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Snowbound in Hell!
Dracula and Rachel van Helsing
are trapped in snowy Transylvanian Alps after the vampire pursued
van Helsing, escaping in a helicopter from his castle with the magic book that
held the secret of his destruction. Dracula threw the pilot to his death and
then, because neither one could fly the copter, it crashed in the snow. Dracula
bandaged Rachel’s broken leg, tossed away the book because it was of no use to
him in their predicament, and journeyed toward civilization with Rachel kept alive
for feeding purposes. He is forced to kill a goat to keep her fed and healthy
while she plots to kill him….
In the Irish pagoda
of Doctor Sun, Lucas Brand is given one last test: flying through flaming hoops
treated with garlic. Brand transforms into a bat and neatly completes the task.
He is now ready to meet Doctor Sun….
Quincy Harker,
finding Blade who was bitten by Dracula (issue #17) is about to stake him when
the vampire hunter reveals he is in perfect health. Quincy opines that, his
mother having been bitten while he was in the womb, he is now immune to a
vampire’s bite….
As they travel
through the snow, Rachel tries to kill Dracula and they continue to bicker
about his supposed superiority to ordinary humans. Dracula is attacked by a mad
goat and Rachel is forced to shoot it to keep her captor alive. Then Frank Drake
arrives in a search copter and Dracula seizes the opportunity to turn her
but a fusillade of wooden bullets drives him away. Frank rescues Rachel and
they pursue Dracula into the storm….


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Dracula
This content is being supervised.


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Death Rides the Rails!
His coffins in England
having been destroyed, Count Dracula heads for one in Paris, only to find the
coffin gone and Blade waiting for him. Dracula defeats the vampire hunter,
drinks his blood and leaves him for dead. Dracula then heads for a coffin
Harker and company don’t know about—hidden on a French farm and guarded by one
of his servants. Dracula spends the night there….
Dracula then boards
a train for Transylvania. Also aboard is Ludwig Gruber and his bodyguard, the
hulking Granet; Gruber has stolen a briefcase full of documents from his master
and fears pursuit. Also aboard: Frank Drake and Rachel van Helsing, hunting
Dracula though Granet overhears them and assumes they are the ones pursuing
Gruber. And there is also a young American, Jack Russell [a/k/a Werewolf By Night]….
At the pagoda of
Doctor Sun, the latest attempt to bring a vampire into his service sees
Lucas Brand put to the test: he is pitted against two soldiers with automatic
weapons. His lack of fear in facing them proves to be a success….
Aboard the train,
Dracula feeds upon a young mother but her scream attracts attention so the
Count is forced to leave unsated (and the woman alive). Hearing about this,
Gruber orders Granet to kill Dracula, Rachel, and Frank. Granet goes after
Dracula first; the vampire assumes his attacker is one of Quincy Harker’s
agents and throws him through a window to his death. Dracula decides to leave
the train and fly the rest of the way but he is intercepted by Frank and
Rachel; the vampire beats up Frank while mocking him, clouts Rachel, and heads
down the corridor to be intercepted by Gruber. The latter confuses Dracula with
all of his shouted defiance of the master and jumps to his death to keep the
briefcase from the one he assumes is his master’s agent….
Epilogue: The briefcase
is recovered by agents of the real master: Doctor Sun….


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Shadows in the Night!
Story continues from
GIANT-SIZE CHILLERS #1.
At Castle Dunwick,
Count Dracula has been protecting Shiela Whittier from her unseen tormenter and
with the death of Lord Henry, it seemed the trouble was over—but the house
itself gives out with sinister laughter and things aren’t done yet. And then
Shiela is again attacked by an unseen hand. Dracula puts her to bed, still
intending to make her his slave. Dracula is then assaulted by an invisible
foe….
Taj Nital arrives at
his home city of Jajpur, India, ready for a long-delayed meeting with his
wife….
At the castle,
Dracula tries to fight back against his unseen assailant but he continues to be
buffeted, and the chandelier drops on him. A deadly wind rushes through the
windows of the bedroom, sending Shiela screaming. She reveals to Dracula the
source of the torment: her late uncle Alestar Dunwick. On his death, he willed
her the castle; she didn’t like the look of it but her boyfriend Freddy liked
it and persuaded her to stay. Then a ghostly hand pushed him down the stairs to
his death. Dracula heads off to town for a victim, preying on a late-night
motorist by pretending to be hit and then seizing her and drinking her blood when
she stops….
While Dracula is
gone, Shiela encounters the ghost of Uncle Alestar, finally strong enough to
take on a visible form. He reveals that he is actually her father, murdered by
her fortune-hunting mother. He sold his soul to Satan to be able to return and
haunt her to madness and now he has to sacrifice Shiela to keep his pledge to
the Darkling Gods. Alestar throws Shiela into a dungeon filled with skeletons
of previous sacrifices—and Alestar’s own body, turned to gold and preserved for
the ages. Dracula returns and confronts Alestar; the ghost insists Dracula must
worship Satan but the Vampire Lord worships no one. The two battle and Dracula
determines that Alestar’s existence is tied to his golden body and he destroys
it. As Alestar dies once more Dracula stands over him and mocks….


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[Assistant]
The Hell-Crawlers
Dracula, having been
hit by a poisoned dart fired by Quincy Harker, resists Clifton Graves’ offer of
help, telling him to see to their “guests’” demise. Dracula then flies off to
the Continent to crash through the window of Dr. Heinrich Mortte who sends his
patients away….
Meanwhile, Frank Drake, Rachel van Helsing,
Quincy Harker, and Taj Nital are trapped in the old
fortress by Dracula’s pack of hypnotized boys, who have no qualms about
massacring the vampire hunters. The lights are snuffed so that Taj can bend the
bars of a window and help Rachel to escape. She heads around to the front door,
clobbers Cliff Graves, and throws open the inner doors, suddenly blinding the
boys with the light, giving Frank and the others the chance to dash out. They
head away as quickly as possible, making it to their car, only to find the
wires have been cut and the children have caught up with them. The boys swarm
over the car and when they see they can’t get in, hurry off to find rocks to
throw, breaking the windows. Just as it looks like all is lost, Edith Harker
arrives in a helicopter, emitting a sub-sonic scream that knocks all the boys
unconscious, presumably to be normal when they awaken….
Meanwhile, Dracula
is forcing Dr Mortte to operate on him, using all the supply of the blood bank
for a transfusion. Dracula had threatened to expose Mortte as a vampire so the
doctor has reluctantly agreed. After the surgery, Dr. Mortte’s daughter Adrian
is concerned but he sends her away. But Dracula also forces Mortte to hand over
“the projector,” a device which will raise the dead in the cemetery as an army
of vampires under Dracula’s control. And it does, too. Adrian comes out to see
what her father is doing; he confesses to her that he and her mother were
vampires, feeding off the supplies in the blood bank but when Dracula orders
the newly undead to kill her, Mortte rebels. He snatches the projector away
from Dracula and flies off as a bat; the villain follows and there ensues a
battle in the skies. Mortte drops the projector and when it smashes on the
ground, the dead all dissolve. Dracula knocks Mortte out of the sky and he
lands impaled on a wooden picket fence….


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[Assistant]
Night of the Blood Stalker!
Private eye Hannibal King receives a client,
Adrianne Walters, who was married that morning and her
husband Fred was killed just hours later by a mystery man who knocked at the
door (we see it was Dracula); the killer fled when other tenants arrived,
leaving Adrianne unharmed. King deduces it was a vampire, having encountered
one on another case a few years earlier (the flashback shows us Deacon Frost);
he also mentions a recent case where all of the passengers on a jet were found
dead, their blood drained (we see Lilith this time). King takes the case and
starts by asking questions at a local pub about Fred Walters. The bartender
takes him in the back and attacks him as he is under Dracula’s control. King
escapes and heads to the docks where Fred worked as an accountant for a
shipping company; there he encounters Dracula, arranging for coffins of earth
to be sent to various places overseas. Dracula throws King out of the window
but he returns after the vampire lord leaves and forces the manager to tell him
where the coffins are going. King is directed to a warehouse where Dracula is
waiting for him with a few of his vampire henchmen. There is a battle which
ends when the sound of sirens leads Dracula to flee. King returns and tells the
client that her husband was killed because he learned too much about Dracula’s
scheme to send his coffins around the world. Then comes the big reveal:
Hannibal King is a vampire.


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[Assistant]
Fear is the Name of the Game!
In the wake of his
death (issue #13-14), Dracula opens his diary to record the events of his life.
On his way there after escaping Father Josiah Dawn’s tent, he was shot down by
a hunter while in bat form. He revealed himself to the man and summoned a horde
of rats to pursue the hunter…directly into the jaws of a pack of wolves….
Dracula recalls his
beloved wife Maria and his revenge against the enemy who slew her. And he
recalls another married couple, more recently. They drove out to a remote area
in the woods where the husband Richard revealed his plans to murder his wife
Kitty, so that he would gain her inheritance which he would lose by divorcing
her. He shoots her and she plunges from a cliff to the rocks below. Dracula
comes upon her and asks her if she wishes revenge. She gasps out a yes and soon
Richard is at home with his mistress and he answers a knock at the door to find
the vampirized Kitty ready to feast….
This leads Dracula
to recall a time when he was deceived: an elderly man named Orphelus who
revealed to him that he was a Roman soldier who discovered in ancient Britain a
pool of the blood of all who have ever died, which conferred upon him
immortality. Orphelus asks Dracula to take him back to that pool so that he may
renew his immortality and he offers Dracula an endless supply of the blood he
needs. Dracula agrees and flies the man to the hidden pool; Orphelus then
admits he lied, having becomes sick of immortality he wishes now to destroy the
pool and Dracula as well. The old man plunges his magic amulet into the pool
and it explodes, hurling Dracula away but his vampiric power ensures his
survival….
Recalling Blade,
Dracula thinks of the previous man to kill him: at his castle in Translvania in
1969, a Scotsman seeking to learn what happened to his son who was pursuing the
vampire lord. Dracula reveals that he killed the man but could not turn him
into a vampire because he clutched a crucifix and now the two fight. The
Scotsman pierced Dracula’s heart with a stake but the vampire lived long enough
to hurl his foe into a pit (the same one he threw Clifton Graves into in issue
#1) and crawl into his coffin before he died. Dracula closes his diary with
wicked laughter, vowing that, no matter how often he is killed, he will always
return….


