Recaps

Luca escaped captivity with Tony, and the brothers uncovered evidence that a Stark Industries insider had arranged their kidnapping. As Hydra operatives moved against them at their hotel, an unknown being also chose Luca as its target.

• Luca perfected a sunlight-activated serum for himself, gained energy-based powers, and joined Tony and Yinsen in escaping the terrorists’ mountain base.
• Tony and Luca destroyed the base after finding records that implicated a Stark Industries board member, then returned to Los Angeles with Yinsen.
• Tony abandoned plans to close Stark Industries’ weapons division, while Luca announced an audit of the company’s finances and both brothers planned to lure their enemies into attacking them.
• Fury reviewed footage of Luca’s powers and Tony’s armor, then added both brothers to the Avengers Initiative while ordering Coulson to monitor them quietly.
• Obadiah admitted he had arranged the brothers’ kidnapping and agreed to cooperate with a masked organization that planned to have professional killers attack them.
• The Mandarin learned that Tony and Luca had been taken by Benjamin, then ordered his forces to leave the ruined base and focus on researching the stones.
• Aruru arrived on Earth, absorbed Benjamin’s remains, and chose Luca as his prey because of his unknown energy.
• John, Jack, and Mark posed as FBI agents to reach the Starks’ hotel suite, but a miniature missile exploded in the hallway, critically wounding Jack before John continued toward the brothers’ room.

After Hydra’s assassination attempt, Luca and Tony uncover Obadiah’s betrayal and turn toward superhero identities and Stark Industries’ new direction. They leave off testing their flight speeds together as they race toward the edge of the atmosphere.

• John and Mark attacked Tony’s hotel suite, but Yinsen and six armed models opened fire, killing Mark before Luca stopped John and captured him.
• Luca and Tony interrogated John, who revealed Hydra’s plot, Obadiah’s suspected role, and his own upbringing and experiments, and Tony planted a remote bomb in John and sent him back under orders to blame S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Happy learned the brothers were safe, and Tony and Luca drove to Obadiah’s villa, where Tony shot Obadiah after he confessed to the betrayal and reached for a gun.
• Pepper managed the company’s public crisis while Tony and Luca studied Luca’s extraordinary abilities, revealed the Arc Reactor and Mark II armor, and proposed turning Stark Industries toward clean energy and intelligent robots.
• Tony and Luca planned to use superhero identities to promote Stark Industries, and Luca arranged for John’s bomb to explode after John reported to Hydra, prompting Hydra’s leader to blame S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Luca and Tony failed to recreate Luca’s transformation serum, while Luca urged Tony to consider enhancements for Pepper and Happy and proposed using a remote-controlled villain armor to stage a heroic debut.
• Tony and Luca suited up for their first flight, but Tony crashed through the villa ceiling and damaged Luca’s sports car before Luca caught up with him over Malibu.
• Tony pushed his armor to chase Luca, who outflew him and challenged him to match the SR-71 altitude record as they launched upward together.

Luca and Tony staged a battle in Los Angeles that turned into a real fight with Hydra, the Howling Commandos, and monsters, bringing Gwen and Peter into their new Justice League. Their victory made them public heroes, while Hydra and Aruru began plotting against the brothers and Tony faced questions about Stark Industries and the arrested Nick Fury.

• Luca saved Tony from a freezing malfunction during a high-altitude test, and the brothers decided to use the Demon Armor to draw attention in Los Angeles.
• Luca overheard Hydra operatives preparing to ambush Nick Fury and Coulson, so he redirected the Demon Armor toward their position while Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy watched the unfolding attack.
• Luca and Tony unleashed the Demon Armor on the city and attacked the Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel gathered near Fury, after which soldiers arrested Fury and Coulson as terrorists.
• Luca and Tony staged a dramatic defeat of the Demon Armor, but a group of monsters appeared, and Gwen and Peter joined the brothers as Tony named their team the Justice League.
• Luca, Tony, Gwen, and Peter fought the monsters and Teen Abomination, with Luca defeating the strongest attacker as the crowd celebrated the new heroes.
• Luca and Tony left Los Angeles with the Demon Armor, shared their discoveries about Luca’s energy-absorbing powers, and invited Gwen and Peter to visit their Malibu villa.
• Alexander Pierce and Dr. Zola decided to use Jessica Drew to infiltrate Luca’s circle and Justin Hammer against the Stark brothers, while Aruru also set out to find Hammer after draining a robber’s life force.
• The battle boosted the Justice League’s fame and Stark Industries’ stock, and Luca blocked media and government calls as Tony held a press conference about the monsters, the arrested man claiming to lead S.H.I.E.L.D., and the company’s future.

Luca worked with Tony to find a cure for Tony’s palladium poisoning while investigating the murder of their parents and keeping Jessica Drew under watch. As Hydra targeted Gwen Stacy, Luca promised to protect her father, while Wong arrived in New York and Fury planned to use Howard Stark’s research as leverage.

• Tony announced the Arc Reactor and promised that Luca would lead Stark Industries’ new effort to develop cellular and genetic treatments.
• Luca found Howard’s notes on a new element and learned Tony had only four to six months before palladium poisoning could become critical, then the brothers received evidence that their parents had been murdered.
• Luca and Tony concealed the murder investigation and stored its evidence in a restricted database, while Justin Hammer accepted a mysterious contact’s offer of reactor designs and Aruru took Vince Carter’s identity to infiltrate Hammer Industries.
• The Ancient One sent Wong to the New York Sanctum and instructed him to approach Tony and Luca and teach them magic.
• Luca hired Jessica Drew as his assistant despite suspecting she was an enhanced agent, while Jessica reported his supposed weaknesses and Tony’s backup power core to Hydra.
• Luca patrolled Los Angeles and met Gwen Stacy, who later told him a Hydra agent had discovered she was Spider-Woman and threatened her father, George Stacy.
• Luca promised Gwen he would protect George, spent the night with her, and arranged for Stark Industries security to guard her father.
• Wong arrived in New York as Fury ordered S.H.I.E.L.D. to withhold Howard’s new-element design until Tony was desperate, dismissing Luca’s ability to save him.