Iron Man (vol. 3) #73
The Best Defense, Part 1: Acquisition
The Ogaden, between Ethiopia and Somalia
A group of American soldiers are testing out a new Peregrine attack helicopter as well as new suits of combat armor. Spotting what they think is an enemy truck, they prepare to blast it with microwaves. However, they receive an IFF signal, indicating the truck is a friendly. The soldiers in the combat armor suddenly detect an entire army of enemies coming their way. However, there are no visuals. That’s when someone comes out of the truck below them and fires a rocket at the chopper. As the soldiers try to scramble, their suits suddenly catch fire.
Washington, DC
The footage of this disaster is played back for Pentagon brass including Stuart Conrad, the Chief of Staff, and Sonny Burch, Undersecretary for Acquesition. Since these weapon systems were procured by Conrad, its left on him to explain what went wrong. These were apparently unforseen design flaws that Oscorp couldn’t iron out. Conrad likens this to the Apollo I fire, in which Frank Borman said the program’s biggest trouble was a “failure of imagination”. Facing a similar problem now, Conrad says they need the biggest imagination out there. Burch knows exactly who Conrad is referring to and tells Stuart they don’t need that son of a bitch.
The person he is calling is Tony Stark, who he arranges to meet at Defcon East, a munitions showcase expo where military contractors show off their latest military innovations. Stark shows up and meets with Stuart Conrad. He wonders why the the Chief of Staff was calling for him, since Tonys company has gotten out of the weapons business years ago.[1] Stu points out that military technology has caught up with what Tony used to create for the military. However, they don’t have the proper time or know how to iron out the bugs without accidents. He points to Sonny Burch, who is jockeying for the vacancy in the Chief of Defense. Hoping to stymie this, Stu wants to hire Tony Stark. He then hands Tony a file. Stark isn’t sure if he wants to work for the government, even as a consultant. Stu then gets a sudden phone call and leaves to take it. When Tony tries to give him the file back, Stu said he didn’t give him anything.[2]
Tony takes a look at the file, which contains information and video on the failed Peregrine helicopter test. He is horrified by what he sees and is grateful when he gets an Avengers emergency call in the North Atlantic.
Changing into Iron Man, Tony joins Captain America (Steve Rogers) in a rescue operation. A submarine crew of seventeen men are stranded on the ocean floor. As Iron Man flies a rescue submersible to their location, Cap tells him that they were testing new equipment and something went wrong. As they dive into the water, Iron Man tells Steve how he was just recently offered the opportunity to consult with the government. He isn’t sure if this is something he wants to do because he got out of the weapons industry because he couldn’t live with the lives his weapons took away.
This reminds Captain America of something World War II. He and Bucky were sent to meet with a defense plant in Texas. There they met with the female workers and while they had many concerns about the war, one of them wasn’t about the fact that they were building machines that killed people. They didn’t look at it that way, they saw their work as a means of getting their sons and husbands back home from the war alive. Tony can understand that perspective but the weapons he built were far more deadly than wartime bombers. He likens himself to Oppenheimer who realized that the atomic bomb was a really bad idea after he helped create it.
By this time, they have reached the trapped sub and create a water tight seal between the two vessels. As Iron Man uses a laser to cut through the hull, Captain America gives his thoughts about Oppenheimer. He says that war is full of lousy ideas and the best one can do is try and chose the least of the worst and hope for the best. Cap then asks if they want Tony to build a doomsday weapon. As they evacuate the sub, Tony says they just wanted someone to consult with to make sure new weapons don’t malfunction in the field. This reminds him of being in France during the war. Along with soldiers were non-combat units, such as mobile maintenance and ordinance companies. Their job was to make sure that equipment ran properly and the soldiers were well equipped. This sometimes put them in dangerous situations. He remembers one day they had to move a Nazi tank off a bridge. However, the Germans boobytrapped one of the shells and the explosion killed four non-coms. However, the others never complained about putting their lives on the line because they knew their jbos were important.
