Warning: contains spoilers for Iron Man Annual #1!
Tony Stark, aka the Invincible Iron Man, just got hit with the perfect insult, and it came from a villain who has managed to get under his skin in a way few have managed before. The villain in question is the Assessor, a being who recently captured and experimented on Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man. Hearing about Miles’ suffering in Iron Man Annual #1 – from Jed MacKay and Ibraim Roberson – Tony Stark is filled with rage, storming the Assessor’s base and squaring off against Quantum, a new villain imbued with the powers of the Space Stone.
The story is part of Infinite Destinies – a story taking place across Marvel’s 2021 annual, revealing the new hosts of the Infinity Stones. But while Quantum is a fearsome opponent able to bypass Tony’s suit to hit him where it hurts, it’s actually the Assessor who really makes his blood boil. In Miles Morales: Spider-Man #27, the Assessor is described as, “an evil algorithm. Exploitation itself given life.” In fact, Tony takes such offense to Miles’ suffering because it reminds him of his own kidnapping and imprisonment, though he reflects that in Miles’ case, the victim is an innocent kid, not the war profiteer Tony once was.
Sadly, it turns out that the Assessor is ready for Tony, and eager to learn from him. When Quantum teleports Iron Man into an advanced testing facility, the Assessor states, “We will now commence provisional trials of Subject 045-02.” Tony is amused, replying, “I’ve been called a lot of things. I’ve even deserved most of them. But ‘045-02’ is a new one,” but the Assessor shuts him up when it notes, “While primary interest lies in Subject 045-02, we will observe its use by 045-02B, its primary pilot.” Tony seethes at being dismissed, thought of as a secondary element to his armor, but the comment stings all the more because it’s sincere. The Assessor doesn’t care about getting the upper hand on Iron Man – it’s sincerely out to use him for whatever it can learn, then discard him like it did to Miles.
The moment seems to hit home so hard because it forces Tony to relive the trauma of his origin. Trapped in a cave at the mercy of people who understood him only in terms of the weapons he could create, Tony’s iconic, “I am Iron Man,” is a declaration that whatever armor he might build next, it’s his genius and skill that define him as a hero. The Assessor strips that away, treating Tony Stark as nothing but the sometime pilot of his armor, and Marvel’s genius playboy billionaire philanthropist is genuinely taken aback.
Of course, Iron Man rallies, making it through a gauntlet of tests to defeat the Assessor and download its AI consciousness safely into his suit. Sadly, the Assessor is indeed simply an evil algorithm, and a back-up copy manifests elsewhere, noting that due to Stark’s victory, it only managed to retain five minutes of its testing of Subject 045-02, noting this, “provides significant setbacks to attaining board expectations.” Miles Morales: Spider-Man has hinted the Assessor is part of a larger, even more disgusting system – apparently one that’s focused on developing its own Iron Man armor.
Tony’s genius will allow him to use his copy of the Assessor’s consciousness to study this vile new enemy, but so far, it appears he has yet to find the actual mastermind behind the evil acts that have set him on edge. It’s fascinating that the callous, dismissive insult that actually got under the inventor’s skin came from a machine consciousness, revealing that while Iron Man, aka Subject 045-02, can stand being threatened and insulted, it’s being dismissed that he truly finds offensive.
