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Iron Man saves Wolverine from certain death, but in the process he unfortunately gives his crippling weakness at the start of the comics to his fellow Avenger.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Avengers: Tech-On # 2!

by marvel Iron Man just inadvertently gave Wolverine his old comic book weakness after saving him from certain death. The Armored Avenger has a long and rich history in the comics and has frequently addressed its weaknesses by periodically upgrading its costume. But in Tech-On Avengers # 2, written by Jim Zub with illustrations by Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz and letters from Travis Lanham of VC, Tony Stark saves Logan’s life at the cost of imprisoning him in high-tech armor.

In Avengers: Tech-On, the Avengers defeated Thanos and destroyed the Infinity Stones, but the Stones pieces were reused by the Red Skull. Calling the collected remains “Infinity Mirror Shards”, the Red Skull removes the powers of all the Avengers and all the superpowers of everyone on Earth. While some Avengers simply lose their strength or speed, Wolverine loses his healing factor and immediately collapses from acute adamantium poisoning. His metal skeleton is now killing him from the inside out – but Iron Man has a solution in the form of advanced suits for his entire team.

Related: It Only Took Marvel 8 Years To Kill Wolverine Again

High-tech 3D printed suits recreate or replace the powers of each Avenger: Captain Marvel’s suit can fly and shoot energy beams, Captain America’s suit comes equipped with a new shield (to replace the destroyed one with The Red Skull) and Spider -The Man Has Multiple Arms (mimicking the Iron Spider costume popularized in Avengers: Infinity War). But Wolverine’s costume is somehow able to recreate his healing powers: “Tony’s Crazy Pewter can plan stabilized by the Healing Factor, so I’m back in the fight.” Wolverine says as he puts the new costume to good use. Of course, this means that outside the costume, Wolverine loses his ability to heal once again.

Wolverine is therefore entirely dependent on the suit for survival – much like Iron Man’s first appearance in Tales of Suspense # 39. Written by Stan Lee with illustrations by Don Heck and Steve Ditko, Tony Stark’s first costume was incredibly bulky but necessary to contain the electromagnet that kept shrapnel from reaching his heart. Tony was forced to constantly wear the large suit breastplate under his clothes – if it was ever removed or the armor lost its strength, he could die. In that regard, Wolverine also seems locked in wearing the armor – at least until Tony and his fellow Avengers find a way to reverse Red Skull’s Infinity Stone-fueled actions.

As one of the most popular X-Men, Wolverine doesn’t die (or rather to stay death) easily. Logan’s healing factor allows him to take a tremendous amount of punishment that would easily kill any other human. Removing this healing factor allows Wolverine be vulnerable; making him dependent on Iron man the armor can even allow the two characters to bond in a new way during the remaining numbers of Avengers: Tech-On.

Next: Wolverine Writer Explains The Difference Marvel Used To Beat DC

Shang-Chi 2 will never be able to adapt its most important comic story

Marvel’s Dark Ages just gave Tony Stark a whole new low-tech suit, but there’s no doubt that steampunk Iron Man armor is a recipe for disaster.

WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Dark Ages # 1, available now from Marvel.

Tony Stark has never been one to hold back with his elaborate inventions, especially not when they come in the form of new armor. Whether it’s something for Iron Man, War Machine, or anyone else, Tony Stark is always ready to organize any occasion. And although the lights have gone out for good in the Marvel Universe of Dark times, Tony managed to build a suit capable of making his way through the Dark times.

After The Unmaker’s old threat resurfaced and threatened to destroy the world from within, Doctor Strange led a select team of heroes to deal with the threat. While they were able to defeat the Unmaker by unleashing the power of a reality where electricity could not work, it led to this same electromagnetic pulse emanating from all over the planet. Within moments all the machines stopped working, including the ones in the Iron Man costume. At that time, Tony Stark was flying over New York, the aftermath of the explosion ripped his leg off by a crashing plane that he blindly collided with. Although this is a far cry from the end of the story as well as Tony Stark’s role in it, although the situation forced him to become a different kind of Iron Man.

RELATED: Dark Ages: How Marvel’s Next Epic Left The Avengers In The Dark

As revealed at the end of Dark times # 1 by Tom Taylor, Iban Coello, Brian Reber and Joe Sabino of VC, the former Avenger miraculously survived his injuries. Not only that, but he even managed to craft a working Iron Man suit without any cutting edge technology at his disposal. This new armor has already been glimpsed, although how it works remains to be seen. One can only assume that this combination is a combination of steam power and rocket propulsion, since anything that looks remotely like an arc reactor is excluded. As impressive as it may be, it has disturbing implications.

Aside from the fact that Tony wears either a giant boiler, an engine, or both, the armor itself could only have been made from anything Tony could put together by hand. Without the means to do something as simple as plating one of its armor, it would have to be constructed from steel, iron, or brass. It all adds up to some extremely heavy and incredibly fragile Iron Man armor that is at best a slightly better version of his very first suit and at worst, a flying time bomb. And, to top it off, there’s not even a hope that this is all part of a bigger effort to turn the world around, as Tony is now working alongside a particularly ominous Apocalypse.

RELATED: Marvel’s Dark Ages reveals the true colors of the X-Men apocalypse

Steampunk and Iron Man aren’t two diametrically opposed concepts, but they work much better together in theory than in practice. Considering the state of affairs in Dark times, it’s understandable that Tony Stark will do his best with what little is available to maintain his own killer advantage on this Endless Night. Then again, the obvious risks of donning this armor would involve a level of desperation the Ironclad Avenger would not have seen in some time. At the very least, it gives readers one more reason to look forward to following the events of this latest darker alternate version of the Marvel Universe.

KEEP READING: Dark Ages Reveals Marvel’s Most Powerful Hidden Villain

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