With the submarine cleared, Tony has figured out what caused it to come immobilized. The sonic force projector wasn’t mounted properly. Too much power and the thing could have shaked the entire submarine into pieces. When Cap asks how Tony can be sure, Stark says he knows because he designed it. When Tony gets back home and looks at the Peregrine footage again he takes a closer look at the microwave weapon they were armed with. He is shocked to see that it is very similar to the one he built into his Iron Man armor.
The following day, Iron Man confronts Sonny Burch at the Pentagon as Tony has discovered that he had been given old Stark military designs to private contractors. Tony points out that all of these design patents were protected as a matter of national security. Burch reminds Tony of US Code Section 182. It reads that the Defense Department seals Tony’s patents indefinitely until Tony publicly reveals the design. Every time Tony used these technologies as Iron Man, he lost that protection. Stark tries to counter this by reminding Burch how he has operated as Iron Man for years with protection from that law. Burch then reveals a technicality of the agreement. The protection applied to an representative of Tony Stark not Tony himself. When Tony revealed his identity to the world, he lose that protection.[3]
Burch then gloats that because of this, he has his staff going over footage of Iron Man in action. This has allowed them to unseal 300 top secret patents. This is all to boost Sonny’s profile and make him a shoe in for the position of Secretary of Defense. Worse, because his operations doesn’t answer to Congress there is nothing Tony’s pal Stuart Conrad or any other politician can do.[4]
However, Tony Stark isn’t defeated yet, instead of joining up with the Department of Defense as a consultant, Tony proposes to the President and his staff to let him become the Secretary of Defense. As wild an idea as this is, they run the numbers and determine that, despite Stark’s past, he has high approval ratings.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Stuart Conrad, Artemis Pithins, Captain America, Sonny Burch, (flashback) Bucky
Continuity Notes
Tony pivoted away from weapons manufacturing way back in Iron Man #42. Per the Sliding Timescale, that would have been about eight years prior to this story.
Stu figures Tony’s lifestyle would prevent him from getting a government job. One of the reasons if Tony’s health problems. Tony has had many health issues over the years they include:
A damaged heart, which was wounded by shrapnel in Tales of Suspense #39. Although he got surgery in Iron Man #19 to repair the damage, it was weak for years. Most recently, it was replaced with a mechanical heart in Iron Man (vol. 3) #30.
Alcoholism: Tony has struggled with alcoholism his entire life. This was first explored on Iron Man #128.
Spinal injury: Tony was shot in the spine in Iron Man #242. Although this was repaired in issue #248. It still plagued Tony with mobility issues until he was fully healed until Iron Man #290.
Tony had just recently revealed his identity in Iron Man (vol. 3) #55.
Sonny Burch states that there are no “Armor Wars” this time. Sonny is referring to when Tony discovered that number of his designs had been stolen. As Iron Man, he went out and bricked all unauthorized use of his technology, including those used by government operatives. At the time, this made Iron Man a wanted fugitive. Because Iron Man’s true identity was secret at the time, Tony faked Iron Man’s death and then tricked the public into thinking that he hired someone new to wear the armor. See Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340.
Topical References
This story was written during the early days of the War on Terror and the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that were in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As such, a lot of the attitudes and depictions of the United States government are influenced by this particular point in time. While these themes are merely implied, they should be considered topical.
The soldiers at the start of this story state that their suits of combat armor cost about $300,000 each. Adjusting for inflation and this would be worth about $490 thousand a suit in 2023 money.
Some of the televisions in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered topical as these models are now obsolete.
Stuart Conrad’s cell phone is depicted as being a flip phone, with physical buttons, and an external antenna. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.
The dossier that Stuart Conrade gives Tony is depicted as being on a CD. This should be considered a topical reference. While this was a common method of data storage when this comic was published and you can still burn CDs today, they have fallen out of popular use as better more efficient methods of data storage have become available.
The President of the United States is depicted as George W. Bush, who was the Commander-in-Chief when this comic was originally published. This should be considered a topical reference as Bush served two terms, which ended in 2009. Also depicted here Vice-President Dick Chaney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Their appearances here are also topical for the same reason.
