Story proper begins five weeks earlier when
Tony Stark calls in Black Widow to help him recover a top secret Cold War armor that has been stolen and is now in a lab in Georgia (the former Soviet Republic, not the American state). As only Tony can access the armor and fly it out before the enemy cracks the encryption,
Natasha has Tony made over to pass for a Russian scientist (with some snide input from
Pepper Potts). He goes to the Georgian illegal arms factory and meets Dr Tessa Nubin and romances her to gain access to the stolen armor. But Nubin reveals herself to be
Sunset Bain and Tony is captured, which was her plan all along. Using a disc stolen from the
Controller, Bain immobilizes Tony and places him in the armor, making him into a guided missile. Black Widow invades the facility to save him and ends up battling Sunset Bain wearing a
Crimson Dynamo armor. Iron Man is launched and Natasha gets herself on board, clinging to the armor and pressing her mouth against the helmet’s mouth so she can breathe in the rarified atmosphere. Tony recognizes the target as
Avengers Mansion—in the past. The armor is a temporal one, idea stolen from
Doctor Doom and he is going to destroy the Avengers at their beginning.
Nat forces a pill into Tony’s mouth with hers, triggering a heart attack that cancels the neural connection and forces the armor to reboot with Tony back in charge. They swoop through the mansion, surprising
Thor,
Hulk,
Ant-Man,
Wasp…and the original Iron Man. The armor is then sent back into the future to land outside the ruins of the present mansion; Nat performs CPR to revive Tony and all is well….
2nd story:- Glitch!
Writer: Karl Kesel. Art: Eric Nguyen. Colors: Andy Troy.
An intruder breaks into
Stark Industries and escapes security only to run into Iron Man himself. She is a teen girl calling herself
Glitch—and she shorts out
Shellhead’s armor with a touch and gets away with an important prototype….
Wolverine comes to visit Tony Stark as he has crossed paths with Glitch, a mutant with no knowledge of her life before a year ago and curious about her parentage.
Logan has traced her to the
Hellfire Club and she is likely working for
Sebastian Shaw. Tony agrees to team up and he suggests going through the front door, as he is member of the Club…
…and so they are welcomed by Shaw, including Logan in an expensive suit. Tony brings up the matter of the stolen solar generator and Shaw admits that his company is also developing one. They are being watched by Club security and Glitch. Tony leaves Shaw with a warning to return the prototype or else. Then it all turns to chaos as Glitch, working with Logan who was to distract Shaw with Tony Stark, while she tried to steal what Shaw had promised her but had tried to withhold: information about her family. As Wolverine battles the guards, Tony find he cannot summon his Iron Man armor because of a frequency scrambler installed in the Club. So he socks Shaw which is a mistake because of his mutant ability to grow stronger from any force used against him. Tony is captured and Logan held at bay as Glitch is brought in by the guards. Then Logan gives the girl the opportunity to short out the scrambler, Tony’s armor comes to him and he beats up Shaw and the guards. Shaw sets the self-destruct timer and the heroes escape just in time. Glitch reveals that she also stole Shaw’s prototype but Iron Man destroys it without looking at it. Glitch goes off in search of her family, using the records filched from the Club genealogy files. Iron Man and Wolverine fight over Logan’s playing of Tony and issues of trust are aired and they part on uneasy terms….
Give that special marvelite a timely gift