Two days later, Kraft saw Tony Stark on TV again. He was in high spirits at the hearing, needling the senator who wanted his Iron Man suit until the man started swearing, and making Justin Hammer embarrass himself in public yet again. He didn't look remotely like a man on the verge of death.
But when Tony Stark mentioned his Iron Man suit, he paused for a moment.
"Maybe someone out there can build equipment similar to the Iron Man suit, or something else... like that big green guy the military still hasn't caught. But it sure as hell won't be Hammer. And I, Iron Man, can handle all of it! You want my product? Dream on!"
Naturally, the hearing ended in a resounding victory for Tony Stark. Although the American government coveted his Iron Man suit, it had no way to force the hand of a playboy who was powerful in his own right, wildly popular with the public, and well connected even within the government.
Far away in Siberia, Ivan Vanko also watched Tony Stark's performance on television. He misunderstood Stark's remark that "maybe someone out there can build equipment similar to the Iron Man suit," believing Stark was referring to his father. It made him, already consumed by grief and anger, hate Stark even more.
He'd taken the technology my father developed and used it to gain fame and fortune, and now he was mocking him on TV? That was going too far!
Ivan Vanko sped up work on his weapons. He couldn't wait to go to America and teach Stark a proper lesson, and let the world know that Stark Industries had no monopoly on Arc Reactor technology.
If you could make God bleed, people would stop believing in him. Once there was blood in the