Synopsis
Back in #7 Iron Man was whisked away from his team to an unknown planet where he was accosted by a bunch of armed chars. So in the last 2 issues we've been following Hellcat and the rest of his band as they raced Korvac and his mob towards Taa II, Galactus' worldship, in search of power.
Now we rejoin the main man who's been stuck on that planet for 6 days in a small colony of beings of multiple species who've been somehow individually brought here as well over a long time. They live in a ramshackle village in the ruins of an ancient civilisation that died off. At least 1 of the others is also human and named the place Megiddo, after the ancient city in Israel also called by the Greeks Armageddon.
Tony Stark has settled in, apart from the fact that he can't remove his helmet and upper chestplate because it's the only thing allowing him to function with a broken neck. Yar, the woman who runs the place, used to be a Kree Colonel. The group who found him are the local militia. 1 of them turned out to be someone Tony knew before, Colin Richard aka Avro-X (see Marvel Fanfare #44), who's been here for at least a year. Colin now tells him that Yar only manages the day-to-day stuff. There's someone higher who likes to keep out of sight, like the Wizard Of Oz, who'll call him in for an audience sometime.
Meanwhile Tony has been finding out what they know about the planet, trying to come up with an escape plan. He's also worrying about the morphine drip built into his current armour to manage the pain of his broken neck. Halcyon and James Rhodes installed it with safeguards against him getting addicted. He's not so much concerned about the fact that it will run out in 3 months as he is about his addictive genius personality hacking the system and using it up *much* faster than that.
Stark has also found the nearby ruins of a giant statue which he now discovers contains a live power source which he uses to recharge his armour. It's a different kind of energy, somewhat biological. Yar joins him and explains that *they* use this power in the village. She speculates that the previous inhabitants discovered this energy and built these machines, and this was part of what wiped them out. And she tells him that big boss will see him now.
She leads him to a place built inside a mountain where he is astonished to find Wilbur Day/Stilt-Man. Iron Man is immediately suspicious. He accuses the villain of abducting everyone else, but Wilbur says he was just 1 of the earliest people brought here. Then Stark wants to know how Day keeps himself in power over the others. Wilbur says he just uses his scientific know-how to help people and he and Yar protect them from what he calls the Elements, something monstrous that they have to keep at bay. Yar is the public face and Wilbur stays in the background because a lot of them know of his previous villainous deeds. (There must be a *lot* of them from Earth then! Or maybe he started out doing bad stuff when he got here?)
Outside the mainly-aliens are playing Earth's baseball. Iron Man joins in.
Later Tony is visited by an image of Hellcat. Patsy Walker explains how Moondragon increased her mental abilities (#8) and she's managed to mentally contact him although she can't tell where he is. She tells him that they are only about a day away from Taa II, so she really needs him to find a way back to her. Tony admits that he's beginning to like it here and understand why the others do too. It's a chance to reinvent himself, to shed the baggage of the past.
Then a loud explosion calls him outside. Iron Man and Avro-X are confronted by an attack by Ultimo. The militia, Yar and Stilt-Man are already responding. Colin Richard explains that it's *an* Ultimo, and this is the planet that IM's old foe probably originated on. (Stark didn't recognise the broken 'statue' as an Ultimo, but then he probably didn't see this issue's cover.) Wilbur says they only have to scare it off, it's only attacking because it sees the colony as a threat to the local environment. But this 1 seems more than usually angry. (Maybe because of the amount of power IM absorbed from the fallen Ultimo?)
Yar tells all the civilians to go hide in (Stilt-Man's) caverns. But the Ultimo grabs her up and stuffs her in it's mouth. Stark now realises where the biological energy comes from. However the robot also ate her Kree rifle which now explodes in it's mouth. And Iron Man blows a hole through it's chest with the 'stolen' bio-energy via *his* chest uni-beam. And the robot is done for.
Colin and Wilbur admit that they've never managed to kill and Ultimo before. But there are a lot more of them out there. Tony agrees to take Yar's place and help run the colony.