Synopsis
Iron Man (2024 series) #4 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
Masked gunmen calling themselves the Heat break into a little cafe in Chicago and force everyone inside into a van. A youth (who we'll later learn is Riri Williams' friend Xavier King) happens to witnesses it and 1 of the men chases him until he's startled by a bright light. He's caught and added to the prisoners.
During the Stark-Roxxon War Tony Stark lost control of Stark Unlimited and all his Iron Man armours, and cobbled together a replacement. After the failed takeover by Roxxon and AIM supported by Justine Hammer and her magic backers Belasco and some Elder Demons, Tony has also been left with Justine's Iron Monger armour and a magic brooch that controls it. But all the antimagic metal mysterium had been removed to pay off the Elder Demons.
Now he's consulting Ironheart (Riri) (and her AI NATALIE) as another opinion on the situation. Riri confirms that the Monger armour is in fully working order, but she and Tony can't figure out what the mysterium was for. Meanwhile they need to get Hammer's magic malware off Stark's servers and his other Iron Man armours. She suggests that they use the magic in the Iron Monger armour/brooch to do it, but he rejects that because using demonic magic tends to turn you evil. Which is why he's called in another consultant ...
... and fellow-Avenger Scarlet Witch teleports herself in. This is the 1st time she's seen the state he's in since JH caused him as Iron Man to fall out of the sky twice (despite him spending a long time in hospital and recuperating). Wanda Maximoff shares her news that her brother Quicksilver is helping out in her magic shop (see her ongoing series of mini-series). Now she magics herself into the brooch where she's attacked by a horde of dark beings which eventually coalesce into a dark version of the original clunky Iron Man armour.
When she returns to reality she finds that some time has passed and IH has gone out to get takeaway. She tells him that the magic in the brooch was much greater than Belasco could have created and much too dangerous for him to try to use. As IH returns with food Wanda tells them that the anti-magic mysterium stabilised the dangerous magic. But if anyone *wore* the Monger armour now it would corrupt them. But she agrees that just studying the armour's science/magic interaction in order to work out how to de-magic his servers and old armours should be OK. She heads back to her Magic Emporium, and assistant Darcy Lewis (taking her share of the takeaway).
While she's eating Riri has figured out how to fix Tony's fleet of armours. She took the risk of connecting the Iron Monger to his servers and it's magic is eating the magic malware. When that's complete they can reboot the armours from the servers. NATALIE has already sent diagnostic details to Wanda who's replied that it might work as long as no-one *wears* the Iron Monger. But Riri doesn't know how long it will take. Then she notices that there's 1 server that won't let Iron Monger in without authorisation, and Tony recognises that it's asking for SHIELD credentials.
Ironheart and the junkyard Iron Man go visit ex-SHIELD Agent Melinda May who's not best pleased to see Tony after he removed her from the Stark board of directors with all the others even though she was the only 1 to support him. He asks if she knows anything about a SHIELD access credential for the Southern California Stark factory. She reminds him that when he was Director of SHIELD (between Civil War I and the Skrull Secret Invasion) he gave SHIELD direct access. She doesn't know who has the 'key' until IH displays something which mentions Agent 33.
Then she accompanies them to the factory where Agent 33, Kara Lynn Palamas, is busy getting stuff loaded into the back of a truck. Melinda tells the other 2 to provide air support while she leaps into action as the SHIELD Agent who used to be called the Cavalry. While watching her in action and repulsor-blasting 33's help Tony muses whether using the Iron Monger armour by remote control would count as not *wearing* it. And he also notes that his current armour isn't as bulletproof as his regular versions, and he's still not fully recovered from his previous injuries. But soon all the goons are subdued and May has Palamas under control. She refuses to tell the good guys where she was taking the stolen tech, but NATALIE has extracted the info that the destination is in Chicago, which pisses Riri off because that's her home town. Palamas claims they're using the tech to keep the city safe.
Iron Man flies there and Ironheart follows carrying Cavalry. Tony's memory has to be jogged but it turns out the target Hellman Circle in Cook County used to be his father's Midwest operations centre for Stark Industries until he sold it. It's recently been bought by a New York holding company called Heat. They land and deal with some troops. The boy from the beginning is behind a chainlink fence and he calls out to Ironheart who recognises him as her friend Xavier. And the boss villain appears backed by a Stark Sentinel (from the Fall Of X event). IM recognises her as Lucia Von Bardas (although he's never met her but IH has when she was the star of Invincible Iron Man (2017)).
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Darcy Lewis, Melinda May, Natalie AI, Xavier King.
Enemies
Heat, Lara Lynn Palamas (Agent 33), Lucia von Bardas.