Iron Man vol. 3 #47Iron Man vol. 3 #47
Title: “The Frankenstein Syndrome”
Writer: Frank Tieri
Penciller: Keron Grant
Inker: Stull, Perott, and Ketcham
Colors: Avalon Studios’ Edgar Tadeo
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Outside the new Stark Enterprises, Iron Man is fighting against a group of ten from the Sons of Yinsen while “Yinsen” himself stands down on the ground with his high priest Tyger Minn. Each Son of Yinsen is wearing armor modeled after his sentient armor, and Yinsen is actually wearing the sentient armor. Iron Man is tagged by one of the ten Sons that are engaging him. Iron Man tries to blast Yinsen and Tyger, but Tyger stands in front of Yinsen and erects a shield. Iron Man is left vulnerable and gets blasted in the back.
Inside Stark Enterprises, the rebel Son of Yinsen, Sun Tao lies unconscious on an observation table. Pepper asks Happy how Tony is doing outside. Happy says that Tony isn’t doing very well, and that if he falls that there isn’t going to be anything to stop them from collecting their former member. Happy wonders why they would want him back since they are the ones that threw him out. Sun Tao awakens and grabs onto Pepper’s hand. He struggles to rise and says that he has to go help Tony, and that he doesn’t know what it is that he is facing. Happy says that Sun Tao is in no condition to help himself much less assisting Tony. Happy suggests that he just tell them what has happened. Sun Tao says that after their last encounter with Tony that they continued trying to resurrect Yinsen. He says that they always believed that the key was just finding the right vessel for Yinsen’s brain. They found the perfect vessel in Tony’s sentient armor, and the gods surely smiled on the student’s armor giving life once again to the mentor. The Sons of Yinsen unearthed the sentient armor from its grave. They implanted Yinsen’s brain, and the surgery was a success. Sun Tao says that his enjoyment was short lived as he came to realize that Yinsen was much more arrogant and aggressive than ever before. Sun Tao says that the orders that Yinsen gave them became stranger each day. He ordered the mass production of Tony’s latest armor even though the armors they currently had were working fine. Sun Tao says that it was as if the peaceful Yinsen was now preparing for war. Sun Tao wondered if it was perhaps a side effect of Yinsen spending so long a time without a body, or if this wasn’t Yinsen at all. Sun Tao says that he realized that “Yinsen” had to be stopped, but he was alone in his rebellion and labeled a heretic and was excommunicated. Yinsen convinced them all that Sun Tao had become mad, and used it as an excuse to experiment on his mind. Unopposed Yinsen introduced their secluded religion to the world. Sun Tao says that he was then fitted with an armor and left to take the fall while Yinsen’s cloaked followers made off with the S.K.I.N. technology. Sun Tao says that Tony isn’t fighting Yinsen, but the Great Devil.
Stark gets an idea. He flies right through the center of the action and diverts all his power to his shields and his magnetic ray. His shields are just about ruined when he finally catches one of the Sons of Yinsen’s armors with his magnetic ray. Iron Man then magnetizes the armor that he caught and draws all the other Sons of Yinsen together into one giant magnetic ball. Stark says that they fire if they want to, but that they would only be hitting each other. “Yinsen” walks up behind Stark and Stark screams in pain. Tony wonders what it is that “Yinsen” hit him with. Yinsen says that Iron Man has such arrogance for one so insignificant. He says that to think that he alone could stand against his divine will. Yinsen grabs Iron Man by the throat and fries all of Iron Man’s systems. With a wave of his hand, Yinsen frees the Sons from the magnetic grip. Yinsen drops Iron Man to the ground and tells the Sons to finish him. After the Sons get done beating on Tony. Yinsen picks him up. He says that he has become a foolish little man, and that if he knew then what he knows no that he never would have given his life for him. Yinsen throws Iron Man into a building. Yinsen tells the Sons to go get Sun Tao.
Inside, Sun Tao has managed to stand up. Pepper tells Sun to be careful, but Sun says that if the devil is coming for him that he wants to meet him on his feet. The Sons blow down the wall and tell Sun not to make this harder than it has to be. Sun Tao says that they have on idea how hard this will be. As Sun fights back against the Sons he begs them not to follow this man blindly. He says that he is not their savior, but their destructor. Tyger Minn nails Sun in the back, and says that his blasphemy falls on deaf ears. Tyger says to think that they followed Sun for all those years. Sun asks if it is better now that they follow Tyger and his mad tyrant. Tyger Minn kicks Sun unconscious while the other Sons hold him in place. Yinsen enters and tells Tyger that he is proud of him. He tells Tyger to grab Sun and prepare him for the ceremony.
