Story #2Stark Enterprises Annual Report
Writer:
Richard Ashford. Penciler/Inker:
Dave JohnsonSynopsis
Excerpt from Stark's annual report is just a short list of popular Iron Man villains.
Story #3Cold Fire
Writer:
John Tomlinson. Penciler/Inker:
Andrew CurrieSynopsis
In the days of detente, Iron Man is asked by the Russian leaders to disarm the deactivated Siberian base called Bitterfrost (previously visited in IRON MAN #229). When he arrives though, he finds himself drenched in acid, a hologram of the supposedly dead Gremlin telling him he has an hour before the acid burns through his armor and kills him—and that there is an antidote at the center of the base. Iron Man battles through various traps and defenses, all while the Gremlin mocks him. When he reaches the inner sanctum, the recording of the deceased Gremlin reveals there is no antidote. Iron Man takes a gamble and leaps at the laser fire the follows: it tears the ruined armor off of him, freeing Tony to shut down the base. As he starts his long way back to civilization, he wonders if the end of the Soviet Union will lead to peace.
Story #4Mrs A. Takes a Holiday
Writer:
Richard Ashford. Penciler:
Cooper Smith. Inker:
Andrew PepoySynopsis
Mrs Arbogast has a family emergency and must take a day off from Stark Enterprises, sending her inexperienced niece Alison to fill in for her. Alison bungles appointments leaving a Senator mad at Tony so he goes down to his lab to continue his experiment as Iron Man. A distraction causes him to short the generator on a micro-electromagnet which hurls him high into the sky where he is able to get a grip on it and force it down to Earth again, crashing through the ceiling into Tony's office. The magnetic quality switches on and everything metal in the vicinity comes crashing towards Shellhead until he is able to fuse the circuits and destroy the machine. With the entire floor a shambles, Tony has to hire someone to work fast and rebuild the offices before Mrs A returns. Tony and Alison await her arrival early the next day and, sure enough, she spots something wrong: her seat cushion is missing...
Story #5Five Minutes
Writer:
Tom Brevoort, Mike Kanterovich. Penciler:
Chuck Wostkiewicz. Inker:
Tim DzonSynopsis
Iron Man's remote armor is hijacked by Hydra while on a space mission and brought to their island base. Tony Stark dons his stealth armor and heads out to recover it. With the invisible armor he is able to sweep over the island, blinding guards and reaching their testing ground where he sabotages several huge armored suits they are working with. Smashing into the central lab, he finds Hydra scientists experimenting with his stolen armor. They can detect the stealth armor though and have the advanced armor battle Tony. It goes poorly until Tony is able to override their control link, which causes some nasty feedback which sets off a chain reaction, destroying the island base. Tony and his recovered armor take off; total elapsed time of the mission: five minutes.