Synopsis / Summary / Plot
In Infinity Wars #3 Gamora used the Infinity Stones to halve the population of the universe by combining people in pairs - and also changed the past so they'd always been that way. This issue opens with a picture of 1 such merger, Iron Hammer, but then flashes back to reveal his origin.
Tech-billionaire Sigurd Stark is in an ice hotel bar in Norway. He built his company and fortune in just 5 years but drinks alone because he's tormented by the fact that he doesn't know who he is. As he heads out into the stormy night he is warned that a man vanished out there 2 months ago. But that man was Stark's friend, Russian scientist Algrim Vanko. And it was a storm like this that Sigurd emerged from 5 years ago an amnesiac, and with no records of his prior existence.
As he plods through the welcoming storm he finds himself in a forest that shouldn't exist. Inside he is attacked by beings he somehow recognises as Dark Elves of Svartalfheim (and later the name of their leader Malekith pops into his head). A poisoned arrow in the leg brings him down. But the Elves are prevented from killing him by the arrival of their local boss the Krimson Kurse who recognises Stark and thinks his tech-savvy will be useful.
The Elves leave him by a tree-stump from which emerges Eitri the Dwarf smith who takes him inside to his forge. Eitri explains that a cursed throat-shackle forces him to make weapons for the Dark Elves. Sigurd says the Elves want him to help the Dwarf, in return for a promise to cure the poison that will kill him in a week (and then raise him as a thrall to the Elves). He suggests they work together to defeat the Elves. Eitri's curse prevents him from making weapons for himself, but he *can* make weapons and armour for Stark. And Stark teaches him to use Earthly science.
As the week draws near its end Sigurd becomes too weak to continue working as the poison reaches his heart. In his fevered dreams he sees a horned gold mask which taunts him. Eitri finishes the job alone and gives the armour to Stark. Runes on the chest plate will keep him alive, and the magic armour also cures his arrow-shattered leg. But it will take a little time for it to restore Sigurd's strength. Time they don't have because the Krimson Kurse approaches.
Eitri's curse prevents him from escaping, but not from sacrificing himself to buy time for his friend. He gives Sigurd a mighty hammer forged from elf's bane, cold iron. If he is worthy then it will provide the power to keep the armour running, and the power to smite his enemies. Then he goes outside to challenge Krimson Kurse. As Stark hears his ally being torn limb from limb he reaches out to the weapon and become Iron Hammer.
He emerges from the tree stump as an armoured avenger of the fallen Dwarf. With the help of the suit's computer HEIMDALL (Heuristic Enhanced-Imaging Macro-Digital Awareness for Logic and Logistics) he fights Kurse and the Dark Elves, whose arrows can't penetrate the metal. The hammer dispenses blasts and targeted lightning strikes, and also can be used to hit things. But the 'cold iron' isn't fatal to Kurse because he's human. And when his mask is knocked off it reveals the mummified face of Algrim Vanko. This is the end result of the Elves' poison. So Sigurd ends his friend's thralldom by stabbing him through the heart with the haft of the hammer.
In Asgard 3 characters have been watching the events unfold. Malekith the Dark Elf, master of the 10 Realm-Rings, has already conquered Asgard. But Stane Odinson points out that the Elf's plan to have Vanko kill Stark has backfired - Stane gave up *everything* (the rule of Asgard to Malekith?) in exchange for Stark's death. And Madame Hel in her horned golden mask promises that Sigurd will be the 1st of the Aesir to die.