Synopsis
Tony Stark: Iron Man #13 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
This is the 2nd half of a War Of The Realms prequel. Malekith the Dark Elf wanted to get rid of Iron Man before the invasion of Midgard because iron is fatal to Elves. So he tricked the dragon Sadurang into attacking Tony Stark believing he had a hoard of gold he could steal. Iron Man and friends managed to drive the dragon off from Stark Unlimited last issue.
But now the dragon in his human guise turns up on Wall Street looking for the gold. He spurns the pleas of a beggar, but the man thinks Sadurang is a broker and warns him that *he* could follow this ex-broker into the gutter if he overreaches himself. From the unfortunate man Sadurang learns that the market handles 170 billion dollars a day, and could deal with 30 trillion if necessary. Sadurang tosses the man a bag of gold coins for his advice, and marches up to the Stock Exchange demanding the 30 trillion dollars of gold he now thinks they're sitting on.
Meanwhile back at SU Iron Man is suffering a side effect of his battle with the dragon - his armour is leaking magic. Bethany Cabe thinks the dragon infected the simple AI the company is using to replace the corrupted Motherboard and the deceased Friday. James Rhodes now tells him that his armour is morphing into a knightly form, and his gauntlets are generating mystic sigils. Tony experiments with spell-casting but the result is a rain of frogs.
Despite these problems Stark is determined to stop the rampage of the dragon who killed 3 of his security guards. He's also battling insecurity over his post-Civil War II rebuilt body and his resurgent alcoholism after he went on a VR bender in eScape. As he heads towards Wall Street he tries again to contact his girlfriend Janet van Dyne for her 'moral compass'. Rhodey calls to say his Manticore attack vehicle is damaged, as is the armour of Dr Shapiro the talking cat. Tony tells him to reactivate last issue's Hulkbot 3000.
When Iron Man reaches the NYSE he finds that Sadurang is back in dragon form and the place is a wreck with all the lights out. Stark tries an invented pseudo-Harry Potter spell "Illuminatus gigantus" which amazingly turns on his chest uni-beam. And "Shazam" sends electric bolts at the dragon. But the giant dragon attacks him physically, and also mentally with taunts at his character flaws. So wizard Stark uses the only spell he knows works and fills Sadurang's gaping mouth with frogs.
As the dragon coughs up the frogs Tony calls back to Rhodey to tell Bethany to switch of everything at SU except the Hulkbot. And then he leads the dragon back there. Beth starts an evacuation of the building. And David, the tech who was able to control the Stark computer system last issue when it could only understand Latin, plucks up the courage to ask her out on a date (presumably because they're all going to die anyway).
Iron Man arrives and Tony tells Rhodey that the Hulkbot is the only SU tech that hasn't been affected by the mystical computer virus because its AI is faulty. And he gets the green robot to rip the helmet and chestplate off him (presumably the remainder of the infected armour isn't dangerous).
And then good news arrives in the form of the Wasp, ready to fight and be his moral compass. Tony asks her to keep the dragon busy for 4 min 19 sec. Jan gives him an egoboost and the flies off to confront Sadurang. She zaps him with her sting and gets the lumbering giant to blunder about trying to catch her.
Then Tony Stark emerges wearing a cobbled-together version of his original grey armour. It has no AI to be infected. And it is built for strength and invulnerability and sheer punching power. And he beats the dragon to pulp until Jan drags him off.
Grateful Tony tries to summon the courage to confess to his girlfriend his VR drinking and the thirst it has reawakened. But instead he just hugs her.
And the Avengers call him for War Of The Realms.