following his death.[4] Tony plays back Donahue’s recorded will. Before his death, Trevor had discovered that Tiberius Stone’s Dreamvision implanted a subliminal suggestion for Tony to give up his tarnished life of wealth and fortune, thus explaining why he suddenly abandoned everything so suddenly. Donahue explains that he left his fortune and business for Tony since he had no heirs and wanted someone around to stop Tiberius Stone once and for all, calling it a parting shot from beyond the grave. Tony finds himself grateful to Donahue — a man who once tried to have him kill — for renewing his drive to fight against injustice.

The news that Tony Stark is back and that he purchased Askew Electronics, saving the company from insolvency, quickly makes the news. Suddenly, the media has forgotten all about Tony’s recent bad press and he is being championed for saving countless jobs. Tony then has Jim Rhodes take him out to the brand new offices of the new Stark Enterprises. It is the old Donahue Developments, which will become the new headquarters of his company. As this facility was primarily used for weapons manufacturing, it will be converted as Tony has been out of the weapons game for years.[5] That’s when a message is delivered to Tony and after reading it, he tells his Pepper to get everything she can find on Stark-Fujikawa, as it is time to get his old company back.[6][7]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Jim Rhodes, Jocasta, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Trevor Donahue, Calista Hancock, AIM (MODOK, Ghost)

Continuity Notes

1. Tony Stark gave up his entire life to get out from under the negative publicity after Tiberius Stone launched a smear campaign against him. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #37-41.

2. AIM has been blowing up corporate headquarters of tech companies since issue #42.

3. Per his own accounts, the Ghost’s anti-corporate attitude comes from being ruined by the company he once worked for, who wanted to take full credit for the computer chips he created. See Thunderbolts #151 for more details.

4. Trevor Donahue was a crooked businessman who was infected with an unknown and deadly illness by Tiberius Stone. Before his death, Donahue sought Tony’s help to take Stone down. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #29, 38-39. His death was announced in issue #42.

5. Weapons manufacturing used to be Stark Industries bread and butter for years. They got out of the weapons game way back in Iron Man #42.

6. The original Stark Enterprises was sold off in Iron Man #329 to the Fujikawa corporation. This happened during a period where Tony Stark was believed dead. He technically was, but through the magic of plot contrivances was brought back to life. See Avengers #395, Iron Man (vol. 2) #1, Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, and Avengers Annual 2001 for that whole complicated turn of events. Rumiko Fujikawa will give Tony the 2% stock he needs to retake control of his former company in Iron Man (vol. 3) # 56.

7. The telegram received is from Tiberius Stone, saying that Tony is still trapped in Dreamvision. This is a lie of course. We’ll learn about all of this in Iron Man Annual 2001.

Topical References

• The computer virus that the Ghost uses to blow shit up in this story is called “You Da Man”. This story is based on the ILOVEYOU virus that was e-mailed to potential victims in the early 2000s. The spread of the virus was successful due to the fact that the creator used social engineering dynamics to trick people into downloading and running an attachment that would then infect their computer. This whole plot device is dated, from the virus-through-e-mail extension, the length of time it takes to download (this story was written when internet speeds weren’t that fast), even the phrase “You Da Man” is dated as fuck. Topical reference city. Modern readers, use your imagination to figure out how to view this in a modern context, they don’t pay me enough to do this kind of heavy lifting.

• Trevor Donahue’s final will is depicted as being stored on a CD. This was a fairly common use of data storage back in 2001 when this story was published. While you can still burn data on a CD as I write this (March, 2023) it has fallen out of favor due to newer and more efficient methods of data storage.