Invincible Iron Man #301: Review

Feb 1994

Len Kaminski, Kev Hopgood

Story Name:

Broadcast Storm

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #301 Review by T Vernon (November 27, 2018)

Comments: “Crash and Burn” part one of six. This version of Deathlok, Michael Collins, was the star of DEATHLOK Vol. 1 in 1990. Eddie Brock mentions three corporate disasters that were covered up: Three Mile Island, Bhopal India (Union Carbide), and Prince William Sound (Exxon); Google them if you want to be depressed, especially Bhopal. Tony mentions Sam Donaldson, a real TV journalist of the day.

Review: To be honest, I've long been afraid of comics with Deathlok. I had read his original series in ASTONISHING TALES in 1974 and thought this sci-fi superhero was pretty cool (War-Wolves! Wow!) but then he vanished due to poor sales. Not to worry, Marvel brought him back from time to time—but then his story kept changing and soon he was worse than DC's Hawkman for confusing continuity—there have been nine or ten variant Deathloks to date. So I approached this tale with trepidation. But it all went well! His story was pretty straightforward and everything we needed to know was right there before us. I'm glad I hit that small window where Deathlok's story was comprehensible. And the story at hand is pretty good. Deathlok is pretty cool as he goes through his own limited version of the Armor Wars and the final page is quite unnerving. And wait till you see what comes next.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #301 Synopsis by T Vernon

Deathlok enters Stark Enterprises' mainframe, battling the insectoid security programs, and discovers that rumors are true: some of the work he did for Cybertek as Michael Collins that was perverted into weapons by Harlan Ryker is now licensed to Stark. He tries to erase the files but can't, for that he must do it in person....

After spending the night with new love Veronica Benning, Tony Stark is in a bitter mood: not only can't he walk again but he was unable to perform last night. He gets a phone call from Felix Alvarez telling him to turn on CNN: widespread allegations of corruption are being leveled against Stark, stunning the world who thought of Tony as strongly ethical....

At a staff meeting, Tony demands to know how this happened. He is told that when Stark absorbed Stane International they also inherited Obadiah Stane's dirty dealings (issue #283). Tony gives orders to return the company to its clean reputation. He tells Felix to cooperate with government investigators, Abe Zimmer to track down the hacker, Bethany Cabe to rebuild Stark's security, and his secretary Stephanie to schedule a press conference....

Meanwhile, Deathlok has been able to infiltrate the company and heads toward the secret data-storage wing. H.O.M.E.R. detects the intruder and alerts Tony who, with Bethany's help, dons the new Iron Man armor. The Avenger confronts the cyborg and a battle ensues (as expected when two heroes meet for the first time); it's only when they have each other in a standoff that they talk and Tony realizes that D-Lok is only out to destroy his work which was stolen and misused. Shellhead allows him to erase the stolen designs from the Stark database and offers Collins a job with the company; Collins declines. Tony heads to the press conference where he affirms his commitment to ethics and honor. One of the audience scoffs at this, smelling just another cover-up and excuses himself to deal with the matter later...so when Tony returns to his office, he is ensnared in webbing—and standing face-to-face with Venom....