Iron Man 3 Prelude

Iron Man 3 Prelude is a comic book set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe published by Marvel Comics. The story is set before, during, and after the events of The Avengers.
==Plot==
===Part 1===
Tony Stark strips the Hammer Industries weapons off the War Machine armor and informs James Rhodes he'll never wear it again - because he's made him a new one. He insists Rhodes goes off playing Super Hero while Tony works on his own projects, and so, Rhodes attempts to get to the bottom of the Ten Rings terrorist organization.
Months go by, destroying one small terror cell after another and not learning much, until Rhodes arrives in Hong Kong thinking he caught the Ten Rings off guard. He quickly dispatches the armed terrorists, but some of their hostages turn out to be undercover soldiers with stronger arms. Stark calls him from New York, asking for help with the Chitauri attack, but Rhodes is half a world away, and Stark reasons he and the gang can take care of it. Rhodes shrugs it off the attacks, until a Hammer Industries' battle tank arrives. He is warned against destroying it, as its nuclear core can go off. It fires an Ex-Wife Missile at him - and for once, it works, shooting Rhodes down from the sky.
===Part 2===
After rebooting the system, Rhodes is able to get away just in time before the tank would have driven over him. Rhodes then decides to shoot the ground so the tank ends up in a hole in the ground. But the tank is able to vertically drive up and gets out of the hole. The Ten Rings terrorists now start to fire on Rhodes, forcing him to fly at a fixed position. The tank then shoots another Ex-Wife missile and the shockwave pushes Rhodes through an office building. Changing tactics, Rhodes flies all the way up and flies into the ground, creating a shockwave against the terrorist and by using a miniaturized Stark Sonic Cannon he is able to take the remaining terrorists out. But by doing so, the tank is able to get a clear shot and shoots at War Machine. Once again the tank attempts to drive over Rhodes, only this time Rhodes doesn't get away but simply picks the tank up. The tank is now set for self destruct and Rhodes quickly dispatches the tank in the ocean.
After the battle, Rhodes goes to New York City to help the Avengers, but he arrives too late and finds the Avengers in a shawarma shed. Meanwhile, Xu Wenwu receives a report about Hong Kong, explaining that although they failed to capture the War Machine armor they did manage to collect valuable information via all kinds of scans during the fight.
==Appearances==
===Characters===
*Tony Stark/Iron Man
*J.A.R.V.I.S.
*James Rhodes/War Machine
*Pepper Potts
*Xu Wenwu
*Phil Coulson
*Steve Rogers/Captain America
*Thor
*Bruce Banner/Hulk
*Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
*Clint Barton/Hawkeye
*Justin Hammer (mentioned)
*Ivan Vanko (mentioned)
===Locations===
*New York City, New York
**Shawarma Palace
**Stark Tower
**Stark Expo (mentioned)
*Malibu, California
**Tony Stark's Mansion
*Mumbai, India
*Ghazni, Afghanistan
*Bagram, Afghanistan
**Bagram Air Base
*Gulmira, Afghanistan (mentioned)
*Hong Kong, China
*China
**Ten Rings Headquarters
*Sudan
*Arlington, Virginia (mentioned)
**Pentagon (mentioned)
===Events===
*Battle of Hong Kong
*Battle of New York
===Items===
*Iron Man Armor: Mark I
*Iron Man Armor: Mark II
*Iron Man Armor: Mark III
*Iron Man Armor: Mark IV
*Iron Man Armor: Mark VI
*Iron Man Armor: Mark VII
*War Machine Armor: Mark I
*War Machine Armor: Mark II
*Iron Legion
*Arc Reactor
*Ex-Wife Missile
*Stark Sonic Cannon
*Captain America's Uniform
*Captain America's Shield
*Mjølnir
*Hawkeye's Bow and Quiver
*Black Widow's Bite
===Vehicles===
*Battle Tank
*Quinjet
*Chitauri Chariot
===Sentient Species===
*Humans
*Asgardians
*Chitauri
===Creatures===
*Leviathans
===Organizations===
*United States Air Force
*Ten Rings
*Stark Industries
*Avengers
*S.H.I.E.L.D.
*Hammer Industries (mentioned)
*United States Department of Defense (mentioned)
===Mentioned===
*
*
==Covers==
Marvels Iron Man 3 Prelude.jpg|#1
Marvels Iron Man 3 Prelude 2.jpg|#2
==Trivia==
*The comic is featured in Iron Man 3 Prelude (collection) and The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Marvel Comics Omnibus.
==Behind the Scenes==
===Continuity===
*In the comic, Xu Wenwu is called "Mandarin" by one of the Ten Rings members, howsoever, in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings it is established Wenwu never used that moniker and it was invented by Killian, thus retconning a part of this comic.
**Christos N. Gage has stated that when he wrote the comic, he wasn't told if the Mandarin was supposed to be Aldrich Killian or Xu Wenwu (who had not yet been established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon), assuming that Marvel Studios refrained from telling him because they considered that he didn't need to know the Mandarin's twist identity later shown in the actual Iron Man 3 film.Christos Gage on Twitter - July 3, 2023
**Despite this, due to it being a Red Stamp comic, it is officially canon.
==References==
==External Links==
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Category:Comics
Category:Iron Man 3 Merchandise
Category:MCU Red Stamp