Appearing in "You Can't Stay at a Party Too Long if You Don't Go to the Party"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Jim Rhodes (Mentioned)
- Captain Krakoa (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- B.O.S.S. (Voice only)
- Avengers (Mentioned)
- Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) (Voice only)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers)
- Rogue (Anna Marie LeBeau)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Mentioned)
- Interpol (Mentioned)
- Kingpin (Wilson Fisk)
- X-Men (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- United States of America
- New York City
- Manhattan
- One World Trade Center (Cameo)
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Randall's Island (Mentioned)
- Henry Gyrich Center for Behavioral Studies (Mentioned)
- Manhattan
- New Jersey
- Washington, D.C. (Mentioned)
- Capitol Building (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- New York City
- Krakoa (Mentioned)
Items:
- Iron Man Armor Model 70
- Iron Man Armor Model Nil (Mentioned in narration)
- Captain America's Shield and uniform
- Captain Krakoa's Suit (Only on screen as a static image or video record)
- Inhibitor Collar
Vehicles:
- Captain America's Motorcycle (Mentioned)
Events:
- Armor Wars (Mentioned)
- Hellfire Gala (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "You Can't Stay at a Party Too Long if You Don't Go to the Party"
Tony Stark consults with Jen Walters, and she suggests he comply with Feilong's cease-and-desist, since he now owns the technology that Tony uses in his armor. Jen toys with the idea that Tony could operate out of a foreign nation, namely the mutant country of Krakoa, and that she could talk to people at the Hellfire Gala later in the day. Tony leaves Jen's office dejectedly, impelling himself to come to terms with the fact that Feilong has won. The Stark Sentinels have been deployed and patrol the city, much to the delight of regular citizens.
Having returned to Bronson's Cabs, Tony is packing up the Model 70 Armor to turn it over to Feilong. He has sold the cabstand at a loss and is preparing to go underground, since he still intends to serve on the Avengers. The suit's helmet suddenly projects the news on the Avengers frequency that Captain Krakoa has attacked the Capitol. Tony suits up for one last ride with the armor. On his way to respond to the emergency alongside the rest of the Avengers, who have left the Hellfire Gala to do so, Iron Man receives another alert; Captain America is reporting a distress call from the Brooklyn Bridge. Tony changes course, but arrives at the bridge to find Steve already having been assisted by Rogue. The three take off to Washington, D.C.
Hours later, Iron Man returns to New York, where he spots a Stark Sentinel on the air attacking an office building, alleging an Interpol arrest warrant. Inside are Emma Frost and Wilson Fisk, singing some kind of legal document. Tony sneaks up under the Sentinel and disables its propulsion with sludge, causing it to crash into the ground. He confronts Emma about her clandestine dealings, but she snaps at him and berates Tony because the Stark Sentinels have attacked the Hellfire Gala, catching Tony unaware of that development. Their argument is interrupted when another Sentinel swats Tony into a truck on the ground and steps on it, causing an explosion. Kingpin flees, but Emma stays behind. She assumes her diamond form as she takes a stand against Feilong. He taunts her through the Stark Sentinels about mutantkid's orchestrated downfall, and orders the robots to kill both of them.
Emma is thrown into the ground, where she reconvenes with Iron Man. He flies her to a subway entrance so she can escape, but when he turns around, he's surprised to see no Sentinels. Tony suddenly finds himself crushed in the middle of a destructive Sentinel fist bump; the robots having used their limited stealth mode to ambush him on both flanks. Frost becomes aware of the attack telepathically, and turns around to assist Tony as he lies on the ground in a catatonic state, calling for Emma's help in his thoughts. Emma uses her powers to enter Stark's mind, projecting herself into his mindscape; a desolate, snow-covered alleyway where Tony is sitting, holding his knees and surrounded by a trail of empty bottles. Emma takes Tony's hand, signaling her taking over his body. She manages to fly Tony out of the way of a repulsor blast from a Sentinel, but the robots spot Emma nearby. In his midscape, Tony reaches into the snow, plucks the helmet of his Model 1 Armor from under it, and wakes up.
One of the Sentinels grabs Emma and fastens an inhibitor collar around her neck. Tony steps out of his damaged armor and drops to his knees, offering the suit to Feilong in exchange for Emma's life. The Sentinel drops Emma back on the ground, and she banters with Tony, purporting that she saved Stark out of convenience. On his lair, Feilong orders the Sentinels to arrest both, with the intention to torture them. Nonchalantly chalking it up to not wanting to be indebted to her, Tony gestures at his armor to encase Emma, much to her shock. He forces her to fly away, slipping past the grasp of the Stark Sentinels, infuriating Feilong. A bloodied Tony dares Feilong to kill him openly in the street.
