Execute Program, Part 2

From the bathroom in a London movie theater, a young man uses the free wifi to connect to the internet so he can activate an assassination protocol. The list includes the names Dennis Kellard, Ara Tanzarian, Zakim Karzai, Aftaab Lemar, and Karim Mahwash Najeeb. His current target is Dennis Kellard, who is presently aboard a commercial airliner that is flying over the Atlantic Ocean. As Kellard is getting another glass of champaign from a flight attendant, he notices someone outside of the plane from the window. Whoever this is uses a laser to cleave off the cockpit from the rest of the plane, sending all of the passengers falling into the ocean.[1]

Meanwhile, in Cali, Columbia, a SHIELD team led by Dum Dum Dugan is slowly surrounding Ara Tanzarian, who is wanted for illegal arms dealths. With teams in position, Dugan reports back to Nick Fury, who is back at the helicarrier in America.[2] That’s when they get word about the death of Kellard, who is a known associate of Tanzarian. Dugan figures they’ll have some questions for Tanzarian when they capture him. This gets Fury curious and he looks up other known associates. Other names include Gerry Adams, Vadim Petrov, and Karim Mahwash Najeeb. Fury is interested in seeing Najeeb’s name there.

Fury calls Tony Stark as he is in charge of security for a peace summit which will include Karim Mahwash Nahjeeb as a keynote speaker. Fury wants to know if Tony knows that Nahjeeb used to be affiliated with Muslim extremists that once called for the death of Ho Yinsen.[3] Tony is well aware of this, but Karim has since become more moderate in the years since. He is the key to negotiating with jihadists in the Middle East and help achieve the goal of world peace. He is well aware of his past, but things aren’t so black and white as they used to be. What Stark doesn’t tell Fury is that he is working on an army of robots based on Iron Man technology.

Meanwhile, the New Avengers have been called in to prevent a breakout from the Raft supermax prison.[4] Unfortunately, one of the villains breaking out is Graviton. He quickly uses his gravity powers to incapacitate Wolverine, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman.[4] He then pins Captain America to the ground, then increases Spider-Man’s gravity to make one crush the other to death. Thankfully, Spider-Man’s new armored costume has mechanical legs that brace him, but they are being pushed to their limits.[5]

That’s when Iron Man comes crashing in at mach 3, the sonic booms of which deafen Graviton. Spider-Man collapses from his injuries and needs immediate medical intention. Furious, Iron Man unleashes his uni-beam on Graviton at full power. It takes Captain America pulling rank to get Iron Man to stop. When they team returns to Avengers Tower, everyone is pissed off at Tony for being late. Stark insists that he was on time, and is so aggressive about it he almost gets in a fight with Wolverine. Luckily, Spider-Woman is able too calm them both down with her pheromone powers. After she convinces Logan to go down to the local bar to get them drinks, she slaps Tony across the face. The fact issue of him being late or not is irrelevant to the fact that Stark has been acting like a real dick recently.

Back in Columbia, SHIELD is moving in to begin their raid of Ara Tanzarian’s compound. Suddenly, something cuts the power and begins brutally slaughtering all of Tanzarian’s soldiers. When the SHIELD team scrambles onto the property to see what’s going on, they discover Tanzarian’s dead body suspended from two palm trees. A SHIELD helicopter starts looking for the killer and spots someone in a suit of Iron Man armor flying away moments before they activate their cloak.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, New Avengers (Captain America, Spider-Man, “Spider-Woman,” Wolverine), SHIELD (“Nick Fury”, Dum Dum Dugan), Graviton

Continuity Notes

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. The reference to Najeeb being responsible for the death of Ho Yinsen is part of the attempt to modernize Tony Stark’s origins that began in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6. On a surface level, it seems as though this contradicts the origin story in Tales of Suspense #39. See below for more details.

4. 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.

5. This story takes place shortly after Tony Stark designed the “Iron Spider” costume for Spider-Man. See Amazing Spider-Man #529. Spider-Man will wear this costume until Civil War #5.

6. FuturePharm was the company where Extremis was being developed. Tony is purchasing it after the creator of Extremis — Maya Hansen — intentionally allowed her creation to end up in the hands of a terrorist. See Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6.

Topical References

• The names of various British rock bands are carved into the walls of the bathroom stall being used by the son of Yinsen. The Jam, the Verve, Blur, Oasis…. Name a douchy mod rock band and they’re on this wall. This should be considered topical because, well, you should have better taste in music than this.

• It is stated here that Karim Mahwash Najeeb is a former member of the Taliban. This story was written in the early days of the “War on Terror” when the United States invaded both Iraq and Afganistan in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Taliban was involved in this conflict. While they are still around, references to Najeeb being a member of this organization should be considered topical. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Najeeb was once affiliated with Muslim extremists, but not a specific real world group.

More on the Iron Man Origin

If you’ve been following along, you know that Iron Man (vol. 4) #1-6 attempted to modernize Iron Man’s origins. It changed the location of Iron Man’s origins from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. This story is an extension of that revamped origin. However, later retellings have since gone back to the original version of events (notably Invincible Iron Man #593 and History of the Marvel Universe #3). As of this writing, Marvel has yet to address these contradictions.

I choose to look at it this way: Najeeb called for Ho Yinsen’s death. Perhaps Yinsen was captured by Karim and his followers back when he was a terrorist. Rather than killing him, perhaps Najeeb sold him to Wong-Chu figuring he’d end up dead anyway. This way, Najeeb is still culpable in the death of Ho Yinsen even though Wong-Chu is the one who was responsible for his death.