Issue(s): Iron Man annual #15
Cover Date: 1994
Title: "Minds in collision / Wargame"
Credits:
Len Kaminski - Writer
Gene Colan / M.D. Bright - Penciler
Al Williamson / Kevin Yates - Inker
Mike Marts - Assistant Editor
Nel Yomtov - Editor

Review/plot:
This annual is from the perspective of the Controller.

Interesting phrasing about "being" Sally.

Among the many things the Controller is doing, he's holding Mrs. Arbogast hostage.

Iron Man discovers that the guy was controlled by the Controller, and he goes after him. But the Controller has an ace up his sleeve in that he's controlling a latent psionic named Sarah Jessup. So he's ready for Iron Man's attack and he's also able to use Jessup to channel the energy of everyone he controls into himself. But then Jessup asserts herself, taking the name Mindstorm.

Her attack is indiscriminate, including Iron Man too.

Iron Man and the Controller's minds get merged, causing each to experience the memories of the other. The Controller is overwhelmed, but Stark is able to resist and fight back. He destroys the Controller's machine, cutting off Mindstorm's energy and thus killing her. Controller is left in a coma.

The next story has Iron Man in a virtual training session, fighting a bunch of villains from his rogues gallery.

The session goes out of control. When Iron Man gets out of it, he has his hacker Raven investigate, and then decides that he needs to go "in" to the computer network to deal with it.

This issue also has a section called "The media takes on Tony Stark", which is a collection of text pieces with a few illustrations.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after Raven has been hired by Stark and before the VOR/TEX situation is dealt with, meaning it has to take place between Iron Man #306-307.

References:

• The Controller had to overhaul his control systems after Iron Man damaged them in Iron Man #293.
  
• The Controller discovered the benefits of controlling a latent psionic in Iron Man #12.
  
• Investigating the training computer malfunction, Raven says that he saw similar code when he tried to trace the mysterious voice that connected him with Marcy Pearson in Iron Man #298.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Hm. You'd think after the time Rhodey only survived beheading fighting the Mandarin as Iron Man -helmet off and kneeling because mind ring- because of the running headache spike at a lucky instant -no way Tony hasn't ever come up against that- he'd have worked out at least some resistance into the armor against psychic attack. I bet that turns out to be the case here...

When Tony goes up against the Controller in Kurt Busiek & Sean Chen's run, he thinks about how he has special circuitry in his armor and other devices that provide defense from mental takeover. Who knows when he first added it, though.

The dialogue makes it clear that Tony added the anti-mind control circuitry in his armor after he was mind controlled into killing Marilla, Amanda Chaney and Yellowjacket in the Crossing. And he admits he should have done it sooner.

I've always liked this annual, which brings to a climax Kaminski's use of the Controller as a villainous foil to Tony Stark and shows how and why Stark is ultimately a better person. And hey, we get a little glimpse of the Controller's childhood and a reminder about his brother from the Archie Goodwin era.

I've always interpreted the end scene as the Controller having a comic-book version of locked-in syndrome, based on his narration; I thought the idea was that he can hear the doctors talk about "pulling the plug" but can't do anything about it.