Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue our space-going hero tracked down Recorder 451 to bring him to justice for the Voldi genocide in #8. But 451 turned the tables because he had previously infiltrated the armour's AI PEPPER. So now he has captured Iron Man in his spacecraft. And the alien robot started showing Tony Stark a video recording he made with Tony's father Howard a long time ago.
As this issue opens Tony has finished watching the recording, protesting that he can't believe what he's heard. We will only learn part of what it contained this issue, framed by hints of the Recorder's current plan.
In the flashback Howard and Maria Stark are expecting a baby, but are told that there is something wrong with it. It is unlikely to be born, and that might be the preferable outcome. Howard won't accept this, and seeks help from any source including the High Evolutionary on Wundagore Mountain, Isaac Newton in the Eternal City, and a representative of the 7 Cities of Heaven. But none can offer him a solution, at least not without unwelcome side-effects.
At last he gets a promise from Rollo, a low-ranking member of a group of disguised 'grey aliens' who secretly run the Area 52 casino in Las Vegas. The greys have captured Recorder 451 and they have him in restraints, but he's powered himself down inside a force field they can't crack. However, recently 451 woke up and offered Rollo a personal deal in return for contacting a load of specific humans, one of which was Howard Stark. And Rollo says the Recorder is a mine of technical info. If anyone knows how to cure the Starks' future son, he will.
Stark puts together a crew to steal the robot. He recruits Jimmy Woo of the FBI, Dum-Dum Dugan of the CIA (Nick Fury wasn't available), Lt Thunderbolt Ross of US Special Forces, along with 2 females we've never seen before:- Nessa the Kitten and a demolitions expert called the Bear. Together with Howard and Rollo they are the Stark Seven.
Nessa, Dugan and Ross openly enter the casino, and then slip out of sight. This alerts security. The big boss calls in Rollo as the grey most likely to have betrayed them. Under pressure Rollo admits to giving the team the security codes to get to the Recorder. A security camera shows that 451 isn't in the shackles that held him. The boss can't believe this because only he has the final code to release the robot. But he rushes there to confirm it. Rollo volunteers that he's due to meet the thieves to get his payoff and all the greys hurry off, disguising themselves with image inducers.
After they've gone Stark and Woo appear in the room. They were there all the while, hidden by image inducers Howard copied from Rollo's. Recorder 451 is also still there in his restraints, also rendered invisible. This was all a ploy to get the boss's code. Jimmy radios the other 'distraction' team to escape, and then they bring in the Bear to blow up 451's shackles. The bast also blows a hole in the roof, and Maria Stark picks them up in a helicopter.
On the way out 451 asks Stark what happened to Rollo. Howard says that the alien will pretend that he's been double-crossed by the humans. The Recorder doesn't think that'll work. Indeed the boss has Rollo killed, for either being a fool or a traitor.
In the present the Recorder gets the spaceship moving (its AI is a bit uncooperative because it's a Badoon warship, and 451 killed its crew last issue). We've had hints that the robot had a hand in Tony's birth. And now Iron Man will be part of the Recorder's big plan to save the universe, which included causing the Celestials to destroy the Voldi last issue.