The Amazing Spider-man Annual #20 (1986)
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scans_dailyWe interrupt your irregularly scheduled Machine Man posts to bring you this story.
Which adds some context to upcoming issues of the Machine Man limited series and explains just how the Iron Man of 2020 started on the path to being a ruthless mercenary.
A story that involves a time machine, kids in peril, everyone's favorite wall crawling superhero and a massive bomb.
40 page story by Fred Schiller, Ken McDonald and Mark Beachum.
Warning: This story is pretty dark by 1980s Spider-man standards.
The year is 2015 and Arno Stark, that era's Iron Man, has been named Time Magazine Man of the Year. He's happy posing for the press for his cover photo, but struggling to find the work-life balance as the new head of Stark Industries.
To ensure Stark's success, Arno has returned to a lucrative venture that his predecessor had rejected - manufacturing arms for the military. He has a distaste for this direction, but that hasn't halted the design of the MK3 Planet-Buster Bomb (formerly the Johnny Cyclops Bomb, named after the President of the same name).
The military top brass may be... happy with the results of tests, but not everybody is.
Cynthia's attempts to track down her husband lead her and her son to Stark Industries, where they encounter a scarred technician.
Elsewhere, tests continue on the Planet-Buster Bomb as Stark and the generals watch from a familiarly designed jet.
Robert Saunders has locked the bomb down, along with Cynthia and Arno Jr., with every intention of disarming it once he's made the military sweat a little.
He steals a speeder bike (another familiar design) as the facility's security dome starts to close, but then Stark arrives, curtailing his escape plan.
As Hawk charmingly points out, Robert Saunders was their only chance of disarming the bomb and he is now spread all over the east dome.
Back in nineteen eightysomething, that era's friendly neighborhood Spider-man is fresh from an encounter with the villainous Blizzard and is paying a trip to the Daily Bugle in the hope of getting a job to pay for his spiraling rent.
Where, as the future headline hinted at, he encounters a young Robert Saunders.
Precocious.
Peter manages to pick up some work from Jonah, but has to avoid his landlady until the paycheck comes in. Shenanigans follow, complicated by Bobby Saunders having followed Peter home.
Bobby thinks Spider-man has come to visit Peter, not twigging that they are one and the same person, while Peter insists on taking the young Robert back to the Daily Bugle offices.
Unfortunately Blizzard, testy over his battle with Spider-man the day before, is lying in wait.
Blizzard gets mad and attacks Arno.
Unfortunately it's the last thing he ever does, as the future Iron Man ruthlessly blasts him to death, then quickly moves on to what he came to the past for.
Enraged, Spider-man completely lets loose and punches Arno through a building or two to come crashing down in a building site, where the unrestrained pummeling leaves him reeling and with little opportunity to explain his desperation.
Later Spidey swings by the hospital where the young Robert Saunders is recovering, but he has been scarred for life by the encounter, starting a sequence of events that sets him on the road we saw the results of in the future.
Speaking of which, back in the year 2015…
And on that shocking image, the story ends. And goes some way to explaining how Arno Stark went from Man of the Year to a broken man.
Which adds some context to upcoming issues of the Machine Man limited series and explains just how the Iron Man of 2020 started on the path to being a ruthless mercenary.
A story that involves a time machine, kids in peril, everyone's favorite wall crawling superhero and a massive bomb.
40 page story by Fred Schiller, Ken McDonald and Mark Beachum.
Warning: This story is pretty dark by 1980s Spider-man standards.
The year is 2015 and Arno Stark, that era's Iron Man, has been named Time Magazine Man of the Year. He's happy posing for the press for his cover photo, but struggling to find the work-life balance as the new head of Stark Industries.
To ensure Stark's success, Arno has returned to a lucrative venture that his predecessor had rejected - manufacturing arms for the military. He has a distaste for this direction, but that hasn't halted the design of the MK3 Planet-Buster Bomb (formerly the Johnny Cyclops Bomb, named after the President of the same name).
The military top brass may be... happy with the results of tests, but not everybody is.
Cynthia's attempts to track down her husband lead her and her son to Stark Industries, where they encounter a scarred technician.
Elsewhere, tests continue on the Planet-Buster Bomb as Stark and the generals watch from a familiarly designed jet.
Robert Saunders has locked the bomb down, along with Cynthia and Arno Jr., with every intention of disarming it once he's made the military sweat a little.
He steals a speeder bike (another familiar design) as the facility's security dome starts to close, but then Stark arrives, curtailing his escape plan.
As Hawk charmingly points out, Robert Saunders was their only chance of disarming the bomb and he is now spread all over the east dome.
Back in nineteen eightysomething, that era's friendly neighborhood Spider-man is fresh from an encounter with the villainous Blizzard and is paying a trip to the Daily Bugle in the hope of getting a job to pay for his spiraling rent.
Where, as the future headline hinted at, he encounters a young Robert Saunders.
Precocious.
Peter manages to pick up some work from Jonah, but has to avoid his landlady until the paycheck comes in. Shenanigans follow, complicated by Bobby Saunders having followed Peter home.
Bobby thinks Spider-man has come to visit Peter, not twigging that they are one and the same person, while Peter insists on taking the young Robert back to the Daily Bugle offices.
Unfortunately Blizzard, testy over his battle with Spider-man the day before, is lying in wait.
Blizzard gets mad and attacks Arno.
Unfortunately it's the last thing he ever does, as the future Iron Man ruthlessly blasts him to death, then quickly moves on to what he came to the past for.
Enraged, Spider-man completely lets loose and punches Arno through a building or two to come crashing down in a building site, where the unrestrained pummeling leaves him reeling and with little opportunity to explain his desperation.
Later Spidey swings by the hospital where the young Robert Saunders is recovering, but he has been scarred for life by the encounter, starting a sequence of events that sets him on the road we saw the results of in the future.
Speaking of which, back in the year 2015…
And on that shocking image, the story ends. And goes some way to explaining how Arno Stark went from Man of the Year to a broken man.
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Date: 2024-12-12 09:31 pm (UTC)