...for that day, Henry Pym, Janet Van Dyne and Rick Jones dedicated themselves -- to the memory of 'Anthony Stark, the first Iron Man... whose damaged heart finally stopped as he sacrificed the power of his chest device to save the lives of his Armored Avengers. 
Appearing in "What If The Avengers Had Never Been?"
Featured Characters:
- Armored Avengers (First appearance)
- Iron Man (First appearance; dies)
- Giant Man (First appearance)
- Wasp (First appearance)
- Rick Jones (First appearance)
Supporting Characters:
- Thor (First appearance)
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Uatu the Watcher
- Avengers (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Iron Man (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Giant Man (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Wasp (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Thor (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Hulk (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- Namor (Earth-616) (Only in flashback)
- A Troll Thor calls 'base one.'
Locations:
- Earth-776 (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- New York (First appearance)
- New York City (First appearance)
- Avengers Mansion (First appearance)
- New York City (First appearance)
- New York (First appearance)
- United States of America (First appearance)
- The Golden Realm (First appearance)
- Earth (First appearance)
Items:
- Stark's Image Projector
- Mjolnir
- Iron Man Armor MK III
- Armored Avenger Suits
Synopsis for "What If The Avengers Had Never Been?"
Hulk's departure from the Avengers caused a rift that led to the end of the Avengers, since they felt they couldn't go after him. Stark contacts Rick Jones to find the Hulk, while Thor went back to Asgard and Jan and Hank went back to being "normal" people.
Like in Earth-616, Rick locates the Hulk and goes after him on his own, and is being held hostage when Stark goes to rescue him. They barely survived the Hulk encounter, and managed to make it back to the Mansion.
Also like in Earth-616, Namor and the Hulk teamed up and challenged the Avengers to a fight to the death, though in Earth-776, the Avengers were disbanded. Stark accepts the challenge, and builds Iron Man armor for Hank, Jan and Rick so they can all stand up to the Hulk and Namor together.
He introduces the armor to the other three, who can't control themselves in it, and decide to stay in retirement instead of wearing the armor, much to Stark's dismay. Alone again, he overrides the limits of his own armor, and transfers more than the maximum amount of energy into it, setting him up to fight one final ultimate battle.
He starts out the fight fairly well, but ends up about to be finished off when Jan, Hank, and Rick show up in their armor, able to turn the tides. Hank takes a hard hit from Hulk and is relying on his armor to keep him alive, so Tony transfers the energy that was keeping his heart going into Hank's armor, allowing him to have the Hulk on the ropes while Namor is continuing to pound on Rick. As soon as Hulk realizes that it's Rick that Namor is pounding on, he stops fighting the rest of the Avengers, and starts fighting with Namor. They fight to a standstill under the water, and part ways neutrally.
The rest of the Armored Avengers mourn Tony Stark's sacrifice and death.
Notes
- Plot by Shooter and Kane, script by Shooter.
- There are many sexist remarks (common at the time) made towards Jan, including:
| Wasp | Hey! The Wasp is still here! Don't forget me! |
| Giant Man | Quiet, Jan! This is serious! |
| Wasp | Right! Why stick around if that dreamy Thor is gone!! (Sigh) |
| Giant Man | Jan, please! |
I wish Tony had consulted with my fashion designer, though. This does nothing for my figure, and--
- —Wasp
| Giant Man | What's the problem! |
| Wasp | Can't it wait? Blue eyes, here, and I have a date! |
