Appearing in "The End of Iron Man"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Stark Sentinels MK II
- Stark Unlimited
- Warden Drummond (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Avengers
- Quiet Council of Krakoa (Mentioned)
- George R. R. Martin (Mentioned in narration) (Topical Reference)
- B.O.S.S. (Voice only) (Death)
- Interpol (Mentioned)
- Orchis (Mentioned)
- Vision (Mentioned)
- Stepford Cuckoos (Referenced)
- X-Men (Mentioned)
- Mole Man (Harvey Elder) (Mentioned)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Vision or hallucination)
- Wolverine (Logan) (Vision or hallucination)
- Storm (Ororo Munroe) (Vision or hallucination)
- S.H.I.E.L.D. (Mentioned)
- Hellfire Club
- Mr. Reddick (First appearance)
- White King (Wilson Fisk) (First appearance as White King)
- Howard Stark (Mentioned)
- Typhoid Mary (Mary Walker) (Referenced)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States of America
- New York
- Texas
- Livingstone (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Allan B. Polunsky Unit (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- Stark Unlimited factory (Mentioned)
- Livingstone (First appearance) (Unnamed)
- New Jersey
- California (Vision or hallucination)
- Los Angeles (Vision or hallucination)
- Silicon Valley (Vision or hallucination)
- Stark Enterprises Headquarters (Vision or hallucination)
- Hall of Armor (Vision or hallucination)
- Stark Enterprises Headquarters (Vision or hallucination)
- Silicon Valley (Vision or hallucination)
- Los Angeles (Vision or hallucination)
- Krakoa, Pacific Ocean (Mentioned)
- United States of America
- Planet Arakko (Mars) (Mentioned)
Items:
- Mjolnir (Cameo)
- Captain America's Uniform and Shield
- Iron Man Armor Model 70
- Daily Bugle (Named only)
- Human Drug I (Mentioned)
- Human Drug L (Mentioned)
- Human Drug M (Mentioned)
- Iron Man Armor (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model Nil (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 8 (Silver Centurion Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 13 (Modular Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 6 (Hydro Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 13 (Hulkbuster Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 4 (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 9 (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 42 (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 29 (Extremis Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 15 (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 51 (Model-Prime Armor) (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 3 (Vision or hallucination)
- Iron Man Armor Model 1 MK III (Vision or hallucination)
- Cyclops' Visor (Vision or hallucination)
Vehicles:
Events:
- Hellfire Gala (Referenced)
Synopsis for "The End of Iron Man"
Battered and bruised, Tony Stark holds his stance against two Stark Sentinels until Feilong gleefully orders the robots to disengage and track down Emma Frost and the Model 70 Armor instead. Captain America arrives as the Sentinels are flying away. He offers Tony assistance, but Stark rejects it, murmuring that he needs Feilong to believe he is alone and defeated, so he will be going dark. Tony proceeds to limp his way into a subway, using a discreet tracker on his phone to find Emma in the lowest point in Manhattan, the Morlock Tunnels. He approaches his armor, which stands still in the dark, and orders it to open up. Emma Frost emerges, furious until she notices Tony is severely injured. Clarifying that Feilong might not want him dead just yet, Tony responds to Frost's further complaints that he took her somewhere without signal reception to ensure she's not tracked down. Tony hands Emma over his phone, so she can catch up with the development of Orchis' plans, including the Krakoan massacre and the laced medicines. Emma becomes distraught when she can't sense the Stepford Cuckoos. Tony tries to console her, placing his hand on her shoulder, but she pulls away. Contemplating their next course of action, he stands up and tells Emma that he plans to go above-ground and return, but she remains unresponsive. Tony suits up in the Model 70 as Emma ponders if they are dead. Walking away and with resolution, Tony tells her that, if that's the case, they will avenge them.
In Texas, She-Hulk is paying Jim Rhodes a visit in prison. He has received several beatings, but when Jennifer confronts Warden Drummond, who is sporting an Orchis lapel pin, he brazenly refuses to give him protective custody. At Bronson's Cab in Jersey City, Tony is tinkering with the Model 70 and soldering a ring-shaped object when he receives a call from Jen to update him on Rhodey's situation. He's enraged when he realizes Feilong is behind Rhodey's prison beatings. Under She-Hulk's counsel, Tony decides to hand over the Model 70 to Feilong. Having hollowed out the armor and deleted B.O.S.S., the following morning, Tony crashes the crumpled up suit into the lobby of the Stark Unlimited HQ in front of the villain. He threatens him to call off the attack on Rhodey, but Feilong feigns ignorance. Tony angrily walks away, chancing upon a liquor store and glancing at it before powering through the urge and continuing his way, entering the store Flip Your Wig.
