Sympathy for the Devil, Part 3

Iron Man has decided to end his feud with Tiberius Stone once and for all after Stone used the electrical grid to infect him with his augmented reality program called Dreamvision. In the middle of the fight, Tony’s girlfriend Rumiko Fujikawa arrives to try and get them to stop. However, Stone uses this to his advantage by causing the elevator she is riding on to plummet her to her doom. Ty then suggests that this could be an illusion created by Dreamvision.

Iron Man doesn’t want to take the chance and flies to Rumiko’s rescue. It turns out to be the real Rumiko and he gets her to safety. She tells him that it is crazy to keep fighting Tiberius. He explains that Stone has found a way to transmit Dreamvision through the power grid and he can harm anyone.[1] He is going back in to deal with Ty and tells Rumiko to head to the nearest power station and convince them to shut down all the electricity going to the Viastone building.

When Iron Man re-enters the Viastone building and walks into a Dreamvision illusion. It is a hall of mirrors where the reflections turn into deformed versions of Iron Man that attack him. Stone then lured him through a mirror which strips Tony of his armor. There he walks through some gates that read “abandon all hope ye who enter here”. On the other side, Tony gets a view of Tiberius Stone’s ultimate plan for Dreamvision.

It is a nightmare world where everyone is wired into Dreamvision, turning them all into loyal slaves to Tiberius Stone. Sitting in a throne, Stone is surrounded by enslaved versions of Tony’s friends. He tells them that people will willingly become his slaves because he can offer them whatever they want. To demonstrate this, he kisses a construct of Pepper Potts and this causes a baby to start growing inside of her.[2] These slaves then begin swarming Tony and Tiberius tells his former friend to join him and they can rule the world together.

Tony rejects this and fights back as his armor begins to reform around him. Tony then begins shooting poking holes into Tiberius Stone’s vision of the future. He points out that while he will rule over them all it will be out of fear. His slaves will only serve him as long as they need him. This makes Stone less than a parasite, he’s a host for them. He then shows Ty his “empire”, a world in ruin, and points out that this isn’t anything more than Stone’s personal hell. Iron Man has figured out what all this is about. Tiberius doesn’t want to rule the world, he’s so hoplessly addicted to Dreamvision himself that he is really trying to manipulate Tony into killing him. However, Stark refuses to take Tiberius’ life.

When Iron Man turns to leave, Tiberus becomes furious and transforms himself into a weird cyborg based on Iron Man’s armor and attacks Tony. As they struggle, Rumiko reaches through and tries to pull Iron Man out of the illusion. However, Stone holds on tight until the burned corpses of his Stone’s parents appear and yank Tiberus back into the nightmare he has created for himself. When Rumiko pulls Iron Man out of the illusion, the power is finally shut down, closing down Dreamvision.

They then head down to the core of the computer database to try and find Tiberius Stone. Tony tells to Rumiko that Ty wanted to be the king of the world. Finding him hooked into Dreamvision and in a catatonic state, Tony says that Ty finally found it, but it is a kingdom of one. Trapped inside Dreamvision, Tiberius is in a dark void wondering where everyone went.[3]

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Rumiko Fujikawa, Tiberius Stone

Continuity Notes

1. Tiberius Stone is an old school friend of Tony Stark who just recently returned to New York from Europe. Using Dreamvision — a form of augmented reality —- to try to ruin Tony’s life. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #37-40 and 56-57.

2. This is mocking the fact that Pepper had recently lost a baby she was carrying in Iron Man (vol. 3) #54.

3. Tiberius Stone will eventually snap out of his trance and turn up again in Hercules (vol. 3) #1.

Topical References

• When talking about the guy at the guy at the power station she convinced to shut down the power, Rumiko calls him a “Ralph Cramden-type”. Ralph Cramden (played by comedian Jackie Gleason) was the lead character on The Honeymooners a sitcom about a married couple that ran from 1955-1956. Cramden was a blue collar worker, crude, and prone to bickering with his wife. His catchphrase was about how one day he’d hit his wife so hard she’d fly to the moon. This should be considered a topical reference, because you didn’t know who Ralph Cramden was until I explained it to you.

• Seeing the amount of equipment in the Viastone building, Rumiko figures that Ty had cleared out every Radio Shack in town. Radio Shack was a chain of electronics stores that started in 1921. The company was at their peak in 1999 and have experienced a steep decline since then. As I write this (March, 2023) they have been two bankruptcies and a third one is being considered. At any rate, this is a topical reference as this is a real world brand.