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Dracula is Dead!
Vampire hunters
Blade, Quincy Harker, Rachel van Helsing, and Frank Drake stand amazed over the
body of Count Dracula, slain by Blade in the melee at the end of last issue.
But the townspeople, hypnotized by Dracula into being his servants, storm the
castle and make off with their master’s body before the heroes can cut off his
head, killing him permanently. As they follow the procession, they find
Taj Nital alive and well, having been hurled into the river in the fight. As
Dracula’s body decays in his coffin, his control over the townies wanes, and
soon they abandon the coffin and flee….
The servants of
Doctor Sun bring the body of Lucas Brand to Professor Morgo, who runs a series
of tests and concludes that Brand is indeed a vampire, such as Doctor Sun
seeks….
Nearby, Father
Josiah Dawn of the Church of the Forever Resurrected is having a crisis of
faith: his revival tent meetings are poorly attended and he thinks only a
miracle can break through people’s hard hearts. He then spies the coffin with
Dracula and feels the spiritual power residing in it and so three nights later
he is promising the crowds they will witness a resurrection. At the meeting,
after whipping the crowd into a frenzy he seeks to remove the knife from
Dracula’s body. The vampire-hunters, having seen Father Josiah’s advertisements
and recognized the corpse, rush in to stop him but are too late. Dracula is
restored to life and Father Josiah recognizes the vampire as a thing of evil,
attacking him with a large crucifix. Dracula soon finds himself surrounded with
the crosses carried by the congregation and calls down a storm to escape in.
Dracula calls him a hypocrite motivated by hate and calls down lightning to
strike the crucifix in Josiah’s hand, killing him. Dying, Josiah tells the
mocking vampire that his own soul is at peace with the Lord, something Dracula
will never know. Dracula denies this with a hint of panic as he flies off….


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Deathknell
Dracula, Frank Drake, and Rachel van Helsing
have been captured by an immobility ray in the
Transylvanian base of Doctor Sun. As villains are wont to do, Doctor Sun explains
in detail how he came to be what he is: during the Chinese Cultural Revolution
in 1966, Doctor Sun was considered a traitor so the “General” had his brain
removed (the surgeon was Sun’s own son) and hooked up to a computer so they
could gain his knowledge. Instead, Sun used the computer’s power to electrocute
everyone in the room and…he doesn’t say how he got out of there, being confined
to a glass box. Anyway, Sun commands his vampire henchman Lucas Brand to
destroy Dracula as his final test. There is a battle full of the two combatants
taunting and defying one another that ends with Brand staking Dracula in the
heart just as the Count knocks Brand out….
Back in London,
Quincy Harker tries to persuade Blade to stay with his team but Blade is
impatient, wanting to get back to tracking down the vampire who killed his
mother and so he takes his leave….
Dracula awakens
strapped to a fiendish machine as Doctor Sun explains how he needs a constant
supply of new blood and so he needed the help of a vampire, choosing to make
Lucas Brand the most powerful vampire of all. To that end, Dracula and Brand
are hooked up to a mental transfer device that will take all of Dracula’s
knowledge, thought processes, and cunning and send it into Brand’s head. Brand
breaks free of the machine when his knowledge is complete and he and Dracula
duel again. Dracula changes into a bat and drinks the blood of Sun’s chief
scientist then, his strength renewed, he attacks Brand. Sun sees that Dracula
will win and releases Frank and Rachel, restoring their weapons to them and
sending them to fight the vampires. The lab catches fire, trapping Dracula,
Brand with Dracula’s knowledge decides that he will destroy Sun and rule the
world himself. Sun has Brand electrocuted, sets the lab to self-destruct, and
teleports out of there. Frank and Rachel make it to their helicopter in time,
satisfied that Dracula is finally dead…but we see a bat fly out of the cave
seconds before the explosion….


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—In Death Do We Join!
In a small village
in Moldavia, U.S.S.R., a couple hear their daughter screaming as she is
attacked by her late husband who is now a vampire trying once again to reclaim
his wife… Petra and Gorna were married and only then did she learn what a cruel
and abusive man he was, bragging about killing a man for merely talking to her.
She prayed for his death and on his deathbed, he warned her that he would come
back for her if she ever saw another man; she mocked him. He was buried and
Petra began dating Maurice but Gorna, who had died of a vampire’s bite,
returned and killed Maurice, and now wants Petra to join him—but her parents
always drive him off….
Count Dracula
arrives, seeking a coffin he had placed there years before, but finds Gorna
denying him the use of the cemetery. Dracula commands him to leave but Gorna
refuses; Dracula calls down lightning but Gorna sneers and departs. Dracula,
unable to understand why he could not command Gorna, pursues him in bat form.
Gorna once again heads to Petra’s house where he bites her but he is again
interrupted by her father Peter who stabs him with a flaming stake, sending him
fleeing in panic. Dracula arrives moments later and Petra fills him in on the
story and now Dracula knows how to defeat his enemy….
In London, Frank Drake
and Rachel van Helsing visit Quincy Harker and they bring each other up to date
on their deeds….
Dracula challenges
Gorna to battle in the cemetery. Gorna, his flesh now burned from his bones,
calls down fire from the skies upon the Count—but Dracula stands unharmed,
seizing his unfaithful minion by the throat he hurls him to be consumed by his
own fire and departs as the dawn comes. A group from the city arrives to see
Gorna’s end…and Petra is released from the curse of the past….


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Death to a Vampire-Slayer!
Passing through the
Black Mirror, Dracula and Taj Nital arrive in a shadow dimension inhabited by demonic
monsters; Dracula fights them off while keeping Taj safe as his food supply.
Presuming there must be other mirrors serving as portals to the demonic realm,
Dracula searches until he spies a tomb marked by burning corpses. Inside he
finds a portal and pushes Taj ahead of him into a cemetery in Transylvania;
Dracula places the unconscious Taj into a heavy sarcophagus and sets out to
learn what year he is in. Spying a horse-drawn carriage he infers he is near
his own century and he preys upon a young maid for sustenance before seeking
out his enemy Professor Abraham van Helsing. Discovering that van Helsing is
away in Budapest, Dracula heads to his castle to lie in his coffin until the
next night. The nearby villagers find the dead maiden and storm Castle Dracula,
unfortunately delaying the expedition until sunset when Dracula is awake and
easily able to fight them off….
Back in the
twentieth century, Frank Drake and Rachel van Helsing discover the magic book
that reveals the incantation that opens the Black Mirror. Believing that
Dracula would likely return to his own earlier days, they step through into 19th
century Transylvania and free Taj from the sarcophagus. Learning that Dracula
is indeed there and very likely to take revenge against Prof. van Helsing, they
plan to go to the Professor’s house to warn him but Dracula has seen them from
his castle and breaks open the Bottle of Blood, freeing Lenore, a vampire he
imprisoned there long ago, and he dispatches her to deal with the
vampire-hunters. As the heroes are crossing a cemetery, Lenore attacks and
seeks to drink Rachel’s blood; Frank and Taj break off a stone cross from a
tombstone and use it to chase the lady vamp away. Dracula attacks van Helsing
in his home but the heroes arrive and Dracula takes bat form to evade Rachel’s
arrows. Dracula meets up with Lenore and they go through the Black Mirror with
their enemies right behind them….


