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Iron Man #24

Dec 2022

on-sale: Oct 19, 2022

Christopher Cantwell, Angel Unzueta

Story Name:

Save the last dance for me

Synopsis

Iron Man #24 synopsis by Rob Johnson

Rating:

Tony Stark discovered that an organisation called Source Council was auctioning powerful weaponry online including Mandarin's Rings. He used his fortune to buy most of what they had via frontman Carl Walker/Clayton Wilson/Force and now only the Rings are left. But the bad guys sussed Carl out and convinced him that Stark was only using him. When Stark and stealth-cloaked War Machine came after the Rings they found that the Council was headed by Iron Man's old foe Spymaster, and Force was backing him up. They defeated James Rhodes and confiscated Tony's briefcase containing *his* armour. And then they revealed that they've already sold the Rings to Cobalt Man who joined the baddies with them.

But now Stark tells his armour's AI BOSS to assemble the (stealth) armour around him. Which amazingly happens faster than the villains can react. But Stark still feels Force's blast damage his spleen through his iron suit. However Tony reckons that after fighting with a broken neck (earlier this series), a dodgy heart or a drink problem this is nothing.

Clayton is given 1st crack at him. But Rhodey has recovered and now War Machine joins in. But it is IM who rips Force's helmet off while lecturing him about doing the right thing. He has to admit that this sometimes causes damage, but he strives to repair that when it happens.

So now Spymaster sends in Cobalt Man with Mandarin's Rings on his armoured fingers. Tony and Jim prepare to die. The 3rd foe uses the Black Light Ring. But the ray passes between the heroes to hit the 2 villains who vanish ...

... and Cobalt Man removes 'his' helmet to reveal the head of Riri Williams (Ironheart). It turns out that she too had heard about Source Control selling the Rings and she too went undercover to buy them. Tony asks why she didn't contact him for help. She replies that he was (pretending to be) in a coma, and anyway he didn't ask for *her* help,

The young science whiz had also been researching the Rings (for a long time) and had worked out hitherto unrealised properties. Such as the Black Light Ring's ability to create a portal to the Darkforce Dimension which is where she sent the bad guys.

The 3 return to Stark's New York apartment. Rhodey and Riri want Tony to get his spleen seen to but he's more concerned about Mandarin's Rings. Riri wants to keep them but Tony's worried about the affect such power will have on her mind and wants to destroy them like he's done to the other weapons he bought. But the young heroine is sure she can work out how to use them as more than weapons and do so much good with them.

Tony changes tack and suggests they divide the Rings between them and they'll collaborate on investigating their potential. She counters by asking why he doesn't trust her. *He* created the Iron Man armour and improved it over the years without anyone monitoring *him*. He suggests that if *he* kept the Rings the Avengers would be keeping close tabs on *him*.

Tony gives in as long as she keeps him updated with her progress. She sort-of agrees. Then she armours up as Ironheart and flies off.

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #24 Review by Rob Johnson (October 22, 2022)

Teen genius Riri Williams built her own version of Iron Man's armour. Later she became Tony Stark's protégé, and even later took the super id Ironheart when Iron Man was 'dead' after the 2nd superhero Civil War. She joined the Champions during the Secret Empire event. Then in her own series she contended with w villain group called the Ten Rings, which so far don't seem to have anything to do with Mandarin's 10 Rings. After that she got involved with the Champions again in the Outlawed event. She and they have been without regular series lately but she's cropped up a few times, including in the Devils's Reign event, and usually with other Champions.

Riri has made some money from patents but I didn't think she was rich enough to afford to buy Mandarin's Rings.

The Darkforce Dimension is the source of the powers of chars such as Cloak, Darkstar and Shroud.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Christopher Cantwell

Angel Unzueta

Frank D'Armata

Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Ironheart
(Riri Williams)

War Machine
(James Rhodes)

Plus: Force, Spymaster (Sinclair Abbot).

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