Iron Man (vol. 4) #11
Execute Program, Part 5
Someone has been hijacking Iron Man’s body and using it to eliminate men who were involved in the murder of Ho Yinsen, the man who saved Tony Stark’s life.[1] One target is the reformed Karin Mahwash Najeeb, the keynote speaker of a London peace conference organized by Tony Stark himself.
A fugitive of the law, Iron Man and his mentor Sal Kennedy, and fellow fugitive Maya Hansen, were almost able to track down the person responsible.[2] That’s when Tony was found by the Sentry (Bob Reynolds), who was tasked with capturing Stark. After knocking Iron Man into the ground, the Sentry back to Nick Fury and reports that the target is down.[3] However, Iron Man is not going down without a fight.
That said, the Sentry is far more powerful than Iron Man and it’s only a matter of time before he wins unless Tony can think of a way to outsmart him. When Bob mentions “cleaning his clock”, reminding Tony that the Sentry is directed by Cloc, the artificial intelligence inside Bob’s fortress. Tony uses his Extremis powered ability to mentally connect to Cloc and hack it. When the intelligence begins reporting multiple crisis level disasters with mass casualties, the mentally unstable Sentry is overwhelmed to the point that he is completely incapacitated.
As Iron Man flies away, he calls Maya Hansen and Sal Kennedy to see if they got a magnetic resonance imager. However, Sal is busy taking a dump.
In London, Karin Mahwash Najeeb has appeared on stage and is about to give his speech. There is a heavy security presence from SHIELD, the New Avengers, and the Fantastic Four. Despite this, when Dugan asks Fury what he thinks, Nick thinks they’re screwed. In the crowd, the young man responsible for all the murders connects his kill program to his mobile device and executes the program. Soon, a massive sonic boom interrupts the the speech, signaling that Iron Man is on the scene. When Spider-Woman tries to get Najeeb to get to safety, he refuses to run and hide.[4] Soon, the New Avengers, Ms. Marvel, and the Fantastic Four scramble to intercept Iron Man.
Connecting to them via radio, Iron Man tells them how someone is remotely controlling his body. He tells them to put up a good fight but prolong it as long as possible to give him time to finish isolating the signal source and pinpoint its location. When Tony finally locates it, he shows them an live video of the perp as they try to sneak out of the stadium. That’s when both Mister Fantastic and Captain America realize that they’re chasing an empty suit of armor while the real Tony Stark is inside the peace conference. When Tony confronts the person who has been hijacking his body and is surprised to discover that it is a teenger. Grabbing someone’s cell phone, tries to wire up his kill program so he can control Iron Man’s armor.
To buy himself time, the boy says “Gao Yao”, a codeword that causes Tony to experience shooting pain in his head. The young man explains that Gao Yao is the Chinese god of justice. Through the pain, Tony tries to ask the young man who he is. Understanding what Stark is asking, the young man talks about how his father was a brilliant inventor whose magnet technologies had medicinal applications if he had been alive. The teenager, as it turns out, is the son of Ho Yinsen.
When Tony asks if this was all to avenge the death of his father, the boy calls Ho Yinsen a monster. He then reminds Stark of the first man he was forced to kill, Andrei Gorlovich. Gorlovich’s connection to all of this was because he was hired by the men who forced his father to implant the device in Tony’s brain. Gorlovich’s job was to recover the sending unit with the only person Ho Yinsen ever trusted: His wife. In fact, as a boy, he saw his mother executed by the assassin. However, for whatever reason, the boy was spared.
By this time, the pain has finally subsided and Stark asks the teen what he wants to do now. The young Yinsen says he’s just going to walk away as he accomplished his goal. He warns Stark that if he tries to come after him, he’ll activate a dead-man’s switch in Tony’s brain that will make and all the deaths so far will pale in comparison of what comes next. Tony is just realizing what the boy means when a SHIELD sniper gets an opening and takes out the teenager with a sniper rifle, killing him instantly.
The moment of the teen’s death, the dead man’s switch has been triggered. At that moment the Iron Man robots that Tony has been building to maintain peace on Earth begin to activate.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Karim Najeeb, Sal Kennedy, Maya Hansen, Sentry, Andrei Gorlovich, She-Hulk, New Avengers (Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, “Spider-Woman”, Wolverine), Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Human Torch), SHIELD (“Nick Fury”, Dum Dum Dugan)
Continuity Notes
This is base around a recent attempt to modernize Iron Man’s origins from the original account told Tales of Suspense #39. There are conflicts with pre-established continuity that, time of this writing (April, 2023) still need to be clarified. I’ve covered theories in my summaries for issues #5, 8, and 9.
For more on Tony being transformed by Extremis, Maya Hansen’s creation of the process, and the terrorist that used it to slaughter an FBI field office, see Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6.
This is not the real Nick Fury. The real Fury has gone AWOL following Secret War #1-5, when it was revealed that Fury was involved in an unsanctioned invasion of Latveria. As explained in New Avengers #1, SHIELD has been using a Fury Life Model Decoy to hide the fact that he has gone rogue. While everyone believes he fled to escape punishment, in reality, he uncovered a Skrull invasion plot and is working to thwart it, as will be explained in Mighty Avengers #12.
The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke. She took Jessica Drew’s place as part of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1. This will all be revealed in New Avengers #40/Secret Invasion #1-8.
The identity of the young man, his killer, and the purpose of this hitlist is all explained in Iron Man (vol. 4) #11. The young man claims to be the son of Ho Yinsen and he is using Iron Man to murder the people involved in the capture and death of his father. As of this writing (April, 2023), the name of Yinsen’s son has yet to be revealed.
Topical References
When Maya tries to guilt Tony over Sal’s health. Tony tells her spare him the guilt trip and sarcastically calls her Oprah. He is referring to notable talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who ran her own talk show from 25 years from 1986 to 2011. As such, this should be considered a topical reference.
The Son of Yinsen is depicted as having a palm pilot. These were hand held computers that could connect to the internet. They were quite popular in the business world before the advent of smart phones. While palm pilots are still around they have fallen out of popular use because of smart phones and are on their way to obsolescence. As such, its appearance here should be considered topical.
When the son of Yinsen steals a cell phone it is depicted as a flip phone with physical buttons and a visible antenna to pick up signals. This should be considered topical as these phones are now obsolete.
Yinsen’s son blames his death on the Taliban. This should be considered a topical reference.