Iron Man (vol. 4) #14
Civil War, Part 2
Civil War continues from Civil War: Front Line #9…
At Stark Tower, Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), meets with SHIELD Director Maria Hill, Mister Fantastic, Ms. Marvel, and Bishop to discuss strategy against the heroes who are against the Super-Human Registry Act.[1] They have determined that Captain America and his allies have been using pre-70’s era analogue technology to communicate with one another. On top of this, they are coding all their messages using an old Wehrachy Enigma combination. Now that they have figured it out, Tony and Bishop both agree they shouldn’t let on that they’ve cracked their communications and see what they can learn by listening in.
With the meeting over, Tony Stark is on the move again. Since the passage of the SHRA, Tony has always been on the move. From here, he goes Quantico, Virginia, where a new superhuman training facility is set up. There he watches Batroc the Leaper running a training session with the heroines Araña and Stature.[2] He then goes to the Commission on Superhuman Activities Criminal Rehab Unit. There, Baron Zemo oversees the incarceration of super-villains, their rehabilitation and enlistment into the Thunderbolts.[3]
Tony’s last stop is to New York’s Prebyterian Hispital, where Happy Hogan is being treated at the neuroscience center. He has been there since he stopped Spymaster from luring Tony into a trap. The fall that injured him has left him in a vegetative state. Pepper Potts has remained by his side the entire time. Tony convince Pepper to join him in the cafeteria. There he tries to get her to see the truth. Happy suffered severe brain damage that there is no coming back from. He is being kept alive by machines. There’s no coming back from these injuries.
Pepper listens to all of this and asks Tony if Happy ever talked to him about the Cauliflower Club. Tony had not, so Pepper decides to tell him about them. They were a group of retired boxers who would meet up at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan on the regular. They would all meet up and reminisce about their glory days and talk shit to one another. One time, Pepper went with Happy to humor him and he pointed out all of the greats. That’s when she notices that one of the boxers isn’t engaging in the conversation. He’s just staring off into space while another man feeds him. Happy explains that man is Charlie “Cobra” McCoyle took one too many hits, leaving him in a brain dead. With no family, McCoyle is cared for by his former manager. When talking about this, Happy got real serious and looked Pepper in the eye and said that he never wanted to end up like Charlie McCoyle.
After she finishes telling Tony this story, Pepper is silent for a moment and then puts her hand on his. Tony realizes that Pepper is asking him to use Extremis to mentally connect to Happy’s life support and shuts it down. Tony can’t bring himself to do it, telling her that he sees it as murder. Pepper presses the issue, saying that it’d only look like a mechanical glitch and it would be a mercy to Hap. When Tony won’t budge on the issue, Pepper tosses 10 dollars on the table for dinner and tells says goodbye.[4]
Unsure what to do, Tony goes to an electronics store and buys equipment that he can rig together to send out a call to Captain America. Steve Rogers is there to take the call and is rightly suspicious of Tony’s request to meet. Stark assures him that this isn’t a trap, he wants to talk to Steve and will be waiting at the baseball stadium sans armor so they can just talk. Tony wants to know if Cap had anything to do with Happy Hogan. He wants to look Tony in the eyes when he answers. Steve insists that he had nothing to do with it, and if anyone under his command was responsible, Cap would turn them over himself. When Tony asks if this includes the Punisher, Steve doesn’t have time to answer.[5] That’s because Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Silhouette, and Ultragirl have followed Captain America and think Tony Stark is luring him into a trap.
Thanks to Extremis, Tony Stark can suit up as Iron Man in a matter of seconds and fight back against this threat. After smashing Luke Cage into the scoreboard,[6] he is able to evade and defeat Spider-Man’s attacks because he has figured out a way to use the wall-crawler’s spider sense against him.[7] Iron Man is most disappointed to see Spider-Man, since Peter’s recent defection was a betrayal to Tony. Still, he promised Captain America that he wasn’t going to fight or arrest anyone and as man of his word, he leaves.
Tony Stark returns to his penthouse apartment and pours himself a glass of burbon.[8] However, before he can take a sip, something swats the drink out of his hand. This was caused by the Invisible Woman who had been secretly following Tony around. She wanted to see what about Tony convinced her husband, Mister Fantastic, to become devoted to the cause because it has ruined their marriage.[9] She is so mad at him that she slaps him across the face. Tony, however, refuses to take responsibility he tells her how she’s responsible for her own marital problems. Reed, he tellers her, is hanging on by his finger nails because of all this, that everyone has paid dearly for the divisions created by this civil war. Everyone but Tony, Sue counters, sarcastically saying that he has staff to do that for him.
At first, Tony doesn’t know what she is talking about and she explains that she was there at the hospital when Pepper pleaded with him to end Happy’s life. This angers Stark so much that he punches through a window. Seeing how upset Tony is, Sue apologizes for crossing the line. Stark tells her to leave and she does. Once Sue is gone, Tony pours the bottle of burban down the drain. Tony then sits in a chair and begins reciting the Lord’s Prayer. He thinks about Peter Parker who is on the run, and Reed Richards who has to tuck his kids to bed without his wife. He then thinks about Happy Hogan, then uses Extremis to shut down his life support so his old friend can die in peace.[10]
… Civil War continues in Fantastic Four #541.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Secret Avengers (Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Invisible Woman, Silhouette, Ultragirl), SHIELD (Maria Hill), Initiative (Mister Fantastic, Bishop, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Araña, Batroc, Stature), Baron Zemo, Radioactive Man, Griffin, Hammerhead, Doctor Octopus, Ox, Vermin, Vulture, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards
Continuity Notes
This story takes place after the Stamford disaster, where a superhuman battle claimed hundreds of lives. This led to the passing of the Super-Human Registration Act. The new law has split the superhero community in half. While Iron Man leads the heroes who support the Act, Captain America leads a team that does not. To understand what’s going on in this story you need to have at least read Civil War #1-5. See below for a full Civil War reading order.
