Iron Man 2.0 #3: Review

Apr 2011

Nick Spencer, Barry Kitson

Story Name:

Palmer Addley Is Dead, Part 3

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man 2.0 #3 Review by Rob Johnson (October 24, 2012)

Presumably when Babbage wants Stark to fire Rhodes, he means he wants Stark to supply someone else to be War Machine. If Babbage wanted War Machine off the Palmer Addley project, or to sever the contract with Stark, he could do that himself. Why does Babbage expect to talk to Maria Hill at Stark Resilient? She's head of SHIELD, as well as working with the Avengers for Steve Rogers. She doesn't work for Stark. Babbage seems disturbed by Pepper's claims about Addley's fake file. But next issue we will learn that he's been trying to get hold of the real version. I don't know whether he was just annoyed that an outsider figured it out. Or whether he didn't know about it, and his attempts to get access to the real file happen within this issue. (Ie there's a gap between Pepper getting on the case and Kaylie being given permission.) Is Ghost Tech stolen from the Ghost? Tony says Chameleon Mode won't have the bad side effects it used to have. He's referring to the Silver Centurion armour he wore from Iron Man #200-230. Palmer Addley Is Dead continues next issue, but without James Rhodes, in or out of any suit of armour. The first time Jim gets to use the new suit here is during Fear Itself in #5-7 (and Secret Avengers #13). As we will see there the IM 2.0 armour can extrude weapons similar (but smaller) than the permanent WM ones. The concurrent Infinity Gems story in Avengers features the old armour (but WM doesn't do much with it), and so must occur before this. There could be a gap between #1 and #2, so that story *could* happen there. The concurrent Secret Avengers story featuring Shang-Chi seems to have the new armour with retractable weapons (at least in #10), so this adventure probably fits between here and Fear Itself, making it really the 1st use of the Iron Man 2.0 suit in battle.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man 2.0 #3 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Last issue War Machine was caught in a nuclear blast in Russia. Now we see him being rescued by hover-drones. Gen'l Babbage and Tony Stark watch developments from afar. Jim Rhodes' teammates on the Palmer Addley military investigation are in shock. And there's a scene I don't understand where Rhodey appears to wake up immediately, fully recovered in a bed.

We now skip to 5 days later. Gen'l Babbage contacts Stark Resilient to get Rhodes fired. Pepper Potts takes the call, because Maria Hill is busy with the Avengers, and point-blank refuses. She counters by telling him that Stark's people have found that the Palmer Addley background file Rhodey's team had been given to work from is false. And she bills Babbage for that investigation. Next she authorises support for Eastland Consultancy (the firm supplying Jim's fellow consultants to the army) to help resolve the case.

One of those consultants, Kaylie Harrison, is visiting her parents when she gets a call from co-worker Mike Zelinsky telling her about the fake file. Kaylie is worried because it was her job to check that, and thinks she's going to be fired. But instead she's given a short appointment to see the real file.

Tony Stark tells James Rhodes he's going to scrap the whole big external guns approach to War Machine. Instead he's giving Rhodey Iron Man 2.0 armour, incorporating stuff even his own Iron Man suit doesn't have yet.

Some of the features are:- Chameleon Mode (invisibility, camouflage, holographic projection). Ghost Tech (phasing). Scanner Invisibilty (undectable by security/tracking devices). Combat Mode still has strength and inbuilt weaponry. But power requirements mean Rhodey won't be able to use all facilities at the same time.