Synopsis
Iron Man (1968 series) #37 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
Having suffered a heart attack while in combat with the invading Ramrod, Iron Man slowly struggles to his feet and drags himself into an alley. Finding a discarded coat, he dons it, hiding his armor, and drags himself to his car for some rest….
Meanwhile, Ramrod is awaiting the arrival of its masters, the Changers. He hasn’t long because the ship carrying his robot brethren and their human commander, the Foreman, soon arrives. Who are the Changers? They are a construction team for Worldform, Inc., an intergalactic corporation that specializes in selling worlds and renovating them to the new owners’ specifications. In this case, a race whose sun is about to go nova has purchased the Earth and the Changers have been dispatched to blast it flat; no ethical problems involved, the humans are on a course of self-destruction anyway….
On Earth, Kevin O’Brien is searching for the missing Tony Stark; he heads to the nightclub where a helplessly distraught Marianne Rodgers proves no help. As he heads out, the broken form of Stark tumbles from the elevator and begs him to take Tony to Avengers Mansion….
The Changers’ ship lands on the spot cleared by Ramrod and the Foreman dispatches the four Doom-Carriers to various spots on the planet to await the signal to detonate their explosives and flatten the world. As he waits for them to reach their destinations, the Foreman sees in the crowd Marianne Rodgers—and is immediately stuck by her resemblance to his long-dead lover, and he orders Ramrod to bring her….
At Avengers Mansion, Kevin escorts Tony into a room where the disabled hero opens a secret panel to reveal Iron Man’s armor. At this Tony reveals to the startled Kevin that he is Iron Man and that the chestplate contains a pacemaker. The engineer offers a prayer for success as he carefully tries to fit the plate to Tony’s chest….
Not far away, the Foreman talks to the captive Marianne, revealing his past as a human war orphan on a remote planet who was adopted by the Changers and raised as one of their own. And now he just wants to tell Marianne…but he gives up since the Earth is doomed. The Doom-Carriers have reached their positions in Latin America, China, the North Pole, and Africa and await the Foreman’s signal. The world (including Happy and Pepper) watches in horror on television. The Foreman still tries to sort out his feelings for the confused Marianne, who tries to escape and is pursued by Ramrod. Iron Man suddenly burst in and draws the huge machine into an aerial battle which is over in seconds, thanks to his repulsor rays. Iron Man circles back and destroys the ship, engaging the Foreman in battle. As they fight in the skies, the hero rips off his foe’s helmet (which he had told Marianne is how he controls the robots) and the sudden flash of sunlight in the eyes causes the Foreman to plummet to the ground. As he dies, his body reverts to his natural advanced age and he goes out recalling the lost memory…. The destroyer robots are immobilized and Kevin now agonizes over the burden of knowing Tony Stark’s big secret….
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Kevin O'Brien, Marianne Rodgers.