Synopsis
Invincible Iron Man (2005 series) #29 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
SHIELD Director Iron Man is getting ready to lead the armoured Team Alpha on a mission into Kirikhstan. While he waits Tony Stark remembers his old lover Bethany Cabe and is dying for a drink he can't have 'cos he's an alcoholic. Deputy Directors Dum-Dum Dugan and Maria Hill are overseeing the operation from the helicarrier. Shellhead is supposed to be just part of the team this time, but Dugan and Hill have a bet on how long that will last.
SHIELD has been invited here by the Russians to find some terrorist-planted nuclear bombs. (But since Kirikhstan is no longer part of the Soviet Union the locals might not be so welcoming.) The terrorist only gave a list of possible sites so the team split up to cover them all.
Stark expects the bombs to be detected by magnetometers on their wrists. Carstairs, Farrell and Colletti call in negative, but the 4th Alpha Gomez reports a contact before an explosion cuts him off.
The helicarrier and the rest of the team move in to Gomez' location. But Iron Man has detected another bomb. Tracking it down he finds a miniature device with nano-scale components. Atomic force microscopes in his gauntlets allow him to manipulate the mechanism. But as he works the bomb ejects 4 smaller lasers which he destroys. Then a tense 2 minutes of fiddling enables him to deactivate the trigger mechanism.
Gomez is badly burned but should recover. Strangely his nuclear bomb exploded with hardly any residual radiation. Tony thinks he recognises this technology. SHIELD has intercepted a transmission from the terrorist, a badly disfigured man who claims to want revenge on the Kirikhstan government who mutilated him and killed his wife. And Stark recognises him as Nasim Rahimov.
As predicted Tony Stark takes control of the operation once he gets back to the helicarrier. Rahimov was a classical pianist (and we'll learn next issue also an inventor) and his wife was a painter, and they were both personal friends.
Meanwhile SHIELD Special Weapons Director Nick Weir is being given access to a storage area for ultra-dangerous weapons in a Pentagon basement. In particular he's come to see the SHIELD Overkill Horn, which was developed during the Cold War to remotely-detonate enemy weapons. But Weir KO's his guide Lt Crater with a baseball bat, and sprays nanites at the Horn, setting off alarms.
When troops burst in Weir has Crater as a hostage with a gun created by his nanorobots. It turns out he's miffed because inventive genius Tony Stark has made him effectively redundant after taking over SHIELD. But now he'll show them all how good he is, as his nano-system upgrades the Overkill Horn into a machine that will counter any possible weapon, and adapt to any future weapons technology.
But something goes wrong as the wildly-mutating Horn attacks the soldiers and engulfs Carter. And Weir runs away.
Story #2With Iron Hands Part One
Writer/Penciler/Inker/Letterer:
. Colorist:
Dean White.
Synopsis
Story #3A Special Sneak Peek of Moon Knight #20
Writer:
. Penciler/Inker:
Mike Deodato Jr.. Colorist:
Unknown. Letterer:
Unknown.
Synopsis