With Iron Man hanging out in space (before he starts his little jaunt with The Guardians of the Galaxy), you really have to wonder what he might be up to. In fact, you might be wondering how, while in space, they run an arc entitled The Secret Origins of Tony Stark. .

Back in the day Howard Stark and his wife were having problems conceiving a child. Howard finally found a way to allow his wife to carry a child full term by making a deal with an alien robot named (you guessed it) 451.

The deal would require Tony to be altered at the cellular level which would not only make him smarter than your average Stark (which is already smarter than your average human), but also be just more of a complete human even on the genetic level. He was going to play a larger role in something that Howard would never know about.

The majority of this issue first showed off Howard and 451 cleaning up the mess they had made while keeping what they had done a secret. It mainly took the form of destroying an alien base that had taken hold in Vegas as well as killing their leader.

All in all, it was the slowest of the issues that involved all of Howard’s friends getting together and kicking some alien butt.

Fast forward to now. 451 is finally telling Tony what his purpose is. Over the centuries he has been putting together a weapon that was once able to hold The Celestials at a stand still. He is doing it with the view that he could use it as a ‘nuclear deterrent’ option to keep humanity safe. (I’m sure he’s got other plans in mind but that’s all he’s telling Tony.)

He only needed 2 more pieces to get it going. The first was the piece he stole from an alien race back in Iron Man #8 and the second piece was a pilot. A pilot that would have to be grown to have just the correct genetic makeup necessary to pilot the giant robot. Pilot it much like a suit of armor.

Yes being able to pilot a giant suit of mechanical armor against Celestial appears to be Tony Stark’s purpose as far as 451 is concerned and considering this is an end game he had planned for – it’s going to be interesting to see what he’s lied about that Tony has to overcome and how he gets himself out of this mess! I won’t lie though, I’d love to see Tony Stark take on a Celestial. My only issue is though that he’s already been able to make an impact on The Phoenix. I don’t care how awesome Iron Man is, I think one interstellar Godlike being should be enough for one man to have to deal with.

Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Dale Eaglesham