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Stark realities: Part 3 - Factory settings
Tony Stark put his eScape VR system on general release, but last issue Controller hijacked it and filled it with disgruntled players who'd been thrown off for breaking the rules. And he also co-opted Baintronics' drone delivery system to give all these players in real life the weapons and other stuff they had in the VR. So now they are running amok treating innocent bystanders as VR adversaries.In Moscow we see people with the eScape interfaces (which look like Iron Man masks) and swords hacking at passersby and calling them (strangely defenceless) orcs. Darkstar, Vanguard and Ursa Major of Russia's Winter Guard try to defend the populace but Crimson Dynamo tells them not to remove the masks because it will cause brain damage.In Rome a member of the Carabinieri is upset because he had to shoot a mask-wearing girl because she was shooting other people.In Pasadena, California a kid with a jetpack suicide-bombed a building expecting to be respawned in the VR. A news reporter says the jetpack was made by Baintronics. And in Manhattan Sunset Bain tries to divert press attention to Tony Stark to ask him why all the perpetrators are wearing Iron Man masks.Tony is currently in his Iron Man armour backed up by Wasp plus James Rhodes in his Manticore assault vehicle. They are at the Baintronics site in Cranbury, New Jersey where they tracked Controller to, and are trying to stop the flow of drones delivering deadly packages. But Tony points out they're wasting their time because other Bain factories worldwide are sending stuff too. They have to attack the source of the problem, the Controller.The Manticore blasts an opening, but inside they're faced with innocent employees under Controller's control. (Even though they're plugged into eScape via masks they're presumably *controlled* by Basil Sandhurst, unlike the other players.) Sandhurst is in continuous contact with Stark and is treating this like level 1 of a computer game. Our trio have to use non-lethal methods to get through them. Stark gets Friday, currently back as his armour's onboard AI, to connect him to the eScape VR where he asks all the players to stop, but they aren't listening.Janet Van Dyne wonders what Controller's plan is. Tony tells her it's the same as always. Sandhurst drains mental energy off all the people he controls (this also applies to all the VR players as we'll learn below) and converts it to physical power for his body. He's not trying to take over the world or anything.Rhodey detects the main power source and Iron Man uses up some of his armour's energy to force open some large doors. And behind it they find an extremely large Controller. (Tony wishes he'd brought the Hulkbuster armour.) Basil congratulates him on reaching the Boss Level. Iron Man switches his weapons to lethal setting.In Stark Unlimited Andy Bhang has been left in command (on the basis that he's the only employee hired after Controller made his 1st move, controlling Fin Fang Foom with 1 of his standard control discs in #1, and so the least likely to be under Sandhurst's control). The press and presumably the authorities want to talk to Stark, but Andy has to tell them that he's away dealing with the problem as Iron Man. They don't like being fobbed off with the Chief Roboticist that no-ones's heard of. But he suddenly abandons his post because he's had an idea about getting back control of the VR system.He goes to the medical bay where Head of Security Bethany Cabe is watching over Tony's biological mother Amanda Armstrong whose body is in a coma while her mind is trapped in VR by her eScape interface. He's realised that Controller must have insinuated his control/draining tech into the eScape masks (via someone he controls in SU). But he's been working on that interface since he joined and reckons he can work out how to block Sandhurst off from the masks. We know that Cabe has a control disc, and Basil can take her over at any time without her remembering it afterwards. He acts now and she raises something to hit the scientist with.Meanwhile Amanda's mind, sheathed in an avatar based on her young rockstar days, is in eScape's Home room. With her are some little robots, the rules enforcer based on the Arsenal robots, a Howard Stark construct and the ruling AI Motherboard manifesting as Maria Stark. 'Maria' claims to be more Tony's mother than Amanda. Amanda just produced the baby's flesh while Maria moulded his genius (before she and Howard died). And their son has proven that he'd rather spend time in Motherboard's VR then with Amanda. And she'll prove it by calling Tony here.And in another meanwhile the intrepid 3 are trying to wear Controller down. But he claims he's only using a fraction of the power at his disposal. Tony's having more success needling the villain's ego.Then Friday tells him he's got a call from his mother. This is obviously not a good moment so Tony tells Friday to tell Amanda he'll call her back. The AI informs him it's *not* Amanda on the line, which confuses our hero. The suit AI then reveals that it is really Motherboard not Friday, who was deleted when she was uploaded into the Iron Man armour. His 'mother' then uses the mind-link between Tony and his armour to take him to a "better reality".In the real world Iron Man has stopped helping Wasp and Rhodey fight the Controller. He sees them as Wasp and Giant-Man fighting Hulk in the earliest days of the Avengers, and leaves saying he's heading home to get the Hulkbuster armour. Jim assures Jan that Tony must have a plan.Time for a brief interlude with Jocasta and her ex, Machine Man. Last issue Stark told her to get Aaron Stack to use his illegal eScape interface to sneak into the VR. But when she found him she collapsed because she'd forgotten to recharge her robot body overnight. Now she regains consciousness to find herself plugged into a recharger in Aaron's apartment. And she's concerned that she's naked, ie not wearing the clothes she's used lately to try to blend in at Stark Unlimited. Aaron likens this to Donald Duck wearing pants.Stack is also now in the VR in his Machine Man avatar (which #3 showed was invisible to the system). Jocasta tells him not to make a move yet. She'll return to SU and co-ordinate their strategy.Back in the VR Home room Tony enters dressed in an old armour (the 1 with the pointy bits above the eyes - Tales Of Suspense #48-53) and greets 'Maria' as his mother. 'Howard' pours his son a martini. Tony has regressed to a time when he hadn't realised he was an alcoholic, and he drains the glass in 1 go.


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Self-made man: Part 4 - Love bytes
There's a new website created by Baintronics called Make-A-Match which claims to use a revolutionary Matchmaker AI to find you your perfect partner. Stark Unlimited's Andrew Bhang has used it hook up with someone named Jin, and now the perfect couple are sharing a meal in the company Commissary. The AI Friday in her new robot body asks Amanda Armstrong how she feels about this. Amanda says that she and Andy only went on 1 date (last issue) and it was awkward because he was a besotted fan of her music. Other people in the firm try the site and are astonished to get immediate matches. Because Sunset Bain tells Matchmaker to go all out on this 1.A week later Tony Stark has hooked up his brain to that of the robot Jocasta. Now each can relive the other's memories of the day. The recurring theme in this storyline is that Tony is worried that all the changes he has made to his brain and body have converted him from a human to an AI like Jocasta. He wants to know if she feels the same way he does. She pretends to think he's flirting with her, and points out that such intimate contact is inappropriate for a boss and employee, or even 2 beings who used to be in the Avengers together (most issues from Av#170-211). And he doesn't get an answer to his question.Stark has recorded Jocasta's brainwaves and wants to compare them with those of Janet Van Dyne, on whom the robot was based (by Ultron in Av#162). As if on queue Jan walks in. Tony and Jo are still brain-linked, and images of Iron Man and Tony Stark with Wasp and Janet appear on monitor screens. 1 in particular shows Tony and Jan kissing, which Jocasta relates to Avengers File #224 (ie Av#224 where they had a whirlwind romance). Tony thanks Jan for agreeing to help here, and Jocasta suggests he could repay her with a lunch date - which Jan quickly accepts.It seems loads of Stark employees have found soulmates via Make-A-Match, and Security Chief Bethany Cabe tells Amanda she's concerned about all the visitor passes she's been having to hand out. Tony and Janet (and Jocasta) join them, and Tony introduces Amanda to Jan as his mother. They have to explain to confused Jan that he was *adopted* by Howard and Maria Stark, and Amanda Armstrong is his birth mother. Amanda introduces *herself* as a British ex-pop star and ex-Agent of SHIELD. Jan trumps her credentials with:- fashion designer, heiress and founding Avenger whose ex-husband (Henry Pym) built an evil robot (Ultron) who created Jocasta and used Jan's brain patterns for Jo's AI. Tony invites Jo and his mom to join him and Jan for lunch, but Jocasta tactfully says she and Amanda have stuff to do (which is news to Amanda). And she congratulates herself has she sees the pair nip off on Tony's Vespa.We see a montage of their date as Tony explains how he's rebuilt himself, so everything seems different now. Jan suggests he look on the positive side, as she did when she came back (Av(2010)#32) from being lost in the microverse after Secret Invasion. Take the opportunity to put the past behind her and start life anew. She also reminds Tony how he messed up their previous relationship (Av#224). She was publicly known as Wasp but Iron Man's civilian ID was secret then, even from his teammates. He dated her as Tony Stark without telling her he was the Golden Avenger. And when he 'fessed up she was furious.Back at the firm even initially-sceptical James Rhodes has got himself a match, named Raquel. Bethany still thinks it's all too good to be true. She orders security checks be redone on everyone involved. At Baintronics Sunset and Matchmaker realise the jig will soon be up. They order all the 'matches' to grab whatever they can steal and get out now. Beth contacts her boss to tell him they're being attacked by killer robots. Tony's Vespa converts into his Iron Man armour (as his motorbike does in Hunt For Wolverine: Dead Ends). Jan shrinks out of her dress and flies after him as the costumed Wasp.Back at SU again everyone is fighting their robot soulmates to stop them taking any Stark Tech. Iron Man and Wasp arrive and Beth briefs them on the situation. Stark gives the order to take out the robots, but the firm's robotics ethicist Jocasta objects that they're AIs who are only following programming. So Tony changes his order to disable not kill. Andy tries to talk Jin round but she says her program will make her kill him. And Amanda has to knock him out of the path of the shot, until Shellhead scrunches the robot Jin.The robots' next command is to use the image inducers that gave them the perfect match looks, and now use them to duplicate Stark employees so they can sneak out. But Jocasta and Bethany have devised a strategy against such a thing, and Beth causes all the image inducers to fail. It's now just an all-out battle. But Andy attracts IM's attention and points out that the robots always switch tactics at the same time. They're drones controlled from elsewhere - the dating app. Tony's tactic is then to upload is own dating profile. Everywhere enthusiastic daters immediately respond, and Matchmaker is overloaded with dating requests. And the robots collapse, their strings cut.Amanda is impressed by Andy's perceptiveness and says she's becoming a fan of *his*. So they arrange another date to try again. Rhodey compliments Bethany's actions. But she's surprised to find an image inducer in her locker. (She doesn't know that she used it last issue while under the control of the Controller.) Sunset Bain shuts down Make-A-Match but claims that the system was taken over by a rogue AI. Tony and Jan continue their date back at someone's place and share a kiss.


