Ultimate Iron Man (2005 series) #3

The captive Tony Stark has been subjected to the Lid, a device that drains all knowledge from a human mind. But it isn’t working beyond causing severe pain to Tony. One of the henchmen, sick to his stomach, leaves the building to find it surrounded by a police SWAT team. Meanwhile, Tony kicks Zebediah Stane in the crotch just as the police, accompanied by Howard Stark, burst in. Howard reapplies the bio-armor to the top of Tony’s head while a medic marvels that Tony’s foot was broken off but already looks to be healing. They don’t know why the Lid did not work….

Loni Stane and her son Obadiah visit Zebediah in prison. She announces she is divorcing him, taking half of his property with Obadiah inheriting the other half when his father dies….

Back home, Tony is given the new version of the bio-armor that isn’t blue, leaving him looking relatively normal. Tony announces his intention to create a bio-armor that doesn’t wash off. He is told the Lid didn’t work on him because his brain functions are distributed through his body….

Ten years later, Tony is at an inner city high school collecting metal shavings from the shop class because his school doesn’t have a metal shop. He demonstrates his metal flies, watching them replicate, hover and swarm. He returns to the fancy private school he is enrolled at, assuring the headmaster he won’t get in trouble for Tony’s leaving. Fellow student James Rhodes is harassed by some bigger boys for a) being Black and b) refusing to give them the test answers. Tony unleashes his metal flies on them, ordering the bullies to leave Rhodes alone. Tony offers to let the bullies smash his head into a stone wall if he gets to smash theirs next. They ram Tony’s head through the stone and are amazed that he isn’t hurt and it didn’t even leave a mark. The bullies run away and Rhodes is angry: the baddies would have left him alone eventually but now Tony’s interference has only made things worse. Tony’s clueless ideas of what Black people are like annoys Rhodes until Tony turns it into a joke and laugher creates a bond between them. Rhodes drives Tony home and they find Loni Stane waiting for Howard. Tony treats her rudely, telling her to go wait on the porch for Howard to return home. Tony then works on a secret project with Rhodey and Loni waits for hours; Howard finally arrives late at night. They talk, Loni offers Howard his (worthless) stock back if he will use his influence to get Obadiah into a certain prestigious school. After she is gone, Howard rebukes his son for treating her so rudely, advising him not to show his feelings to enemies. Tony dons the football helmet and puts on a glove then picks up a celery stick and it ignites and burns. (Howard says, “If you’re thinking of joining the football team, they’ll never let you use that on the field.”). Tony explains it’s a prototype for a whole suit of armor….

The next day at school, Tony takes Rhodey down to the furnace room and has him try on the prototype armor so he can test it. The bullies catch them down there and start pushing Rhodey around. Tony activates the helmet which delivers an electrical shock to the bullies. They recover and Tony tells Rhodey to don the helmet as the baddies decide to put him in the furnace….