Contents
History
Anthony Stark was captured by the man he fired years ago, Donald Birch, who wanted him to witness what he had created in blowing Birch's life away.
Witnessing the rise of the Phoenix brought from the past via a reconstructed Doctor Doom's Time Machine, Tony Stark fled from the machine and ended up in the past while his world and friends were consumed by the Dark Phoenix.[1]
Ultron and the Avengers
He first went to his hotel where he found his younger, drunken self, who gave him the armor in his delirium. Then he went to the Avengers who tried to take off the armor of him, thinking he was still drunk. He confronted them and fled to Pym's lab where he hit him for having stolen his wife Janet after their divorce, but Tony managed to explain to him he was from the future, telling him about Pym's future technology of Overspace. He then helped him and the Avengers defeat Ultron before Pym gave him the repaired part of the Time Machine, and he fled into the time-stream, after admitting to Hank that he would go through some bad events of his life.[2]
In Jaspers' Britain
Tony arrived in Britain during James Jaspers' reign as Prime Minister, he witnessed the Beetles arbitrary arrests on mutants in London and met Captain Britain, who asked for help from him and the USA against Jaspers. As the two heroes refused to help each other, Stark left.
He then presented himself as Tony Stark to Vixen for him to enter the S.T.R.I.K.E. complex by Captain Britain. Knocking Vixen down, he went on a search for the time machine fragment, finding it on Donald Birch, who was a prisoner of Vixen in this era. He debated the idea of killing him in order to prevent the fate of his world, but decided to leave instead. This was due to him feeling uncomfortable with the concept of preventive murder, having been confronted earlier with the Beetles arresting innocent mutants and having heard part of Jaspers' interview on the subject of preventive arrests of powered beings.
Instead, he left, but was quickly surrounded by the Beetles. Captain Britain and the British resistance came to fight Jaspers' soldiers and Braddock once again asked for help from Iron Man who refused and left using the machine.[2]
Back to New York
Back in New York he met the Heroes for Hire, Power Man and Iron Fist.
He travelled then to Latveria's embassy, was made prisoner by Doctor Doom, escaped, made friends with Johnny Storm, met his past self once again, and battled Doctor Doom in the timestream.[3]
The Hellfire Club
His next destination lead to him encountering the débutante artist Dazzler who was being tracked by the Knights of the Hellfire Club.
Using his membership in the club, he infiltrated it to find a part of the time machine while being helped by Dazzler, who he counseled into thinking once again about joining the X-Men.
He was made a prisoner by Sebastian Shaw and battled him alongside the X-Men who came to battle the Black King. There he witnessed the Hellfire's Dark Phoenix, who destroyed the time-travelling machine before leaving to avoid meeting Cyclops.[4]
For years, Tony Stark stayed stuck in the past, trying to complete the time machine. He was close to completing it, but his device was unstable. Realizing he could not complete the machine alone, Stark decided to visit Hank Pym and ask for his help.
The two of them then decided to work together, but Pym thought they should inform Reed Richards in order to gain his help with the project. Stark, however, refused, stating that the only heroes who could be involved were the people he saw on Birch's screen: Captain Britain, Dazzler, Iron Fist, Cyclops, Power Man, Henry Pym, and Johnny Storm.
Finally, he succeeded in recreating a time machine, and Stark gathered his allies to go confront Birch in the present, leaving Pym behind as a back-up plan.[5]
Return to present and death
Iron Man's death, saving Power Man
They came a little bit too late, as Donald Birch and Tony Stark of the present were already witnessing the arrival of the Dark Phoenix from the past.
The team confronted Birch's robots and the Phoenix, but the future Iron Man was killed while saving Power Man from the Phoenix fire, much to Birch's enjoyment.
They managed to defeat the Phoenix, and Birch died from a combination of his cancer and the severe shock of his failure.
The team then headed back to their era with the unconscious Jean Grey after Luke Cage thanked Tony Stark for sacrificing his future-from-the-past-self in order to save him.[5]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Tony Stark possessed only his special internal liquid armor, as well as the "natural" strength he gained from it.
Abilities
Seemingly those of Anthony Stark of Earth-616.
Notes
- Stark was tempted to return to his alcoholic behavior during his adventure.
