Iron Man (vol. 3) #48
The Frankenstein Syndrome, Part 3
The Sons of Yinsen have made themselves public and have apparently gone bad. Stealing SKIN (a nanite based liquid metal), trying to kill their former priest Sun Tao, and claiming that they have resurrected Ho Yinsen in a suit of sentient Iron Man armor.[1] In reality, “Yinsen” is actually Ultron, who had been using the Sons of Yinsen to build him a new body.
Now a prisoner along side Sun Tao, Iron Man demands to know how Ultron managed to cheat death. Ultron explains that it was simplicity itself. Following the destruction of its body the so-called “Ultron Imperiative” program kicked in, a bit of programming installed in all of his creations that would compel them to rebuild Ultron after his body was destroyed. In this case, Jocasta was compelled to help rebuild Ultron after Iron Man saved her from captivity.[3]
To this end, Jocasta unknowingly infected Iron Man’s suit of armor with a program that made it sentient. Tony’s theory that a lightning strike caused the armor to become sentient was not accurate. In reality, it merely sped up the process. As a result, the sentient armor took on a past version of Ultron’s personality that cared for its creator, hence its obsession with Tony.[4] After Tony buried the sentient armor, it became very easy for Ultron to manipulate the Sons of Yinsen to recover the body, then Ultron’s severed head and unite the two. While Sun Tao was able to see that something was amiss, the rest of the Sons of Yinsen were easily fooled until it was too late. Setting up the Church of Yinsen and stealing SKIN is only part of Ultron’s goals. To demonstrate the power he commands, Ultron orders one of the SKIN coated followers to form a blade out of their hand and fatally stab themselves. The follower complies without hesitation. Opening branches of the Church of Yinsen all over the world, Ultron plans to gather amass an entire army that will help him conquer the globe.
After explaining his master plan, Ultron then orders the Sons of Yinsen to kill both Iron Man and Sun Tao. The pair fight back against their captors until Iron Man is able to incapacitate them. He does so by utilizing the SKIN controlling chest plate of his armor, and using it to knock everyone out once he finds the unique frequency. While they were preoccupied with these followers, Ultron manages to get away. In the aftermath of the battle, Sun Tao recovers the discarded helmet of the sentient armor. This is because it still contains the brain of Ho Yinsen and Sun Tao still has faith he might revive his master some day as a matter of faith.[5]
Returning to Stark Enterprises, Tony checks in with the Avengers and discovers that they are busy dealing with Kang the Conqueror, leaving him and Sun Tao to deal with Ultron alone.[6] After preparing a means of stopping their foe, Tony speaks with Jocasta. He empathizes with her fear, understanding that she was brutally tormented by the sentient armor. Jocasta admits that she is still afraid of Ultron and the armor, but promises Tony that he can count on her.
Once they are ready, Iron Man and Sun Tao sneak inside the floating city of New Timbetpal. Inside, they are horrified to discover that Ultron has created a machine to bond followers with SKIN, effectively making them all his slaves. They are soon caught by Ultron who orders his followers to attack. While Sun Tao deals with his people, Iron Man takes the fight directly to Ultron. While the sentient robot beings shutting down Tony’s mechanical heart, Tony puts himself into the sentient armor. This allows him to download Jocasta who fights the sentient armor’s personality while Iron Man is fighting Ultron in the physical world.
At first, Jocasta freezes in fear at facing her tormentor. However, when the armor reminds her of how it effectively raped her, she snaps out of it and fights back. This turns the tide of battle and Iron Man uses his repulsors to blast Ultron’s head off the body of the sentient armor. It ends up slamming into Antigone — the synthezoid who helped recreate Ultron — making them both falling over the edge of the floating city.[7] Unfortunately, the process leaves the sentient armor and empty shell, not even Jocasta is present. Still, the people enslaved by SKIN are freed. Sun Tao then returns the head of the sentient armor believing that this will restore Yinsen, even though Iron Man thinks that is impossible.
