Ultimate Iron Man - Volume Two

Volume Two

Despite surviving being blown up in his prototype armor, Tony has other problems to address. Howard is still wrongly imprisoned for the murder of rival Zebediah Stane, and teenage Tony is forced to run Stark Enterprises in his stead. After seeing the prototype armor in use, the military wish to use the armor themselves. Convincing the military that the armors are in fact robots, both Tony and Jim Rhodes (Ultimate War Machine) suit up and go on the mission masquerading as robots. They complete the mission, and find a map that leads them to believe there are nukes in New York. Tony begins trying to find a way to release his father from jail and find out who the terrorists were that tried to blow up his building.

Obadiah is working with a man named Dolores, who is responsible for the terrorist attack on the Stark building. Dolores convinces him to try to murder Howard. Obadiah drugs a prison guard with a "hypnotizing" bio-drug, and the guard tries to kill Howard. He fails, though Howard gets shot in the process and is in ICU. Tony sends one of his "robots" to protect his father in the hospital.

Tony goes to Obadiah’s house in the Iron Man armor and confronts him on setting up his father and sending him to prison. Obadiah says it was all Dolores' idea, and sets up a meeting with Dolores and Tony. Obadiah also figures out that the armor is not a robot, and that Tony is actually inside, a fact he shares with Dolores before he meets with Tony.

Dolores and Tony make a deal. Dolores will give Tony the information about the terrorists with nukes who plan to bomb the city, and Tony will give Dolores one of his "robots". Tony, knowing that Dolores knows he wears the armor personally decides to trick him and actually bring an Iron Man suit that is remote controlled. Dolores and Tony meet on a place together, holding each other hostage while their friends confirm each others's end of the bargain. Dolores is skeptical because the robot isn't walking smoothly and is clumsy, and Tony is skeptical because the feds found a nuke but no terrorists with it, and the deal for terrorists. Dolores's men plan to kill the feds who delivered them the robot, but Ultimate War Machine shows up to save them.

Tony then realizes that Dolores is no longer on the plane, and upon breaking into the cockpit he sees another nuke. He can't disable it, because then a separate bomb will go off, destroying the nuke and plane. War Machine goes to Dolores' mansion, only to find him dead. Someone booby trapped his piano, and it blew up in his face while he was playing. Tony flies the plane low enough to the water for Obadiah to jump off. He then gets his nanobots to disarm the nuke and set off the smaller bomb while he attempts to jump off the plane. They realize that another arms dealer was out to kill everyone (Dolores, Obadiah, and Tony).

Meanwhile, Howard is recovered enough to go to prison, but the guards sent to escort him were not sent by the Police Department. He fights them off and escapes. Tony meets with him, and says that he thinks Loni, Howard's first wife and Obadiah's mother, is the mastermind behind the scenes trying to kill them. Tony, Howard, War Machine, and Obadiah set off to Utah to find Loni. They arrive and their chopper explodes, injuring War Machine. Obadiah falls off a cliff, but Iron Man catches him as terrorists arrive on the scene. Iron Man flees, but follows them as they take Obadiah to Loni, and their hideout. Iron Man breaks into the compound and Loni floods it with poison gas trying to kill him, abandoning Obadiah. Iron Man saves Obadiah, but Howard and Nifara are taken captive by Loni. After killing Nifara and the guards, (she wants no witnesses) Loni confesses that all she has ever wanted from life was power, and her only interest in men has been finding one who would help her acquire it. Howard, she laments, was smart enough to be able to conquer the world, but lacked the ambition to do so; Zebediah, her second husband, was the other way around (ambitious, but stupid); Obadiah, on the other hand, is both smart and ambitious, but unfortunately his loyalty to her can no longer be relied on.

Iron Man shows up, and Loni shoots Howard in the chest, threatening to shoot him again if he doesn't take the suit off. Tony takes off his armor, and Loni shoots him in the head, not knowing of his body's self-healing capabilities. Tony fights Loni, beats her, and tends to his father. Unnoticed by anyone else, Loni reaches for a gun, but Obadiah appears, angry that his mother almost killed him with the poison gas, and kills her. However, he decides not to attack Tony, conceding that Tony had saved his life several times, but declares that they are now "even." Howard, Tony, and Obadiah are all picked up by federal authorities and returned home. Obadiah muses that, with his mother dead, he is finally "free."