Another issue into the current run of ‘Iron Man’ and another issue that delves into ‘The Secret Origin of Tony Stark’. We left Tony in ‘Iron Man’#15 with 451 having set a countdown to send The Godkillers to another Universe where no one could find it. Within it would be Tony and 451 himself.

That doesn’t sound like a good plan to Mr. Stark so when this issue opens, he’s a little stuck at the moment. How is he going to get out of this situation? Fortunately with some prodding from his AI. They try to hack 451 but are unsuccessful. It’s going to probably take a month to get through his security and they don’t have a month to spare.

Tony’s AI tells him that only 451’s own tech would have a chance to get it done. This brings him back to a conversation he had with Death’s Head to not ask where he got all his tech from. Of course he got it from 451. Thankfully, after his brief frozen moment, he was able to get back to his senses and figure this out.

They rush to Death’s Head’s ship and are in luck. They are able to use his gear to hack into 451 and escape with Tony’s own armory just in time. He signals the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and rejoins their ranks. The rest of his story from that run is still ongoing in that book but at the end we fast forward to Tony heading back to Earth. At which point we find that he still has 451 and quite a bit of knowledge with him. He isn’t active anymore but as they’ve already hacked into his system it won’t be that difficult to go through what information he still has, aside from how much data they’ll have to sift through.

When he does get to Earth we see that his first stop is in New York for a slice of pizza. I won’t lie, real food would probably be one of my stops as well though suddenly he gets a call from Pepper whose found out he’s back on Earth.

It’s an emergency and he has come immediately. As he shows up he worries it may be a trap and it was! The clever trap was set by Pepper as it was actually Tony’s belated birthday party which he had left Earth to avoid in the first place. Avengers, old friends, and an announcement that Pepper is now engaged doesn’t seem to throw him.

What does is a nagging memory where he says he has to go and runs to his room. He goes looking through boxes from his past, finds something, and leaves the party.

Where is he off to? We won’t find out until next issue but I have a feeling it’s going to lead to the final installment to ‘The Secret Origin of Tony Stark’! (Which I can’t wait to see finally be over to see how this entire setup moves the actual story forward.) My one concern is that now that we’re going to be in a more Earth-centric plots how the art will hold up.

atoms_3.5

IRON MAN #16
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Carlo Pagulayan