Iron Man and Warbird are battling a fire at a Roxxon refinery. As Shellhead searches for survivors his mind goes back to having to identify the third dead Madame Masque at the morgue. Warbird rushes back into the blaze to shut off the pipelines to stop the fire from spreading. Tony and Carol separately recall their talk of her drinking problem and her refusal to go to AA meetings because Carol has always handled her problems alone. (We get a flashback summary of Carol’s career here.) Iron Man is caught in an explosion while Warbird is trying to carry off a giant gas tank but he shows up to help her hurl the tank as far up as they can where it explodes. Tony scolds Carol for taking the risk in handling the tank alone but she insists she could have handled it if she had a drink. The argument leads to them parting with Tony hoping she fares better than he did.
2nd story:- Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun (Eighth Day Prologue)
Pencils: Tom Grummett. Inks: Art Thibert.
Tony Stark arrives in Canada’s Nunavut Territory to participate in an archaeological dig. He meets
Samantha McGee who resents living there and resents Tony and his wealth. Arriving at the site, Tony meets Dr.
J. Vernon Mann (nicknamed “
Java Mann”) and he drives Tony and Sam to the center of attention: the
Temple of Balthaak far underground where Tony will try to open the massive doors. Tony also discovers that the dig is being financed by
Abner Little, a shady operator whom Tony had turned down for a similar job….
A few days later, they are attacked by a flying vessel firing blasts at them; Tony dons the Iron Man armor and brings the ship down with an EMP. Emerging from the wrack are Count
Andreas Zorba and
Princess Zanda, colleagues of Abner Little; Zorba insists that his blasts were meant to clear the area for landing but Tony is still suspicious. Sam McGee notices that Dr. Mann had gotten a small door in the larger one open and she cautiously enters, finding the legendary
Brazier of Balthaak. An explosive sound within causes Iron Man to enter and investigate and he is knocked out of the air by a fiery blast. Sam McGee has been transformed into
Inferno, first of the
Exemplars, sending out the call to others who will see the dawning of the Eighth Day….
Continued in
THOR (1998) #17.