Years after Tony Stark’s sacrifice (and some time after the events of Avengers: Secret Wars), the story opens to the shock of a coordinated series of bombings carried out across the country. James Rhodes (War Machine) discovers that these attacks—targeting Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia with explosive devices built on Stark technology—are the result of a secret alliance between Justin Hammer, Sonny Burch, Parker Robbins (the Hood), and Zeke Stane. Meanwhile, young prodigies Riri Williams (Ironheart) and Harley Keener (Iron Lad) answer Rhodes’s call by deploying their new armor prototypes in both defensive and reconnaissance roles, even as Frank Castle (the Iron Punisher) seizes the terror wave as an opportunity to mete out his brutal brand of justice. To untangle the connections behind the bombings, “Detective Anita,” recently transferred in from the FBI, follows the shared digital and magnetic signatures at each blast site, uncovering how Stark-processor triggers have infiltrated the global black market.
