One day when Iron Man is flying through
the city on an unspecified mission, he spots a crook holding up the
box office of a theater. He pursues the hood into the theater where
and escape artist billed as the Uncanny Umberto is doing his act.
Umberto, who is also a contortionist, rolls into a ball and bowls
over the fleeing robber and Iron Man thanks him for the assist. This
gives Umberto the idea to turn his special abilities to criminal
purposes as the world’s greatest burglar. He steals a scarecrow
outfit from a costumer and filches the trained crows of another
vaudevillain and teaches them to obey his commands. And to kick off
his nefarious career, he plans to rob millionaire playboy Anthony
Stark….
At Tony Stark’s office, his glamorous
girlfriend Veronica Vogue arrives to see him, but Pepper Potts lies,
telling Veronica that Tony is out of town. Enraged at Tony’s
“rudeness,” Veronica storms off. When Tony arrives, he figures
out what went on but doesn’t mind (!). At the end of the working
day, Happy Hogan drives Tony home, where they catch the Scarecrow in
the act of burglary. The villain’s acrobatic ability enables him to
make short work of Happy but it gives Tony enough time to don his
Iron Man armor. Scarecrow’s crows wrap the hero in drapery and when
he frees himself he follows the fleeing villain out the window—but
it was a trick. Scarecrow was hidden in the apartment and rifles
Tony’s safe at his leisure then escapes Happy by having his birds
fly him to the ground….
At home, the Scarecrow realizes he has
the plans for some new weapons designed by Tony Stark and calls Tony
with an offer to sell them back. Tony plants a mysterious device in
the briefcase full of money and meets the villain at the rendezvous.
Scarecrow takes the cash but keeps the plans and heads to Cuba in his
speedboat. Meeting up with a Cuban gunboat, Scarecrow hands the
briefcase with the plans over to the captain; Iron Man appears and
snatches the case away by the magnet he had placed inside earlier. He
then sinks the boat with a hand drill but the villain is pulled away
to Cuba by his crows. Iron Man can’t follow as his jets are out of
power (he needs to design better batteries). Tony returns to the
office where he produces the Broadway tickets he bought for Veronica
Vogue—and he gives them to Happy to take Pepper. Meanwhile, the
Scarecrow broods in exile….