Appearing in "Long Way Down Part 2: How to Make a Madman"
Featured Characters:
- Tony Stark (Main story and flashback)
Supporting Characters:
- Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards)
- Stark Resilient
- Pepper Potts (Rescue)
- Carson Wyche
- Bethany Cabe
- Iron Man (Jim Rhodes) (Return as Iron Man)
Antagonists:
- Ezekiel Stane (Main story and flashback)
- Sasha Hammer
- Gen. Bruce Babbage
- Spymaster / "Pim Pimacher" (Sinclair Abbott)
- Detroit Steel (Doug Johnson)
- Firepower
Other Characters:
- Obadiah Stane (Only in flashback)
- Howard Stark (Only in flashback)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- Mongolia
- United States of America
- New York
- Washington
- Aberdeen (First appearance)
- Stark Resilient World Headquarters
- Aberdeen (First appearance)
- International waters near Somalia
Items:
- Bleeding Edge Armor
- Iron Man Armor Model 39 (First appearance)
- R.T. node
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Long Way Down Part 2: How to Make a Madman"
A flashback shows Obadiah Stane punishing and pushing his son, Ezekiel, to become better than Tony Stark. Now, in Mandarin City, Zeke is performing surgery on himself to remove the bomb and hope to escape Mandarin's control. He tries to ignore the pain by focusing on how much he hates Stark. He finally succeeds.
Another flashback, from Tony's childhood shows his father pushing him in a more encouraging way, teaching him that he ought to clean up his own messes. At the Baxter building, Reed has agreed to help remove the Iron Man nanites from Tony's system so Tony can remove Babbage and Hammer from his life. Tony is strapped into a machine which causes the suit's substance to violently be ejected from his body. Once he regains consciousness, he hands Hammer the remains of the suit and asks them to take the "spy ring" off his chest repulsor node.
Spymaster arrives at Stark Resilient, and lets himself in using Pimacher's identity card. He attacks Wyche, locks the doors and declares that he means to kill everyone. Beth locks herself in and interrupts Spymaster before he can off Wyche - who knocks him out with a heavy monitor. Beth sounds the alarm.
Doug Johnson has made his way into Sasha's apartment, she wakes, confused from the drugs, and initially thinks him a friend. He repeats that his name is Detroit Steel and attacks her with a kitchen knife.
Back at the Baxter Building, Tony, Reed and Pepper are finally alone. He apologizes to Reed for bringing his mess to him, but also asks him to replace the damaged repulsor node. Reed is more reluctant to do this, but Tony insists that since he is a machine, Reed is the engineer he needs. Pepper asks Reed if he can give her a new job. They get a call about the shootings in Seattle.
Off the Somalian coast, a group of pirates sail away from a sinking cruise ship. They summon Firepower to deal with the arriving coast guard. Rhodey arrives in the new Iron Man suit, shooting Firepower in the back.
Solicit Synopsis
• If Tony Stark isn’t Iron Man, then who’s that guy in the new suit?
• Zeke Stane digs for the truth
• Spymaster racks up his victims