Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In Avengers Tower Maria Hill, reinstated as Director of the reformed SHIELD, surveys a trouble-free(!) map of the world, until it signals a problem in Tokyo. She goes down to the Ops Centre where Christopher Walsh informs her about a terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway. And about an armoured figure that has intervened. But it's not Iron Man or War Machine, because they've reported in as on the way there.
Hill recognises that the terrorists are using SHIELD Capekiller armour. They then see Justine and Sasha Hammer giving the press conference at the end of last issue, introducing their employee Detroit Steel who has just ended the threat.
Iron Man and War Machine turn up to find it's all over bar the photo-ops. Justine explains that Hammer Industries and Detroit Steel are taking up the slack now that Tony Stark has dropped out of weapons manufacturing. And her daughter Sasha shows Tony that the dead terrorists are wearing armour made by Stark Industries.
Justine claims to have met Tony before, but he can't remember her. On the other hand Sasha rings a bell.
At Stark Resilient HQ Mrs Arbogast is watching the press conference on her computer, while 3 hopefuls wait to be interviewed by Tony Stark. While Pepper Potts is undergoing surgery to give her a new Repulsor-powered chest implant, Mrs Arbogast is in charge of recruitment. And just now she's in charge of keeping these guys hanging around until Stark gets back from Tokyo.
But Iron Man and War Machine are having a meeting with Maria Hill, who tells them off for diving in without consulting SHIELD first. She reviews the situation, with extra information that someone remotely switched off the terrorists' armament before Detroit Steel went in.
Tony asks Maria why she always seems angry with him these days, beyond what is reasonable. Did something happen in the period he can't remember because his brain's been reloaded from an old backup? But she's not going to tell him that they had sex.
Tony has forgotten all about the scheduled interviews. They've been waiting since breakfast, and by the time he turns up they're on dinner.
Walter Macken was downsized from running a car factory, started a little TV repair shop, and wound up organising a local barter economy.
Tim Cababa works as an engineer for Triumph Division in the Philippines. Since their recent disaster they've gone maintenance-only, and he's looking for something more cutting-edge.
We don't learn what Len Pimacher does, but we do learn that Carson Wyche (who Tony recruited as a partner in #26) and he know each other.
Stark asks them all to join him in developing an electric car to run on Repulsor batteries. Pimacher asks why they aren't using Wyche's electric car company to do the job. Wyche says that Stark Resilient can't afford to pay anybody yet. So they're looking for people who'll take the gamble for future rewards.
Stark also tells them they'll have 6 weeks to build the prototype to be unveiled at an upcoming expo.
Later Jim Rhodes and Tony are scanning CCTV footage of Ezekiel Stane's escape from a Taiwan hospital (in #3). And they see Sasha Hammer helping him.
And Pepper is successfully recovering from her surgery.