WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for War of the Realms#5 by Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson and Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Tony Stark is a man of incredible means. With his genius intellect, the billionaire/playboy/philanthropist can build just about any suit he puts his mind to. Recently, he built a building-sized suit to battle Fin Fang Foom, he took a Celestial-sized armor into battle, and now, he's even built the Iron All-Father suit for Odin during the devastating War of the Realms event. But, that's not all.
In War of the Realms #5, Tony Stark once again joins the battle, as the Avengers fight back against Malekith and his invading forces. The issue is packed with plenty of Avenger/Asgardian team-ups, and it gives us one of the most unexpected, but totally awesome, new alliances: Tony Stark and the War Machine Dwarves.
Ever since Earth's Mightiest Heroes took refuge in Avengers Mountain in War of the Realms #2, Stark has been hard at work. While other superheroes went on their own separate missions across the Ten Realms, he has remained in his workshop, working on some things to fight back. When #4 revealed the inventor's latest suit, the Iron All-Father, it seemed like this was the one weapon he was working on.
But, as it turns out, that wasn't all. No, Tony also built plenty more suits to give to the Dwarves helping him out in the Avengers Mountain workshop. The result? You guessed it: the War Machine Dwarves.
The name is exactly as it implies. As Stark takes back to the skies in his Iron Man armor, he is flanked by a legion of Nidavellirian dwarves who are each wearing their own War Machine suit. These armors are quite similar to the one worn by Colonel Rhodes. They are grey in color, the have the signature barrels and cannons on the shoulders, and the eyes glow red. The main difference here appears to be the addition of an Asgardian rune on the suits' chest area that might provide an enchantment of some sort.
Although we don't see Iron Man and the War Machine Dwarves (great rock band name, by the way) in action for very long, their brief interaction is hilarious and has us begging for more. Stark tries to give the Dwarves tactical orders, but they aren't exactly familiar with the lingo -- but, that doesn't matter much, because these Dwarves know how to put their suits to good use.
There is no telling if we will see more of this epic team-up in the concluding chapter of War of the Realms, but we certainly hope this isn't the end for Iron Man and his new Asgardian friends. Since Rhodey is currently piloting Manticore, a large mech suit in the current Iron Man series, Stark is in need of a new War Machine partner. Only this time, it could be War Machines.