The Iron Age

This is a story where Dr. Donald Birch who worked for Stark Industries in the past and thought Tony Stark never had time for him, so he became a foe called The Phantom. As the Phantom, he sabotaged Stark Industries with bombs and vandalism first seen in TOS #63. He was confronted by Iron Man and captured, being unmasked before being taken away and fired. Tony Stark saying he he had his full respect and allowed him full control over decisions because he didn't always have the time to be involved in all decisions. He trusted Birch to make the crucial decisions having his full confidence and making himself available for others that he cold not trust. He was disappointed and ashamed of putting his trust in Birch. This haunted Birch as he took Tony's confidence in him as not caring about him. He developed a hatred for Tony Stark and Iron Man. Later when in a wheelchair and on the brink of death, he had robots that captured Iron Man and brought him to a lab. He took many years to reassemble Dr. Doom's time platform and put together robots that would do his will. He captured the Dark Phoenix and brought her to this lab, provoking her to anger to destroy the earth. Tony escapes through the time machine at the very moment of his earth's destruction. He goes back it time to when he had problems with alcoholism.

Tony goes to himself in the past and his younger self is drunk. He won't be of any help. He goes to the Avengers who knows Tony is an alcoholic and doesn't believe the future Tony's story. Tony goes to Hank Pym and takes a punch for coming onto Janet by his younger self. Tony convinces Hank by telling him of his future work, which he just started working on. The Avengers confront Ultron and Iron Man helps out, now they believe him. He retrieves the first part of Doom's Time Machine from Ultron's defeat. He heads to London to Captain Britain, where he cannot be convinced. He goes to Britain's version of S.H.I.E.L.D. call S.T.R.I.K.E. where he finds Birch being tortured. He gets another part of the Time Machine. Iron Man is then taken down by S.T.R.I.K.E. only for Captain Britain to save the day.

Tony goes back in time when he was no longer Iron Man, James Rhodes took over the role and Stan was taking over the company. Iron Man goes to Times Square in New York and Misty Knight and Colleen Wing stop him reminding him of what promise "he made to stay away after his destruction." Rhodey made that promise. Iron Man leaves and goes to Heroes for Hire to hire Danny and Luke. Tony takes them back to Times Square as Tony Stark with hired body guards. He asks the store clerk to return a certain alloy. The clerk goes in the back and returns as the Scorpion. The Tinkerer is discovered in the basement. Scorpion is taking on Luke and Danny, but Tinkerer is getting away and threatening to destroy the neighborhood when Iron Man stops him. Iron Man tracks down the missing piece and finds the Iron Man components that the Tinkerer had at a theatre and then hacks into Obadiah's bank accounts to pay the Heroes for Hire. Then Iron Man goes back in time again and is ambushed by Dr. Doom robots and then by Dr. Doom. He escapes and heads to find Reed Richards but finds Johnny Storm who helps him get his missing piece from Doom's lab leaving Doom trapped in the past.

Iron Man finds himself at the Helffire Club, and hears Dazzler's music. She is being attacked because she is a mutant. Iron Man helps out. She helps Iron Man. Tony gets Dazzler into the Hellfire club where she is to perform. While she performs, Tony heads to the subbasement for the time machine part. Security begins the chase. Iron Man gets into the armory of the Hellfire Club. Donald Pierce uses an energy draining device on Iron Man. Dazzler shows up to help. She stuns Pierce. Iron Man is drained, Dazzler makes noise and then gives Iron Man solar light to recharge the armor. They grab the time cylinder. Dazzler heads home and Iron Man is blasted by Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire club. He wakes up in a subbasement hung up as Shaw assembled the time machine. He tells Iron Man to get it working. He does and pops Shaw in the face, then all the power goes off and Snikt, Wolverine is here and the rest of the X-Men. They battle Shaw and the Hellfire Club. Jean Grey with the Phoenix Force destroys the Time Machine.

Tony is trapped in the past, tired and ill. It's been years. Tony works on building a time machine and cannot get it. Every time it explodes. He finally turns to Hank Pym for help. Then, all the heroes that he came into contact with suddenly show up in the lab and begin to fight Phoenix. Iron Man, Johnny Storm, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, Dazzler, and Cyclops. Phoenix blasts Power Man, but Iron Man gets in the way and is destroyed. But, Tony Stark in the present is still there with Birch. Yellow Jacket shows up and reprograms the robots to stop the Phoenix, she stops them. Then the heroes attack her while she is weakened by the attack. She passes out. Birch dies from the cancer and failure of his life. Hank sends back the team. Later Tony sees the heroes at dinner except for the Human Torch who is presumed dead in the present. They toast his heroism. They toast the future!