Synopsis
Invincible Iron Man #22 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Troy, Tony Stark's city of the future, is under attack from Exile and Lord Remaker, 2 of the people who have been granted power by 1 of Mandarin's rings. The 3rd ringbearer Abigail Burns has turned against them. She realised that they were a worse evil than Stark's capitalist utopia. Now she fights alongside Iron Man and the Trojan Guard drones.
Remaker detonated a bomb that collapsed the Troy Core HQ. Luckily everyone was evacuated in time. Except Tony's brother Arno, trapped in his iron lung.
Iron Man is in unarmed stealth armour, which has now served its purpose. So he borrows weapons from some of the drones to become something like the old War Machine. The Trojan Guard aren't doing very much with them because they are being controlled by the HELEN AI which is a long way away - now that the local control from the Troy Core has gone.
But suddenly the Guard get a new lease of life. And they are joined by an enormous armoured figure. It's Arno Stark and he's running the show. This is the computer program he activated at the end of last issue.
The 2 villains panic. Lord Remaker had wanted to take over the city. But now he decides to destroy what he can't have. He has 6 more bombs primed to go. Leaving Exile to hold their opponents back Remaker runs away. But he is suddenly faced with a dark blue hand reaching from nowhere, with another of the rings on 1 finger.
The Iron Men have rounded up Lord Remaker's gang. Iron Man is worried that the ringbearers will teleport away where he can't track them. But Burns says her ring can always find them. Iron Man tries to catch Exile, but he does teleport. Abigail finds Remaker, but he's been beheaded and his ring has gone. Then a large sword chops off her hands.
Iron Man finds her reverted to a civilian, and has her whisked to Troy's hospital where her wrist stumps are sealed off.
Tony Stark and his PR guy, and Abigail's friend, Marc Kumar interview her in hospital. She tells them what she learned last issue of the rings' motivation. They want to cause chaos and they hate Stark. To that end they'll ally themselves with anyone who also hates him, as she did as an anarcho-syndicalist journalist.
They all know that Tony's latest brainchild Troy will continue to be a prime target. He reluctantly considers diverting a lot of its resources from making it a utopia into better defences. But Abigail has (last issue) come to love the city as it is meant to be. She says it's Stark's involvement that is the problem.
Tony calls a press conference where he announces that he's bored with running a city. He's going back to his life as the party-loving superhero, and he's handing over control to Arno (who no-one knows is his brother, and in fact is very much a mystery man). Abigail can't resist baiting him.
Tony really does leave Troy, and dedicates himself to tracking down Mandarin's rings. And we see Malekith in Svartalfheim with 3 of them, intent on completing the set.