At nightfall, Tony returns to Emma with a bag with essentials. After she sneers at Tony's assistance, he reproaches that he warned her about Feilong, but Emma argues that Tony should have been listening to her instead. Stark snaps at her, expressing his worry for Rhodey. Detecting that Tony is having a panic attack, Emma uses her telepathy to calm him down. She gets inside Tony's mind and takes him to a happy place; to her surprise, a hangar full of Iron Man suits, and not the unflattering self-image she preconceived of Tony as a warmongering womanizer. Stark tells Emma that he needs new armor to fight the war against Feilong. He expresses that he is willing to die for this, but wants to fight Feilong smartly, warning s her that it will take time to develop the new technology to overcome the Stark Sentinels. As visions of the X-Men appear behind Emma, she voices her vengeful desire. As the vision fades away, Tony insists they do it smartly, and they vow an alliance to Orchis' death. Back in the real world, Tony reveals the ring-shaped device he soldered, which is a psi-shield taken from the Model 70 before he turned it over. He reconsiders putting it on Emma's finger himself, and hands it over so she can do it on her own. He then pulls out an auburn wig out of the bag, and suggests Emma takes up her fake identity of Hazel Kendal, since she had already used it to earn Stark security clearances. Later above-ground, "Kendal" walks Tony to the Hellfire Club, much to his surprise. As they knock on the door, Emma explains that she transferred her funds to a third party who shares their grievances. A butler named Mr. Reddick welcomes the two, reminiscing Howard Stark's membership to the club. Reddick leads the two guests to the Hellfire Club's new White King, to Tony's further shock, Wilson Fisk.
Solicit Synopsis
Tony Stark: Black King of the Hellfire Club!
Feilong and the Stark Sentinels have beaten Iron Man and robbed him of his armor. But Tony isn’t without his resources: his father’s membership to the Hellfire Club and his new Stealth Armor!Notes
- Like most Marvel comics released on August 2023, this issue opens with a four-page tribute to John Romita Sr., a Marvel artist and art director who died on June 12 at age 93. The tribute extends to the issue's trade dress, which features a special corner box with artwork from Romita's cover for Amazing Spider-Man #50.
- As per the Daily Bugle front page that Tony Stark shows Emma Frost on his phone, the Hellfire Gala happened on Wednesday, October 4.
- Next issue will reveal the unidentified prison where Jim Rhodes is being held to be the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingstone.
- The girls that Emma is worrying about when she can't telepathically sense them are the Stepford Cuckoos.
- Tony mentions rumors of mutant deportations to Mars. These are touched upon in Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 4) #1.
- While he is bickering with Emma Frost, Tony points out that he warned her at the last Hellfire Gala that Feilong was outmaneuvering her and mutantkind. This happened in X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1.
- As she visits visits Tony's mindscape, Emma recalls the mental scenario where she last found him. An editor's note cites last isssue, when that happened.
- When Tony brings up Emma's alias of Hazel Kendal, an editor's note cites issue #6, when it was first introduced.
- During his visit to the Hellfire Club, Tony recalls that his father Howard was a member. Howard was first established to heve been part of the Hellfire Club in X-Men: Hellfire Club #4. Howard's membership has been brought up in other instances, namely in Iron Man (Vol. 3) #37 and Iron Man: Kiss & Kill #1.
- The missing mutant wife of Wilson Fisk that Mr. Reddick references is Typhoid Mary. She was one of the countless mutants telepathically forced into Gateways off-world by Charles Xavier when coerced by Orchis in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1.
Trivia
- When Tony Stark contemplates in his narration about listing in his autobiography every time the Avengers have saved his life, he jokes that it would be longer than anything George R. R. Martin ever wrote. Martin is the author of the series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire. Martin's work was previously referenced last issue.
- The exchange between Tony and Emma Frost where he tells her to avenge the dead mutants mirrors a similar exchange between Captain America and Psylocke in Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 4) #1, which is also written by Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 5) writer Gerry Duggan.