Iron Man (2026 series) #3

Madame Masque and AIM have kidnapped all the young geniuses who contended for the Tony Stark Award for innovation and hope that adversity will turn 1 of them (as it did for Tony when he created the 1st Iron Man suit to escape captivity) into the next Stark but under their control. Iron Man has gone to MODOK Superior, an ex-leader of AIM, for info on Masque's whereabouts but found him under attack by AIM troops.

In a secret AIM base MM and Fixer see the end result of 1 of their experiments. Dr Broeder invented a multiversal vibration jumper to try to escape. It took him to a parallel world but could only keep him there for a few minutes, and when he returned he materialised partway through a wall and is now of course dead.

Fixer reports that all the other geniuses are also busy including the Award winner Adam Ware who is just sitting thinking now but has already created a comms device that he used to briefly hack their computer system. Whitney Frost thought he was just a teacher but Norbert Ebersol says if she'd bothered to read his dossier she'd know he's got multiple degrees and specialises in educational comms tech. And he didn't use his invention to try to escape but to check that his fellow captives were OK. Masque thinks he needs more motivation and sends several AIM troopers to beat him up.

In Madripoor in MODOK's sybaritic palace Iron Man is defending the giant head while his female attendants try to get him into his armour. Stark asks him why AIM is trying to kill him and George Tarleton claims that it's because they're jealous of his visionary plans. But when he's armoured up he blasts at the hero's back rather than the other villains ...

... however a figure dressed in the Citizen V masked costume that Baron Zemo used to wear (as head of the Thunderbolts) bursts in and bloodies MODOK's big nose before laying into AIM with his sword. Tony knows it's not really Zemo (who was killed by Dr Doom in One World Under Doom #1) but his new 'ally' won't reveal his true identity and just leaves with a warning that "We're watching you".

The AIM troops are all down and Tarleton suggests that Iron Man go after CV, but Stark still wants to know where Whitney Frost is and why AIM tried to kill him. MODOK admits that after the OWUD event AIM has split into warring factions whose leaders are all vying for control. He mentions Masque and Fixer plus Taskmaster and the Scientist Supreme (Monica Rappaccini) but we also see Mentallo and Nefaria(?), but he doesn't know which of them these AIM troops work for. His only suggestion is that Whitney Frost is obsessed with Tony Stark, so if he wants to find her he should think about himself.

MODOK thinks that's the end of it but when Iron Man flies off he takes the big head guy with him when he heads back to his new base that he calls the Vault. En route he contacts Melinda May to ask her to investigate the AIM Civil War and who might be in the CV costume. We see that she's headed somewhere on a motorbike but she agrees to get back to him with info after his dinner date. Which Tony realises he'd forgotten about ...

... so the next thing we see is Tony arriving for his 1st date with Luna Lucia, who he met in #1, at a Malibu(?) beachfront. She admits that she was late herself because of an emergency at her restaurant. He's surprised that her choice of meeting place was an array of mobile food stands. She says she spends her life creating new dishes but sometimes she wants simple comfort food. She adds that Tony creates stuff too including the armour he uses to save the universe, but she asks when he last created something just for himself. He remembers back to when his father Howard helped him as a kid build new toys, but he also claims to have built motorbikes and cars. And then he remembers something else he built. He tries to change the subject to the actual romantic date ...

... but it's interrupted by Pepper Potts who'd just come here to pick up something to take home for dinner and happened to see them. Tony makes the introductions but they already know each other because Pepper hired Luna to cater for the Award function. An awkward silence is broken by a call from Melinda. Tony walks away to take it and comments that she just earned her SHIELD codename Cavalry. May, who we see is in the middle of fighting AIM troops, tells him that AIM *is* in Civil War but Masque built something big at the site she's at. Stark tells her that he's figured out what MODOK meant, that Masque is hiding in something he himself built. And he now knows why they can't find her because she and her AIM are mobile. Then he tells Luna that he's got to go and asks for a raincheck. Pepper comments to Luna that at least he said goodbye this time.

On the way out in a black stealth version of his armour IM explains to Ms May that when he was Director Of SHIELD he built his own gold-coloured helicarrier. After it was stolen and crashed he thought it had been scrapped by Damage Control. But he's uncovered that they subcontracted the job to a firm owned by Whitney Frost, and he figures she and AIM have rebuilt it. But that means he knows how to track it and break in undetected. He finds it and and sees that it's been repainted black. Inside he locates the control room and sees surveillance of the missing geniuses.

But then Madame Masque finds *him*. He repulsor blasts her but she's only a hologram. He offers to let her have *him* as her pet genius if she lets the others go. She opts to keep them all, and Tony falls into a hallucinatory(?) pit as she boasts that she has found his hidden files containing the ideas that he deemed to dangerous to implement. And she ends by reminding him that the last time he thought he was going to die he created the Iron Man armour - so what will he create now?