Oh boy… this one’s gonna take some explaining. Since the Avengers found Captain America missing and presumed dead at the end of Captain America #443, they (and the poor readers) had to endure “The Crossing,” a mini-event between their own title, Force Works, Iron Man, and War Machine, that involved many interweaving events. Most important among them, at least for our purposes, is that Iron Man broke bad and killed three people in cold blood: Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket; Marilla, nanny to Crystal and Quicksilver’s daughter Luna; and Amanda Chaney, who worked for Force Works. (He also critically injured the Wasp after she jumped in front of a repulsor blast meant for Hercules.) Fear not, Iron Fans: Tony’s mind had been corrupted by Kang (technically, Immortus), working with the Avengers’ former ally Mantis to defeat the Avengers, destroy the timeline, whatever Kangs do. But this was not widely known at the time, so the other heroes were focused primarily on stopping Tony before he killed again.
The issues covered in this post deal with the Avengers’ chosen solution to “the problem with Tony,” which has become one of the most ridiculed and regrettable concepts in Marvel Comics history. (“The Crossing” is up there too, not least for leading to this mess, and both stories had many details retconned in Avengers Forever #8, although the events largely remained the same.) It also reintroduces Cap to the Avengers after he was restored by a blood transfusion from the Red Skull in Captain America #445, and then fought alongside the Nazi and Sharon Carter (who was never dead) to defeat a neo-Nazi group planning to use a Cosmic Cube containing the mind of Adolf Hilter to create a New World Reich (a plan the trio defeated in Captain America #448).
The storyline begins in Avengers: Timeslide #1, where the Avengers are defending the mansion from Kang’s Anachronauts, who are not important here. What is notable, however, is the winged woman in the upper-left corner, none other than the Winsome Wasp, who literally bugged out after Hank Pym’s treatment to save her life after Tony’s blast. (Check out the cover to Avengers #394 for a clearer view.)
The team is joined by a welcome face, just in time to save many lives with his mighty shield (thrown vertically, sigh). Onlookers seem more surprised to see him than his teammates do, but to be fair, the latter are preoccupied. (Strangely, though, there’s no “it’s so great to have you back” or “you’re alive?!” scene at all, not even later. Just another day for our heroes, I guess.)
Thor has returned to the team as well, albeit de-powered (and shirtless) due to events in his own title. (He still has Mjolnir, though, which gets to do all the hard work despite being depowered itself.)
Standing in front of a mysterious portal in the mansion later, the heroes make vague reference to a plan inspired by “Luna,” presumably a grown version of Crystal and Quicksilver’s daughter from the future, who suggested they travel into the past to find a way to deal with (or help) Tony—a plan Cap stands behind, despite not being there when it was hatched.
In the end, only Cap, Black Widow, Vision, and Jarvis travel into the past, where they meet a startled young man who recognizes the Living Legend of World War II but think Natasha looks like a… well, she seems to know, at least.
The heroes, momentarily befuddled by their trip through time, eventually realize the man is young Jarvis and they are in the Stark mansion. Unfortunately, Tobias (one of the Anachronauts) followed the Avengers back in time and abducted Tony’s parents, just before young Tony returns home and gets caught up with the story. He has a point when he blames the meddling time-travelers, although old Jarvis tries to justify it to “his son” (while young Jarvis looks perplexed by the entire thing).
Young Tony is able to track his mother’s cameo to where Tobias has taken her and his father, a place Cap and Widow know all too well.
Yes, that is young Matthew Murdock above, before he became Daredevil but already heroic; also appearing in this issue are a pre-cosmic-rays Sue Storm and Ben Grimm, heading to see Reed Richards about some secret mission, and a very young Peter Parker out for a stroll with his aunt and uncle. (Aww…)
When the heroes get to Latveria, young Tony insists on joining the fight, despite Natasha’s reminder that he’s the golden child—and without him remaining behind with Jarvis, Cap must take him too.
And naturally, Cap ends up having to save Tony from the wall collapse that kills his parents…
…an event that only makes young Tony more determined to become a bat an Avenger and chase down Tobias and his “twin” Anachronaut Malachi into the future. Now how do they get there?
With a little help from an unlikely source, who finds these events a bit premature…
…but a valuable indication of what it is come.