This is the early version of the Initiative, a government program that will train superhumans in the use of their powers. It will be relocated to Camp Hammond. See Avengers: The Initiative.
For more on Zemo’s efforts to increase the roster of the Thunderbolts, see Thunderbolts #103-105.
While it seems as though Pepper is leaving Tony’s life, Tony convinces her to manage The Order, a new team of superheroes. See The Order (vol. 2) #1-10.
Captain America reluctantly recruited the Punisher to his “Secret Avengers” in Civil War #5.
When Iron Man asks how Jessica Jones, Luke Cage’s girlfriend, is doing, Luke says she is moody. At the time of this story, Jessica had just given birth to her and Luke’s child, Dani Cage in The Pulse #13. When the SHRA was put into effect, Luke had Jess and the baby go into hiding while he joined the rebellion, as seen in New Avengers #23.
Iron Man states that he was able to learn about Spider-Man’s spider-sense and how to manipulate it from biological readings taken from the suit of armor that Tony built for Spider-Man recently. He is referring to the Iron Spider armor that was constructed in Amazing Spider-Man #529. Spider-Man wore it until he decided to defect from Tony’s side and join up with Captain America in Civil War #5.
This would be very bad since Tony is a recovering alcoholic. His dependency was first explored in Iron Man #128.
For more on Reed and Sue Richards marital problems see Fantastic Four #538-542.
As of this writing (April, 2023), Happy Hogan is still considered among the deceased.
Topical References
This story was written when assisted death in New York State was illegal. At the time of this writing (April, 2023), it is still illegal in that state, but has become in other states. The point is, attitudes regarding assisted death is slowly changing in the United States. In fact, New York is currently in the process of legalizing it. As such, the legality of the issue in this story should be considered topical. Not sure how you could explain this story when it does legal. Even if Tony had an ethical reason not to pull the plug, Pepper is likely Happy’s Power of Attorney and could request the doctors to terminate life support and they’d have to do it. Perhaps there is some kind of legal red tape that prevents them from doing it right away, and Pepper wants Tony to do it so Happy won’t have to suffer longer than he has to.
The cost of the electronics and equipment Tony needs to rig up a device to contact Captain America comes to $211. Adjusting for inflation is about $307 in 2023 money.
Tony asks to meet Cap at Yankee Stadium, the stadium that is depicted in this story is the one that was built in 1923. This stadium was eventually torn down in 2008 as a brand new stadium that was built and opened a year later. As such this should be considered a topical reference. References to the Yankees should be considered topical as this is a real world baseball team.
Civil War Reading Order
Road to Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man #529, 530, 531, Fantastic Four #536, 537, New Avengers: Illuminati #1
Main Event: Civil War #1, She-Hulk (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #42, Amazing Spider-Man #532, Civil War: Front Line #1
Civil War #2, Thunderbolts #103, Civil War: Front Line #2, X-Factor (vol. 3) #8, New Avengers #21, Wolverine (vol. 3) #43, Amazing Spider-Man #533, Fantastic Four #538, Civil War: Front Line #3, Thunderbolts #104, Civil War: X-Men #1
Civil War #3, Cable & Deadpool #30, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #1, Civil War: Front Line #4, X-Factor (vol. 3) #9, New Avengers #22, Wolverine (vol. 3) #44, Amazing Spider-Man #534, Fantastic Four #539, Civil War: Front Line #5, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #6, Civil War: X-Men #2, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #1, New Avengers #23, Wolverine (vol. 3) #45, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #2, Cable & Deadpool #31, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #7, Civil War: X-Men #3
Civil War #4, Wolverine (vol. 3) #46, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #2, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #3, Civil War: Front Line #6, Captain America (vol. 5) #22, Cable & Deadpool #32, Amazing Spider-Man #535, Civil War: Choosing Sides #1, Fantastic Four #540, Civil War: Front Line #7, Civil War: X-Men #4, Ms. Marvel (vol. 2) #8, Wolverine (vol. 3) #47, Heroes for Hire (vol. 2) #3, Captain America (vol. 5) #23, New Avengers #24
Civil War #5, Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways #4, Iron Man (vol. 4) #13, New Avengers #25, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #1, Civil War: Front Line #8, Amazing Spider-Man #536, Black Panther (vol. 4) #22, Captain America (vol. 5) #24, Civil War: War Crimes #1, Civil War: Front Line #9, Iron Man (vol. 4) #14, Fantastic Four #541, Black Panther (vol. 4) #23, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #2
Civil War #6, Civil War: Front Line #10, Amazing Spider-Man #537, Fantastic Four #542, Civil War: The Return #1, Punisher: War Journal (vol. 2) #3, Black Panther (vol. 4) #24
Civil War #7, Amazing Spider-Man #538, Civil War: Front Line #11, Black Panther (vol. 4) #25, Civil War: The Initiative #1, Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #15, Mighty Avengers #1, Captain America (vol. 5) #25, Civil War: The Confession #1, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Fantastic Four #543-544, Avengers: The Initiative #1