So, I had to shave yesterday...

My goatee was getting too hot, and it so damn gray it was invisible in the wrong light. I hadn't had it that long, so I wasn't that attached to it. Still, there's that weird moment when your face doesn't look right; but that gets worse if you had facial hair for a long time. Like Tony Stark!

Yep, that's Tony, in his new, and broke, identity of "Hogan Potts." After his reputation was ruined by his old friend Tiberius Stone (who, like all previously unseen old friends in comics, was a complete psycho for all the years they knew each other) Tony simply threw in the towel. He closed his company, gave his money to the Maria Stark Foundation and the Avengers, and set himself up as a regular programmer at a company where he could work on his new Iron Man armor.

And the armor was a work in progress, to the point that the Shocker was laughing at the new suit. The Shocker, who Tony's boss rightly points out as "that nut who dresses up in a quilt and fights Spider-man."

I can't decide if this is more or less mature for Tony: while he misses some of the superficial trappings of being rich, like limos to work; he is enjoying having less responsibility. Also, because Tony's all about inappropriate workplace behavior, he has a hot supervisor that he's totally going to go after. Still, I wasn't thrilled with the new suit:

Oh, "I am the bomb," that's not dated or anything now.

Scans from Iron Man #42/387, "The Big Bang Theory" Written by Frank Tieri, pencils by Keron Grant, inks by Stull, Story and Perotta.