Mandarin plots with Justin Hammer and Fing Fang Foom to steal Iron Man's armor and take over the world. Fing Fang Foom, however, has other ideas.

War Machine is injured during the test of a new defense system. Firebrand takes credit for the sabotage.

A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) takes credit for a terrorist attack in China. Iron Man goes into space to investigate and discovers a mysterious space station called the "Star Well" guarded by the powerful Sunturion.

With the help of Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks a transmission from A.I.M. It leads them to a still living Walter Stark, Tony Stark's father. Meanwhile, A.I.M. hires the Crimson Dynamo in order to infiltrate Stark Enterprises.

Julia Carpenter and other Stark employees are trapped after a cave-in in Egypt. Tony discovers that Madame Masque is responsible. She wants Iron Man to gain access to the Golden Sepulcher of Isis in order to repair her disfigured face.

After an attack from Ultimo, Iron Man shrinks down to microscopic size in order to save Hawkeye's life. The Hacker endangers the mission when he takes control of H.O.M.E.R. and sends Ultimo after Iron Man.

Iron Man heads to the distant planet Elysian where he must help in the fight against Dark Aegis.

After stopping an attempted coup, Tony discovers that secret Stark technology was being used by Crimson Dynamo. Feeling responsible for the misuse of his technology, Star decides to put an end to all other armored warriors in the world.

Iron Man continues his efforts to disable all other armored warriors. His reputation sinks to new lows when he begins to target fellow heroes. Meanwhile, Justin Hammer unleashes his robot Firepower in order to eliminate Stark Enterprises.

M.O.D.O.K. locates one of the Mandarin's missing power rings and uses it to try to find the others. The Mandarin tracks down M.O.D.O.K. in order to take the ring for himself.

Iron Man and Dr. Bruce Banner work together to recover one of the Mandarin's rings. Before they can do so, the Leader steals the ring because he believes that he can use it to undo the accident that created the Hulk.

Having reacquired his ten rings, the Mandarin announces his attention to take over the world and return it to a pre-technological state. Iron Man must reunite Forceworks in order to stop him.

The Mandarin captures Iron Man and the rest of Forceworks. He plans to use their life forces to power the Heart of Darkness so that he can shut down all technology on the planet.