Story continued from
DAREDEVIL #73.
The
Brothers of Ankh return the abducted heroes and villains to their own world.
Nick Fury, still wanting to bring
Zodiac to justice for the near-fatal wounding of
Jasper Sitwell (issue
#34), challenges them to battle.
Daredevil and
Madame Masque join in and make short work of the villains, as
Iron Man pursues the fleeing
Spymaster by jet boot. A stray blast from the villain’s weapon disables a car below and the hero is forced to allow Spymaster to escape in order to rescue the endangered driver. Back at the Zodiac lair, Fury offers
DD a lift back to Manhattan and Madame Masque, unaware of who she’s really talking to, asks Iron Man for advice on how to tell
Tony Stark she really loves Jasper Sitwell. The
Armored Avenger declines to play Dear Abby (misspelled Abbie) and stalks off. Back at the plant, Tony throws a fit over his identity and relationship problems and decides to just be Tony Stark once more. He puts a surprised
Kevin O’Brien in charge of the plant and phones an old flame,
Marianne Rodgers, to invite her out on the town….
That night, while Tony and Marianne are at a fashionable nightclub, a stocky blue-and-yellow robot descends from the skies and announces itself
Ramrod and it walks for the
Changers. To prepare for their coming, it begins leveling all the buildings in the neighborhood, firing energy blasts at the police who interfere with his task. The commotion can be seen blocks away at the nightclub, where Tony unsuccessfully tries to convince himself this isn’t his business anymore. As things seem dark at Ramrod’s landing site, Iron Man suddenly appears and engages the invader in combat but his weapons do nothing to halt the boastful robot. While he reminds himself that being Iron Man is the only worthwhile thing in his life, Tony attaches magnetic bombs to Ramrod’s back and they explode, driving both hero and villain into a massive crevasse in the street. Long minutes pass for the concerned onlookers, when suddenly Ramrod rises from the gap and announces that Iron Man is dead. Moments later, though, the
Golden Avenger also emerges, ready for battle. As he takes to the skies however, Iron Man has a heart attack and he falls to the Earth with a crash….