The Best Defense, Part 4: Advice and Consent

Tired of Tony Stark’s frequent absences, his girlfriend Rumiko Fujikawa has reached her wits end.[1] When she calls him to tell him that she is leaving, Tony asks if he can call her back as he’s in the middle of a Congressional hearing to see if he is fit for the role of the Secretary of Defense.

When the committee has his attention again, one of the Senators asks Tony to explain why he had Iron Man masquerade as Tony’s bodyguard, particularly during the Armor Wars, an incident where Tony event went so far to make people believe Iron Man was killed and replaced.[2]

Tony responds by saying that maintaining a secret identity seemed like the right idea at the time, but that is no longer the case. He explains that his reasons for wanting to become the Secretary of Defense are similar to the ideas he had during the Armor Wars. It’s also why he stopped building weapons to begin with, he cannot stomach the deaths that were being caused by his technology.[3] However, military technology has caught up with Tony’s inventions. Tony stops short of accusing Sonny Burch — to the relief of some officials — and now soldiers are dying again thanks to technology that has outpaced people’s understanding. Tony’s intention as Secretary of Defense would allow him to examine and perfect these technologies to make sure no soldier dies due to a failure of technology.[4]

At that same moment, at Patuxent Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, Sonny Burch is putting on a demonstration of the military’s new Kestrel drones to some reps at Oscorp. The drones successfully take out six tanks. That’s when Commander John Rayburn informs Sonny that one of the drones hasn’t returned when they gave the recall signal. Thanks to its stealth technology, they cannot pick it up on radar. When Rayburn says that this is just like the Peregrine accident all over again — as other technologies don’t seem to be compatible with Starktech — it pisses Burch off. He waves off the defective drone, figuring it’ll run out of fuel eventually and they can send a team to recover it.

Back at the hearing, Tony is grilled with another hard question. A Senator asks him about his recent statements that he plans on making it that nobody will die in war again. While she can appreciate Tony making his company pacifist, the Secretary of Defense won’t have such an easy job. She points to America’s current enemies and the horrors they have wreaked upon the nation. She asks if there is anything served by sparing force on these people.

After thinking for a moment, Tony says that there is always another option, he’ll never believe that killing is the only option. However, he said that his position is a political one, not a military one. Tony says that as Secretary of Defense his job would be to provide the President a spread of options and execute whatever decision they make. He says that he will try and increased the technological choices and provide non-lethal options to try and minimize as many casualties on both sides as possible. There will be times when lethal force will be the only option and Tony vows to follow those orders to the letter. His goals to eliminate war casualties isn’t going to happen over time but he thinks about leaders of the past — Lincoln during the Civil War and Truman during World War II — and suggests that if they had non-lethal alternatives they would have considered them.

Back at the Pentagon, Sonny Burch has a team of staff going over footage of Iron Man’s battles to see what technology was being used. Commander Rayburn is arriving just as they make another find.[5] He reprimands one of the soldiers for referring to the find as a “steal”, however that’s the feeling in the room. While Sonny Burch may have found a legal loop hole to unseal these records, the troops can’t help but feel that they are stealing from Tony Stark. They all hope that Stark gets the Secretary of Defense job. Rayburn warns them all not to let Burch hear them say that either.

As the hearing continues, a southern Senator tells Tony that he wants a Secretary of Defense with a spine. He accuses Stark of trying to civilize war, something that he views as impossible. Tony doesn’t disagree, but he points to the advancements in warfare over the centuries. Whole villages being put to the sword have been replaced with the Geneva Convention. They now have missiles that can single out a warlord in a crowded city and take him out without harming a single casualty. Tony points to how the United States hasn’t signed certain weapons bans because they can’t guarantee that they won’t ever need them again. However, Tony presents the idea of non-lethal versions of these weapons which would be greatly appreciated by future generations that will be living in former war zones.

