Tony Stark is in his office working on a new gadget and pretending to listen to a personal appeal by Simon Williams, the founder of Williams Innovations, to not buy out his company. Unfortunately, his plea is completely in vain as Stark already did it fifteen minutes ago.
Tony: Destroy? What?! No, wait! Simon, let me—
Smooth. Real smooth. Hank also thinks so and calls Tony out on his callous disregard of other peoples' feelings. Stark offers to discuss feelings with Jan over dinner, so to speak, visibly annoying Ant-Man. Speaking of Wasp, she and Thor are busy chasing an AIM team after busting up another arms sale. Wasp gets Thor to damage their transport and force it to head for home, then follows them back to their secret hideout.
Captain America gets a visitor in the lobby who asks for him personally: Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. After leading him on a twisty-turny journey to a secret safe house, Nick presents Cap with his old motorcycle as a gift and reveals that his father was Sgt. Jack Fury, leader of the Howling Commandos. It turns out even Nick Fury grew up admiring the Cap and promises that S.H.I.E.L.D. will always be there to back him up.
It also seems that Simon Williams has an ally of his own in the form of his brother Eric, better known as the Grim Reaper. He gives Simon an introduction to AIM and its chief scientist, M.O.D.O.K., who promises to remake him into something capable of destroying even Iron Man. Simon is skeptical and MODOK amends his statement; Simon will retain everything that makes him a unique individual while being suffused with pure Ionic Energy. Sufficiently convinced, he agrees to the process, leading back to the episode's Cold Open where Thor and Wasp interrupt the experiment and MODOK's mental bolt alters the process and turns Williams into a being composed entirely of pure Ionic Energy. Williams pays no attention to the rest of them, preferring to go after Tony Stark.
Iron Man is saved from the ensuing Curb-Stomp Battle by Ant Man who, in spite of their differences, holds Simon off while Stark gets another suit. Amazingly, Pym is able to talk Simon down but Iron Man shows up in a much larger suit and what follows really needs no explanation. Just as he is about to finish Iron Man off, Simon starts to break down and the two superheroes rush to save him by putting him in the Arc Reactor powering the Stark Industries building, but it is too late. Simon dissipates right in front of them. For the first time, Tony seems genuinely regretful and explains that he bought out Williams Innovations in order to save it from bankruptcy; he wanted to work with Simon, not destroy him.
Later on, Simon is reconstituted by the Enchantress and added to her growing list of pawns...
Tropes:
- Create Your Own Villain: Tony's incredibly awful approach to the whole thing with Williams leads him to seek out a terrorist organization for revenge.
- Double Take: Thor's entrance is ruined when he and Wasp see MODOK.Thor: I am Prince of Asgard and I... that is... that is a giant head.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Courtesy of Wasp, to an AIM agent.Wasp: Hi. (zap)
- Hope Spot: Hank nearly, nearly manages to talk Simon down... then Tony shows up to zap him, sending Simon berserk again. This means when it turns out Simon's powers are (apparently) killing him, it's just a little too late.
- How We Got Here: The episode opens with Simon being experimented on by AIM as Thor and Wasp burst into the room. After the opening titles, it flashes back to a few hours earlier.
- Hypocrite: Reaper lords it over Simon that he's sought the help of someone he once denounced as "a psychopath."
- I Just Want to Be Special: MODOK is stunned that anyone would want to be normal.
- Insufferable Genius:MODOK: I have created a being of ionic energy! I am science! I am genius!
(gets hit in the face with Mjölnir) - Lack of Empathy: Reaper's response to being told the experiment AIM's about to perform on Simon, his own bro, has never worked even once is "that's life."
- Mythology Gag: The suit Simon wears while in the chamber is his original costume as Wonder Man.
- Never Say "Die": Unlike his comic book counterpart, MODOK rants that he was "designed only for conquest!" Better than kick-ball or kick-butt at least.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Simon refuses to let Tony fully explain that he's buying his company to save it from bankruptcy and instead becomes an unstable superhuman for revenge... and during the subsequent fight, still refuses to let anyone explain anything to him.
- And on the other hand, it would have been nice for Tony to ASK Simon for a company merger and inform him of his company's inevitable demise without his help, saying that he intended to work with Simon for a better tomorrow. It would also have been nice of him not to play with a gadget and seemingly ignore Simon while he informed him of the merger. But then, he would not be the Tony Stark we know.
- Skewed Priorities: Ant-Man's immediate reaction to seeing Simon grow in size during their fight is to gush over how incredible the feat is. Unsurprisingly, he gets decked in the face while he's distracted.
- Too Dumb to Live: Two AIM agents return to their base after being pursued by Thor and Wasp.AIM Agent: The Avengers were chasing you, and you came here?!
Wasp: Yeah, you guys. What were you thinking? - Trick-and-Follow Ploy: Wasp and Thor do this to the agents of AIM.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ant-Man continuously calls out Tony for buying out Simon's company and hurting him in the process, saying it is just as bad as when he was selling weapons. Later, when Tony explains he bought out William Innovations to save it from bankruptcy and all he wanted to do was help Simon, Hank is on a non-verbal receiving end when Wasp and Cap glare at him upon hearing Tony's explanation, seeing that Hank was just as guilty about not listening to Tony as Simon was.
