Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Tony Stark was sitting in the ruins of Stark Tower bemoaning the death of James Rhodes/War Machine and claiming not to know what to do next. Then Victor Von Doom teleported him away to show him what to do.
Claiming to be his friend, Doom has taken Stark to the University of Cambridge, England (where Tony met Cassandra Gillespie in the flashbacks in International Iron Man). He leads him to a Molecular Biology lab where his girlfriend Amara Perera is working. And leaves him there.
Amara is surprised and dismayed to see him. It seems that Victor arranged this position for her, and made sure she couldn't be found. But now he's brought Tony who she was hiding from.
Tony tries to apologise about letting the world, including her, believe he was dead while he was undercover in Japan. But as she sees it he abandoned her and lied to her and made her mourn for him. That was unforgivable and she insists that he leave. Even playing the 'Rhodey's dead' card doesn't cut any ice.
Later he mopes around outside a café remembering a page from Civil War I #1 where he saw Rhodey's body after the fight with Thanos and demanded to know what happened. (The answer was that Captain Marvel had used 1 of the predictions of the Inhuman Ulysses to take forces to intercept the Mad Titan.)
Then he views a speech by Carol Danvers telling the world that she and Black Panther have agreed a proactive approach to problem-solving. She can't tell them details (about Ulysses and his predictions), but it is dedicated to the memory of Jim Rhodes.
Then we see Rhodes' funeral, and Stark is still moping but now in his own lab. Mary Jane Watson has been fending off calls asking why he isn't there. He remembers James helping him kick the booze. He remembers them being a team fighting Crimson Dynamo, and War Machine's big guns winning the day.
He thinks he'd better attend a pre-emptive AA meeting, but then Von Doom turns up again to tell him to snap out of it and concentrate on saving his company. But Doom is suddenly encased in a zero-point energy web which he can't blast or 'port out of. Stark insists on being told just why Victor keeps meddling in his affairs.