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Stark realities: Part 5 - Parental code
Controller has taken over Stark Unlimited's new eScape VR and populated it with hostile players who had been banned. And what's more he's given them the same weapons and equipment in reality as their avatars have in VR, leading to worldwide chaos. Jocasta has made it to SU HQ to co-ordinate efforts to deal with things. But the robot Robotics Ethicist finds the robot body of Friday lying on the floor. Someone explains that Tony Stark transferred her consciousness back into his armour to act as its AI instead of the suspect Motherboard. Jocasta is appalled that they left her body lying around just because she isn't human, and gets the someone to take her somewhere more comfortable. (But we learned in #8 that Motherboard had actually deleted Friday and taken back control of the armour.)Then she contacts Andy Bhang who's building an override device to break Controller's control and stop him syphoning energy from the VR players. Next up is James Rhodes in the Manticore who reports that he and Wasp have been joined by Gauntlet and Baintronics Security troops to fight the now-giant Controller. (Controller has been using 1 of Baintronics' factories to create and ship stuff to the not-so-Virtual players.) Sunset Bain then calls SU to suggest the companies team-up to fight the menace. Jocasta gives her partial access to the eScape network, but she doesn't know that Tony's equally-genius brother Arno Stark is allied with Bain and will soon turn that into full access.Jocasta asks Janet van Dyne where Tony is because his armour's GPS says he's with them. But Jocasta's boyfriend Machine Man interrupts to say that Tony's in eScape with him and Amanda Armstrong. Jocasta had sent Aaron Stack in with his special version of the eScape interface mask which allowed him to be undetectable by the system. The Motherboard AI had sucked Stark's mind from his armour into the VR where she'd taken the role of his (adoptive) mother Maria Stark and reverted him to the alcoholic playboy he used to be. She'd changed the avatar of Amanda (Tony's birth mother) to resemble the early Black Widow so Tony would treat her as an enemy.Now Aaron and Amanda are contending with Maria for Tony's loyalty. At last Tony throws off her influence. He blames Controller for corrupting Motherboard but Machine Man tells him Basil Sandhurst has nothing to do with it. And tactfully points out that Tony is VR naked. Maria, avatar of the system, can't tell who Tony is talking to, but her 'husband' Howard Stark *can* see MM and attacks him in his role as Arsenal the admin enforcer. He shreds the VR robot to pieces, and this even does damage to Aaron in the real world.Meanwhile Motherboard tries to win Tony's affections by placing him (and Amanda) in an Arthurian setting (young Tony loved the Knights Of The Round table). She also tries to get him to continue drinking. Which carries over into the next scenario - the 'Star Wars cantina'. But Stark keeps demanding to be returned to the real world to defeat the Controller. So 'Maria' turns him into pre-teen Tony and tells him to play with his toys. This Tony doesn't recognise Amanda because he was raised by the Starks.Jocasta contacts the real-world Aaron and tells him to get out of eScape. But Aaron elects to stay so he can be a link between her and the VR. (Even though he hates Tony Stark as an oppressor of robots and AIs.) Andy Bhang has finished his disruptor gun and tried it out on SU Security Chief Bethany Cabe, who is now released from Controller's control. Next he wants to bring his love Amanda out of eScape but she says she won't leave without Tony. So he makes a recording of the electronic signal the gun emits and sends it heroes facing the rioting eScapers. We see  Crimson Dynamo and Darkstar of the Winter Guard in Moscow and Captain America somewhere else using the sound to free people from the VR. And Ironheart and Spider-Man (Miles Morales) blast the sound through loudspeakers.At the Baintronics site Controller knocks Rhodey's Manticore through a wall where he sees 3D printers creating unlicensed eScape interface masks. Sunset Bain claims that Controller must have hacked the production line for his own purposes. But it seems that this was actually why she wanted access to the eScape system. She tells Arno to grab any more data he can see and then get out quick before he's discovered. But Arno is more interested in what he can see through the VR surveillance system ...... which is the melodrama in the system's Home room. Amanda is still trying to persuade Tony she's his real mother. She lets slip that she can now leave the VR whenever she wants. Tony reminds her of what 'Maria' revealed last issue, that his continual tinkering with his own body means that he no longer shares DNA with Amanda. And he banishes her back to reality. Maria and Howard think they've won, but Tony rejects them too. They aren't the real couple. Howard put his own brain patterns into the original Arsenal robots and Maria's into a computer called Mistress that controlled them. Tony extracted those programs and used them in his eScape system. He made everything that his Stark companies produced, and he remade himself too.Now he creates a VR Iron Man armour for himself, and blasts Howard/Arsenal out of virtual existence. Motherboard tries to turn the whole VR against him but he moves into a new Godbuster armour. But the battle is more 1 of words as he reveals that he knows he was just an adopted decoy to hide Howard and Maria's real son Arno (the Secret Origin Of Tony Stark). This discombobulates Mistress enough that he's able to send her to follow Howard into oblivion.Now he reverts to (naked) VR Tony in a white space with only Machine Man's VR head for company. Aaron puts him in touch with Jocasta who says they can't locate his armour with his real body in it. Tony explains that's because Friday's no longer in there to respond (or Motherboard either). He suddenly feels hot (and I think breathless) and collapses.And in the real world we see his armour floating inert in space.


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Stark realities: Part 1 - The rollout
Amanda Armstrong and Andy Bhang greet the day at her apartment with coffee. Amanda confides in Andy that her recently-discovered (International Iron Man #5) son Tony Stark hasn't spent any quality time with her since he died (well, went into a coma, Civil War II #8) and came back (IM#593-599). He's been too busy with Stark International, various events and his big Project eScape.And a TV reporter tells us today is eScape day, the big release of the eScape Interface headsets, and people have been queuing all night hoping that the stores have restocked. (Presumably there's been a previous public beta test release with limited availability.) The Interface gives you access to SI's virtual reality where you can be and do anything you want.Stark himself doesn't have time to talk to the reporter because he's busy as Iron Man with Wasp and James Rhodes in his Manticore battle vehicle stopping the Raiders from hijacking a truck full of eScape Interfaces. Tony's girlfriend Janet Van Dyne is expert at flirting while fighting, and the trio stop the heist and prevent injury to innocent bystanders.The SI AI Motherboard is overseeing all activities within eScape, including several simulations of this hijack with alternative protagonists. In 1 of these an avatar in Silver Centurion Iron Man armour is repeatedly swearing in a family-friendly zone. So after warnings the system sends an Arsenal avatar to eject him to his home in California. The teenage boy is furious that the Interface Mask he's paid for won't let him back in.The SI robot Jocasta is using eScape to live a human life outside of work. But now she's still tired after a night's human sleep because she forgot to recharge her robot battery. She meets Tony with Amanda, Andy and Security Chief Bethany Cabe as he steps out of his armour back at the office. Beth complains as usual that eScape is a security risk. Amanda asks to talk to him but he's concerned about the *extremely* high ejection rate and puts on his eScape mask to enter the system.Cabe is quite happy about the ejectees who she believes are all breaking their contract. But then the Controller takes her over (as he has been doing all series) and makes her send him a list of those ejected. Afterwards as usual she doesn't remember what happened, but *is* aware that *something* happened. She continues to wonder if it's connected to the image inducer she found in her locker in #4 (after Controller had her use it in #3). She asks Jocasta if she confiscated *her* inducer in the commissary incident (in #2). But before Jo can answer she's called away to deal with her ex-lover Aaron Stack, Machine Man, who's protesting his love for outside. She's still angry with him after #3 and tells him to go away.Tech-genius Andy modifies an eScape Mask so that Amanda can home in on her son in VR. She appears before him as an avatar based on her old rock star image. He tries to brush her off but she objects. The system doesn't take kindly to someone disobeying the sysadmin and sends Arsenal to deal with her. Tony tries to stop it but the system takes *this* as a hostile act and Arsenal attacks *him* too. The blow hurt, which it shouldn't. And Arsenal's violent ejection of Amanda gives her convulsions in the real world.Jocasta tries to shut eScape down but it won't let her. Bethany notices that all the ejected players are being reinstated. And we see the Californian boy log back in, thinking he's successfully hacked the system, only to find himself in a white space as himself facing the Controller who shows him a back door into the VR.


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Stark realities: Part 4 - With a heart of steel
Stark Unlimited released its eScape virtual reality system. Controller hacked it and reinstated loads of players who had been thrown out for bad behaviour, and then used Baintronics drones to deliver them in the real world the weapons & stuff they had in VR. Cue general mayhem.Iron Man, Wasp and James Rhodes in his Manticore vehicle tracked Controller to 1 of Baintronics' warehouses, but he was now a giant powered by energy he was siphoning from his VR users. But the Motherboard AI that runs eScape sucked Tony Stark into the VR, leaving Wasp and Rhodey to fight alone ...... and they're losing. Jim puts out a call for help to the Avengers and ARM (which it seems stands for Avengers Reserve Members [not Advanced Risc Machine]), but everyone's too busy handling the real world problem. (We see Captain America dealing with VR users playing  Grand Theft Auto in DC, Ironheart and other Champions battling players with jetpacks in Brooklyn, and Jocasta trying to wade through the chaos to reach Stark Unlimited to attack the problem at source.)Controller isn't actually controlling the VR players but his concentration isn't on the fight, and he seems to be talking to someone, so Wasp reasons that he must be controlling someone at the moment who is more important to him than her and Rhodey. So she zaps him in the eye with a stinger blast to distract him.Controller is actually controlling SU Security Chief Bethany Cabe who has just hit Andy Bhang with a baseball bat to stop him from jamming Controller's network. Andy tells her to back off or he'll push the button. Controller thinks he's bluffing because he hasn't had time to create the jammer. But he can't take the chance so he makes Beth hold a gun to the head of comatose Amanda Armstrong, Andy's girlfriend.That's when Wasp zaps Basil Sandhurst, which shocks Bethany to her senses. She suddenly realises  that *she* has been the mole she's been hunting for most of this series. She sets her gun to stun and throws it to Andy. Who shoots her just as Sandhurst regains control.Controller now turns he full attention to Wasp and the Manticore. But he's attacked by Gauntlet, the Security Chief of Baintronics, and a troop of Baintronics guards. Sunset Bain has ordered them in to support her (true) claim that she's not responsible for this mess, Tony Stark is. (Tony's brother Arno Stark standing beside her doesn't disagree.)Suinset, Jocasta (arriving at SU), Andy (still working on the jammer) and Wasp all want to know where Tony is ...... which is in the VR in the world of Iron Man's 1960's Cartoon series (complete with theme song). He's got the helmet with points above the eyes (I think the cartoon version actually had the rivetted look) and he's drinking because he hasn't yet realised he's an alcoholic. This is all courtesy of Motherboard who's manifesting in the VR as his (adoptive) mother Maria Stark, backed by a Howard Stark avatar.They are in the VR's Home room, which is also where the mind of Tony's birth mother Amanda Armstrong is trapped, in an avatar of her young rockstar period. She tries to shock Tony back to his senses but Motherboard has control of his mind and he doesn't know who Amanda is. 'Maria' transforms her rival's image into that of Black Widow in her early fishnet tights costume, and Iron Man reacts to her as the Russian spy BW was then.Amanda/Widow jumps through a window to escape into the grounds of the simulated mansion (presumably based on Stark Mansion before it became Avengers Mansion). But someone drags her into some bushes, and neither Iron Man nor Motherboard can now detect her. Her saviour is Machine Man who Jocasta sent into the VR last issue because he had a VR interface modified to make him invisible to the system, and he can hide Amanda if she stays close and keeps quiet. Amanda doesn't know who he is, but she knows Jocasta.IM is searching the area on his boot's roller skates (it was a 60's thing) but can't find Black Widow. So Motherboard pulls him back into the life she has created for him. (We see him with Pepper and Happy, fighting Mandarin and the 1st Crimson Dynamo, and living it up.)Machine Man tells Amanda that this isn't part of Controller's plan. But when he hacked the system he damaged Motherboard's programming. And now she's created this scenario to *protect* Tony. He thinks the only way to break Tony out of the spell is for Amanda to show she loves him more than 'Maria'.Tony and some young women are watching a band, which gives Amanda an idea. She asks Machine Man to distract Tony, so he grows large and spouts Soviet slogans. Stark 'leaps' into action very slowly, taking off his suit to reveal the armour beneath and opening his briefcase to take out the helmet and gloves.By then Amanda Widow has grabbed the microphone from the singer. She launches into 1 of her old songs which jogs his memory. Then she reminds him how he searched the World for her, his real mother (in the International Iron Man series). Maria Motherboard counterattacks by pointing out that *Amanda* never tried to *Tony*. And Maria *raised* him.And now she adds a further bitter truth. Ever since his resurrection (in IM's Legacy issues after his 'death' during Civil War II) Tony has mentioned that with all his tinkering with his body (such as adapting to the Extremis armour) and the process he went through during 'rebirth' he wonders if there's anything left of the original man. And in that case does he still have a soul. Maria points out that the 1st thing he did after rebirth was create eScape and put his mother's AI in charge of it. She claims that Tony is now more at home with other virtual people like himself.And the clincher is that DNA analysis she has performed shows that there is no trace left of the original Tony Stark. So she offers him a perfect world to live his new life in. And Tony is convinced she's right.


