Synopsis
Workers find they've been locked out of their New York Stark Unlimited factory. 2 security guards tell them the plant's closed but the workers refuse to leave. So the guards, 1 named Randy, turn into monsters and attack them. The ex-Marine leader of the workers tries to fight them but he's saved by a repulsor blast from Iron Man. He explains that he didn't order the lockout and is only here to inspect the factory which was built by the old Orchis/Feilong management to build mutant-hunting Sentinels. He blasts open the locked gates and tells the guard monsters to leave. They retort that they don't work for *him* and they attack him, but more repulsor blasts cause them to revert to human and run away. But they also claim that they've done what they were sent to do.
IM's armour transforms into Tony Stark's business suit and he talks to the ex-Marine Ramon Vincente, the Safety Inspector, who tells him that the factory has converted from making Sentinels to making artillery shells but they fear he's still going to close them down because he doesn't like manufacturing weapons. Stark says he'll change the product to something else but Vincente says that's why they're forming a union because they're tired of all the chopping and changing without consultation. So Tony says he'll recognise their union and write consultation into their contract. They shake hands on it but Ramon says he'll believe it when he sees it.
Stark armours up again and flies away but suddenly his boot- and hand-jets cut out and he crashlands back inside the factory.
Over many weeks he recovers from severe injuries in the private medbay in his new Manhattan brownstone. We see him progressing from bedbound with a leg in a cast through relearning to walk to an emaciated figure still with some bandages bemoaning the fact that he didn't install a medbay in his Santa Monica house where he would at least be warm. And he still can't find any reason why the armour failed. Meanwhile every existing suit that can be accessed online has been upgraded to avoid the problem. He wonders if he should resurrect his old neural link interface which would have given him advance warning of the failure, but that link had dangers for an addictive personality like himself. He gets a reminder of his 1st Board meeting since regaining control of his company and realises he'll have to fly by armour to get to Stark Unlimted HQ in time. And he avoids getting the armour to feed him painkillers (since his overuse in his 2020 series).
He enters the boardroom and removes his armour to reveal his dishevelled and extremely casually dressed self. He discovers that the new Board's Chairperson is Melinda May (from various SHIELD comics (and the TV series)). Another member, from Feilong's Board, is Jack Kooning Jr whose father was Secretary Of Defence when Stark was Director Of SHIELD (before Secret Invasion, and they didn't get along). Tony unveils his latest idea Starkbooking, an app to bet on superhero fights, which he reckons will rake in lots of money for little cost. And he'll use that money to get back out of the weapons business. But the Board then introduce AIM's Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini who has made a joint bid with Roxxon to buy Stark Unlimited at a price based on their current value as a weapons manufacturer. The Board will study the offer and vote on it but in the meantime they are forbidden to change their business portfolio.
Tony retires to another part of the HQ(?) which he trashes in anger. Giving up thinking of a way out of his weapons making dilemma he scans his online messages and sees 1 from flyingtiger that effectively says "We know where you live". And then he see an explosion in the area of his brownstone. Iron-flying there he finds that an explosion has occurred in a ground-floor laundromat. He detects no people inside but enters and uses repulsor blasts to snuff out the flames. But then he's attacked without warning from his armour by a self-styled Tiger Pack (Flying Tiger and Tiger Shark). It takes some effort to defeat them because it exacerbates his injuries, which it seems are still more than it appears. He ties up the baddies but it turns out that the fight was being live-streamed, and they say that they were supposed to lose. Flying Tiger suggests he should have worn his 'magic' armour.
As he flies away Tony belatedly realises that magic must be the reason his earlier armour failed, but not(?) why he didn't detect the villains this time. So he heads to a warehouse in Long Island where he's hidden the anti-magic mysterium armour along with others. But there he's unexpectedly attacked by the 2 bruisers from the start of the issue, which pops some more of the stitches and surgical staples holding him together. He repulsor-beats them again but then their boss makes an appearance ...
... and it's Justine Hammer who was killed by Zeke Stane (in IM#527). She explains that Roxxon has other-dimensional allies who brought her back to life for this. She suggests it makes sense to use a Hammer against a Stark, but Tony points out that she and her father never had much success in that regard. Justine reveals that Randy and his friend are part of Roxxon's BERZERKER squad and reminds him that the 2 'Tigers' were part of her Masters Of Evil, who this time delayed him while she raided the warehouse. He tries to summon his mysterium armour but then realises that she's wearing its mysterium as a 'badge' on her jacket.
She presses it and is engulfed in a new huge Iron Monger armour. Obviously they fight. And equally obviously they exchange banter and put-downs. Until Justine reveals her ace-in-the-hole. She tells his armour to fail and it does. She reveals that Roxxon's extra-dimensional allies added magic to AIM's malware, which the BERZERKERs uploaded to the Stark servers via the Sentinel factory in the beginning. Then when he did his global armour update it spread to all his other armours including this 1. She leaves him lying defeated with a final barb that 1 of his old Avengers teammates has joined them.
Tony somehow gets to an electronics lab and starts creating a new armour from scratch.