The full story
Tony's arc reactor is keeping him alive and poisoning him at the same time—the palladium core seeping toxin into his bloodstream. Six months after declaring "I am Iron Man," Tony has become America's one-man peacekeeping force, claiming to have "privatized world peace."
The government wants the suit. Justin Hammer, a rival defense contractor, wants to replicate it. And in Russia, Ivan Vanko—son of Anton Vanko, who worked with Howard Stark on the arc reactor before being deported for trying to sell it—watches Tony with the kind of hatred that ferments for decades.
Ivan's father helped create the arc reactor and died in poverty while Howard Stark became a legend. Ivan builds his own reactor and a pair of electrified whips, then attacks Tony at Monaco.
The palladium poisoning accelerates Tony's self-destruction. He appoints Pepper as CEO and throws a birthday party where he gets drunk in the Iron Man suit, nearly killing Rhodey. Rhodey takes a suit to the military, and Hammer weaponizes it into War Machine.
Nick Fury reveals that Tony's new assistant "Natalie" is actually Natasha Romanoff, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and gives Tony his father's research materials. In those old film reels, Tony finds something unexpected: Howard telling him he's his greatest creation, that the key to the future is hidden in something he couldn't build with his era's technology.
Tony synthesizes a new element while Ivan completes the Hammer Drones and secretly modifies War Machine. The Stark Expo battle forces Tony and Rhodey to fight side by side against an army of automated suits.
Fury tells Tony he's unsuitable for the Avengers Initiative but wants him as a consultant. In New Mexico, a hammer sits in a crater, waiting.