Redemption, Interrupted

 

Having covered the 1988 Armor Wars storyline in detail, in addition to its epilogue, we turn our attention now to a scenario where Tony Stark, who instigated the campaign whereby he sought out and neutralized all of his stolen armor technology whether in use by friend or foe, instead sees his mission aborted prematurely and his life brought to ruin by the tenacious enemy who was responsible for putting this drama in motion. And given that the narrator of this new chain of events is the Watcher, you just know we're about to see how bad bad can get for the man whose famous suit of armor proved to be his downfall.

Yet the "Armor Wars" as we knew them is a misnomer in the sense that here, those battles are curtailed for Stark shortly after he sets out on his mission--though we'll see the phrase take on new meaning when this story reaches its turning point.

First, though, the Watcher does us the courtesy of recapping the original sequence of events:

To show how and when things took a wrong turn, however, the Watcher brings us back to the point where Stark and his friend, James Rhodes, were attempting to hack into the database of criminal magnate Justin Hammer for information that Stark needed to discover who bugged his lab (the culprit being the Spymaster) as well as a list of recipients of the stolen technology (the first of course being Hammer himself, no doubt for a hefty price). Only this time, Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, doesn't escape the effects of the gas he'd run into--and Hammer learns of Stark's plans before they're even implemented.

Thanks to Lang's information, Hammer takes preemptive action to protect himself--and availing himself of the very stolen technology which Stark would set out to curtail, he quickly and skillfully nullifies Iron Man's threat, and, in an unexpected development, brings his corporate rival to his knees.

Stark being Iron Man, of course, nets Hammer the two greatest threats to his operations at a stroke. The power of Iron Man is now at his beck and call--while Stark's knowledge and many secrets are his for the asking without resistance, for sale to those who are understandably eager to put them to use.

It's never made clear from writer Danny Fingeroth's story just how many lives were lost from the attacks of those groups and organizations who benefited from Stark's interrogation, though we do know that the only Avenger present at the explosion at the WCA compound was Hawkeye, who managed to survive. (By design on Fingeroth's part, as will become apparent.) As for Hammer, his plans for Stark now become more ruthless, more akin to a vendetta, as he calmly proceeds to make Stark himself turn Iron Man's power into a self-destructive weapon which eliminates many of those people and personal achievements that he held most dear.

And there is still more: a forced admission of guilt at City Hall, followed by a self-inflicted, public death that will assure that Stark's life is ended in disrepute and disgrace. But we then learn that one villain's victory lap is another villain's (or in this case, villainous group's) opportunity, as forces move in to seize such a valuable asset for their own purposes.

Yet before A.I.M. can re-establish the hold which Hammer exercised over Stark, the victim takes advantage of the momentary lapse in control to break free of the neuro-collar which sapped his will and jet away from the immediate area, just far enough to rid himself of his co-opted armor and engage its self-destruct mode to turn it to ashes. As for A.I.M., the loss of Stark's cooperation amounts to only a setback for them considering they're still in possession of not only his technology but also Scott Lang and his daughter as hostages.

And Tony Stark himself? With his life in shambles, what to do? Fingeroth supplies an all-too-convenient feature of the neuro-collar's effect that prevents him from reaching out to either the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, but Stark knows he needs allies to neutralize his stolen technology--and the irony of making his appeal to those individuals he'd originally planned to attack in that regard is doubtless not lost on him.

Stark's strike team then proceeds to break into Hammer's mansion, where A.I.M.'s Omega group has set up camp and where Stark plans to carry out his goal. But on the basement level, he discovers the armor that we know would have been eventually used against him, but which Stark himself now makes use of--first, to free Lang and his daughter, and then to join his team in battling A.I.M.'s forces...

...but once those forces are corralled, Stark discovers that things have gone too far for any efforts on his part to be successful in making sure that others are kept from using his technology. As unwelcome as that news may be to Stark, however, his "allies" are even less receptive to his demand that they divest themselves of their armor and give themselves up.

The timely arrival of the Avengers makes short work of their opponents, except for one--but Tony Stark has one last battle to fight, this time against himself. The choice he makes proves to be a bitter pill for Stark to swallow, in a scene which, true to form for a What If story, is filled with uncertainty for both the man and the world he lives in.

It's easy to look at this sort of outcome and imagine it as the epilogue readers of Invincible Iron Man might have expected: Stark accepting responsibility for Iron Man's actions and feeling obligated to defend his decisions in a court of law, rather than Iron Man being used as a scapegoat so that Stark would avoid accountability for his bodyguard's rogue actions and subsequent "death." It would admittedly have been a hurdle for the book, and its principal character, to overcome... yet riveting reading in the hands of the right writer.