In this brand new take on these classic MARVEL characters, Howard Stark and his young family have been kidnapped by a mysterious criminal organization for the nefarious purposes of taking over operations of a highly critical research project deciphering the contents recovered from an alien crash site.
Some type of "new" technology was salvaged, but was then immediately confiscated by force from the classified and quarantined site by a lethal team of hired professionals, and transported to the mysterious criminal organizations compound deep in an unknown sandy desert. After many failed attempts to learn the secrets of the seemingly locked alien tech, a scheme is then executed to abduct the infamous Howard Stark and his wife and young child. Howard is then forced into working on the stolen project.
But, very quickly into his time with the Alien tech, Howard is able to make enough progress to establish a connection with the main artifact embedded in the alien technology. Howard begins having visions which last several minutes inside of his head, but which actually transpire over mere milliseconds in real time. The first visions he sees are of destruction and chaos, fires burning and people screaming in terror. Howard doesn't know the meaning behind these visions but he is certain of the feeling they instill in him.
It's a warning.
Realizing only the horrific potential of this technology in the wrong hands, Howard understands that if he continues his work on this project, he will be responsible for unimaginable evil being unleashed upon the world he has spent his life improving with his inventions.
He makes the decision to reprogram his work on the alien technology, stalling for as much time as he can buy, while he attempts to use the technology to find some way to escape safely with his family.
Unfortunately, they know he is stalling for time and decide to make an example out of Howards wife. They blow her brains out, leaving Tony drenched in his own mother's blood.
Seeing this, Howard freaks out, which accidentally activates his mental link with the alien artifact. It transforms into a white and golden glowing goo like substance and begins killing everything with a pulse in the compound in a few short seconds, save for Howard and his horrified son. As the last bodies spill to the floor, a grenade held by a mercenary accidentally explodes, setting off a chain reaction which vaporizes the entire compound in a flash.
The next few frames show the blackened remains of Howard beside a lump of white and gold glowing metal roughly the shape and size of young Tony. With Howard's dying thoughts being only of concern for his son, the alien tech instinctively protected Tony.
Sensing Tony's panic, the glowing metal goo places him into a state of hibernation as it begins to solidify around him into a crude figure that roughly appears humanoid. The shifting mass of alien like tendrils writhe continuously in unsettling manners, when suddenly the alien technology bursts from the rubble of the flaming desert compound and into the sky.
As the shape shifting figure soars through the clouds with a sleeping Tony, a blue sigil of unknown meaning or design begins glowing upon Tony's forehead as his unconscious eyes burst open with a blue glow of their own. Still in hibernation, the shifting mass solidifies more and more, now forming a suit of white and gold armor. As the liquid metal hardens, the alien technology begins reading Tony's mind. It can see his memories and experiences them all within a nanosecond.
Suddenly, the suit smashes into the Earth in a massive crater rippling outwards, and a ploom of dust and debris shooting into the sky. Suddenly, red and blue lights can be seen reflecting off the dissipating cloud. As the view clears, it's shown that the crater is directly outside of a mansion that had previously been swarming with police activity.
The patio door to the mansion swings open, as a concerned looking Jarvis comes rushing outside, followed by a group of Detectives and police officers who had been working day and night on the Stark family kidnapping. As the dust clouds finally clear completely, a sleeping Tony is surrounded in the crater by detectives and police, as red and blue lights flicker on everything.
Tony never talks to anyone about what happened that day. Not even Jarvis. Not even on Jarvis's death bed decades later. Tony... Simply couldn't.
Over the years, Tony begins to open up to the world again. His childhood was rough, but as a teenager, he found comfort in his studies. Once he was old enough, he began learning everything he could about his father's inventions and research. He very much gravitated towards Howard's scientific lifestyle, but always had a bit of a troubled side that was unique to Tony.
Despite his delinquent behaviors, Tony had a good head on his shoulders, for the most part, but he did delight in showing off his intelligence. Attention was his favorite, no matter if it were good or bad. One day while thrill seeking, a freak accident causes Tony to plummet from the side of a mountain.
Suddenly, before Tony can even react, white and gold liquid metal leaks from every pore of his body, engulfing him in a gross texture that immediately makes Tony begin to scream in panicked horror. As he plummets, he begins pulling at the substance oozing all over him in an unsuccessful attempt to peel the freaky stuff off of him.
"CALM YOURSELF."
A voice speaks to Tony from within. Not from within the goo, but from within himself. A familiar voice. A voice that instantly comforted him. It was as if it were a combination of every person Tony had ever loved, spoken to him at once in a single voice.
Tony relaxed, and in an instant, he remembers. He knows, as if a memory was implanted into his mind. This suit was from the day his parents died. The suit that saved him.
A fraction of a second before hitting the mountain side, the suit activates, solidifies and blasts off into the sky. For a moment, Tony feels like he is in control of the suit.
But just as quickly as that realization sets, the suit plummets to the Earth. Tony begins to open his mouth to scream, but before he can even hear his own voice, the suit places him safely on the ground and disappears, seemingly back inside Tony's body.
After a second of pause, the scream finally escapes Tony's mouth.
After this experience, Tony has a new focus. His priorities shift and an obsession forms. Tony becomes hell bent on drawing out the suit. Experiment after experiment fails, no matter what Tony tries, he can't recreate the necessary variables which cause the suit to come out. Even at great risk to his own life, the suit stays hidden. Tony becomes more and more reckless, but seemingly no matter how close Tony puts himself to death, the suit doesn't save him.
While attempting one particularly dangerous experiment that Tony doesn't care if he survives or not, a drunken miscalculation sets off a chain reaction that instead puts one of Tony's assistants in danger. In a moment of genuine selflessness, Tony sacrifices himself to save her, and in that moment, the suit appears and protects them from the blast.
That is when Tony finally unlocks access to the suit.
The suit begins speaking to Tony. Over time, they develop a bond. But Tony doesn't like the voice the suit uses, it freaks him out. So the suit scans Tony's memories, adjusts his voice and asks to be called Jarvis.
Tony refuses to call him Jarvis, but the suit knows Tony appreciates hearing Jarvis's voice again, though he can't say it out loud. It comforts Tony.
Over an arc of a couple issues, Tony goes on several adventures with the suit. I imagine this series only lasting maybe 10 issues.
The final book would see the suit sacrificing itself to save Tony's life, fulfilling Howard's prime directive: SAVE TONY.
The final pages of the book show Tony working on his first mach one version of his fully Stark tech Iron Man suit, complete with an A.I. Jarvis inspired by his original alien suit. The final shot is him spraying the once Gold and White armor Red and Gold.
And that is... A.I.: Artificial Iron-Man.
I'm not certain yet of all the details, or the title. I still haven't settled on villains or anything meaty about the plot. Just basic story beats as of now.
But what do you all think? Do you have any ideas or suggestions you care to add to this brand new concept I'm developing? Do you hate it? Love it? Don't care at all?
Leave a comment below and let me know how I could or should develop this idea! Thanks for your time and I appreciate any feedback.