the Invincible Iron Man #18 - Marvel

One more issue of this World's Most Wanted storyline, and we'll have this one all wrapped up. Well, I'm sure there will be some threads dangling around, but . . for the most part . . this'll be over. One way or another. Anyways, Tony has made it to Afghanistan. There's he's found his workshop in the hills . . the place where everything started . . where he and Ho Yinsen put together the first Iron Man. And now . . this is all he has left. He's hoping there's just enough repulsor energy in the old suit to wipe out the rest of the information in his brain. And then he can use the armor to get back to the real world. Unfortunately, the guy who intercepted Tony's e-mail to Maria has also spotted the repulsor energy signature from the mountains. Now Norman's ready to go after him . . and kill him. However, there's still plans and deception in motion. Maria and Natasha were captured by HAMMER and are now in custody. But we also find out, when they open up one of the old Crimson Dynamo suits that they found in Russia, that Pepper actually beat Madame Masque and placed her inside the armor. Pepper is now wearing her mask and posing in her place. Also JARVIS, the suit that she was wearing, having also been brought to the HAMMER base, has just come on-line and is downloading a virus into the rest of the HAMMER systems, including all the various Iron Man armor that is being contained there, putting it all under the control of JARVIS and thereby Pepper. All of this happens just as Norman is ready to take off after Tony in his Iron Patriot armor. First of all he's flying blind because of all the problems that are happening with the systems. All he knows is that he's going east towards Pakistan. And secondly . . who's to say that the Iron Patriot armor hasn't also been re-purposed. Matt Fraction is doing a fantastic job with this series. I love it. Of course Salvador Larroca's art doesn't hurt either. Next issue should be a great issue. Everything has been leading up to this one.