Happy Hogan returns from his stay in Ireland to a warm greeting by Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. Meanwhile in Monte Carlo, Tony’s wastrel cousin Morgan Stark has been losing big at a casino owned by the crimelord Count Nefaria. The Count proposes a way for Morgan to work off his gambling debts by helping him destroy Tony Stark; Morgan, who has always been jealous of his successful cousin, jumps at the chance….
Shortly thereafter, Morgan shows up a Tony’s office for a visit. A week later, Tony is driving along a country road on his way to a dinner date when he spies an alien spaceship in a clearing. He drives off to alert the CIA but changes his mind and returns as Iron Man (thus unwittingly protecting his secret identity from the watching Morgan). Iron Man enters the craft and discovers a ticking atomic device. Returning with the police (who are evidently trained to prevent nuclear holocausts), Tony finds no evidence of any spacecraft. He spots an alien lurker (thanks to an image projected by Morgan) but no one else sees it—or Morgan either even though they are searching the area. The police dismiss Tony as a prankster, Pepper and Happy are concerned that he is working too hard, and Senator Byrd plans to cancel his government contracts. Iron Man returns to the clearing to investigate in more detail and Morgan is there to repeat the trick with the image projector but something happens that is so bizarre that Stan Lee has to warn us about it in the narration: an actual spacecraft full of warriors from the moon lands. The invaders are planning to destroy Earth’s next moon rocket (wait, don’t they launch those things in Florida?) so Iron Man engages them in battle, driving them off with his superior weaponry. As the Moon Men flee Morgan Stark falls from his hiding place, and our hero has to rescue him too. This is a stroke of luck, as Morgan can now confirm for Senator Byrd that the rocket Tony saw was real. As a reward, Tony sends his cousin back to Monte Carlo in style—and to the gravely displeased Count Nefaria….