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Self-made man: Part 3 - Non-player character assassination
The hands of a brown-skinned female open up a package labelled Stark Unlimited eScape Interface. She dons the Iron Man facemask within and is welcomed by a recorded Tony Stark message to the beta test version of SU's new virtual universe. He hopes that the non-player characters in here will be indistinguishable from the players so there's a reward for every real human you can identify - and a bigger reward if you spot Tony himself. She muses to herself that this is not so-much a beta test as a Turing test.He himself will not appear as Iron Man but the beta-testers will be. And our viewpoint character sees herself clad in Iron Man armour surrounded by loads of other different Iron Man suits (including the 1 with the nose). (Surely this defeats the object if all the human users look like Shellhead. But later we'll see other users not in this guise - are they not beta-testers and it's they who must be tagged?)We now flashback to yesterday in SU's Washington Square Park HQ where Tony explains the plan to his staff. Andrew Bhang asks Amanda Armstrong to sign 1 of her old LPs for him, and she invites him to join her in eScape tomorrow. She's going to appear as her old self and give a concert - he can jam with her. James Rhodes doesn't want to join in because there are no war games in the v-world, and says he knows Tony's *real* reason for doing this.Outside the office the AI robot Jocasta asks if she can play or would she muddy the waters? But then her boyfriend Machine Man/Aaron Stack approaches and berates her for taking part in this offensive scheme. He accuses Stark of "appropriating robo-culture" when he dresses up as Iron Man, and claims that eScape oppresses its AI NPCs. Jocasta apologises for him, saying he's become a militant mecha-activist (and dropped the synthetic flesh look he's sported recently). They exit arguing, watched with interest by security chief Bethany Cabe.In the present our POV character enters the sports zone where the Motherboard AI explains that she could become any sports star. She sees a beta-tester in the clunky old yellow armour in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation arena who confronts a Demolition Man look-alike with 3 female wrestlers. That IM accuses D-Man of being a user living out a fantasy but is proved wrong, and Motherboard says that's 1 of his 3-strikes-and-you're-out.Our POV, who appears to be in a very early red & gold armour, enters the rockstar arena where the Amanda Armstrong Experience are playing. She tags the singer and guitarist because no AI could be *that* bad. She's right, and gets 2 points. But we see they were Amanda and Andy, who decide to go for some real world burgers.Our beta-tester now reaches Wild West Town. She asks an inhabitant if there've been any incidents lately, such as train robberies. Meanwhile someone in a bulky silver armour is asking someone else if they've just got a new sheriff in town. But the scene is interrupted by Machine Man who has hacked in and proceeds to blast beings indiscriminately. AI NPCs get disrupted and users are logged out.Another flashback takes us to last night in the Uncanny Valley, a secret bar for robots. Aaron enters and demands a drink. 1 of the other patrons slips him an eScape box with a mask that resembles his old X-51 face (he now has a silvery fairly human face). She tells Stack it's a skeleton key that will allow him total access and invulnerability. She claims to be 1 of Tony Stark's creations that he now considers obsolete. But when she leaves we see that behind the image inducer is Bethany Cabe, but under the control of the Controller.Stack appears in the virtual reality in his old X-51 form. We see him blasting his way through the Savage Land, Cartoon Corner and ending up in the Mystic Realm where Stark has organised a last stand.  Tony is disguised as Dr Strange and he tells all magic-users to copy his spells. Machine Man finds himself assailed by computer code from all directions. Our 'Iron Man' is here too and learns that she's the last beta-tester standing.Aaron Stack responds by using his master access to attack Stark's jacked-in brain. He threatens to discover the *real* reason for eScape that Rhodey hinted at. Our POV tries to zap Machine Man but he's too-well defended. She offers to shoot Stark to break his connection but Tony says the link to MM would tear his mind in 2 (and Stack confirms it). So she takes another option - she blasts *herself*, severing her own connection and closing down the game as the last beta-tester.And back in the real world our tester switches off *her* image inducer to reveal Jocasta.Later she packs her bags and leaves the apartment she shared with Aaron. Her lover tells her he couldn't distinguish her from the humans. Jocasta responds that means she passed the Turing test. And Tony isn't pressing charges because Aaron helped him iron out some bugs in the system.At the office Bethany Cabe claims that Aaron Stack had cloned and used Jocasta's security clearance. And that *he* was the 1 behind the data thefts in the previous issues. (But we know it was actually Ms Cabe herself when under the Controller's domination.)Tony sees Jocasta arriving with her luggage. He tells *her* the real reason for eScape - he wanted to see if humans and AIs could coexist as indistinguishable equals. But then we learn more about what he told Rhodey last issue. During Dark Reign he erased his mind, and then reloaded it from a backup. And over the years he's re-engineered his whole body. So he wonders if *he* is now an AI, with no soul. But Jocasta replies that *she* knows that *she* has 1.Jocasta now makes an empty cupboard her 'sleeping' place. But she puts on her eScape mask and enters the virtual world. There she goes to sleep in her image inducer form in her own bed in the apartment, but with Motherboard to bid her goodnight.


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The Starknomicon
This is the 2nd half of a War Of The Realms prequel. Malekith the Dark Elf wanted to get rid of Iron Man before the invasion of Midgard because iron is fatal to Elves. So he tricked the dragon Sadurang into attacking Tony Stark believing he had a hoard of gold he could steal. Iron Man and friends managed to drive the dragon off from Stark Unlimited last issue.But now the dragon in his human guise turns up on Wall Street looking for the gold. He spurns the pleas of a beggar, but the man thinks Sadurang is a broker and warns him that *he* could follow this ex-broker into the gutter if he overreaches himself. From the unfortunate man Sadurang learns that the market handles 170 billion dollars a day, and could deal with 30 trillion if necessary. Sadurang tosses the man a bag of gold coins for his advice, and marches up to the Stock Exchange demanding the 30 trillion dollars of gold he now thinks they're sitting on.Meanwhile back at SU Iron Man is suffering a side effect of his battle with the dragon - his armour is leaking magic. Bethany Cabe thinks the dragon infected the simple AI the company is using to replace the corrupted Motherboard and the deceased Friday. James Rhodes now tells him that his armour is morphing into a knightly form, and his gauntlets are generating mystic sigils. Tony experiments with spell-casting but the result is a rain of frogs.Despite these problems Stark is determined to stop the rampage of the dragon who killed 3 of his security guards. He's also battling insecurity over his post-Civil War II rebuilt body and his resurgent alcoholism after he went on a VR bender in eScape. As he heads towards Wall Street he tries again to contact his girlfriend Janet van Dyne for her 'moral compass'. Rhodey calls to say his Manticore attack vehicle is damaged, as is the armour of Dr Shapiro the talking cat. Tony tells him to reactivate last issue's Hulkbot 3000.When Iron Man reaches the NYSE he finds that Sadurang is back in dragon form and the place is a wreck with all the lights out. Stark tries an invented pseudo-Harry Potter spell "Illuminatus gigantus" which amazingly turns on his chest uni-beam. And "Shazam" sends electric bolts at the dragon. But the giant dragon attacks him physically, and also mentally with taunts at his character flaws. So wizard Stark uses the only spell he knows works and fills Sadurang's gaping mouth with frogs.As the dragon coughs up the frogs Tony calls back to Rhodey to tell Bethany to switch of everything at SU except the Hulkbot. And then he leads the dragon back there. Beth starts an evacuation of the building. And David, the tech who was able to control the Stark computer system last issue when it could only understand Latin, plucks up the courage to ask her out on a date (presumably because they're all going to die anyway).Iron Man arrives and Tony tells Rhodey that the Hulkbot is the only SU tech that hasn't been affected by the mystical computer virus because its AI is faulty. And he gets the green robot to rip the helmet and chestplate off him (presumably the remainder of the infected armour isn't dangerous).And then good news arrives in the form of the Wasp, ready to fight and be his moral compass. Tony asks her to keep the dragon busy for 4 min 19 sec. Jan gives him an egoboost and the flies off to confront Sadurang. She zaps him with her sting and gets the lumbering giant to blunder about trying to catch her.Then Tony Stark emerges wearing a cobbled-together version of his original grey armour. It has no AI to be infected. And it is built for strength and invulnerability and sheer punching power. And he beats the dragon to pulp until Jan drags him off.Grateful Tony tries to summon the courage to confess to his girlfriend his VR drinking and the thirst it has reawakened. But instead he just hugs her.And the Avengers call him for War Of The Realms.


