Iron Man (vol. 3) #49
‘Nuff Said
Stark Enterprises has announces the installation of a brand new communications satellite. While Iron Man goes into orbit to install the satellite, his progress is monitored on Earth by Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, and former High Priest of the Sons of Yinsen, Sun Tao. The mission is going off without a hitch and when Iron Man finishes his work, everyone celebrates.
Well… not everybody…. Boris Bullski, aka the Titanium Man reads the news. Reading the newspaper story about Stark angers him and he burns the paper. Looking at old newspaper clippings of Titanium Man’s battles with Iron Man. In every case, Iron Man was the victor.[1] Saluting the Russian flag, Boris puts on his Titanium Man helmet and flies to Stark Enterprises. The security response is fast and extreme as a combination of automated weapons and armed security guards are deployed to deal with him. The sudden red alert cuts off Hap, Pep, and Sun Tao’s celebrations short.
As Titanium Man smashes his way into the building, Sun Tao scrambles to put on his suit of Iron Man armor. Happy and Pepper arm themselves with guns, but they have no effect on the Titanium Man who easily swats the couple aside. When Sun Tao tries to attack Titanium Man next, he easily trounces him as well. Plugging into the computer, Titanium Man then determines Iron Man’s exact location and takes off into orbit.
He ambushes Iron Man at the satellite in orbit and the two fight it out. Trapped in Titanium Man’s energy rings, Iron Man absorbs a lot of power beyond safety limits and blasts his foe with enough force to knock him out. With his suit of armor overloading, Iron Man has just enough time to cut loose from the rings as he is caught in Earth’s gravitational pull and ends up crashing on the planet surface. Once Tony is gone, a space shuttle baring the markings of Stark-Fujikawa arrives and pulls Titanium Man on board using a tractor beam.[2]
When Iron Man recovers from the fall, he returns to Stark Enterprises to find the damage caused by the Titanium Man before they fought.[3]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Sun Tao, Titanium Man
Continuity Notes
The newspaper clippings Titanium Man has hanging in his hideout include references to his past battles with Iron Man. The most important being when their first clash in which Titanium Man challenged Iron Man to a duel to see whose country was superior. In the end Iron Man won as seen in Tales of Suspense #69-71. The other clipping refers to a time Iron Man and Titanium Man fought each other in New York’s iconic Rockefeller Plaza skating rink. This battle took place in Iron Man #135.
Stark-Fujikawa is Tony Stark’s former company. It was purchased and merged with the Fujikawa corporation back in Iron Man #329. Whatever Stark-Fujikawa had in store for the Titanium Man remains unrevealed time of this writing in March, 2023. Whatever it is, it is a moot point as Tony takes back control of the company in Iron Man (vol. 3) #56. When we see Titanium Man again in Iron Man (vol. 3) # 83, he’s on his own again.
As of this writing, Sun Tao hasn’t been seen since. Unlike a certain crowd sourced garbage website, Sun Tao is not dead. It hasn’t been confirmed in any official publications. Its not mentioned in any handbooks that mention Sun Tao, or the Iron Man Index.
Topical References
The cover price for the Daily Bugle in this story is 50 cents. Adjusting for inflation that’d be a little over 80 cents. Still you’d be hard pressed to find a newspaper that cheap in the world today.
One of the newspaper clippings in this story is depicted as coming out of Time Magazine. This should be considered a topical reference as Time is a real world publication.
The Stark-Fujikawa shuttle is designed to resemble the Space Shuttles used by NASA From 1981 to 2011. Its depiction here should be considered topical as these shuttles have been retired.