Unfortunately for my fellow Fantastic Four fanatics, that it’s for Doom in this storyline, as Iron Man #325 naturally turns its attention to young Tony—or “Teen Tony,” as he has become known among the Tiger Beat crowd (not Iron Lad or Ferro Lad, who are different characters altogether). Most of the issue deals with the build-up to the inevitable Tony-Tony meeting, although we do see a bit of Cap and the Avengers, who learn where Old Tony is hiding. Cap rallies the troops, but there is a hitch…
…or, I should say, a Henry Gyrich. (That rhymes, right?)
Everyone’s favorite government bureaucrat is taking obvious delight in detaining the Avengers and angering Cap…
…but luckily for both, an ally of Force Works named Century arrives and transports them to Stark’s bunker, just in time to see Old Tony rip the heart out of Teen Tony’s chest and then disappear, only to be replaced by Kang and his Anachronauts.
In Avengers #395, Crystal and the Vision struggle to save the boy while the rest of the team, along with Century and Madame Masque (who was working with Hawkeye to fight Tony before the Avengers showed up), fight Kang and his foot-soldiers.
Cap finds himself well-matched against Mantis…
…although she definitely has more to say.
The team then turn their attention to Kang’s temporal transposer, with which he plans to remove Earth from the timestream so he can use it to raise new Anachronauts to fight his unnamed foe. But Old Tony seems to come to his senses and sees how to defeat Kang…
…if only he can convince his friends to trust him, which fellow OG Avenger Hank Pym does.
Tony sacrifices himself to save… well, everything… and uses his final breath to apologize for all he did in his recent madness…
…and asks his fellow Avengers to save his younger self (using the plans for the chestplate he used to sustain his own damaged heart).
Finally, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1 serves as a tribute to the Tony Stark we’ve known, in all his complexity, while young Tony’s life hangs in the balance after Pym fits him with an artificial heart. For his part, Cap monitors the boy’s progress with Clint, during which they overhear Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, then married, getting mushy, to which Cap reacts as we would expect. (And so does Clint!)
Clint imagines how much pain could have been avoided if Tony had hung up the armor earlier, but Cap reminds him of all the good Tony did as Iron Man over the years.
But Clint won’t let recent tragedies go…
…especially the one that threatened to forever change the Wasp. Cap argues that it was Kang’s influence that drove Tony to his unspeakable act, but Clint feels he could have resisted more, suggesting either that he wasn’t strong enough or that part of him actually wanted to succumb.
The two friends agree that Tony had problems with self-control and addiction, which Cap notes are not moral failings—as long as a person acknowledges them and tries to improve, as Tony did. However, Clint correctly points out that, even if these character flaws are not wrongful, they can be dangerous (as has been shown).
Incidentally, Cap and Tony will discuss many of these same issues a decade later in Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War #1. (Wait, Cap and Tony? But he’s… oh, you know.)
How does Teen Tony fare? He doesn’t have long to prove himself, because of… well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, we wait for the next crossover storyline, featuring Cap, Thor, and the new Iron Man, getting to know each other (and the rest of the Avengers) all over again.
ISSUE DETAILS
Avengers: Timeslide #1, February 1996: Bob Harras and Terry Kavanagh (writers), Roger Cruz, Luke Ross, Fabio Laguna, Frank Toscano, Manny Clark, and Oclair Albert (pencils), Scott Koblish and Rene Micheletti (inks), Mike Thomas and Malibu Color (colors), Bill Oakley (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Iron Man (vol. 1) #325, February 1996: Terry Kavanagh and Dan Abnett (writers), Jim Cheung, James Calafiore, and Hector Collazo (pencils), Mark McKenna, Peter Palmiotti, and Hector Collazo (inks), John Kalisz (colors), Phil Felix, Brad Joyce, and Jack Morelli (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Avengers (vol. 1) #395, February 1996: Bob Harras and Terry Kavanagh (writers), Mike Deodato, Jr. (pencils and inks), Emir Ribeiro (inks), Frank Lopez and Malibu Color (colors), Bill Oakley, NJQ, and Michael Higgins (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, February 1996: Terry Kavanagh (writer), Hector Collazo and Al Rio (pencils), Ralph Cabrera and Rene Micheletti (inks), Joe Rosas (colors), Phil Felix (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
All collected in: Iron Man Epic Collection: Age of Innocence.
PREVIOUS ISSUE: Avengers #388 and Captain America #441 (July 1995)
NEXT ISSUE: Avengers #396, Captain America #449, Iron Man #326, and Thor #496 (March 1996)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
Leave a comment