Iron Man is in Svartalfheim to get the 4 Mandarin Rings in the possession of Malekith the Dark Elf. The stealth mission went wrong but Shellhead did manage to get 1 of the Rings off a dead Dark Elf. Now Tony Stark's magical aide Dark Angel/Shevaun Haldane has sent him an iron armour to replace his stealth 1 - Elves hate iron.
Shevaun is in contact with Tony and advises him to get out while he can. She used up the last of the 3 gates to Svartalfheim she had created when she sent the new armour. But she can guide him out of Svartalfheim to a more friendly Asgardian realm. Once there he can call on Thor for help (which Stark didn't want to do last issue, ostensibly for political reasons).
But Iron Man wants to see it through, and the heavily-weaponed iron armour should do the trick. Even though he's surrounded by Malekith and his Wild Hunt. He goads 1 of the Elves into attacking and harpoons him with an iron projectile. The pain-wracked Elf uses magic to teleport away.
Possibly to attract the Elves attention, the Armoured Avenger set fire to his surroundings last issue. The fire has spread, and now all the Elves rush into it to get him. But he sprays them with a storm of iron filings. And they all run away.
Malekith so far kept out of the fight. As has Snaggi the Hunter who currently bears the Lightning Ring. She now leaps in to attack, using her agility to make her hard to hit. But IM has a targeting system which isn't fooled. She falls to a blast, but responds by using the Ring to retaliate with lightning. However Iron Man grounds himself with the metal 'claws' on his fist. He grabs her Ring arm with his other iron hand, and the pain makes her relinquish the Ring to him. Then he lets her go.
Now only Malekith is left. But he uses the Remaker Ring to turn Stark's armour from iron to gold. However Tony still has stealth capabilities. (Has he still got the stealth armour inside the iron armour?) The Elf Lord has been addressing a hologram while the real IM has crept up on him invisibly. He again does the arm-grabbing trick, and Malekith's hand starts to burn. Until he too gives up his Ring.
In #22&23 Malekith killed 2 people to get their Rings, and chopped Abigail Burns' hands off to get hers. Our hero appears ready to kill him in revenge, or maybe only chop his arm off. But the villain teleports away, so we'll never know.
Tony contacts Shevaun again and gets her to track Malekith. Again she urges him to ditch the iron armour (which the Elves can 'smell') and (use his stealth armour to) escape. This time he has three of the 4 Rings, so it's worth getting away with them. But Stark wants to teach the sadistic child-stealing Elves a lesson. He follows Malekith back to his base, only to find there is now a very large hole in the roof, much bigger than the 1 he made to escape through last issue.
Malekith is in the Library of Sins searching parchments for an effective spell against iron armour.
Last issue Malekith sent Terrana the stealth specialist with the Spectral invisibility Ring on a special mission. She now returns from that mission claiming success. She tries to tell her Lord something, but Malekith is too busy to taking the Ring off her. But he discovers its disintegration function is recharging. That's what she'd been trying to tell him - she fired it at a bunch of invaders.
Malekith finds himself facing Thor and several other Asgardian notables. But Thor doesn't speak like the Thunder God. The Dark Elf is blasted by various rays, and has 1 arm imprisoned in ice while the other is in the coils of a blacklight dragon/snake. Then a whole load of fists (bearing the same ring) pummel his head.
Malekith isn't fooled - these aren't Asgardians. And we meet the other 6 Ringbearers. Exile/Mandarin 5 (bearing Nightbringer) we know from #20.INH-22. Perennial villain Mole Man is Mandarin 6 (Demonic). Endotherm/Mandarin 10 (Zero) is a minor villain who had 1 appearance in #136 in 1980 and was recently brought back in IM: Fatal Frontier. 2 others are new to us:- Colin Anderson 60/Mandarin 2 (Influence) is a cloned businessman and Alec Eiffel/The Fascist Man Alive/Mandarin 3 (Spin) wields the multiple fists. The wearer of the Liar Ring isn't revealed to us.
Against Dark Angel's advice Iron Man jets into the middle of this confrontation.