Synopsis
Iron Man is fighting the new female Firebrand, another of Mandarin's upgraded villains, in Charlotte North Carolina, the 2nd-largest US financial centre. He has her defeated, until she is joined by the female Crimson Dynamo. But that doesn't faze Tony, until Hammer Industries flick the switch that collapses his armour. And they send in Sasha Hammer and the Detroit Steel Corps to take the beaten villains away. Hammer are working with Mandarin, so the villains are secretly returned to Mandarin City, and Ezekiel Stane is going to mend their damaged technology.
Tony visits Avengers Mansion, where he is too proud to accept help from Captain America and Ms Marvel. He takes a leave of absence from the Avengers.
Sasha contacts Zeke to talk about what sounds like a plan to rebel against Mandarin. Stane intends to do something about the bomb Mandarin put in his chest. But Mandarin also used one of his rings in #512 to quell Zeke's insubordination, and now Stane finds he can't stand up to his boss. As demonstrated when Mandarin gets very angry about an abortive demonstration of the giant tentacled robot Stane has been building for him. Even though one major problem is the absence of a power source that Mandarin promised.
We next drop in on Stark employees Tim Cababa and Len Pimacher at home. Where Tim discovers Len is really Spymaster, working for Justine Hammer, and gets killed for his pains.
Stark goes to see Gen'l Babbage, and tells him he quits being Iron Man.