You're an idiot. Life is disappointing for idiots. Even if I'm playing your game, this isn't a game. 
Appearing in "Believe 2 of 5: A Gentleman's Wager"
Featured Characters:
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Resilient
- Tony Stark's new A.I. (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- The Circle (First appearance)
- Arthur (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Lancelot (Alex Draguno) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Merlin (Meredith) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
- Gawain (Wayne) (First appearance)
- Galahad (Wilheim) (First appearance)
- Percival (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes) (Mentioned)
- Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Russia (Only in flashback)
- United States of America
- Symkaria
- New Avalon (First appearance)
Items:
- Iron Man Armor Model 42
- Iron Man Armor Model 4 (Only in flashback)
- Knight-Suit (First appearance)
- Extremis
- Holy Grail (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "Believe 2 of 5: A Gentleman's Wager"
A year earlier; Alex Draguno works as a toxic waste manager, though she was once Russia's finest exoskeleton pilot. A man named Arthur arrives to hire her as his Lancelot - for his round table of knights, called the Circle. He promises Alex a chance to finally cross lances with Iron Man.
Present day, Tony hangs out on his roof pool in New York, surrounded by bikini clad women - though it's night and they can hardly suntan. The circle invites him to Symkaria, a small country bordering Latveria, the invitation is written with laser lights on a nearby building. In New Avalon, Lake Symkaria, Tony brings an armoury along in a container, and meets with Arthur - who is full of idealistic fantasy speech, referring to Extremis as their grail. He wont hand it over to Tony, instead, he will hold a tournament for it. His chief technologist, "Merlin" has used Extremis to enable some pilots to mesh better with a set of high tech suits of her creation. She holds a grudge against Iron Man for humiliating her when he simply hacked her military drone demonstration instead of testing against her force field technology. Lancelot begins to narrate over the story - she has served as the team's combat trainer and has much to say about Merlin's suit designs.
Gawain and Iron Man face off, but despite Gawain's speed he is busy showing off, giving Iron Man a chance to recover and give him a full double repulsor blast. The Extremis dose is on the stage, and, deciding to not play their game, Iron Man gets a free shot off, hoping to destroy it - but triumphant Merlin has given it transparent repulsor shields.
He then faces Galahad, after equipping a hacking unit and sacrificing some torso shielding. During the fight, he continues to attempt to hack Merlin's shields, but she is pridefully way ahead of him. Galahad is not prepared for his unibeam, and so he wins again. Percival stands down, letting Lancelot to the fight. Tony again modifies his armour, replacing one repulsor with an ultraviolet laser. Lancelot is quick, and has developed a combat technique where she uses the suit's thrusters to greatly strengthen her kicks and elbow drops, sending Iron Man to the ground. Only too late Lancelot realises what Iron Man is hiding, as he destroys the Grail - Extremis - with the laser equipped on his left hand. Iron Man gives the desperate Merlin some feedback on her designs - she went overboard with the over-engineered anti-hacking build, instead of having a wider range of protection on her shields.
Arthur is upset that Tony broke the rules, but he knows their battle contract wont hold up in any American court. He leaves. Merlin is already dreaming of her next designs, but Arthur tells her to stop, they lost! But Lancelot feels that she's won that day.
Solicit Synopsis
-Tony’s hunt for the rogue Extremis Units takes him to the island of NEW CAMELOT!
-Introducing THE CIRCLE, a mysterious high-tech brotherhood of mech-knights!
-IRON MAN vs. the secret Russian Black Exoskeleton Academy’s greatest pilot!Notes
Legacy Numbering[]
- Based on the Marvel Legacy renumbering infographic, this issue is Iron Man #532
