In Iron Man #12, Tony Stark and one of his armored companions faces the threat of Korvac, and Tony is unable to prevent the death of a hero.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Iron Man #12, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Tony Stark’s ongoing feud with the nefarious Korvac has been amplified by the involvement of the Living Tribunal, and now the stakes are higher than ever as the two adversaries fight it out on Galactus’s Ship. Christopher Cantwell, Angel Unzueta, Frank D’armata and VC’s Joe Caramagna’s Iron Man #12 sets the stage for a fight Iron Man seems destined to lose and brings one hero’s life to a tragic, brutal end.
Iron Man #12 begins with a badly injured, morphine-addicted Iron Man and his armored compatriot from Canada, Avro-X, struggling to disable the numerous traps and security robots on Galactus’ ship while waiting for Korvac to arrive. Even with the odds stacked against them, the two heroes work well together. Since reuniting in issue #10, they have managed to defeat Ultimo and Stilt-Man to free a colony of people who had been stranded on the planet Meggido as part of one of Stilt-Man’s experiments.
Tony Stark and Avro-X’s working relationship dates back to 1989’s Marvel Fanfare #44 (by Ken Steacy), when they met at a Robotics Expo in Doctor Doom’s Latveria, and Colin Richard demonstrated the Canadian military’s Avro-X suit. When Colin’s suit malfunctioned, Iron Man leapt into action to save him and the rest of the Expo’s attendees.
Unfortunately, Iron Man isn’t able to save Colin this time when the two go face to face with Korvac and his cronies. The original Human Torch uses a powerful blast of fire to incapacitate Stark, while Blizzard immobilizes Colin by freezing his legs. Avro-X attempts to keep fighting in spite of being frozen in place, but Korvac kills him with a burst of energy while Iron Man looks on in agony, unable to help his friend. This loss is especially painful for Stark considering the fact that the two had grown close while stranded on Meggido together and in many ways Avro-X would never have been on Galactus’ ship if it wasn’t for Iron Man.
The tragic death of Avro-X isn’t the first time an armored hero has died in front of a distraught Iron Man. In 1972’s Iron Man #46 (by Gary Friedrich, George Tuska and John Verpoorten), Tony Stark’s protege Kevin O’Brien, also known as the Guardsman, became emotionally unstable after trying on an experimental suit of armor that Stark was designing. Despite his friendship with Tony, Kevin was also incredibly jealous of Stark’s relationship with a young woman named Marianne and ended up taking his frustrations out on a group of student protesters outside of one of Stark Industries’ labs. Iron Man swept in to save the day and attempted to reason with his young friend, but the Guardsman lashed out and used one of Stark’s weaponized ships to attack him. Tony attempted to shut the ship down, but he accidentally caused an explosion that killed Kevin.
Iron Man’s history of dead sidekicks could be a bad omen for War Machine and Hellcat who crash land on Galactus’ ship at the end of the issue. In some ways, they are more prepared for the coming fight than Avro-X was and they are certainly in better condition than Tony. But Korvac and his crew have proved that they are willing and able to use lethal force against the heroes.
For a moment, it seemed as though Iron Man and Avro-X were looking at a future of fighting together, but Korvac cut Colin’s life and their friendship tragically short. If Stark is going to get out of Galactus’ ship alive, he will need all the help he can get, even if helping Iron Man has proven to be a very dangerous occupation.
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