Iron Man (vol. 3) #86

Mar 17

Mar 17 Iron Man (vol. 3) #86

The Singularity, Part 1

Then[1]

Tony Stark is reading Age of Intelligent Machines, by author Ray Kurtzweil. He is interrupted by his girlfriend, Rumiko Fujikawa, who asks what he is reading. He tellers her it is a book about technological revolution, and science gone wrong, and lastly a horror story. Ru ponders this for a moment before telling Tony that he needs to lighten up.[2]

Now

Even though she has returned home to Kyoto, Japan, Rumiko Fujikawa can’t seem to get away from Tony Stark. Her phone has been blowing up ever since Tony addressed the United Nations and suggested that they wipe Latveria off the map.[3] Rumiko gets fed up with how they are treating Tony in the media that she throws her cell phone at the TV. Her assistant, Oshima, is forced to slap her in the face in order to get her to get ahold of herself. Ironically, Oshima tells Rumiko she needs to lighten up. However, she can’t until she gets ahold of Stark. She’s been trying all day, but he doesn’t answer.

Happy Hogan, on the other hand, has better luck reaching Tony. Hogan reaches Tony as he is driving to Stark Enterprises for a meeting with the board of directors. Stark is on his way back to Avengers Embassy. He is glad to hear from Happy and that he and Pepper got his back. He assures Hap that he hasn’t started drinking again, but turns down an offer to stay with them out of fear of his enemies.[4] When Happy asks if he’s going to call Rumiko, Tony says she is better off without him right now. That’s when Stark gets a look at Avengers Mansion. What he sees shocks him and he tells Happy that if he doesn’t want to get stuck in traffic, to avoid 5th Avenue.[5]

Meanwhile, the board meeting has started without Happy or Pepper. The rest of the board is concerned about the stock price since Stark’s most recent negative publicity. In order to return to profitability, they all agree that perhaps it is best to distance themselves from Tony Stark by changing the name of the company. It’s not just investors that are talking about Tony Stark. Three of Stark’s female employees gossip about their former boss as they are going to the women’s washroom. Pepper Potts is in one of the stalls and she overhears them talking shit about Tony. She confronts them about it, reminding them of all the things that he did for female employees, such as a baby-sitting program and paid maternity leave. She reminds them that Tony Stark cares about people and wants to make the world a better place. She then leaves the washroom in disgust. The moment Pepper is gone, the three women start gossiping about her instead.

Back in the boardroom, the other directors are deciding on renaming the company Infinity Industries. While they are trying to come up with a new slogan when someone in an Iron Man suit — whom they think is Tony — comes crashing in through the window. He slaughters everyone in the room. That’s when Happy and Pepper are coming up in the elevator. Lucky for them, the elevator malfunctions and opens between floors. When the Iron Man tries to kill them as well, the blast is deflected by the partially open elevator doors, giving Hap and Pep a chance to duck down. That’s when security arrives and begins opening fire on Iron Man, who then flees the scene. Thinking this is Tony Stark, Happy and Pepper really start to worry about Tony.[7]

By this point, Rumiko’s concern for Tony has caused her to cancel all her appointments and take the first flight out to America. As she and her assistant board the plane, Rumiko thinks about how a she embarrassed while he was at an important gala. She made a scene and then kissed him with alcohol on her breath just to piss him off. Yet, he didn’t get mad, he just apologized. She realizes that she was upset that she wasn’t the center of attention. She grew jealous that Tony was doing something to save the world while she was just shopping for shoes. All Oshima can say is that Rumiko makes the tabloids, so that’s something.

Stateside, Happy and Pepper survey the ruins of the boardroom. After their narrow brush with death, Pepper can’t let herself believe that Tony is a killer. Happy, on the other hand, isn’t sure what he can believe anymore.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts, Rumiko Fujikawa, Black Panther

Continuity Notes

The narrative of this story states that the opening flashback happened “three years ago”. Per Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Iron Man, this flashback takes place after the events of Iron Man (vol. 3) #58. The measurement of time is topical, see below.
Tony and Rumiko had begun dating on and off from the moment they first met in Iron Man (vol. 3) #4. At the time of this story, they were off again after Rumiko got tired of being ignored while Tony was trying to become the Secretary of Defense. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #73-78.
The events playing on on TV is a replay of the events seen in Avengers #500, when Tony was manipulated by the Scarlet Witch into becoming drunk and suggesting to the UN that they should wipe Latveria off the map.
The obligatory reference to Tony Stark’s past drinking problems. See Iron Man #128.
What Tony is seeing the damage done to Avengers Mansion after it was attacked by threats created by the Scarlet Witch. Avengers #501-503 take place between during the rest of this story.
This isn’t Tony Stark in the suit of Iron Man armor, but Clarence Ward, as we’ll learn in issue #89.

Topical References

Iron Man (vol. 3) #58 was published in October, 2002, while this one was published in September 2004, almost 3 years later. As such, the measurement of time here should be considered topical as it denotes the passage of time between publications. Per the Sliding Timescale, these two stories happened in the same year. As such, modern readers should interpret this to mean that only about 9 months have passed between issues.
Tony is reading The Age of Intelligent Machines and talks about it like it is a work of fiction. He’s likely dumbing it down so he can explain it to Rumiko. This is actually a celebrated piece of non-fiction by futurist Ray Kurzweil. The Association of American Publishers awarded it in 1990 as the Most Outstanding Computer Science book of the year. This wouldn’t necessarily be considered a topical reference.
Tony’s drunken episode at the UN is depicted as being played on CNN. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world TV network.
The cell phones in this story are depicted as flip phones with physical buttons and an antenna to pick up signals. This should be considered topical as this is now an obsolete technology.