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Armor Wars #1

Jun 2015
James Robinson, Marcio Takara

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Armor Wars #1 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
In the Secret Wars domain Technopolis everybody needs to wear armour to survive. This futuristic city seems to owe its technology to Tony Stark's father Howard, and the Stark Tower dominates the skyline with a statue of what looks like Iron Man's original yellow armour atop.

In this zone the armoured Spyder-Man is Peter Urich, who has the usual Spidey troubles like missing a date with girlfriend Kiri. Currently he's being chased by Guardsmen-lookalikes who are after him because of something he's discovered about Fisk Industries. Of course he defeats them, but then somebody else catches up with him.

Armoured Tony Stark is chatting with armoured Pepper Potts. He dreamed about a happy childhood running free with his brother Arno. But in reality he can't remember a time when he wasn't Baron Stark, Dr Doom's appointed ruler of this realm, and involved in an armour war with Arno. In fact he and Pepper find it strange that neither of them can remember a time when anyone could live without protective armour.

But for now Tony leaves on 'family' business. But we look elsewhere.

In the Technopolis Hall of Order and Law a load of Thors are having a party. 1 of them, heavily armoured and carrying a very big hammer, turns out to be James Rhodes - the Grand Marshall of this zone. His overly-familar deputy is Happy Hogan. And they've got a crime to go investigate.

Iron Man has gone to see Kiri Oshiro, young owner of Mobairu Yosai Mechanics. He wants to buy her company to keep it out of Arno's clutches. It's a friendly proposal (they reminisce about her mother Rumiko, and Kiri calls Tony uncle) and Stark promises her a sweet deal. But Kiri wants to stay small and independent, at least for now.

Their talk covers the fact that Stark and Rhodes could close Arno and Fisk down if they wanted to - Doom's authority lets them do what they want. But Tony promised his dad when he succeeded him as Baron that he'd allow Arno free reign as long as he stayed within the law. And he promised to not turn his Baron-hood into a dictatorship, so Fisk remains free too while he manages to hide any criminal activities. And this still stands even though Tony suspects Arno and Fisk are in cahoots.

Arno has been secretly monitoring their conversation.

Jim Rhodes contacts Kiri just after Tony leaves. But he's not looking for him, or someone named Lila. Instead he wants to talk to her .... about Peter. We see him standing over Urich's body ripped open.


 

Review / Commentaries


Armor Wars #1 Review by (June 13, 2015)
Secret Wars #3 has established that only a limited number of characters survived from Marvel Earth (or Ultimate Earth). So these characters are all from an alternate universe (or created from nothing by Dr Doom). Marvel Tony Stark never had any childhood with his brother Arno. But then this TS has confused memories about his childhood as well. SW#3 claims that Battleworld was created from bits of other Earths 8 years ago, and now no-one remembers their previous existences. Tony and Pepper's memories here are probably an example of that, with Tony's dream of childhood are rare leftover. But this also suggests that this realm was changed considerably during the changeover. Peter Urich is presumably a cross between Peter Parker and Ben Urich. As such he probably works for DailyBugle.com (shown on the map on page 1), and discovered Fisk's secret as a reporter. The Guardsmen on Marvel Earth wore Stark-designed armour and were employed as prison guards and in other official capacities. The original singular Guardsman armour was worn by Kevin O'Brien from original Iron Man #43, and later by his brother Michael from #97. Rumiko is probably an analogue of Rumiko Fujikawa who was a mainstay of Iron Man vol 3. She was Tony Stark's girlfriend and the daughter of 1 of his main business rivals. There were 2 Arno Starks in main Marvel continuity. The original was the future-set Iron Man 2020, the son of Tony's cousin Morgan. More recently Tony discovered he had a brother Arno in the Secret Origin of Tony Stark arc. The guy in this series is obviously a counterpart of the 2nd Arno. But his armour has shoulder projections like Iron Man 2020, but in this case with a more menacing sharp-toothed ratchet design. The Lila that Kiri mentions is probably the equivalent of James Rhodes' niece introduced in the Iron Patriot series.


> Armor Wars comic book info and issue index

Elektra

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(The Boy Wonder)

Marcio Takara
Marcio Takara
Esther Sanz
Paul Rivoche (Cover Penciler)
Paul Rivoche (Cover Inker)
Esther Sanz (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)