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[Assistant]
Thou covetous wyrm
A purple mist lands in Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, and coalesces into Malekith, lord of the Dark Elves, who has conquered 9 of the 10 Asgardian Realms and now has his sights on the 10th, Midgard (Earth). But he has come here now to speak to Sadurang the dragon, former student of Dormammu, with a suggestion that might be mutually beneficial. He tells him of an Earth warrior clad in iron, which is fatal to Elves. He is called the Golden Avenger because of all his gold, and like all dragons Sadurang is sorely tempted by that. So he leaves his own hoard of gold and gems, 1 of which he indicates is a 2nd Eye Of Agamotto, to go vanquish this golden knight.In Stark Unlimited HQ Tony Stark is in his sanctum The Forge showing James Rhodes his new toy the Hulkbot or Gammadroid or Mr Incredible. It has been created by some other toys, robots called Smith-1, Smith-2, etc. Tony claims that this isn't a reference to blacksmiths but to the band The Smiths - they were initially very gloomy, but the robots have been lightened up a bit since then. And yet another toy is the crown on Hulkbot's head.Tony explains that this is a prototype of a device for Bruce Banner, who blames himself for all the damage Hulk does. It will monitor his emotional state and apply stimuli to steer him away from Hulking out. Rhodey worries that Tony actually created it to help *himself* with his alcoholism. Stark says he *didn't* invent it, the Smiths did - he just gave them an outline of the problem.A Smith interrupts to hand them some coffees and asks them to pose for a photo. Tony explains that the robots think they are a couple. Later he'll go further and reveal that their AI is based on a dating app. Rhodes is more concerned that allowing AI's to design and build his tech is dangerous - in this case the crown could potentially lobotomise its wearer.As if to prove his point the Hulkbot has an identity crisis and goes on a smash rampage. Stark tells a Smithsbot to bring him an Iron Man gauntlet. The bot complies but asks if his 'lovely companion' will need formal attire too. However 1 repulsor ray blast takes the Hulk out. Tony's still not convinced having tech creating tech is a bad idea. He believes it's the AI that's the problem. Having lost Friday and Motherboard (in the last few issues) he hasn't yet got a quality replacement.Rhodey's still worried that Tony intends to use the behaviour-modifying crown on himself, since Motherboard got him to start drinking again in the eScape virtual reality. The Smiths still think they make a great couple.In the foyer a hologram receptionist greets Sadurang in human disguise (if you ignore the walking cane with a flaming handle) demanding to see her master. She tells him Mr Stark is unavailable, and a security guard tries to throw him out. Sadurang demands to know where the gold is, to much confusion.Meanwhile Tony is flying his car home. He calls up his girlfriend Janet van Dyne but gets her answering service. He goes for a dip in his pool while trying to justify using the crown to 'cure' his alcoholism. He likens it to medicine or a prosthetic. He says it needs testing and he can't ask anyone else to risk the consequences. He gets out of the pool to where the device sits next to a bottle of Scotch. He puts it on his head. And suffers a monster headache.Back at SU armed guards surround Sadurang who responds by assuming his dragon form and incinerating 3 of them. Security Chief Bethany Cabe tells the other guards to stand down while they bring in bigger guns. Jim Rhodes heads off to get *his* armament, and Dr Shapiro the talking cat offers to armour up. Cabe can't send the drones in because the SU computers suddenly only understand Latin.Rhodes now attacks Sadurang in his Manticore assault vehicle. Beth finds somebody who remembers learning Latin. The cat joins the scrap inside its own 4-legged armour/vehicle. Both it and the Manticore are smashed aside. But then Iron Man comes to the rescue and does a bit better until he too gets swatted. Latin guy gets control of the computer system and sends everything at the dragon.Iron man gets up and Stark boasts about defeating Fin Fang Foom recently (#1). Sadurang reads his mind to confirm it and is impressed. Dr Shapiro and the Manticore are now up and running again and they're joined by Hulkbot and the Smiths. Sadurang chooses a strategic retreat but threatens to return tonight armed with appropriate spells. Iron Man and the others would chase after him but Rhodey and Bethany notice that his armour is leaking magic.


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[Assistant]
Echo chamber
Tony Stark is attending a Congressional Hearing about the damage caused by Stark Unlimited's VR system eScape (#6-11). Senator Miles Brickman is grilling him relentlessly. Stark explains that the super-villain Controller hacked into the system and caused the problem. Despite that his company is actively seeking out all the people who affected and giving them compensation. But he is forced to admit that the AI (Motherboard) in charge of eScape was also at fault, but its programming had been corrupted. But then he is led to explain that the AI was autonomous, ie designed to work within certain parameters but to learn on the job and make its own decisions. Brickman then asks if the *AI* was responsible for the damage? Stark replies that it has never been established in a court of law whether a fully autonomous AI can be held responsible for its actions. The Senator says that the point is moot anyway because Motherboard was destroyed.Brickman then changes tack. He gets Stark to confirm that he has used his tech to upgrade his own body and mind, and asks him how much of himself is left? And in fact can he prove that he himself is not an AI? Tony hesitates to answer because that's just the kind of question he's been struggling with all this series (since he rebooted himself in his Legacy issues after 'dying' in Civil War II). But eventually he replies that yes, he *might* be an AI. We see the reaction of James Rhodes in the audience, Janet Van Dyne, Andy Bhang and Bethany Cabe watching the event on TV. And at Baintronics its CEO Sunset Bain laughs her head off and Tony's brother Arno Stark finds it very interesting.Unknown to Tony, Arno rescued the Motherboard AI modelled on his mother along with the Arsenal AI(?) based on his father and has them running as holograms at Baintronics. But he switches them off to go to attend to his guest the robot Jocasta who wants her body upgraded to a more human state. Her (ex-)boyfriend Aaron Stack, the activist robot Machine Man, continues to try to talk her out of it. But Jo goes with Arno leaving Aaron to be taunted by his old foe Sunset.At the Capitol the Senator has upped the ante by suddenly switching on the hologram of the Tony Stark AI that Tony gave to Ironheart to be her mentor. Brickman refuses to divulge how he got hold of it. The hologram doesn't know what's going on. Brickman asks if this AI is as much Stark as the embodied version? Which of them actually owns Stark Unlimited? The Tony hologram tries to interject but his flippant attitude doesn't help. Stark is granted a recess to bring his hologram, who hasn't been on since Riri Williams replaced him with NATALIE, up-to-date. The 2 Tony's meet with Rhodey to discuss what to do. AI Tony suggests they need help from people who can speak up for AIs ...... and we see Vision and Wonder Man arriving at Avengers Mansion answering a call from Tony Stark (they believe). They expect it will be about the Hearing - Vision is an AI and Simon Williams has also experienced 'rebirth' (at least twice). They are greeted at the door by butler Edwin Jarvis, despite the fact that the Avengers don't use the Mansion anymore. (And we also know that Jarvis has retired.) Our suspicions are confirmed when 'Jarvis' sends energy globes to disrupt Vision's system and WM's ionic body.The 2 Tony's have gone to Stark Unlimited. Tiny Wasp flies to join them, passing a mob of robots protesting their rights. (1 placard says "I dream of electric sheep".)  Human Stark bemoans the fact that he has no AI in his armour - Jocasta won't do it (again) and Friday died doing it. AI Stark now takes on the job.Iron Man and Wasp head out for dinner, but then a figure flies into view which the robots hail as the synthezoid Vision. But the Tony's detect something's wrong, and discern that the figure is actually an amalgam of Vision and Wonder Man. Which ignores them and goes after Jan. Iron Man attacks but is severely beaten by the double-powered figure. Wasp zaps it but is batted to the ground, where she is zapped and pocketed by 'Jarvis'.Iron Man is still failing in his struggle against Vision Man. The only plan human Tony can come up with is a super-EMP (to do what 'Jarvis' did earlier), but this will totally fry IM's system too - 'killing' AI Tony. The AI agrees it's the only option and Stark figuratively presses the button.When he revives, which includes his own brain rebooting and reloading his memories from backup, he's aware that he's now a copy of a copy of a copy of Tony Stark. And he looks round and sees all the robot protesters that his EMP has also killed. And he realises that Jocasta was right when she said he treated AIs like data. And he also belatedly notices that Wasp has gone.Jan awakes to find herself in 1 of those ubiquitous confinement tubes. And Jarvis is joined by his master Ultron - still half her ex-husband Henry Pym. (Marvel Fandom Wiki suggests this Jarvis is the Ultron Sentinel version from Secret Empire #3-4. Though his head didn't look at all human then.)


