Appearing in "Hidden Assets"
Featured Characters:
- ⏴ Iron Man (Tony Stark) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Stark Solutions
- ⏴ Pepper Potts ⏵ (Joins)
- ⏴ Happy Hogan ⏵ (Joins)
- ⏴ Countess Stephanie De La Spiroza ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
Antagonists:
- Siege Engineers (First appearance)
- Dieter (Countess' security guard) (First appearance)
- Marcello (Countess' security guard) (First appearance)
- Dreadnoughts
- ⏴ Mandarin ⏵ (Shadow only)
Other Characters:
- Audrey (a Government member) (Behind the scenes)
- U.S. Department of Energy (Mentioned)
- Stark Enterprises (Mentioned)
- Socrates ⏵ (a dog) (First appearance)
- Countess De La Spiroza's Husband (Mentioned)
- Henri ⏵ (Countess' butler) (First appearance)
- Mad Thinker (Referenced)
- A.I.M. (Referenced)
- Death Squad (Referenced)
- Death Squad's Employer (Referenced)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
- United States of America
- Switzerland (Main story and flashback)
- Zermatt (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Countess De La Spiroza's Chalet (Only appearance; destruction)
- Dufours Precision Manufacturing Corporation (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Zermatt (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Items:
Synopsis for "Hidden Assets"
Happy arrives to work at Stark Solutions and discovers Pepper already on the job; they awkwardly realize that Tony is unaware of their present relationship problems. In Switzerland, Tony investigate Stephanie's plant as Iron Man and discovers a secret portion of the facility where weapons are being manufactured. He is attacked by men armed with sophisticated weapons calling themselves the Siege Engineers, but he defeats them. The next day Tony comes down to breakfast to find Stephanie has two sinister looking visitors; when he challenges her about the real reason she called him, the men pull guns, revealing Stephanie had been warned to keep Tony ignorant of what was happening or die. Tony saves her and sets off outside as Iron Man, anticipating the men will have back up; on the other side of the world, the Mandarin is informed that his Swiss supplier has been compromised by Iron Man's interference, and he orders that all involved must die to maintain his own security. Iron Man battles more Siege Engineers but discovers they report to an immense gunship; while Iron Man is distracted by the vessel, an explosion tears through Stephanie's chalet and three Dreadnoughts emerge.