When its pointed out that their enemies won’t be as humanitarian as they were. Tony counters this by saying while he will oversee the development of non-lethal weapons, they will also develop ways to protect the troops from older weapons technology. He points out that half the time the enemy weapons are the same as the United States. Eventually, they’ll have no choice but to adopt less lethal weapons because those will be the only ones available on the market as the arms industry conforms to these new technological alternatives. This statement makes one of the Senators see a chink in Tony Stark’s armor, so to speak.

At that same moment, Sonny Burch is showing John Rayburn the latest phase of his of his scheme. John is shocked to discover that Sonny has managed to get his hands on a bunch of old suits of Iron Man armor. These suits were trashed during a fight between Iron Man and Mordecai Midas and were supposed to have been disposed of by SHIELD.[6] Now Burch is working on getting them back in working order. Already he has a team working on a new helmet that will allow to control the suits of armor. He orders Rayburn to prepare a transport of the suits of Iron Man armor to their R&D team.

Back at the hearing, Tony is talking about his past alcohol abuse, saying that his mechanical heart makes it impossible for him to metabolize alcohol from now on.[7] That’s when things take a turn, when Senator Joe Zimmer takes the podium. He accuses Stark of being a ticking time bomb, that he’ll bring a cult of personality to the government, he questions how Stark would put the nation’s safety ahead of his own personal aggrandizement. Tony shoots back by pointing out that he has been doing that for years as Iron Man, and never once has he ever took credit for it.

With that, the hearing ends for the day and Tony meets up with his friend Secretary of State Stuart Conrad. When Tony asks how well he did, Stu says it is hard to say. Currently, there is a partisan split. However, Tony did his best and that’s all Stu could have asked for. It’s then they are informed that the voting as beginning. Tony is surprised, but the President wanted this appointment fast tracked. However, when they go back inside to hear the votes, Tony Stark is humiliated when the Senate votes against appointing him as Secretary of Defense.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Stuart Conrad, John Rayburn, Joe Zimmer

Continuity Notes

1. We won’t see Rumiko Fujikawa again until Iron Man (vol. 3) #87.

2. The Armor Wars, as they were called, happened when Tony discovered a bunch of his technology was stolen and given to other armor wearers. He went on a mission to destroy it all, putting him at odds with the government. Tony then faked Iron Man’s death and convinced the world that he hired someone new to wear the suit. See Iron Man #225-232 and Captain America #340. In more recent times, Tony revealed Iron Man’s true identity in Iron Man (vol. 3) #55.

3. Stark got out of the weapons years ago, as seen in Iron Man #42.

4. Patents for Tony’s old weapons designs were sealed as top secret. The agreement that was they would remain as such until Tony Stark unveiled that technology to the public. Sonny Burch found a loophole when Iron Man revealed his identity to the public. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #73.

5. The footage they are watching is of Iron Man’s battle with Alex Nevin, aka the Crimson Dynamo in Iron Man #22.

6. Sonny Berch is referring to the time that Mordecai Midas took over Stark International. See Iron Man #104-107.

7. The obligatory reference to Tony’s alcoholism (Iron Man #128) and his mechanical heart (Iron Man (vol. 3) # 30).

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.

• Case in point, one of the Senators mentions the threats posed by al-Queda. At the time of this story, the United States was in the middle of a conflict with the terrorist organization in the Middle East. While al-Queda is still a threat as I write this (April, 2023) this could change at some point in the future. This is topical because the terrorist group is mentioned in the present tense thus making it eventually a dated reference.

• The TVs in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.

• Commander Rayburn is depicted as having a pager. While this technology is still around (mostly in the medical field) it has fallen out of popular use, especially not by military. Its use here should be considered topical.

• Tony mentions how the United States did not sign onto the UN declaration to ban the use of landmines. The initiative was signed in 1999. The only nations not to sign this treaty were the United States, the European Union and US ally states. Since then, the Biden Administration moved to stop the use of landmines everywhere except for along the Korean Peninsula in 2022, bringing the US closer to a total ban. As such this reference should be considered topical. Modern readers could instead read this to mean some other type of weapon.

• The transport plane that Sonny Burch wants the Iron Man armor transported on is identified as a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. These aircraft first started being used in 1968. While they are still being used today, they will eventually be retired and as such this is a topical reference.