Iron Man 258 #4: Review

Jul 2013

David Michelinie, Bob Layton

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Story Name:

Iron Men

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man 258 #4 Review by T Vernon (May 6, 2022)

Comments: Plotted by Bob Layton and David Michelinie. This alternate reality has been designated Earth-13793. This is Layton and Michelinie’s final Iron Man project as of 2022.

Review: Classic alternate history adventure by two of the premier Iron Man creators, Bob Layton and David Michelinie, ends on a lesser note. While Justin Hammer’s method for contacting an Earthbound Rhodey was quite amusing (and why did Hammer assume the capsules fired from space wouldn’t kill him as he didn’t know Rhodey would be wearing armor?), the rest of the story was a bit rushed. A repainted War Machine was to serve as a decoy—but for what? Shellhead appears to have done nothing in the interval. And when he has to, Iron Man just breaks into the lab, with the Entity doing nothing further to stop him, especially since it controls about two dozen more Iron Man specialty armors. And Iron Man just shoots the biomass sitting out on a table and that’s that: end of problem. It all seemed too easy despite all the handwringing over the villain, who proved to be capable only of controlling all of the online stuff but not knowing what to do with it. Still good but a bit disappointing.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man 258 #4 Synopsis by T Vernon

Trapped outside of Justin Hammer’s space station and running out of oxygen, Iron Man must reveal his identity as Tony Stark before Hammer will admit him….

The Tony Stark Entity orders the building evacuated of all human security guards…

James Rhodes, wearing the prototype War Machine armor, is trying desperately to locate the real Tony Stark….

On the space station, Tony again tries to explain to Hammer about the nanites injected by Hammer having combined with the biochip designed to heal his damaged spine to create the Entity, a digital version of Tony Stark. He needs a diversion but doesn’t know where Rhodey is. Hammer locates him easily with his tracking program and proposes shooting him…just a little….

A cylinder drops from the sky hitting Rhodey, who opens it up to find a message from Tony asking him to meet at the drainage tunnel near the Stark building (see issue 258.2). Rhodey finds Iron Man waiting for him and they put together a plan….

Iron Man flies over Stark Enterprises and is shot down with every defensive weapon the building has. Turns out to be Rhodey in the repainted War Machine armor serving as a decoy. The two armored heroes are then attacked by remote controlled specialty armors: deep-sea, stealth, and outer space. Tony fights them, slamming outer-space into deep-sea and freezing over stealth, cutting its jet boots. The Entity decides to send a warning to the world it hopes to rule; Hammer sees what it is doing and drops another message to Rhodey. War Machine takes on the rogue armors while informing Tony that the Entity has just brought online the missile sites targeting major cities. Iron Man crashes into the building to confront the Entity then he destroys the biomass, ending the impostor and the armors shut down. Hammer drops another message, asking Tony to contact him by radio. When he does, Hammer reminds Tony that he knows his secret identity and tells him to stop minding Hammer’s business….

Epilogue: Tony attends Rae Lacoste’s funeral and leaves feeling that he didn’t really know her….

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