Synopsis
Ironheart: Bad Chemistry (2025 series) #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This issue is a sequel to the Ironheart lead story in Free Comic Book Day 2023: Marvels Voices where new villain Khem stole a Pyramid Almanac from Chicago's DuSable Museum at a lecture by Curtis Carr, the original villain Chemistro. Khem got away after scanning the artefact.
Now Ironheart is chasing her through the sky again after Khem stole something else from the Museum. As before the villain flies on 2 glider-discs. As Riri Williams banters with her suit's sarky AI NATALIE, Khem asks her AI HERMES if her suit is fully charged yet. While she waits she fires a blast at her pursuer which turns the air around her helmet to a ball of granite, crediting her uncle for that idea. As IH falls towards the ground NAT creates a specific frequency which shatters the granite. But now Khem has enough power to teleport back to her base.
Returning to the Museum IH is told that Khem stole the legendary Philosopher's Stone. Dr Baker doesn't believe in it's powers but says that alchemists believed it could transmute elements. Diablo once tried to use it against the Fantastic Four (FF#525-526). Riri decides to go visit Khem's father Curtis Carr, who NAT informs her is a Scholar In Residence at Chicago University's prosthetics lab (he lost both feet at different times via the Alchemy Gun he invented).
Khem has teleported to her base near Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. The rudimentary teleporter was painful and she's nearly sick. Someone addresses her as Kimberlee and she reports to him that she got the Stone. We learn that her associate is Basil Sandhurst, the Controller, who says that the Stone combined with the instructions she decoded from the previous artefact means that no-one will be able to stop them. K states her goal to make her father suffer, and Ironheart and Chicago too.
IH goes to see Curtis Carr as Riri Williams (they met in the FCBD story) and demands to know what the deal is with his daughter. He says he didn't even know she existed until that day in the Museum. He relates the background story. He fell in love with her mother Alisha Yulaunda Kennedy while he was working for Mainstream Motors where he invented his Alchemy Gun. The company tried to claim ownership of his invention and fired him. To get revenge he became the supervillain Chemistro, but to avoid Alisha getting hurt he turned his back on her and never knew she was pregnant. Later Luke Cage and Danny Rand (Iron Fist) helped him turn his life around. Riri tells him that Khem mentioned her uncle. Curtis tells her how his brother Calvin stole the Gun and became the 2nd Chemistro, who now hates him because Curtis got him arrested and imprisoned.
Back in Khem's base Sandhurst tells her he's added his slave-disc app to her glider-discs, and she says she's finally cracked the cipher of the Pyramid Almanac. She reminds him how she found him in bad way after his spacecraft crashed to Earth after his last battle with Iron Man. She nursed him back to health and now they have a pact to destroy all of their enemies. Basil says they're ready to make the Philosopher's Elixir.
Curtis and Riri have a video call to Calvin Carr in Ryker's Island prison. He readily admits to having lots of visits from Kimberlee where he told her how Curtis abandoned her and her mother. He enjoyed filling her head with poison, and now he enjoys telling his brother what happened to the pair. Alisha decided not to tell Curtis about Kim after his failed supervillainy. She married a wannabe gangster who beat her and accidentally killed her. Kim went into the foster care system but kept running away trying to find her real dad. However she also turned out to be a scientific genius and eventually used that skill to make money in the criminal world. Along the way she linked up with Calvin who taught her how to make the most of her criminal dealings, ending up with her own business. He even told her about the Pyramid and the Stone. And finally he broke her heart by blaming her for her mother's death and then discarding her. After the call Curtis tells Riri his tech can reverse the alchemical changes Khem produces, so they set out to confront her.
Meanwhile Kim has created the Elixir and she drinks it. It's very painful but the results are powerful. She goes on a rampage performing large-scale transmutations on Chicago landmarks and the people within them. And when Ironheart interferes she's attacked by the armoured Controller (and assumes that the Controller is controlling Kim as per his usual modus operandi). Curtis also joins in wearing bulky flying armour (including a big gun on the shoulder a la War Machine). He tries to talk his daughter down but she refuses to listen. IH isn't faring very well in a straight fight with Khem, and then Controller attacks her at the same time. But he claims that Khem is controlling *him* - she hacked into his armour and used his slave-discs against him. NATALIE confirms that this seems to be true. He struggles against the control and a zap from IH lays him low. But Khem uses the slave-tech to turn the local civilians against Ironheart. She doesn't want to harm them so she takes to the air and leads Khem away from them. And then she blasts the glider-discs from her feet sending the villain crashing to the ground. The slave-tech was in the glider-discs so the people are freed and turn on *her*.
Khem keeps them away with a forcefield but then armoured Curtis tries to talk to her again. She damages his armour, forcing him to hit the eject button. As she prepares to kill him Ironheart attacks her again, but starts losing badly. But then NATALIE mentions that the Philosopher's Stone is embedded in the chestplate of the foe's armour, and its couplings are having to handle a lot of energy. She suggests overloading them. IH moves in for a bear hug, and both armours start to painfully overheat. The Stone explodes and both combatants are flung backwards. What follows is an armoured fist fight which Riri *does* win.
Armourless Curtis comes to check on his injured daughter but she angrily strikes out at him damaging his chest. Controller recovers and Khem teleports him and her away. We next see her in a medical bed in her base. Basil is under her control again, and she threatens to turn him into a vegetable if he tries to escape again. She also says she's still connected to the Stone and she can tell where it's being kept. When she gets it back she'll kill her father and Ironheart, and her uncle too. We see that Curtis is in a hospital bed too. But he told NATALIE how to reverse all the alchemical changes, and luckily no lives were lost. Riri tells him that Kimberlee may change now she knows the truth (but I don't think she 'knows' any more than she already did).
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Chemistro (
Curtis Carr).
EnemiesPlus: Chemistro (
Calvin Carr), Khem (
Kimberlee Kennedy).