That’s when a recording of Ultron appears on every monitor screen on the floating island. This was recorded in the event he was defeated and he announces that New Timbetpal has been rigged to explode. That’s when the sentient armor begins speaking, refusing to allow the evacuation of the followers of the Sons of Yinsen. New Timbetpal is their home and they will not abandon it. Tony refuses to believe that this is Ho Yinsen speaking through the armor.[7] The entity speaking through the armor wishes it had time to convince him otherwise but uses his control over Iron Man’s heart to knock him out. He then orders Sun Tao to carry Tony Stark to safety, choosing him to live on so their ways might survive some day.
Sun Tao carries Iron Man outside and they watch as the floating city detonates and crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Sun Tao points out that if the sentient armor thought it was Ho Yinsen or not, it sacrificed its life so Tony could live, just as Yinsen had done himself. Tony finds all this spiritualism a headache and when Sun Tao wonders what he’ll do with his life next, Stark tells him they’ll figure something out together.
Meanwhile, Antigone — believed to be a dead child — was brought to a Las Vegas hospital for an autopsy. The forensic pathologists are confused what happened to this child and try to make sense of Ultron’s severed heed. That’s when Antigone gets up and, speaking in Jocasta’s voice, asks for the severed head. The shocked pathologists give it back and watch in stunned silence as the young synthazoid walks out.[8]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Ultron, Sun Tao, Jocasta, Sons of Yinsen, Antigone
Continuity Notes
There is a lot going on off the top, so let me explain what’s happening here:
First things first, Iron Man experienced a suit of his armor becoming sentient. It became obsessed with Tony loving it and later seemingly sacrificed its life to save Tony from a fatal heart attack. Tony later buried it in the ground. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #26-30.
The Sons of Yinsen are a religious sect that worship Ho Yinsen, the scientist who helped Tony build his first suit of Iron Man armor while they were both prisoners of Wong-Chu. The group have recently recovered the disembodied brain of Yinsen and believed it would one day be restroed to life. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #½,, 31-32, and Annual 2000.
Ultron is revived here after his body was destroyed in Avengers (vol. 3) #19-22. He has been trying to reconstruct himself since Avengers: The Ultron Imperative #1.
Jocasta was created by Ultron back in Avengers #162. In more recent times, her severed head ended up in the possession of Sunset Bain in Iron Man Annual #11. Tony eventually freed her artificial intelligence in Iron Man (vol. 3) #18-20.
Ultron states that the sentient armor developed a persona similar to Ultron-12. When Ultron was upgrading himself from his 11th generation to the 12th, the process was interrupted when the robot was abducted by the Beyonder to fight in the original Secret Wars. This caused two version of Ultron to be running around. Ultron-12 eventually decided that he wanted to bond with his creator, Hank Pym, and tried to forge a positive relationship with him. However, Ultron-11 eventually came back and killed Ultron-12. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #5-7.
Ho Yinsen helped Tony create his first suit of Iron Man armor while they were both prisoners of Wong-Chu way back in Tales of Suspense #39. As explained in Iron Man Annual 2000, Yinsen’s body was taken and brought forward in time by Doctor Midas and given to Wong-Chu. Iron Man and the Sons of Yinsen rescued Ho’s disembodied brain from Wong-Chu in recent history.
This story takes place in the early part of the Kang Dynasty storyline which took place from Avengers (vol. 3) #41 to 54. Tony would only take a passive role in the conflict until issue #53 of that series.
If this was really Ho Yinsen or the sentient armor either convinced or trying to convince it is Yinsen is left ambiguous, even subsequent handbook entries that touch on this remain vague about it. The sentient armor doesn’t come back per se. Iron Man uses another suit of it in Invincible Iron Man #12 and Avengers A.I. #1-12.
When we see Jocasta again, she’s back in a version of her original mechanical body, as seen in Avengers #501. A version of Ultron is seen again in Avengers #500, but this was likely a construct created by the Scarlet Witch. At any rate, Ultron will resurface again in Runaways (vol. 2) #5-6.
