Synopsis
Invincible Iron Man #52 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
Iron Man rushes the wounded Abby St. Clair to the medics at the site of the warehouse fire while pausing to recharge his heart. Bad news: Abby does not survive; the police wonder if there is a connection to the previous Jane Doe but Shellhead can’t contain his anger….
The police question Tony Stark as a matter of routine; he mentions Abby delivering his briefcase to him at the conference. The other attendees don’t recall seeing her save for Mary Reilly though she is mocked mercilessly by her employer Thomas Adkins….
As the police try to put the clues together, Mary falls to her death from her hotel window. Mary’s laptop contains what appears to be a suicide note. Tony is resistant to the suggestion that Abby’s past was the reason for her murder. Tony questions the staff at The Haven but there is still no clue. Shelly comes back to confirm that Abby is dead and Tony tries to convince her there is a way out….
That night, Shelly is on the street and a guy picks her up in his car—it’s a set-up and when he’s sure this is the right man, Iron Man rips the roof off the car to reveal political whiz Randall Johnson Jr. Shellhead explains that at the conference he recognized Abby as the only victim to survive (years ago) and he killed her even though she could no longer recall her attacker’s face. And Mary Reilly also figured it out and was blackmailing him. His travel itinerary matches the murders of teen prostitutes all over the world—except Iron Man has it all wrong. The killer is Johnson’s wife Helen, who knows about her husband’s interest in teen hookers, so to protect his political career, she has been killing every young woman he has picked up and slept with. And to end it all, she shoots her husband, then herself….