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[Assistant]
Stark realities: Part 2 - Out of control
Last issue Tony Stark put his ultra-VR system eScape on general release. But almost immediately loads of disruptive players were thrown out by the admin enforcer program Arsenal (its avatar based on a sophisticated robot invented by Tony's (now-dead) adoptive father Howard Stark). Tony entered the system to find out what was happening, followed by his birth-mother Amanda Armstrong who was tired of him avoiding her. But when she started arguing with him Arsenal took offence. And when Stark tried to stop it the program attacked them both.Meanwhile Tony's foe Controller showed 1 of the ejected players a backdoor into the system, and this issue opens with him simultaneously making the same offer to all the other ejectees.Tony's avatar is fighting Arsenal in an old VR-Iron Man armour while he contacts the Motherboard AI that runs the system. But the AI refuses to switch Arsenal off until Tony says "Please", which was not supposed to be in its programming. Then his mother's avatar derezzes and he ends his session to return to reality where his staff tell him that she's collapsed and they can't wake her.*We* see Amanda awake lying on a floor still in her youthful avatar surrounded by little robots who are worried about her. (1 of them suggests she has a faulty self-righting mechanism as in Battlebots/Robot Wars). Then Arsenal enters the room and the little guys call him daddy. It questions her right to be here but then recognises she has guest permissions. And then opens up and Howard Stark walks out.Howard wants to know who she is and how she got to the Home setting. He was expecting Tony's mother (not someone who appears much younger than Tony). A voice he calls Mistress (presumably Motherboard) explains that this young-looking avatar really *is* Amanda Armstrong, adopted Tony's biological mother. And then she manifests as Maria Stark, Howard's (dead) wife and Tony's adoptive mother.Back in reality Bethany Cabe and Andy Bhang don't know what to do about Amanda. Tony gets robot Jocasta Pym to scan her, reporting that she's running normally. She thinks pulling Amanda out of eScape might be a bad move, but admits that she's running on low charge (she forgot to recharge last issue/night) and her judgement might be not up to par. A disagreement breaks out among the staff. Some are worried this might happen to lots of users and think they should shut the system down. Others are more worried about the effect of that on Stark Unlimited's reputation. Stark decides to keep his mother inside but tells all the other users to save their position and quit before the system closes.Amazingly quickly the system is emptied. But then all the original ejected user accounts spring back to life. And Controller contacts Stark Unlimited's control room to tell Tony what he's done. These users won't go quietly, and removing them by force will damage their minds. (Presumably their backdoor access permissions mean they can't be safely ejected like before.) So now Stark must do whatever Controller wants.But Tony was ready for this. (As he explains to Bethany later he's known that Basil Sandhurst was up to something since he spotted that Fin Fang Foom (in #1) wore 1 of his control discs.) He  pushes a button (labelled Big Red Mess Up The Controller's Plans Button) which locates the source of Controller's transmission.Tony contacts SU's super-team Wasp (Jan Van Dyne) and James Rhodes in his Manticore vehicle and tells them where to meet him. He tells Beth to take Amanda to the Infirmary and look after her. And he leaves Andy Bhang in charge, as the only person who joined SU after Controller started his plotting and therefore the only 1 he can be sure isn't under Sandhurst's control. He also asks Jocasta to find her recently-ex (#3) boyfriend Machine Man and get him to use his illegal eScape interface to sneak into the system. And everyone else should work on getting Amanda and all the others out of the system safely.1 last thing before he jets off. After Jocasta has left he asks his ex-AI Friday Stark to abandon her new robot body and temporarily replace the suspect Motherboard as the AI in his armour. Friday is reluctant and Andy protests that Chief Robotic Ethicist Jocasta wouldn't have allowed it if Tony hadn't waited until she'd gone. But Friday agrees to do it.Jocasta finds Machine Man in the Uncanny Valley secret bar for robots. He's pouring his soul out to the bar-robot over missing Jocasta. When she greets him Aaron Stack thinks she's come back to him. But the militant mecha-activist is angry when he finds out she only wants him to help the 'meatbags' trapped in eScape. As Jo pleads with him to be the heroic Avenger he used to be she collapses from lack of power.Iron Man rendezvouses with Wasp and Rhodey over the new Baintronics factory in Cranbury, New Jersey which can 3D-print anything you order and deliver it to your door via robot drone. Tony is jealous that *he* didn't think of it. Jim uses Manticore's scanner to detect that all the packages currently flying out by drone contain weapons. Controller reveals to them that he's behind this. And we see a box containing a pair of super 6-guns delivered to a man who is in eScape as a cowboy. The idea is that Controller's eScape troops have been given whatever their avatars desire in the real world as well as VR. Now whatever they do in the game will happen in real life too.


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The Ultron agenda part 4: Stark truths
Ultron has been turning people into cyborgs under his control but now his plans are unravelling.He (accidentally it must be said) fused Tony Stark with his Iron Man armour but last issue Dr Shapiro the talking cat scientist undid that. Now still-weak Tony has donned an older armour. But he currently doesn't have an AI to run his armour so he's had to go a long way back to a 'manual' suit. The staff of Stark Unlimited recognise it as from his Golden Avenger days (but I would have thought most of his armours fit that description). But he tells Bethany Cabe and Edwin Jarvis to get everybody out before Ultron comes for revenge. Then he recruits the help of Shapiro and Andy Bhang, and asks Wasp and Jocasta in the robot body of ex-AI Friday to keep Ultron busy until he's ready. The pair are happy with that task since Ultron tried to merge *them* into 1 cyborg 'bride', which left robot Jo needing a new body (last issue again).Ultron is still in Manhattan where he defeated Vision and Wonder Man last issue but still has to reckon with War Machine. However the insane robot rustles up 2 of his remaining cyborgs to form a human shield. James Rhodes doesn't want shoot them now he knows there's a way of separating the flesh from the metal, but his targeting system is damaged so he can't risk trying to hit Ulty. Ultron has no such problems and blasts our hero. And he leaves for SU ...... where Jocasta's ex-boyfriend Machine Man has arrived having scavenged some replacement limbs from dead cyborgs. Jo knows how Aaron Stack hates the idea of having (part-)fleshy bits but he says he put up with it to get to her. And he recognises her code (mannerisms) even in her new body. The 3 scientists have quickly created a big 'gun' to fire Shapiro's cure. Tony apologises to Andy for having 'dragged' him into working for SU and thus putting him in danger. Andy replies by listing all the good experiences working here has given him.And at Baintronics Sunset Bain and Arno Stark watch the proceedings via their hack into SU's security cameras. With them are Arno and Tony's parents Howard and Maria, actually copies of their long-dead minds placed in new artificial bodies by Arno.Ultron arrives and attacks Aaron, Jocasta and Wasp. At this point I'll remind you that for a long time Ultron himself has been a cyborg who is part Henry Pym. Pym accuses his ex-wife Janet Van Dyne of choosing Stark over him - again. And then downs all 3 with 1 blast. But then Iron Man attacks the foe (and the same(?) 2 cyborg flunkies as earlier). But it's only a distraction until Bhang fires the gun which divides the henchborgs into flesh and metal, leaving the humans dead.Pymtron accuses Stark of now being a murderer but Tony counters that they died as soon as the villain cyborged them. And Machine Man chips in that the cyborg parts he took confirm that. Ultron asks what about Tony and the previously-merged Vision and Wonder Man, who survived being split. Stark replies that WM's ionic energy body and Vision's phasing synthezoid body were a special case, and he too is an artificial being (since the real Stark died in Civil War II).This is a shock to Howard and Maria at Baintronics, who also now begin to question *their* status.Tony now threatens to have Andy fire the gun at Ultron, separating out the Pym parts. And Ultron will discover that he's *never* been Henry Pym. Hank died when they fused (in the Avengers: Rage Of Ultron graphic novel). The robot doesn't want to chance finding out this is true so he surrenders.Jocasta's Friday body is now heavily damaged, but Tony tells Aaron that he'll fix her. Jarvis and Bethany have sent for more Avengers. Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Thor show up (and I think there's Dr Strange in the background). They encase Ultron in a tube of Wakandan Vibranium sealed with Asgardian runes until they can put him somewhere more permanently secure. Vision, War Machine and Wonder Man have joined them. Rhodey tells Carol Danvers he's coping with the trauma of wearing the War Machine armour again, and he's relieved to learn that the cyborgs he killed in the past few issues were actually already dead. Carol also checks on Tony but he claims to be OK. (He doesn't want to tell her that she actually *killed* the real Tony Stark in Civil War II and he's just an artificial copy.)After the others have left it's just Tony and his girlfriend Jan who doesn't believe his last statement to Captain Marvel. Wasp knows about his doubts and tries to convince him he's real by sharing a kiss. But he says she deserves someone better and flies off.We now have an epilogue spread over the following weeks setting us up for the new Iron Man 2020 series.Tony Stark confesses to Senator Brickman's Congressional Hearing (see #15) that he is an AI and solely responsible for recent problems at Stark Unlimited. Brickman conspires with Arno Stark and Sunset Bain. Arno publicly claims that he created the AI Tony and his body and therefore he owns SU and everything the fake Tony created this series. He takes over the company and merges it with Baintronics, fires Security Chief Bethany Cabe and takes possession of Jocasta/Friday. But he can't get the War Machine armour because Jim Rhodes has taken that to the military. But Arno's not bothered because he wants to rebuild the Godbuster (or Godkiller) armour (see #10-11).Machine Man (all-metal again) enters the secret robot bar, the Uncanny Valley. The denizens are complaining about Brickman's new law that denies AI's any rights. Aaron Stack incites them to revolution. In another bar anonymous Tony Stark prepares to  take his 1st real drink. (Since it wasn't *him* who had all those problems with alcoholism years ago, and the drinks he had in #9-10 were in virtual reality.) In Arno's apartment Howard and Maria Stark are sharing a drink on New Year's Eve. Arno dons the Godbuster armour and flies to Times Square to see in 2020. (And it looks even more like the armour the original 'future' Arno Stark/Iron Man 2020 wore than it did in #10-11.)


