A few pages later, Tony’s internal monologue notes that he’s “trounced alien invasions and robot armies” in the past. This, again, brings to mind the Avengers film franchise, making it clear that the makers of Marvel’s Avengers aren’t afraid to play on familiar stories as a shorthand to build their own versions of these characters.
There Are Lots of Pre-established Villains
The “Gamerverse” is not exactly a blank slate for bad guys, seeing as quite a lot of villains exist in the universe already. Those Tony comments implied that alien invasions and robot armies have already attacked Earth in this universe, but that’s far from everything that has gone down before the game (or even its prequel comics) has begun.
Within the first few pages of the Iron Man comic, Tony is teaming up with Cap, Hulk, and Black Widow to take on a team of B-list baddies consisting of The Beetle, Absorbing Man, and Whirlwind. These dud villains should be easy to defeat, but a lack of chemistry between our bickering heroes makes the fight more difficult than it should be.
Cracks Are Already Forming in the Gang
Although they do manage to defeat those villains (with a cool team-up move called the “Jade Wall,” which sees Iron Man propelling one of his foes into Hulk’s immovable torso), it’s clear that our heroes aren’t exactly best buds at the start of the comic. It takes them a while to come up with a winning strategy, and in the meantime, the B-list baddies get the better of them.
Another cool combat moment in this battle shows Thor, lightning in his eyes, controlling Mjolnir with his mind. But despite the fact that our heroes win the day and show off some rad skills, Tony notes that their victory was a “hack job.” Widow agrees, saying, “They were tough, but we were sloppy.”