I think I saw this in a movie once.
Iron Man #258.4
FINAL ISSUE
Marvel Comics (July, 2013)
“Iron Men” PLOT: David Michelinie & Bob Layton SCRIPT: David Michelinie BREAKDOWNS: Dave Ross FINISHER: Bob Layton COLORIST: Chris Sotomayor COVER ART: Dave Ross, Tom Palmer, & Chris Sotomayor LETTERER: Dave Lanphear ASSISTANT EDITORS: Michael Christatos & A..J. Fierro ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Tom Brennan EDITOR: Justin Gabrie
Tony is forced to reveal his identity to Hammer and together they set out to stop “The Entity”. (I guess we aren’t going with “Tony 2.0” after all.) On Earth, Rhodey uses the War Machine armor (never called that because the name hadn’t been used and possibly not even developed when this story would have happened) to help and when Iron Man returns to Earth the two armor-clad heroes break into Stark HQ to take the Entity down.
What they got right: Remembering not to call the War Machine armor War Machine should be noted. Tony has to battle his old armors and I usually enjoy that, if only because I get to see all the old armors in action. The art was good, the pacing worked, and poor Rhodey’s being hit with those message canisters is kind of funny. Poor guy’s suffered these last two issues.
What they got wrong: Not as bad as the female characters in this arc and yes I’m still on that. As for this issue, Sondheim didn’t get a funeral that we know of, but of course Tony’s dead girlfriend’s we see. The doctor’s death isn’t even brought up again. I don’t see why Rhodey’s armor had to be repainted. The Entity didn’t know Rhodey would be in a suit of armor. It would have written it off as Tony in new armor, wouldn’t it?
Other notes: As far as I know Sondheim didn’t die but she would be part of later events. Rae not only lived past the original #258 but went on to date Rhodey. (That must have been an interesting turn of events. Was she still working for Hammer at the time?) As far as I know she wasn’t another Madame Masque red herring. There was also an alternate debut for the War Machine armor and Rhodey would assume the role. Hammer tried the nanite trick again in the Bad Blood miniseries and he would be confined to the space station just before that miniseries.
Recommendation: Outside of the female characters demise, this was a good storyline and one wonders how, if at all, it would have changed events for Tony, Rhodey, and Justin. It’s worth picking up if only for the curiosity factor, but it also shows that Michelnie and Layton can still make a good Iron Man comic. Something to think about, Alonzo.
Rhodey regretted testing out the early version of text messaging.
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