Synopsis
Invincible Iron Man (2011 series) #509 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
In Svartalfheim Iron Man comes out of the vat of molten Uru metal he jumped into last issue (and Fear Itself #6) with his armour transformed into something grey and spiky (like the Destroyer). He greets Odin, Thor and Splitlip the head Dwarf. Odin is going to send Iron Man back to Broxton to help stop the Serpent getting to the World Tree via the ruins of Earthly Asgard. Thor will join him there. And Odin will ready his forces to destroy the Earth if they fail. (No pressure, then!)
Splitlip's Dwarves will accompany Iron Man to Earth to carry the weapons they have made for the other Avengers. But first they show him the 2 Smoke Elves they captured, who set the mud golem on Tony Stark in #507. Splitlip offers to let Tony execute them.
Tony refuses, but the Dwarves are a riled-up lynch mob. He realises that the Serpent's influence has even reached here, stirring fear and xenophobia. The Dwarves try to push the Smoke Elves into the Uru vat. But Tony suits up and stops them. He allows the Smoke Elves to flee.
Splitlip confesses to Tony that he (and possibly all the other Dwarves) drinks so much because he is afraid of the demons inside him. He was impressed when Tony refused a drink last issue (after taking so many during Fear Itself), and wants help to stop drinking. Alcoholic Tony admits that when he deliberately fell off the wagon in FI#4, although it was officially a sacrifice to get Odin's help, in reality he also thought the world was going to end and couldn't face it sober. He says that if they get through this alive, he'll take Splitlip to Earth and introduce him to Alcoholics Anonymous.
In Paris Rescue is facing Mokk/Grey Gargoyle. He removed her helmet last issue, and Pepper Potts is trying to avoid looking him in the eyes, which would turn her to stone. She is just about to fail by wiping salty sweat from her eyes, when Serpent calls him for the final battle at Broxton. Mokk discards Pepper and starts to leave. Rescue tries to stop him by magnetically enclosing him in metal debris. But Mokk flies off, dropping the bits as he goes.
Rescue staggers away through Paris littered with ex-people statues, many of them broken. She comes across a UN search and rescue team who have just found the original Detroit Steel's broken armour, containing the pieces of Doug Johnson's stone body. Pepper gets a lift home on a UN plane.
On the way she contacts Walter Macken at Stark Resilient. He tells her that video footage is on the news of her in her Rescue suit (without helmet) in the SR boardroom, breaking down as she watches the global effects of FI. (She doesn't know that Bethany Cabe took the film in #505.) Justine Hammer is on-screen making the most of her rival's weakness.
Iron Man, Thor and the Dwarves got to Earth and Broxton, where they are greeted by Dr Strange, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Ms Marvel, Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman and Wolverine (and probably others).
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Splitlip, Walter Macken.
EnemiesPlus: Justine Hammer.