"The End" Week: Iron Man #89/434!

We had checked out the two prior issues of this storyline earlier, and I had even said I did just that so I could blog the last one year-end. And I not only completely forgot about it, I really don't remember how this one ends, now: from 2004, Iron Man #89/434, "The Singularity, part 4" Written by Mark Ricketts, art by Scott Kolins, color art by J.D. Mettlier.

Arms dealer Clarence Ward has almost completed his plot of revenge against Tony Stark: Clarence seems more upset about Tony destroying his inventory, then the fact that he looks like Jigsaw now. Tony may not even remember the guy; and Clarence responds Rumiko didn't either: she may have died thinking Tony was killing her. Ooh, them's fightin' words. Meanwhile, in older models of Iron Man suits, the army is waiting to take out whichever one wins; and in New York, at Stark International headquarters, Pepper Potts explains to Happy Hogan how they can shut down all of Tony's proprietary technology. Especially Iron Man. Happy points out, maybe you don't wanna shut down Stark technology at hospitals, airports, maybe even Tony's artificial heart? Pepper seems confident she can narrow the focus down a bit. (Pepper also brought her dog to work, which I don't think would have been super-common at the time.)

And she does! While the armor just falls off of Tony and the army guys, Clarence is frozen in his suit. Tony is just as pissed at himself as he is with everyone else there, and stomps off telling them to get off his lawn. The general, who resembles ol' Thunderbolt Ross but I don't think was, gives Clarence a little speech about how super-heroes won't kill, but a soldier will finish the job, and shoots him in the face. The next week, in Japan, Tony visits Rumiko's grave. He admits how relieved he was the last time she broke up with him, because while he would miss her, he thought she would be safe. The guilt is eating him up pretty bad. I'm not sure Rumiko would ever be brought up again.

Next, at what used to be Avengers Mansion, in front of a statue of the then-late Ant-Man, Tony makes a public apology, and quits. He resigns from being secretary of defense, from the Avengers, from public service at all. He says he'll only go by one name, Tony Stark...but there will always be an Iron Man. Wink! Tony's pulled this one many a time. When you're a super-genius, maybe it's easy to think everyone else is real dumb; but if the world can be convinced Iron Man is a separate person, he might be right. Then, he tries to convince Pepper and Happy to step off of the bullseye, go somewhere else; they aren't having it. Tony's back at Stark International, all is right in the world; while deep in China, word of Clarence Ward's failure reaches the Mandarin, as he sits astride a robot grasshopper. (He had been Clarence's supplier; he also doesn't look right clean-shaven.)

Is it weird that the whole point of these four 'Disassembled' issues was a colossal reset? There was also a U.S. Postal Service Statement of Ownership here, too: Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: 40,446. Actual number copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: 44,509. The next issue would be Warren Ellis's Iron Man #1; which per Comichron would just make the top twenty for November 2004, with 68,989 sold. That both does and doesn't seem like a big enough bump in the numbers: it would be an influential issue, setting the tone for the run, even giving some inspiration to the movie; and would be reprinted and get a motion-comic adaptation. But I still don't think it moved Iron Man out of the mid-tier range; and if that didn't...what would?