Solicit Synopsis
HELLFIRE GALA TIE-IN!
As the X-Men throw their latest Hellfire Gala, Iron Man has to contend with the new Stark Sentinels flying through New York! Can Tony stop these mutant-hunting machines alone? Guest-starring Emma Frost!Notes
- This issue's recap page includes a note placing it after X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1. Even though the bulk of the issue takes place after it, the opening pages before the time skip take place before and during the gala.
- Jen Walters mentions Tony Stark needing to comply with a cease-and-desist from Feilong. Jen received this letter on behalf of Tony in Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 5) #4.
- Jen recalls "Armor Wars" (Iron Man #225–232) as the precedent for Feilong to take action against Tony using his own technology. In this story, Iron Man went after everybody using his armor's previously-unpatented technology without permission. "Armor Wars" is brought up in the issue again later by Stark's narration when he comments on it inspiring him to have a way to readily disable traditional jet propulsion.
- As he is packing the Model 70 Armor at Bronson's Cabs, Tony's narration comments that Carol Danvers asked him to serve on the Avengers. This happened in Avengers (Vol. 9) #1, when the team went through a reshuffle following the events of Avengers Assemble.
- When Tony's armor informs him of Captain Krakoa's attack on the Capitol, an editor's note cites the issue in which it happened, Free Comic Book Day 2023: Avengers/X-Men #1, wich was also written by this issue's writer Gerry Duggan. Tony's arrival to assist Captain America at the Brooklyn Bridge picks up where the events of this comic leave off. The attempt on Rogers' life had been by Orchis operatives.
- After Rogue asks him about any possible involvement with the Stark Sentinels, Iron Man retorts asking if the Captain Krakoa attacking the Capitol is Cyclops. This is because Captain Krakoa was originally an alias used by Cyclops in the pages of X-Men (Vol. 6) to continue operating with the X-Men after being killed in public and being secretly brought back to life by Krakoa's Resurrection Protocols, whose existence was confidential at the time.
- Emma Frost appears with a nose strip. She injured her face in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1 after failing to pass through a Gateway since they were all hacked by Orchis.
- When Iron Man is bickering with Frost, he points out that he warned her at the last Hellfire Gala that things were going to take a turn for the worse for Krakoa but she brushed him off. This happened in X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1.
- Feilong boasts that mutants laced the medicines they pushed on humans when he is taunting Emma Frost. In House of X #1, it's established that mutants used the Flowers of Krakoa to synthesize an array of beneficial drugs as leverage for diplomatic relationships with human nations. Orchis operative Doctor Stasis infiltrated Krakoa's pharmaceutical factories and tampered their production to include a back-door kill switch, as established in X-Men (Vol. 6) #22 and elaborated in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1.
- Tony's vision in his mindscape of being stranded on the streets in a blizzard is a reference to the events of Iron Man #182, in which a homeless Tony Stark survives a blizzard after hitting rock bottom, marking a turning point in his fight against alcoholism. The panel when Emma finds Tony sitting against an alley's dead end is a homage to the cover of that issue.
- When he is planning what to do to Emma Frost, Feilong mentions "that gulag in Randall's Island." X-Men (Vol. 6) #25 would establish this location to be the Henry Gyrich Center for Behavioral Studies.
Trivia
- When Iron Man decides to take a detour to help Captain America at the Brooklyn Bridge, the One World Trade Center can be seen behind him, signaling that he was passing by Manhattan while in route to Washington, D.C. Since Tony was in Jersey City and he had asked B.O.S.S. to plot him the flight plan to D.C. that saved him the most energy, the most direct route wouldn't have taken him through New York City.
- Tony mentions that he arrived to the Brooklyn Bridge in 15 seconds after disengaging the suit's autopilot when he is close to the One World Trade Center. Having traveled roughly 1 mile (1.6 km), he was moving at ~240 mph (~386 km/h).
- The sludge that Iron Man uses to disable the jet boots of one of the Stark Sentinels is the same that he used on the humanoid drone that attacked him in Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 5) #1.
- When Iron Man sees the Kingpin's Hellfire Gala outfit, he jokingly calls him the "Wilson Fisk of Westeros," alluding to the renowned costume design of the TV series Game of Thrones, an adaptation of the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire. The fictional continent of Westeros is one of the series' main settings. Tony was previously established to have watched Game of Thrones in Tony Stark: Iron Man #14.