What does Tony Stark's Return mean for Riri Williams and Doctor Doom?

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Invincible Iron Man #594 by Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli, Alex Maleev, Israel Silva and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.

Over the course of the last year, and across two titles with very different lead characters, Brian Michael Bendis has been setting up towards what he’s called the biggest Iron Man story of all time. Aided by artists Stefano Caselli and Alex Maleev, Bendis has been able to use the time Tony Stark has been out of the spotlight to highlight the adventures of his young protege Ironheart and a fierce rival turned somewhat peer Victor Von Doom.

Now, with Marvel Legacy, the two characters and Iron Man titles have come together. With Tony Stark is missing, the Stark family is set to be pushed out of their own company, and Doctor Doom has managed to tick off the entire supervillain community.

Hijacked

Tony Stark has been out of commision since the end of Civil War II, when his body was pushed to its upper limit by Captain Marvel and shut down into some sort of artificial coma. In the interim, Stark Industries has been run by the women in Tony’s life; namely Mary Jane Watson, his mother Amanda Armstrong and his artificial intelligence gal Friday, Friday. While they’ve been focused on mentoring the young Riri Williams, who has had her own share of problems dealing with the unstable post-Doom Latveria, the board at Stark Industries has been working to oust them from the company to return it to profitability in the wake of Tony’s convalescence.

With power restored to the board, they’re very eager to get their hands on all of the property that is lawfully theirs, including Riri’s Ironheart costume. As such, they've hired a superhuman specialist to bring it in. Fans of Brian Michael Bendis and Chris Bachalo’s run on Uncanny X-Men will recognize David Bond as a member of Cyclops’ team of trainee X-Men; Bond has the ability to control vehicles with his mind and as such goes by the name Hijack, which is exactly what he does to all of the cars, helicopters and drones in the nearby area in an effort to bring Riri in.

Bendis does seem to have an affinity for the mutants he created during his time on Uncanny X-Men; alongside Hijack’s appearance in Invincible Iron Man, Goldballs was moved into Spider-Man where he became roommates with Miles Morales and Ganke Lee. He’s also shown interest in bringing back the time-stopping and time-hopping Tempus, although with his impending move to DC, those plans may have fallen through.

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Masters of Doom

Meanwhile, the former Doctor Doom has been working to round up all the prisoners who recently escaped from custody; prisoners that Doom rounded up in the first place in the pages of Infamous Iron Man. Starting by tracking down the Power Man and Iron Fist villain Chemistro — another character Bendis has an affinity for, going back to New Avengers — Doom unknowingly stumbles into a trap laid by the very villains he was hunting. Led by The Wrecker and counting the likes of Jigsaw, Constrictor, Armadillo, Crossfire and The Griffin among their number, the villains get the drop on Doom.

While he’s able to hold his own somewhat, possibly killing Shockwave in self-defense, he finds his magic is blocked by the smug super-scientist Centurius — a one time Nick Fury villain who was one of the many characters to receive a fresh coat of paint and an overhaul as part of Jeff Parker, Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey’s Thunderbolts. Unmasked by The Wrecker, the villains see that Doom is “just a dude” and he’s forced to retreat, though now the villains have seen his face — some of them disappointed that it isn’t badly scarred as they’d heard — The Wrecker’s assembled comrades have a new level of morale in their endeavour to get revenge on Doom. The Wrecker realizes that Latveria is in an unstable transition period following the deposing of Lucia Von Bardas by Ironheart and comes up with a plan to strip the country for all its worth before killing Doom, one final insult by their final revenge on the reformed Doctor Doom.

A Mother’s Touch

Back at Stark Industries, Riri is able to get far enough away from Hijack’s power perimeter, allowing Mary Jane to take advantage of the distraction and mace the form X-Man in the face. Team Tony then march to the Stark Industries main campus to give the board a piece of their mind, and in the form of Tony’s mother, a piece of something else. The one-time world famous singer songwriter finds Tony’s board already planning how their going to spend her missing son’s money and takes her most trusted guitar — one that bears war wounds from run ins with Keith Moon and Paul Weller on occasions they’d crossed her — and whacking the greedy Eric Lynch across the shoulder and sending him running, postponing the vote on what happens to her son’s company.

All while this is happening, Tony Stark is still in the exact place we last saw him — wearing an old Iron Man armor, curled up in a ball in some undisclosed location. The issue itself doesn’t answer many of the mysteries set up concerning Tony’s disappearance and revival, but it sets a tone that things are going to get dark and scary for everyone involved. That’s not even to mention the Tony Stark AI currently operating Ironheart’s armor; it’s been showcasing some weird behavior that has Friday concerned and how happy is that Tony going to be once the real Tony returns from his mysterious sabbatical. There’s a lot of threads and plot points all coming to a head as Invincible Iron Man races to its six-hundredth issue and Brian Michael Bendis prepares to leave Marvel for the blue team, so things are about to pop off in a major way.