Rhodey dons the War Machine armor and saves his friends just in time and sacrifices Zhang to Fin Fang Foom, activating the 5th rings power. However, Gene retakes the rings and starts losing control as Tony has to stop him.
Zhang returns as he captures Tony and his friends so that he can retrieve the all 5 Makluan Rings. However, the 5th ring's guardian Fin Fang Foom is unleashed. Now Tony and Gene must find a way to stop Fin Fang Foom without the Iron Man suit and the other Makluan Rings. When the Mandarin holds Pepper captive, Gene and Tony must find the ring in order to save her. Meanwhile Rhodey takes the War Machine armor and the Iron Man armor, but ends up stranded in space.
When his daughter Whitney ends up with a disease from prolonged use of her mask, Obadiah calls in Tony to find a cure. Tony determines that the mask is similar to the device that made the Living Laser, both made out of an ore found in the Arctic. Unfortunately, his father abandoned the facility where the unrefined ore is located, where Tony can create a cure. He takes off for the Arctic in his new Arctic Armor. However, Obadiah has unfrozen Blizzard, sticking a bomb on his neck that would explode it he doesn't get the ore fire but Blizzard freezes and crack it, deciding to use the ore as leverage against Stane. Worse, Whitney is determined to kill her father because of the mask.
Controller uses Rick Jones to get the Hulk to take revenge on A.I.M. When Iron Man ends up under Controller's control, it's up to Hulk to stop him.
During a trip to the mall, Whitney, Gene, Pepper, and Happy, end up following Iron Man, until he crashes, there they find an empty suit. It then goes back to af ew minutes earlier in the Armory, where Tony convinces Rhodey to take the Iron Man suit out for a spin, he crashes it, where it and abandons the Suit, where while he is gone the rest of their friends find it. Happy, craving adventure puts on the suit, and instantly starts flying, Happy talks to Tony through the suit, who he believes is a computer program.
The Living Laser is dying, and Tony Stark is trying to save his life. But fate has other plans. the Ghost has been hired by AIM to 'steal' the Laser! AIM needs him to be a power source for their greatest creation, and when Iron Man arrives to rescue the Laser, he's too late. The Mental Organism Designed Only for Conquest is online. Not even Iron Man can withstand MODOC's mental power, and now his fate rests in the hands of the Living Laser. but will the Laser choose to save Tony Stark? Or destroy Iron Man?
The fourth Makluan Ring has been found, and when Tony, Rhodey and Pepper rush off to collect it, Gene is left behind. And while Gene tries to track down his ‘friends,’ he’s left alone with memories of his mother, the person who introduced him to his destiny… his birthright… the Makluan Rings. Actually claiming that birthright isn’t so easy though, which Tony is finding out first hand. He’s facing the fourth Guardian… the Firebrand, which has taken possession of Pepper and Rhodey inside a live volcano, which is about to erupt.
Iron Man suffers the unexpected repercussions of his take-down of Project Pegasus and the execution of its AI.
Pepper realizes if she wants to keep Tony as a friend, she has to learn to start liking Gene Khan. Which is really inconvenient for Gene, because he’s busy trying to negotiate peace as the Mandarin between his Tong forces and the Maggia. And of course Pepper lands smack in the middle of it. Now Gene has to somehow save Pepper from Count Nefaria and the Black Knight, all while keeping his own secret from everyone. Solution? Call Iron Man.
