Regrouping after their catastrophic battle in the previous season, a group of AIM drones are seen transporting an advanced containment crate holding one of the supervillains imprisoned with MODOC in the Vault. It breaks free of its restraints and begins attacking the AIM mooks but is put down by their commander, the Scientist Supreme, who demands that the creature be delivered to Stark Industries within the hour.
For his part, Stark doesn't seem to be taking anything seriously, ignoring important reports on the state of his company in favor of tinkering with a Hard Light replacement for Captain America's shield. He's eager to test it ("Pepper, throw your shoes at me!") but that can wait. Pepper, along with the rest of the company, is seriously concerned about how much time he spends working with the Avengers compared to Stark Industries and Director Hill has shown up to convince Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. — and she still won't take "No" for an answer. Tony resists, of course, citing the need for the Avengers to have independence but Hill isn't buying it; she counters that more and more superheroes are going public and their activities need to be regulated before somebody gets hurt. She doesn't force Tony to consider, but she gives a stern warning: if their next failure results in excessive collateral damage, or loss of innocent lives, she'll have the authority to arrest the entire team.
Tony Stark: It's not nuclear.
At that precise moment, AIM takes control of Stark Tower and releases their pet supervillain Technovore, a parasite that is designed to devour technology. With Pepper and much of the senior leadership of Stark Industries as insurance, the Scientist Supreme sends Technovore to kill Stark and begin taking everything that he owns. Unfortunately for AIM, they don't count on Black Panther, Captain America and Col. Rhodes being around, making things a lot less easy than they would like. Not that this bothers the Scientist Supreme in the slightest; for him the raid is personal and he intends to destroy Stark's legacy in a very real and permanent way once he has everything he came for.
Stark and Director Hill agree to put aside their differences in light of the greater threat presented by Technovore and head for the Arc Reactor, having found out AIM's plan from Pepper. Down in the armory, Cap and Black Panther hold off the attacking AIM forces long enough for Rhodey to suit up and become War Machine, turning the tide. He also inadvertently saves Stark's life as Technovore detects his suit's Arc Reactor and heads straight for it, as opposed to Stark's more depleted one. Stark and Hill make for the Arc Reactor and link up with the other Avengers, who have their hands full battling the tech-eating monster. Once he suits up, Iron Man is able to defeat Technovore by overloading the building's Arc Reactor and causing it to consume more energy than it can hold and also disposing of the explosives after he deduces that they are his own design.
The Avengers catch up with the Scientist Supreme just as he is about to make good his escape, but Pepper reveals that he never really had her as a hostage in the first place by kicking his ass. An unnoticed Cap takes possession of the hard drive containing all the data from Stark Industries. Unfortunately neither Stark nor Hill are going to back down on the whole registration issue.
Tropes:
- Cassandra Truth: Rhodes doesn't believe T'Challa when he tells him the Avengers were in Asgard.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Rhodes states he's not interested in being a superhero, just looking after Tony. Including protecting Tony from Tony.
- Continuity Nod:
- The episode begins with Tony ignoring an important meeting to tinker with tech... again, just as he did in "Everything is Wonderful".
- Tony cites the incidents with Wonder Man and Ultron as his reason for moving his armor.
- Damsel out of Distress: Pepper is held hostage by the Scientist Supreme, but as he's gloating about how he has the advantage, she beats the crud out of him.
- Description Cut: Pepper tells Tony his seven o'clock is already in the building. Tony expresses the hope they're more fun than Pepper. Cut to Maria Hill angrily telling him he's late.
- "Die Hard" on an X: We've got a cadre of thieves / terrorists committing one act to cover up some theft, with a snarky hero trying to fight against them while someone important to him is being held captive, still snarking away at them... but with superheroes.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Scientist Supreme wants revenge for being thrown in jail like a common criminal.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: We don't see it, but the Technovore rips several AIM goons to shreds.
- Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Tony's response to seeing the Technovore. "I think we should run now."
- Foreshadowing: The hard drive sets up a later attack against Iron Man.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: AIM modified the Technovore to target any Arc Reactor energy, specifically, Tony's one on his chest. At the reactor room, Tony decides to have JARVIS overload the main reactor to attract Technovore, then allow it to overeat. Its destruction also leads to destroying AIM's bombs before they could detonate, as they were based on Tony's own technology.
- Innocuously Important Episode: The hard drive is obvious foreshadowing, but it's later revealed that the Scientist Supreme being arrested enables a Skrull infiltrator to take control of AIM.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Maria Hill's argument for a superhero registration act."More and more superheroes are popping up. The Fantastic Four are public, but others like Spider-Man and the X-Men aren't. There has to be accountability. There are laws, and it's my job to enforce them."
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Maria, who has just generally been a Lawful Stupid jerkass the whole time we've known her, makes a surprisingly good team with Iron Man, and refuses to leave him to perform a heroic sacrifice when he can barely stand after the Technovore's nibbled on him. But she still remains unchanged on the topic of registration, much to Tony's annoyance.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Tony builds "Cap" a new energy shield to replace the one Loki broke.
- Mythology Gag: Maria Hill talks about using Iron Man and the Avengers as an example for superhero registration, for the sake of accountability. Tony isn't on board with the prospect yet, as he and most of the Avengers are already well-known outside their hero names, but Spider-Man and the X-Men aren't. This discussion is based on Marvel's Civil War comic event, which divides almost all of the heroes from the idea of the Superhuman Registration Act, after a amateur hero group's pursuit of fame goes horribly wrong. In that event, Iron Man was 100% for registration.
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?: One of Stark Industries' boardmembers even asks this of Tony at the start. He immediately responds with "no".
- Oh, Crap!: Tony after learning Technovore wants to feed on the Arc Reactor in his chest.
- Out of the Inferno: How the War Machine armor makes its debut.AIM Goon: I'm proceeding with armor extraction.
War Machine: Good luck with that. - Suddenly Voiced: Technovore seems like a mute beast, but once it encounters Tony, it speaks."Arc energy signature located. Consume!"
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- This episode addresses how Tony's super hero lifestyle is taking a lot of time away from work, affecting his company's stock and making his board members nervous. His first act after the meeting was to move his armors to the Avengers Mansion until AIM arrived.
- Pepper reveals that she can subdue the Scientist Supreme on her own, but only after the villain's cohorts are taken out by Tony and the others, as she is not a superhero like them.
- The End... Or Is It?: Maria doesn't intend to drop the registration issue. Cap's Skrull impostor gets the hard drive containing all of Stark Industries' data.
- You Can Barely Stand: Said by Maria word for word after Tony barely survives the Technovore.
