Nick Fury and SHIELD have been my allies for years! My friends! And I still don't know why they'd want to trash Tony Stark. But they're not up against Stark any more -- they're up against Iron Man! And by God, they're going to -- know it! 
Appearing in "At the Mercy of My Foes Friends!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Bambi Arbogast (First appearance)
- Bethany Cabe
- James "Rhodey" Rhodes (First appearance)
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
- New York City
- Long Island
- Stark International
- Hall of Armor (First appearance)
- Stark International
- Long Island
- Germany
Items:
- Iron Man Armor MK II (Cameo)
- Iron Man Armor MK III (Cameo)
- Iron Man Armor MK IV (Cameo)
- Iron Man Armor MK V
- Experimental Iron Man Armor Protoyptes
- Iron Man's Briefcase
- Pytodoxin Cyllanate 2 (PC-2)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "At the Mercy of My Foes Friends!"
Tony Stark has been invited to be a guest speaker at a special S.H.I.E.L.D./NATO conference. Before leaving for the conference, Tony affects some last minute repairs to his armor and secures it inside of a special briefcase bound to his wrist. His secretary Mrs. Arbogast intercoms him and tells Tony that Bethany Cabe has arrived to see him. Tony goes to the reception hall Stark International and greets Bethany. However, he's on a tight schedule and doesn't really have time to talk. He goes to the airfield where he instructs his personal mechanic Rhodey to let him fly solo on one of the SI helicopters.
Stark flies to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier where the joint conference is being held. He is suspicious of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s recent actions since he knows that Spymaster, who recently tried to assassinate him, was armed with S.H.I.E.L.D. ordnance. Nick Fury greets Tony in the hanger bay, but neither men are aware that they are being secretly monitored by a group of rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Fury assigns the agents to keep an eye on Tony until the conference is ready to begin.
Tony manages to sneak away from his chaperons and enters one of the many computer rooms located on the carrier. He attaches a syphon relay from his briefcase into the computer terminal and downloads information that might answer the question of why S.H.I.E.L.D. would send Spymaster to kill him.
The rogue agents discover what Tony is doing and release PC-2 gas into the room knocking Stark out. They collect his unconscious body and pitch him (as well as his handcuffed briefcase) out of an open hangar bay.
As Tony begins plummeting to his death, he suddenly awakens and quickly removes the components of his Iron Man armor from the briefcase. He dons the armor mere inches before he would hit the ground. He flies back up to the Helicarrier and tracks down the men responsible for throwing him off the ship. He overhears them admitting to hiring Spymaster as well as their intended scheme to put pressure on SI's stockholders to sell their shares to S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man attacks and stuns two of the three agents. Their ringleader, Buck Richlen, tries to escape, but Iron Man gives chase and corners him in the main conference room. As Iron Man flies into the room, he finds that Buck has incapacitated Nick Fury and is holding a gun to his head. He tells Iron Man that he must take his own life or else he will kill Fury.
Notes
- First appearance of Jim Rhodes. Rhodes becomes a major supporting character for the series and a successor to the role of Iron Man. In recent years, Rhodes has adopted his own stylized armor and adventures as the super-hero War Machine.
- First appearance of Mrs. Arbogast. Mrs. Arbogast becomes a major supporting character in this series.
- Issue includes cameo appearances of various unmanned Iron Man armors.
- In this issue, Iron Man's Uni-Beam seemingly malfunctions when it suddenly activates without any prompt from Tony himself. The cause behind this malfunction is revealed in Iron Man #120.
- As seen on page one, this isue is Story #LG165.
- This issue contains a letters page, "Printed Circuits". Letters are published from Joel Cochin, William Denholm III, Ted Ray Christians, and "Commander Quotey and his Lost Marvel Madmen".
Trivia
- On page one, Tony Stark uses an instrument designed by "Blaff and Dexter", probably a spoof on Black and Decker Company.
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- Iron Man #118 - Comic Book Database
- Iron Man (Volume 1) series index at the Grand Comics Database Project