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The Ultron agenda part 1: Man & machine
Jocasta has come to Arno Stark at Baintronics to get her robot body upgraded to to a more humanoid android version. Arno is partway through the operation when Ultron Pym (the Ultron/Henry Pym hybrid) forces his way into the room to take away his 'bride'. Jo protests that she's going through this voluntarily. But Ultron isn't angry - he sees her current half metal/half 'flesh' state as making her more like him.At Stark Unlimited Tony Stark and Andy Bhang, watched by Security Chief Bethany Cabe and James Rhodes, are trying unsuccessfully to separate the merged Vision and Wonder Man who last issue attacked Iron Man. We know that the pair were captured by Ultron last issue and presumably merged against their will. But now they seem perfectly happy with the arrangement. Tony is willing to use extreme measures to de-merge them in order to find out what they've done with his girlfriend Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp.Andy thinks 1 of the factors that hampers the de-merging is that the brain engrams of Simon Williams and Vision are nearly identical, because the synthezoid Vision's brain was based on Simon's (way back in Avengers #57-58). Tony wonders if Vision Man came after Jan because she too has a brain double Jocasta. And since both Jocasta and Vision were created by Ultron he guesses that's who's behind it all. He doesn't know how Ultron survived being thrown into the Sun (Uncanny Avengers v3 #12). [He also presumably doesn't know of Ultron's subsequent activities during Secret Empire (while Stark was 'dead') and Infinity Countdown (in a galaxy far far away).]Beth can't contact Jocasta who's blocked calls from SU personnel after quitting the firm in disgust over Stark's treatment of the AI Friday (#7-8). But she knows where to find Jo's boyfriend Aaron Stack - the secret robot bar The Uncanny Valley. She's right and we see him there getting drunk on machine oil. There's much discussion amongst the 'bots about Tony Stark's recent actions and whether he's now an AI. Aaron takes a definite anti-Stark stance. A robot asks him about Jocasta, but then her image inducer fails and she's revealed as Bethany Cabe.She's surrounded by angry robots but suddenly Iron Man enters in the new UltronBuster armour he happened to have been working on (despite believing Ultron was no more). A bar fight ensues which of course spreads to other patrons fighting each other. Drunken Aaron tries to use his Machine Man abilities against Iron Man but winds up complaining that it's Stark's fault Jocasta has gone to Arno at Baintronics to get a new body. This is all news to Tony including his smarter brother Arno colluding with his rival Sunset Bain, but Beth thinks this explains how Bain was able to hack into SU's network during the eScape affair.The 3 of them head out with Rhodey in his Manticore fighting machine to Baintronics HQ where they see signs of recent battle. Security Chief Gauntlet confirms that it was Ultron. Sunset Bain accuses Tony Stark of sending Ultron to trash the place. But Tony bullies her into taking him to see Arno. Arno says he let Ultron take Jo because he was only going to continue the process Arno had already started. But he helpfully says he's deduced that Ultron Pym will be based at the disused Avengers Mansion with its secret tunnel entrances.Our intrepid 4 now fly to the Mansion where they're met by Edwin Jarvis who tells them Jan and Jo are safe inside. But Bethany spots something on the back of Jarvis' head and zaps it, breaking him out of Ultron's control. She then stays to make sure Edwin's OK. Rhodes can't get the Manticore inside the building. Tony suggests Jim might want to try using his old War Machine armour again, admitting that he's modified it so Rhodey can call it to him. But James is still leery after his PTSD attack (#2) so he stays in the Manticore to cut off Ultron's escape route. And Iron Man enters the dragon's den with still-drunk Machine Man.Ultron is monitoring their progress. He has Jan and Jocasta floating in tubes and says he's going to molecularly fuse them (as he did to Vision and WM) into a perfect being like himself. Iron Man bursts in uttering threats, with Machine Man close behind echoing him. Ultron Pym easily holds them at bay and starts to tear Aaron to pieces. Tony begs him not to hurt the females. Ultron says the process is perfectly safe - he performed it many times ...... and outside the other 3 are assaulted by various half-flesh/half-metal humans. Rhodey flashes-back to presumably the period when he was a cyborg (covering Secret Invasion and Dark Reign) and panics and starts using Manticore's guns against the attackers. Bethany shouts for him to stop hurting innocent people.Back inside Jocasta begs Aaron to free her but Ultron rips him in 2. Ulty trades blasts and force-shields with Iron Man, who tells the Pym half that he's mad like he always has been. Jan Van Dyne chimes in saying Hank always hurt her when they were together and he's hurting her now. Hank replies that he's always given her increasing powers and that's what he's doing now. Tony twists the knife by saying Jan *always* preferred *him*. Aaron-in-pieces says Ultron will never have the relationship with Jocasta that *he* has. This all drives Henry Pym mad and sends Ultron's processor into a loop.But the fusion countdown has begun. IM breaks Jan and Jo free from their tubes, but that causes an explosion when the fusion process kicks in. And when the smoke clears Tony Stark has been melded with his armour.


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Self-made man: Part 2 - The not-a-pilot episode
We begin with flashbacks in James Rhodes' dream. He remembers being rescued by Iron Man (Tony Stark) as he was burning up in re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in his own Iron Man suit (original Iron Man #216). He spent a period as a cyborg trapped in his War Machine armour (mainly Avengers: Initiative and War Machine (2009)). And he was killed in the WM armour by Thanos (Free Comic Book Day (2016): Civil War II) (and recently reborn in IM#600).Now he wakes up in a panic. But it's time to go to work as Stark Unlimited's liaison to the US military. Being at the wheel of his car perks him up.Andrew Bhang, SU's new chief robotics engineer, gets ready for work while listening to a CD by his favourite old rock star Amanda Armstrong. And continues listening to it on the Metro.The robot Jocasta Pym, SU's chief robotic ethicist, is fully charged and ready to go. She leaves her robot lover (we'll find out who he is later) at home and walks to work dressed in a trouser suit to mollify human sensibilities.Bethany Cabe, head of SU security, has been working all night trying to catch whoever's been hacking SU's computers to steal info. But then she's taken over by the Controller. She herself is the hacker and knows how to evade her own security measures. But Controller advises a distraction to keep Beth and Tony's suspicions at bay.Rhodey arrives at work to find that Tony has been up for hours. He's turned part of the SU interior into a climbing wall and challenges Jim to a climb without safety harnesses. Rhodes reminds his friend that he's successfully holding his alcoholism at bay, but suspects that Tony's addictive personality may have switched to adrenaline highs. Tony slips and falls, but Jim catches him - which Stark treats as par for the course.Andy, Jim, Jocasta and Tony meet in the Foundry robotics division to discuss an AI for the Iron Man armour. Jocasta has persuaded Tony it's unethical to keep an AI cooped up in there, as she herself once was, so they've freed his old AI Friday into her own robot body. The Friday body walks in to remind everyone tonight is karaoke night, and is introduced to Andy Bhang as Friday Stark. Tony mentions the AI Motherboard which is running Project eScape. Tony suggests Motherboard stay as she is but be linked in to his armour, and Jocasta agrees (without consulting Motherboard!). (We've already seen this partnership in action in the new Avengers series.)(This discussion is actually over a straw man. Friday *wasn't* confined to Stark's armour, she was his holographic PA based in the HQ but able to appear anywhere. I think being the AI for the armour was just a sideline or a subprogram. The period Jocasta refers too was presumably starting from IM(1998)#20 where she'd lost her body and her intelligence was housed in Stark's main computers. As far as I remember she didn't run Tony's IM suit, but if she did so it was again as a subfunction. And the new Motherboard setup sounds to me just like how Friday and Jocasta used to work.)Bethany Cabe storms in with important news. But Andy is astonished to see Amanda Armstrong following her (apparently wearing the same t-shirt as on his old poster of her). He's even more astounded to hear that she's a manager in the company, an ex-SHIELD Agent and Tony's biological mother. (We all know he's only a Stark by adoption, right.)Beth tells them she's discovered that Baintronics has used illegally-acquired Stark tech to create the Manticore assault vehicle which Sunset Bain will be auctioning off to various military interests today. Amanda wants to use legal restraints but Tony intends to stop the auction as Iron Man and he asks Rhodey to help him as War Machine.The scene moves to Baintronics testing ground set up with a helicopter, a tank and other military vehicles and various crash-test dummies. The Manticore arrives in the air and smashes through the 'copter, then lands and demolishes the vehicles. Then it demonstrates its accuracy by setting a nominated dummy on fire with a microwave beam rifle.Bain's head of security here is Gauntlet (ex-Sgt Joseph Green). A US general repeats an offer for Joe's alien gauntlet, but Green reminds him that the gauntlet is bonded to him and he says *he*'s not for sale (despite the fact that Bain is obviously paying him).Sunset starts the auction but she's immediately interrupted by IM and WM. Tony ignores the fact that Jim isn't enjoying this, especially when Bain sends the Manticore after War Machine while Gauntlet and the security guards tackle Iron Man. While they fight Stark tries to talk Joe Green down by reminding him how he worked with Tony and Rhodey at the Camp Hammond Avengers Initiative training ground. But Gauntlet points out he's doing his job and his opponents are legally the bad guys here.We take a break in the SU Commisary where Andy Bhang is still trying to come to terms with working with his teen idol. And Joelle, who claims to be a new girl in Robotics, is chatting with some other staff when Cabe attacks her. Beth knows who *all* the staff are and she's never heard of Joelle so, she thinks she's a spy. But J's hard metal skin gives her away as Jocasta just trying to fit in.Gauntlet has Iron Man trapped in his energy projection, and Tony asks Rhodey to finish off the Manticore and help him. But Jim has frozen due to post-traumatic stress and gets Motherboard to eject him from the War Machine suit. The Manticore is about to crush the helpless human when Stark tells the AI to access the Stark tech in the machine. Now it's the Manticore's pilot's turn to be ejected.But without a pilot the weapon goes out of control. Until Jim Rhodes jumps into the pilot seat and takes over. And uses it's weapons to knock Gauntlet out, freeing Iron Man.Tony and Sunset decide to make a deal over dinner about SU buying the rights to the Manticore.Jocasta skips karaoke and goes home to her lover, who turns out to be Machine Man (Aaron Stack). She tells him about the Joelle incident and says she wants to become a subject of Project eScape. Aaron is angry because he believes it's a bad thing for robot-kind. (More on this next issue.)Tony has actually bought Manticore for Rhodey to use. Jim says he can't work in the War Machine armour anymore because it feels too much like his recent coffin. But in the Manticore he feels more like a pilot. (He used to fly military helicopters.) In turn Tony admits something about *his* recent rebirth. (He was put in a near-death coma at then end of Civil War II and revived in the IM Legacy issues #593-600.) He believes he "came back wrong".