Invincible Iron Man #18: Review

May 2007

Charles Knauf, Roberto de la Torre

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #18 Review by Rob Johnson (May 27, 2015)

Tem Borjigin is of course Mandarin (with gloved artificial hands). Borjigin was the clan led by Mandarin's supposed ancestor Genghis Khan, whose name was Temujin. But I find no evidence for the online suggestion that Tem Borjigin was itself an alias/name of Genghis Khan. After this issue Iron Man has a load of appearances before World War Hulk. Tony Stark outfits the new Heroes For Hire in their #5. Then spends the 1st 6 issues of the new New Warriors series (about a team of M-Day-depowered mutants using technology to give them other powers) trying to apprehend the team or get them to join the Initiative. Plus a suspicion grows that he's actually bankrolling them! And he fires half of The Order in the opening issue of that Intiative team's title. Iron Man is with the Mighty Avengers, except Spider-Woman, fighting the Inhumans in Silent War #5. Then Tony Stark oversees She-Hulk and the SHIELD Hulkbusters in her #17-18. However she rebels when she discovers how SHIELD and the Illuminati sent Hulk to space and Planet Hulk. Iron Man depowers her with his new SPIN-tech. He keeps track as Jennifer Walters teams up with Amadeus Cho in Hulk #106, as things move towards WWH. I'll cover his WWH apps in #19 and #20.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #18 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Iron Man and the SHIELD armoured Alpha Team have invaded a Mongolian state psychiatric facility in stealth mode in search of terrorist leader Karim Mahwash Najeeb. They found his body and sent it to the helicarrier. But were attacked by the asylum''s inmates turned into mindless cyborgs.

From the helicarrier Dum Dum Dugan suggests a strategic withdrawal, but then he and the rest of SHIELD are attacked by wildly-growing red tentacles (which we saw erupt from Najeeb''s body at the end of last issue). Then the away team lose all contact with the carrier. Except Iron Man picks up a broadcast video transmission as a SHIELD agent, under tentacle control, alerts the Chinese to their presence.

Dugan, Maria Hill and other unassimilated agents hold their own as the red mass takes over the carrier. Hill contacts IM who informs her they''ve got out before the Chinese military arrived. In turn she shows him what''s happening as infected agents fight the still-free ones.

Iron Man arrives on the carrier at hypervelocity. As Director of SHIELD he orders an evacuation and rendezvous with Alpha Team. The helicarrier is headed towards North Korea, and Maya Hansen and Sal Kennedy are missing. The Golden Avenger heads to the lab where they were performing an autopsy on Najeeb. He find Maya alive but Sal was the 1st victim of the red mass, and is dead. Cue flashbacks to Tony Stark''s other recent losses Happy Hogan (#14) and Captain America (CA#25).

Then he takes Maya out of harm''s way. She blames him for Sal''s death - if he''d let her continue her Extremis research she could have developed defenses against the biological weapons they''ve been facing in recent issues. But Tony forces her to concentrate on solving the current problem now.

She reckons that the stuff is proliferating like a cancer, taking over the bodies it infects. If the carrier crashes or is brought down by enemy fire it will spread to people on the ground. Stark suggests using the carrier''s nuclear reactor to kill it with radiation, but Maya doesn''t think that would get it all.

At this point the airship is challenged by North Korean fighter jets. Stark tries to warn them off, but assimilated SHIELD agents shoot 1 of them down. So Iron Man takes remote control of their airplanes and ejects the pilots.

Tony remembers that 1 effect of the Extremis in his body is a boosted autoimmune system that makes him immune to cancer. He sheds his armour and invites the red tentacles to attack his body. Wracked with pain he fights for control. All the infected SHIELD agents come to a halt. And the red is violently expelled (or something like that), and the helicarrier destroyed.

The escaped SHIELD agents regroup on Okinawa. Secretary of Defense Kooning wants Stark''s resignation and Dugan to replace him as Director of SHIELD. But Dugan threatens to resign if Stark goes. There''s a standoff as both men threaten to reveal damaging secrets. I guess Kooning backs down 1st.

Stark discusses what happened in the last few issues with Hill. He thinks someone has played a long game. They supplied terrorist groups with increasingly dangerous bio-weapons, knowing that Maya could have used Extremis to counter them. But also knowing Stark wouldn''t let her. (He says he wouldn''t cross the line again after Civil War and Steve Rogers'' death.) Hill thinks he''s reading too much into it, but the latest Trojan Horse manoeuvre was clever. Stark thinks that was a diversion, and he''s waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Maya Hansen takes up Kooning''s offer (from last issue) and goes to work on Extremis for the government at a company Prometheus Genetech, Inc. in Nebraska. She meets its CEO Tem Borjigin.

Story #2