Invincible Iron Man #25: Review

Feb 2008

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Invincible Iron Man #25 Synopsis by None

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Story #2

Haunted, part 5

Writer: Charles Knauf. Penciler: Roberto de la Torre. Inker: Roberto de la Torre. Colorist: Dean White. Cover Penciler: Gerald Parel. Cover Inker: Gerald Parel. Cover Colorist: Gerald Parel.

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

By Rob Johnson

Last issue Maya Hansen gave the CEO of Omaha's Prometheus Gentech the aerosol version of the Extremis nanovirus he wanted. But she'd put in a safeguard to stop it affecting anyone but the user, because it would be deadly for most people. Tem Borjigin (secretly Mandarin) didn't want that, but he can't tell innocent Maya that.

Borjigin now comes to Hansen claiming that their client the US Defence Department wants them to remove the Programmed Cell Death feature, and just give them the means of putting it in when they want. He agrees with Maya that it's not a good idea, but the Defense Dept is threatening to put him and his 400 employees out of business if they don't comply, sinking the whole Extremis project which has many potential benefits for mankind.

Maya says she'll think about it.

In an Omaha motel Tony Stark and Doc Samson are discussing what they can do about the suspected Mandarin threat. Tony is using a very old Iron Man armour because the government gave him an adamantium ankle bracelet which stops him using his Extremis-based version. Len Samson can't unlock it before the end of Tony's period of suspension from the Directorship of SHIELD.

The suspension was officially because of his dodgy mental state. Now Tony admits to seeing 'ghosts', but he knows they're just a projection of his subconscious which give him hints about what's happening. Psychiatrist Samson reasons that Extremis enhanced Stark's brain so that it processes stuff much faster than his conscious mind can keep up with, and the ghosts are messengers. He also gives a rationale as to why the messengers are dead people Tony feels guilty about. But Tony wonders in that case why Maya Hansen hasn't appeared. Then he realises that her suicide in #21 was faked.

Not-dead Maya rings Secretary of Defense Jack Kooning at his home to complain about what he's asking for. The work she was doing for the DoD was to create Extremis super-soldiers to replace the dead Captain America. But this uncontrolled airborne delivery method is unacceptable. Kooning of course has no idea about the aerosol option, and tells her so. They both realise Borjigin has been playing them.

Enter old-style Iron Man and Doc Samson to interrogate Kooning. Tony wants to know where Maya is, but Jack sticks to the fiction that she's dead. Len stops Iron Man from killing him (unless they're just playing good cop/bad cop). He says that Stark believes Kooning is the mastermind behind it all, but he himself thinks Jack was just sucked in.

Kooning tells them all he knows. About the Extremis super-soldier program and Prometheus Gentech. How they recruited Maya Hansen and faked her suicide. And about Tem Borjigin the Mongolian financial genius who heads the company. Stark tells him that Borjigin is almost certainly Mandarin.

Iron Man heads back to Omaha and alerts Dum-Dum Dugan at SHIELD to be ready to launch a biohazard containment system. But the other Deputy Director Maria Hill still believes Stark is mentally unbalanced.

Meanwhile Maya steals a pass with higher clearance than hers and gets into the basement where the secret test subjects are held. But Borjigin finds her and explains his masterplan.

He says that after many failed attempts at world domination he looked back to the life of his ancestor Genghis Khan who ran a meritocracy, or at least 1 based on survival of the fittest. Mandarin used to believe that the power of the Malukkian Rings meant that he was destined to rule the world. Now he believes that his destiny is to raise mankind to his super-level. Extremis will make many men into gods. That the rest will die is a small price to pay.

Tem Borjigin's final revelation is that Maya has the Extremis gene and will survive, but Mandarin himself won't.

At that point Iron Man bursts through the ceiling.

Story #3