Appearing in "The Thing Most Precious"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- ⏴ Obadiah Stane ⏵
- ⏴ Madame Masque (Whitney Frost) ⏵ (Shadow only)
Other Characters:
- ⏴ Bethany Cabe ⏵
- West Coast Avengers
- Alice Nugent (Mentioned)
- Henry Pym (Mentioned)
- Enforcer (Mentioned)
- Termite (Mentioned)
- Scourge (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Sol (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Pacific Ocean (Only in flashback)
- North America
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- Nameless dimension
- The Gorge
Items:
Synopsis for "The Thing Most Precious"
Rhodey flies to Calgary in the Iron Man armor to meet with Shaman with the hopes that he can help find a cure for his recurring headaches. Shaman examines him using his magic after he gets him to reluctantly remove the helmet and tells him that his problem isn’t physiological but a problem of the soul and his options are to either work with a psychiatrist for numerous years or to enter a dangerous and nameless alternate dimension and find a place called The Gorge.
Meanwhile, at the Avengers Compound in Palos Verdes, Tony Stark speaks with Hawkeye about the mistakes he has made by wearing the Iron Man costume again and how he is committed to never doing so again due to its correlation with his alcoholism. Hawkeye convinces him to at least work on a new suit of armor to help the Avengers and he agrees.
Bethany Cabe is meanwhile entering her hotel in San Francisco when she is suddenly attacked by two men. She disables them both and calls the front desk to send up security. Obadiah Stane laments at the failed attack on Bethany with a shadowy figure and suggests that they must determine why she is trying to find Stark.
Back at the Sarcee Reservation, Shaman begins the ritual that will send Iron Man to the dimension to confront his issue by throwing a handful of dust into the air. They appear in the dimension and Iron Man remarks that he senses danger while Shaman says that Iron Man must protect them as he would be unable to use his magic to help them. Iron Man uses his repulsors to help save them from a cloudburst of rocks but soon notices that Shaman is becoming more ethereal. Rhodes eventually reaches the Gorge and begins dealing with his demons, always having struggled with his ongoing jealousy of Stark's overwhelming success and finally achieving his own fame when he took over the role of Iron Man from him. He realizes the headaches were a reflection of guilt that he felt from feeling that he stole being Iron Man from Tony and is compelled to give it up. He comes to back to the real world asking Shaman if any of it was real. Shaman says that it doesn't really matter but his headaches should be gone and Rhodes walks away and mentions that he will have to get used to being a man again.