Iron Man 258 #2: Review

Jul 2013

David Michelinie, Bob Layton

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Story Name:

Entity Mine

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man 258 #2 Review by T Vernon (April 22, 2022)

Comments: Plotted by Bob Layton and David Michelinie. This alternate reality has been designated Earth-13793. Title is a pun on “enemy mine” which has been used as a title by a wide range of writers.

Review: A cover recalling that famous photo of Martin Sheen as Captain Willard in APOCALYPSE NOW has nothing otherwise to do with the issue but it’s an interesting pic. This miniseries is technically a “What If?” and like most good What Ifs?, there is more tragedy, in this case the death of both Erica Sondheim and Rae Lacoste. Sondheim didn’t have much of a personality but she kept Tony alive through a couple of crises; Lacoste had too much personality and came off like a maturing party girl, who would possibly have made a decent match with Tony. And the big surprise of the issue was Layton and Michelinie’s plan to reveal that Rae was the second Madame Masque which they had been setting up but it never came to fruition so MM’s exact identity is a bit up in the air. ‘Tis a shame because that sounded promising. So bad Entity goes bad and Tony is on the run (or fly as his jet boots still work). More to come.

Best bit: The kid Tony hires to deliver the note to Rhodey; Tony promised him ten dollars but he asks Rhodey for twenty, the little weasel!

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man 258 #2 Synopsis by T Vernon

Security guards burst in to find Iron Man standing over the burned corpse of Dr. Erica Sondheim, as “Tony Stark” on the computer monitor tells them to shoot him. Shellhead flies out the window, only to be pursued by police copters, which begin firing without their pilots’ commands. To keep the city safe, Iron Man flies into the ocean and walks back to shore on the sea bed….

At Stark Enterprises, the Stark Entity orders the building evacuated of everyone but security….

Iron Man stops by an Audio Shack to buy a walkie-talkie set and write a note….

Rae Lacoste receives an order from her employer Justin Hammer to return to Stark Enterprises….

As James Rhodes is being escorted from the building, a kid hands him the note from Tony. He follows the instructions to visit a foul-smelling drainage tunnel near the Stark building where he finds a walkie-talkie. Over the device, Tony tells him that he cannot use his armor’s radio lest the Entity invade the suit. Tony directs Rhodey into the tunnel, which is really a secret entrance to the building, with a nasty odor added to discourage entry. Rhodey enters a hidden door and is directed to a computer not hooked up to the mainframe and so safe from the Entity for now….

Rae goes up to Tony’s office to find he has been replaced by the Entity, calling itself Tony Stark 2.0, an amoral version of the hero. It tells Rae she is to be his surrogate. Refusing, she fires a taser given her by Justin Hammer at the terminal and flees the building. The Entity hacks into a nearby army base and activates the Behemoth, a flying weapons system, and has it pursue Rae in her car. The Behemoth catches up and blows her car off the road so she whips out an assault rifle and prepares to defend herself using her overturned car as a shield. Iron Man hears the explosion and heads to the site in time to see the machine blow up Rae’s car; he rips the thing to pieces then discovers Rae’s body burning among the wreckage. He turns away, missing the golden mask of Madame Masque in the flames….

Shellhead gets back in touch with Rhodey who, by hacking, has uncovered the Entity’s activity log. It lists the three people whom the rogue AI considers a threat: Tony Stark, Erica Sondheim and…Justin Hammer….

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