The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Synopsis

Tony Stark and his friend James Rhodes argue if it is appropriate for Stark to continue to battle major threats in his alternate identity of Iron Man. While Rhodes argues that it would be better that Tony allow SHIELD to take on the responsibility with Stark 's technology, Stark reminds him that would require that he sell weapons to SHIELD, something he doesn't do anymore. Their argument is momentarily disrupted when Stark's assistant Pepper Potts informs him that terrorist organization HYDRA just attacked the United Nations Building. When Stark learns that SHIELD is too far out to stop the attack, he decides that Iron Man should step in and save the day.

During his battle with HYDRA, Iron Man discovers that the group has modified technology and weapons he developed. Just as Iron Man seems to be overwhelmed, SHIELD arrives and offers support. Or so it seems, before they demand that he stands down and allow them to collect the HYDRA agents he mostly defeated. Iron Man doesn't comply, also discovering that SHIELD has modified his technology for their own line of robotic suits of armor, known as Mandroids.. During the argument, shots are exchanged, ending when Iron Man unleashes his powerful unibeam, taking down both the remain HYDRA robot and SHIELD Mandroids.

Iron Man confronts Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, demanding to know why his technology is being used for the Mandroids. Fury claims that they merely modified tech Stark legitimately sold to them; in turn, Iron Man revealed that the technology had "leaked" to HYDRA, to the surprise of Fury. Still, SHIELD refuses to apologize, arguing that they use what they can to defend against people like HYDRA. Angered and dedicated to collecting any of his technology that could have fallen into the wrong hands, Iron Man leaves, letting SHIELD collect the HYDRA agents he defeated for them.

The HYDRA agents are relocated to the Vault, one of SHIELD's prisons designed speficaly for supervillian prisoners. The Vault has an particular emphasis on technology based prisoners and was designed by Tony Stark. There, Fury and his second in command Maria Hill meet with the head of HYDRA, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.

Meanwhile, while the Hydra Agents are being processed at the Vault, it is revealed that one of them is the Grim Reaper, one of Hydra's top agents who hides a long sheath in his forearm. After quickly disposing of his immediate captors and collecting several confiscated HYDRA weapons, he reveals that getting captured was part of the plan all along and that the true goal was to rescue Strucker. After incapacitating Fury and Hill, the Reaper frees Strucker and delivers to him a red gauntlet with attached claw, making the Baron capable of draining the lifeforce from a victim into himself. Strucker and the Reaper nearly escape before Fury catches them both at the last moment. After a daring battle, both are taken into proper custody.

Production Notes

This episode is actually a combination of four "micro" episodes that were posted online before the series premiered: "Iron Man is Born!", "HYDRA LIVES!", "Behold, the Mandroids!", and "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." Because of this, the episode serves as a sort of prequel to the previous two-part premiere. It was aired the Sunday following the original broadcast of "Breakout" on Wednesday, in a marathon including four other composite episodes.

Despite the title, the origin of Iron Man is not revealed in this episode. This is mostly because the series assumes certain shared continuity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like in the films, Iron Man's identity is public knowledge, JARVIS is an AI assistant rather than an actual butler and Stark has an antagonistic but begrudgingly respectful relationship with Fury.