6. Destructive Reentry

Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artists: James Cordeiro and Skottie Young

Huh. Give it to Fred Van Lente and James Cordeiro for making me care about the Living Laser.

I normally hate the Living Laser. He has awful visual design. He's boring. But here we are, me feeling sad for the Living Laser. In the issue, Tony breaks out the Space Armor to go investigate a disturbance at the Stark Satellite Delphi-1. Living Laser has taken over the Satellite, and he’s using the resources and labor to build himself a robot body out of nanites.

He just wants his body back. Tony shows up and annihilates the body, which seems like a minor dick move. But the nanites just sort of gain sentience and take over the satellite. So Living Laser realizes the errors of his ways, and teams up with Iron Man to stop the satellite-nanites from destroying the earth. In the process, Laser sacrifices himself. Tony dedicates a statue at Stark International to him. He has a body now.

Excuse me, I have something in my eye.