Invincible Iron Man #20: Review

Sep 2007

Chris Gage, Butch Guice

Story Name:

In Absentia

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #20 Review by Peter Silvestro (February 15, 2010)

A tie-in the WORLD WAR HULK, this story takes place during the events of WWH #2. The issue is collected in WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN.

Invincible Iron Man #20 Review by Rob Johnson (February 15, 2010)

Hulk doesn't actually stop attacking SHIELD because Nick Fury no longer commands them. Nor because he's told that it was actually an LMD of Fury that conspired with the Illuminati to send him to Sakaar. It's because he thinks Tony Stark was controlling the LMD, and the rest of SHIELD didn't know what was going on. I think Lindsay only appears this issue and last (although it says he was part of Gen'l Ross's Hulkbusters). But Clay Quartermain has a long history as a SHIELD agent, invented by Jim Steranko in Strange Tales #163. Then as he recalls here he became SHIELD liaison to the Hulkbusters (from Hulk #187). The other thing he mentions here is being on the run with Hulk and Rick Jones in Hu#338-346. Lately he's been working with She-Hulk in her current series. Dum Dum Dugan mentions getting Gaffer and Dr Weinberg to work on the new Manhattan project. Gaffer (Sidney Levine) goes even further back than Clay in SHIELD history, to ST#159, and has also just been working with She-Hulk. The Official Index says Weinberg is the SHIELD psychotherapist from the Agent of SHIELD arc of Wolverine. But if so he was originally a villain called Rabble Rouser in a Human Torch story in ST#119. Iron Man is a guest star in his own book here, and that appearance occurs between his bits in World War Hulk #2 and #3. This is the last issue of this title in WWH. Shellhead will make further apps after WWH#3 in Hulk #109-110, WWH#4, WWH: Front Line #4 and WWH#5. After that he's in WWH: Aftersmash and WWH Aftersmash: Damage Control #1-2.

The next issue in this series is Annual #1, but the Official Index has several appearances by Iron Man before then. It starts with 2 mini-series Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel and Sub-Mariner: Revolution, but I have moved those to before Mighty Avengers #11 (as I explain in my comments on that issue). Next Tony Stark shows up in many issues of The Order, featuring Pepper Potts. This is followed by the end of World War Hulk Aftersmash: Damage Control #3 and New Warriors (2007) #7. In Irredeemable Ant-Man #11-12 Stark will allow Eric O'Grady to keep his Ant-Man id as long as he enrols in the Initiative. EOG will join the Initiative in its #8, but before then TS will cameo in #7. IM himself will be in Initiative #11-12.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #20 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Seeing Iron Man defeated, Dugan orders the SHIELD Helicarrier to attack the Hulk. Hulk boards the craft in search of Nick Fury. When told Fury is now an outlaw, Hulk gives the rest of SHIELD a free pass, to their humiliation. Later, Dugan meets with his advisers Lindsay and Quartermain. The former advises caution, hoping that when the Hulk has taken his revenge he’ll leave Earth; Quartermain, however, wants to fight the Hulk, even though no weapon they possess would be effective. Dugan retreats to the Directors’ office to ponder the options and is shocked when the Iron Man helmet mounted on the wall speaks to him. It is Stark, a prisoner beneath Madison Square Garden, communicating through his Extremis technology. He informs Dugan of the Doomsday Plan, a scheme to set up a series of transmitters that will send Manhattan and everyone on it into the Negative Zone, where they will be annihilated instantly. Just before Stark is subdued by his captors he informs Dugan the he is the only one Stark can trust to do the right thing with this knowledge. Dugan is overwhelmed, but as a good soldier, he follows orders, arranging for the setup of the transmitters.