Training for a raid of Stark Enterprises, Whitney Frost has her goons practice their attack with the help of their newest recruit, the costumed villain known as the Gladiator. However, Frost is not convinced that Gladiator can succeed given his past track record, however the Gladiator assures her that his failure against Daredevil was due to his choice in allies, not because of his inability to stop his foe. Not wishing Jasper Sitwell to be harmed, Frost travels to Stark Enterprises to pick him up. Stark meanwhile has a meeting with Janice Cord and her lawyer Vincent Sandhurst who have come to sell her father's assets to Tony. Traveling to Janice's father's old lab, the trio are captured by Gladiator and the Maggia and taken to their base, where Tony learns that Whitney is the Maggia's leader Big M. Faking a heart attack in order to get a hold of his brief case, Stark manages to break out a window and seek cover long enough to change into Iron Man. As Iron Man, Stark battles the Maggia and Gladiator, and saves Janice and Vincent from a falling trap, however his hands are crushed in the rescue attempt. Battling the Gladiator again, Iron Man is losing the battle until he tries to gain the upper hand by using his repulsor rays, however in attempting to do so Iron Man is shocked to find that they were damaged when he was trying to save Janice and Vincent, leaving him at the mercy of the Gladiator's whirling blades.

---