Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Ezekiel Stane sent his terrorists to attack Stark Industries factories in LA, Tokyo and Valencia, and personally led a team into the SI HQ in Long Island. There he confronted and fought Iron Man, and blew his head off.
Now he strips off Stark's armour, intending to display the body in public. But finds that it's empty.
Stane quickly realises that Tony has sent a squad of Iron Man armours to all 4 sites. And he tells his girlfriend Sasha, who's in contact with them all, to tell his men to blow everything up before the Iron Men get to them.
The mixture of old and special-purpose Iron Men are already in action. They can only help out in Valencia, where the suicide bombers already exploded last issue. But in the other 3 sites they can locate the bombers, guided by Maria Hill in the SHIELD helicarrier and Pepper Potts at SI.
Iron Man fights all the terrorists remotely and simultaneously, trying to knock them out before they can power up to explode. And he himself takes on Stane (for real this time).
But Tony realises he can't beat them all in time. So he plays his ace card. As he explains later, all Stark technology has a built-in off-switch keyed to a particular electromagnetic pulse. He uses a massive amount of power to send that pulse, which disables the Stark-tech in the suicide bombers. It also depowers all the Iron Man armours, including his own (and Stane's knock-off). And also destroys Stark-tech worldwide. It also blacks out the 3 cities.
Armourless Stark and Stane now fight man to man. Tony beats the much younger Zeke. Who never stops his ideological ranting before he's taken to jail.
Later Maria and Pepper tell Stark that Sasha got away. And that his EMP killed the terrorists, because Stane had rigged their bombs to their hearts.
Tony is left with a 5th nightmare to add to the ones that started this storyline:- What he has to become and do to stop the other nightmares coming true.