Age: 52
male
Mahershala Ali (/məˈhɜːrʃələ/ mə-HUR-shə-lə; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore on February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked him among the 25 greatest actors of the 21st century. After pursuing an MFA degree from New York University, Ali began his career as a regular on television series Crossing Jordan (2001–02) and Threat Matrix (2003–04), before his breakthrough role as Richard Tyler in the science fiction series The 4400 (2004–07). His first major film role was in the David Fincher-directed fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He gained wider attention for supporting roles in the final two films of the original The Hunger Games film series and in House of Cards, for which he received his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Ali won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as a drug dealer in the drama Moonlight (2016) and as Don Shirley in the comedy-drama Green Book (2018). He is the first Black actor to win two Academy Awards in the same category and the second Black actor to win multiple acting Oscars. Ali won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program for executive producing We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest (2020). In 2019, he played a troubled police officer in the third season of the HBO anthology crime series True Detective, and in 2020, he starred in the second season of the Hulu comedy-drama series Ramy. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for both performances. Ali has also played Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes in the first season of the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016) and voiced Aaron Davis in the animated films Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). Description above from the Wikipedia article Mahershala Ali, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
The issue begins with Iron Man/Tony Stark having just escaped a deathtrap by the Maggia in time to save Jasper Sitwell from Whiplash, when he is hit by A.I.M.'s Vortex Suction Beam and pulled through the hull of the ship they were on, causing it to sink when A.I.M. disengages their submarine. Next Iron Man is taken to A.I.M.'s base while Jasper Sitwell rescues Whitney Frost, an apparent socialite and admirer of Tony's, by picking her up and jumping overboard. The two are pulled out of the water by a S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercraft manned by Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones. After they land Whitney kisses Sitwell to show her gratitude for saving her, but later in her room Whitney is revealed to be the Big M, leader of the Maggia, looking to gain access to Tony Stark's super weapons which she believes she will be able to do with Sitwell's help. Meanwhile in A.I.M.'s base, a man named Mordius who has aspirations to lead A.I.M. manages to duplicate the Iron Man armor and Tony has to fight three Iron Men. Luckily the duplications aren't perfect and the men inside aren't as experienced with their armor, which shifts the odds in Stark's favor. Seeing this, Mordius orders for the heavy weapons, specifically the Rocket Cannon. However, Tony manages to sneak into the generator room under the cover created by the Rocket Cannon, and with a few modifications tricks A.I.M. into overloading their generators causing the whole island their headquarters were positioned on to explode.