Outside in the rubble, Jocasta has come back on-line. She activates the wake-up gas. She tells Tony that he needed her, and that she had no choice but to come back. Tony stands up and gets the rubble off him. He asks Jocasta why she freaked out like that when she saw the sentient armor. Jocasta says that before the sentient armor revealed itself to Tony that there was a time when she was left alone with it. The armor had summoned her using her computer interface, but then the armor turned abusive. It saw the relationship between Jocasta and Tony as some kind of threat to it, and so it shocked her. Jocasta tried to sign off, but the armor signed itself into the computer system to ensure that she could not leave. Then the armor turned viscous and shocked her repeatedly over and over, and the more Jocasta begged it to stop the more viscous the attacks became. Jocasta says that it went on for hours. Tony thinks to himself that it sounds like the artificial intelligence version of rape. He apologizes and says that he can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. Tony promises that it will pay for what it did to her, and says that he will understand if she doesn’t want to be involved. Jocasta says that she has to face him down and know that he is no longer a threat to her.
Inside the Church of Yinsen, Sun Tao lies unconscious on a table. Tyger Minn stands by Sun’s body and says that today they have gathered to punish those non-believers that would oppose them. All the Sons of Yinsen bow before Tyger Minn. Tyger says that Sun Tao’s lack of strength and faith was like a cancer that almost drove them out of existence, but Yinsen has seen in him, the man who beheaded Wong Chu, a new beacon that will let them shine brighter than ever before. Tyger says that he sentences Sun to death, but as he raises the dagger into the air it is knocked from his hand by a blast from Iron Man. Stark says that he isn’t much of a religious man but whatever happened to “do unto others”? Stark feels something weird about the Sons. He notices that they haven’t even looked up since he walked in. Tyger tells the Sons to cloak themselves and that it looks like two will be sacrificed today. Stark releases a great amount of light that the Sons’ armors soak up as cloaking is simply a trick of reflecting light. The light burns the Sons taking them out of the fight.
Tony is left with two problems; Yinsen and
getting his followers to safety. Iron Man goes to pick up one of
the Sons, but when he goes to touch one of their hands the
fingers dissolve. Yinsen stands up and says, “My people
aren’t going anywhere Avenger! And neither are you!”
Yinsen commands one of the Sons to reveal himself and show Iron
Man how he has been reborn in his divine power. The Son pulls his
hood back to reveal that his face has been grafted with S.K.I.N.
Iron Man realizes that the sons are all now Yinsen’s
mindless cyborgs. He realizes that any prolonged battle will
simply result in innocent people getting hurt. Iron Man decides
to run and get the Avengers. He flies up to Sun Tao and tries to
pick him up, but Sun Tao asks “Brother Anthony” if he
doesn’t find it strange that Yinsen hasn’t even risen
out of his seat. 
Tony looks over
at Yinsen and notices a little green girl sitting with her back
to him. Tony wonders why she looks so familiar to him. Stark
grabs Sun and starts to fly out. Stark screams in pain and drops
to the ground with Sun. Yinsen says that Iron Man couldn’t
really think it was going to be that easy. “Yinsen”
asks Iron Man if he didn’t realize that he could control the
artificial heart that the sentient armor gave him. Yinsen says
that he can cause it to exapand or retract with but a gesture.
“Yinsen” says that he let Iron Man believe he was his
ressurrected mentor and let him believe that he could suceed
because it amused him. Stark says that he figured out that he
isn’t Yinsen, but asks who he is. Sun says that he is the
Great Devil. “Yinsen” tells Sun to spare him his
ridiculous belief system. “Yinsen” says that he has
chosen to end his masquerade as he can stomach it no longer.
Yinsen says, “Who am I, Avenger? I am the true reason your
armor gained sentience. I am a foe that you believed defeated
many times only to rise time and again, like the phoenix from the
ashes! I am he who will not rest until all mankind is utterly
destroyed. I am Ultron!” Ultron stands with the sentient
armor helmet off and the young synthezoid Antigone by his side.
Avengers Files rating: 6 out of 10
The writing gets a 4 out of 5. Ultron as the ochestrator of Tony’s problems and the Sons destructive turn is brilliant. The last year or so’s stories come into a kind of focus with this revelation. The hopelessness that Iron Man struggles against is clarified as Ultron is always a master manipulator. Keron Grant, however, is one of my least favorite artists working in Marvel today. This issue wasn’t too bad and so I gave him a 2 out of 5, but I just don’t like his cartoony and awkward style. And what’s up with Ultron’s face?