Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue again follows 2 separate threads:- Tony Stark in Asgard and Pepper Potts on Earth.
In Svartalfheim Tony has been engulfed by a mud golem empowered by his own DNA. He fights his way free and activates his Iron Man armour. But it won't work properly. And the golem reforms into an image of his armoured form, whose touch is painful. The golem seems to be draining Tony's lifeforce.
Then the Dwarves Tony's been working with burst in and attack the golem, led by Splitlip. They restrain their foe. Iron Man tries to help but is still too drained. Then there is some sort of repulsor ray connection, a blast, and the golem explodes and Iron Man recovers.
As the Dwarves clear up the muddy mess of golem bits, Tony swears inwardly to be a reformed character if he survives Fear Itself. Splitlip tells him that a couple of Smoke Elves they found were probably responsible for the golem. He offers Tony alcohol, the Dwarves cure for everything. But alcoholic Tony finally refuses a drink.
In Paris the Worthy Mokk/Grey Gargoyle has Pepper (in her Rescue armour) and Sasha Hammer (in her Detroit Steel suit) in strangle grips. 3 other Detroit Steel Corpsmen have Mokk in their sights. Sasha orders them to fire, which at least makes him let the women go. Under cover of the 'fog of war' Sasha tries to hit Rescue with her electronic whips.
While the women fight, Mokk smashes 1 of the Corpsmen. Rescue abandons her defence to leap on Mokk, telling Sasha to help save her soldiers. But Sasha does that by ordering her surviving 2 men to retreat, and leave Pepper to Mokk (even though 1 of them is loathe to do so). They also abandon the search for the original Detroit Steel, Doug Johnson.
Gargoyle tears Rescue's helmet off. Pepper believes that if she doesn't look at Mokk's eyes, she won't be turned to stone. But Mokk says he can wait, she's bound to look sometime.
Back in Svartalfheim, Odin arrives, along with Thor, to bless the Asgardian weapons that the Dwarves have made for the Avengers. To receive the blessing they must be dunked in molten Uru metal. Tony chooses to have his armour blessed, and dives into the Uru vat.