Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Iron Patriot was fighting some monsters in the sea off Louisiana. We learn now that at the same time there have been terrorist attacks across the US. The Washington Monument has been destroyed. And other attacks are in New Orleans, Dallas International Airport and the Los Angeles Superior Court.
James Rhodes' father Terrence is watching all these events on TV at home in Atlanta when 2 armed men burst into his house. He doesn't resist until 1 of them goes upstairs looking for his granddaughter Lila. Terrence overpowers the gunman who stayed with him, but the other guy comes back and knocks him out.
The upstairs guy had found Lila's bedroom empty, but the window wide open. She's hiding on the roof and watches as the 2 men cart her limp grandfather off in a van.
At the end of the 1st issue the Iron Patriot armour seized up in mid-battle, dropping into the ocean where Rhodey's starting to drown. The suit isn't responding to any commands, but Jim remembers there's a manual eject button. With a special extra function. He lines the suit up hopefully pointing to the surface. It ejects him into the water but also rockets forward. It shoots out of the water and decapitates the (last?) mud monster. But self-destructs in the process.
Rhodey is left to swim to the surface from a long way down, with very little air in his lungs. Of course he makes it, but collapses from decompression.
Meanwhile Lila has called the cops. But the 2 uniformed officers who respond aren't real cops. They're the bad guys come back to finish what they started.
When Jim wakes up he's in a helicopter with 2 men who pretend to be journalists covering his fight with the monsters. But actually they were sent to pick him up. They take him to New Orleans ravaged by explosions. And accidentally let slip that their boss doesn't want him dead.
When they land in a street Rhodey tries to escape, but collapses with a heart attack from the decompression. And an armoured form approaches, claiming to be acting for the good of the country.