Invincible Iron Man #24

Feb 2008

?, Butch Guice

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Story Name:

[Credits and Recap]

Synopsis

No synopsis found.

Story #2

Haunted, part 4

Writer: Charles Knauf. Penciler: Butch Guice. Inker: Butch Guice. Colorist: Dean White. Cover Penciler: Gerald Parel. Cover Inker: Gerald Parel. Cover Colorist: Gerald Parel.

Synopsis

By Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars

Tony Stark has been suspended as Director of SHIELD because his mental condition is suspect. He's also got an adamantium ankle restraint which stops him from using Extremis to control his current armour. His mental problems include seeing ghosts and living in the armour for a week. But he suspects his suspension is also to stop SHIELD investigating what's going on in Nebraska. And he suspects (correctly) that Mandarin is behind all that.

So now he's incognito in Omaha following up a spate of disappearances. This time he sees the ghost of Sal Kennedy. As usual the apparition has a useful idea. It reminds him of 3 stages of the trial of a new drug, and the typical numbers of test subjects involved in each.

Stark gets a call from his secretary Mrs Rennie to inform him when his 'car' will arrive. She's been fielding calls by saying he's off on vacation in an inaccessible part of the world. But Doc Samson is more than concerned that Tony's missing his mandatory psychiatric evaluations.

So Leonard Samson is also in Omaha talking to the Nebraska Initiative team leader Captain Ultra. They both guess exactly what Stark is doing. Meanwhile Ultra has lost the only other 2 members of his team in the last 3 issues, and he's not that happy about having to train up new recruits.

At Prometheus Gentech in the same city Maya Hansen tells CEO Tem Borjigin that she's done what he asked - created an aerosol version of the Extremis nanovirus so users won't have to inject it. But she was worried about the aerosol affecting others nearby, given that it's fatal to 97.5% of the population. So she's incorporated programmed cell death which will kill any nano that doesn't immediately hit its target. Borjigin, who is of course Mandarin, hides his irritation.

Tony secretly meets with Deputy SHIELD Director Dum-Dum Dugan and explains that the disappearances fit the drug trial pattern. Also he's found family connections among some disappearees. Dugan agrees to use SHIELD resources to crosscheck the DNA of the missing wherever possible, looking for a common factor.

Borjigin gets 1 of his other scientists to try to remove Hansen's PCD from the aerosol Extremis. But she's embedded it in a way too complicated to disentangle.

He gets a call from Secretary of Defence Kooning to say that Stark is probably back in Omaha because Homeland Security has detected a crate being delivered to him at a little local airport.

At that airport Tony opens the crate containing his 'car' - an old pre-Extremis Iron Man armour. At the same time Dugan reports that the last wave of the disappeared all shared a common DNA sequence. Stark asks Dum-Dum to check Tony's DNA for that sequence.

Stark puts on his helmet and 1 glove, but the armour's computer system is taking a long time to boot up (compared with the modern version). And he's attacked by an Extremis-enhanced thug before he can get any further. Tony has to resort to non-IM tactics like squeezing the guy's balls. The enemy knocks Stark's helmet off, so Tony bites him.

Then help arrives. Doc Samson punches the guy, and Captain Ultra throws a light plane at him. But the baddie hits Samson with Ultra. However this has given Stark time to suit up properly, and the Golden Avenger puts the man down for the count.

Later the 3 contact Dugan who confirms that this is 1 of Nebraska's missing residents. And Tony does have the gene sequence, which is what enables someone to survive Extremis. They're beginning to believe Stark's Mandarin theory.

Story #3