The last of earth left to discover

fairestcat:

Tony: Get the right switches and—here goes nothing.
The power surges. The machines think. And then…
Tony: It’s alive.
And it’s all I have left. The Iron Man Mark Zero. The walking lung that saved my life. I built it with Yinsen and a box of scraps right here in this cave. Took it back to the States and improved it some—onboard O.S., lenses, heating and cooling systems. rudimentary repulser weapons—and it still looks like an insanely cheap old special effect. Now it’s the only Iron Man simple enough for me to operate. Good Lord.
Tony: I can’t believe this thing ever moved an inch. Let alone saved my life.
A repulser battery powerful enough—buried in a machine simple enough—to take me to the end of the line. The end of my mind. The final swipe deletion of everything I know, or ever knew. Like a zeroed-out hard drive. No data left for Osborn to retrieve. No more mistakes left for him to exploit.
Tony: But you, Mr. Bright-and-shiny—you’re the key.

— From Iron Man v5, #18 by Matt Fraction, art by Salvador Larroca