Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Unconscious Iron Man is falling out of the sky over Sudan and his AI KATIE is trying to wake him up before he hits the ground, especially because his consciousness backup system is offline so if he dies he dies. We see that other bits of Golden Avenger-like armour are falling with him. KATIE manages to shock him awake with a defibrillator just in time to halt his fall with his boot jets. (I would have thought the AI could have done that itself.) But then some sort of large headless alien lands on him and starts hitting him. Until IM repulsor blasts his arm off.
3 months ago in the Cube superhuman prison Iron Man goes to see a particular prisoner. The head guard George, who is a humanoid polar bear in uniform, reminds him that the prisoner can do things to metal but Tony Stark still wants to see her. They travel in a transparent lift through various levels (we see a liquid environment, a snowbound space and a red room) and everywhere various humanoid guards salute IM. His guide says that it's because he changed the rules to stop the sedating of inmates or forcing them to wear power-dampening collars. (I would have thought the guards would be against that.) Tony says he had that idea for months but doesn't remember initiating it.
They are in a white level and the guard is removing all his metal objects, including his weapons and the belt of his trousers (temporarily revealing his Spider-Ham underpants). He swaps them all for a very large wooden mallet which he slings over his shoulder. The prisoner tried to kill Spider-Man and hospitalised 2 of his men so he's not taking chances.
The prisoner is a female named Deola who wants to know why she shouldn't just crush him in his iron suit. He says he wants her to work for him. They agree that they are the top 2 mechanics in the world but disagree about the relative ranking. And she guesses that he wants to build a really big weapon. She obviously accepts the offer and she gets given her civilian clothes back. On the way out she tries to crush his armour but fails. She suspects that she's been drugged but he assures her that he's got built-in countermeasures to lots of powers including hers. When she presses for a more detailed answer he just replies "Transistors". (An in-joke reference to the early days when that was what Marvel claimed was the secret of all his suit's powers.)
But as they exit the building Shellhead is hit by a blast from a big gun wielded by SHIELD Director Maria Hill with an alien head floating in purple liquid in a tank on her back. Many SHIELD craft are in the sky, and from 1 of them leaps She-Hulk to attack him. But he puts up a force field to keep her away. Deola and George don't know what's going on but the polar bear hits Shulk with his mallet which shatters on her body. She warns him off because this is a SHIELD operation before Iron Man sends her flying into the sky. There are now lots of SHIELD troops on the ground attacking, at least some with tanks on their back. Hill orders 1 who's carrying a sack of liquid the same colour as that in her tank to "Reload the cannon". (I presume that means that he pours the liquid into the tank with the head in it because his sack doesn't appear to contain a head.) Then she fires her gun again. IM's forcefield stops that blast and he tells George to leave the situation to him and Deola. She's only too happy use her power against SHIELD, but Tony warns her not to hurt anyone. He also claims that this fight has nothing to do with the weapon he wants to build, as she starts to dismantle the SHIELD craft.
Stark says he's awaiting SHIELD's secret weapon which he now detects incoming. Deola has SHIELD Agents and She-Hulk manacled by metal as the sw crashes at his feet. It's another Iron Man. Stark says he expected this since he learned about the rule change that he didn't remember actually ordering. So he generated a surrounding field of data packets which infiltrated the other IM's armour and shut it down. He comments that all Tony Starks much prefer to inhabit their armour rather than operate it remotely, and so the invading Stark dies.
Deola is confused because she thinks he's just killed Tony Stark but Tony explains that *he* is the real TS and IM, and an Avenger, an Agent Of SHIELD and a Guardian Of The Galaxy. He explains that he often dies but a backup system uploads his consciousness into a clone. But also often the backup system triggers but he actually survives and then there are 2 of him, which is a security hazard to say the least, and he has to terminate the clone. While he's saying this we see that his armour is synchronising the clone's memories with his own so that he knows all that *he* has done. Deola reasonably asks how she can be sure that it's not the real Tony who's now dead? Tony replies he's sure he's the real 1 because he won. (Strictly speaking does it matter? If such a system were really possible then if the real Tony had died when the clone was activated then that clone would be considered the *real* 1 anyway.)
3 months later (ie in the time frame of the opening part of this story) Tony Stark and Deola are in orbit working in bulky Iron Man spacesuits loading larger tanks of alien heads into a humongous space gun. Deola is concerned about the source of these heads. Tony explains that the heads are of a species in the Draco galaxy (presumably the so-named dwarf galaxy that orbits our own Milky Way). They live for an extremely long time but don't socialise much, so when they lose 1 of their few loved ones they emit a howl that can level a city. SHIELD used to hunt them to weaponise their bellow. (We see the original Nick Fury involved). But now SHIELD uses Stark's cloning tech to create a large supply of such heads. The liquid they are contained in floods them with loving memories. But when the weapon's trigger is pulled it switches to a bereavement memory. They do use the cloning technique to also produce some organs for transplant but planetary defence is more important.
Director Hill contacts them to say that an unidentified lifeform has been seen zooming towards Earth. Iron Man jets off in pursuit. This obviously leads to the opening section of this comic. He sets off in his bulky spacesuit and arrives unconscious in his regular armour. The bits falling to Earth with him are presumably parts of his spacesuit and he had the IM armour underneath. It is unclear whether the breakup of his spacesuit and his unconsciousness are due to his rapid descent or due to a fight with the alien en route.
Now we continue from the opening section with the headless alien missing an arm but still continuing to pound our hero into the Sudanese desert. Meanwhile back in space Deola contacts Director Hill to tell her she can sense but not see a large cloaked and shielded flying saucer which is transmitting encrypted data to the Sudan. But having dutifully reported this she flies her IM-type spacesuit down to help Tony. We see the aliens inside the saucer who for some reason think she's wearing 1 of Spider-Man's battle armours (?!). The captain worries about Spidey's possible involvement because they only have the 1 Righa. His lieutenant assures him that Iron Man is the protector of Earth that they have to defeat. A graphic display in the background tells us that the Righa is an enhancement of the Gargantus robot that they previously sent to Earth (in Iron Man's 2nd outing in Tales Of Suspense #40 and also in 1998's Captain America: Sentinels Of Liberty #5-6).
On the ground the Righa rips Iron Man's Arc Reactor power source off the chest of his armour. But then Deola arrives in a still-intact spacesuit with 2 of the big 'boxes' in magnetic tow that contained the tanks of alien heads. The boxes knock the Righa out of the way and she gives Iron Man the Arc Reactor from her spacesuit. Tony notes that their foe is regrowing his severed arm and remarks that so far he's not been able to dent the torso, which they figure must be protecting its 'brain'. Deola turns the metal of the 'boxes' and her own spacesuit into raw material to be turned into massive armour for IM. She is left with a Rescue-like suit.
Tony tells KATIE to divert all power from electromagnetic and technopathic countermeasures and concentrate on incorporating the new armour. He attacks the Righa with massive metal fists and knocks a hole into the torso. Deola reaches in and squishes something and the robot goes into self-destruct mode. IM pushes her out of dangers but the explosion catches him as he tells her that he still doesn't remember 'fixing the Cube' which means it's alright because, even though his consciousness backup system isn't working, there's another active clone of him still out there.
Tony is destroyed by the explosion and Deola seeks revenge against Hill's orders because SHIELD and the Avengers are on their way to deal with the aliens. She uses her metal-controlling power remotely to aim and trigger the big space gun. And it obliterates the flying saucer. Hill, She-Hulk and SHIELD arrive to find her weeping over Tony's shattered helmet which is still replaying their last exchange of words.