Just Steve and Tony Things

Overview

"Deathlok Steve" refers to the Steve presented in a universe in which Wanda wished for "no more humans", which caused most of humanity to die or mutate, including Steve. Steve becomes a cyborg who now only cares about eliminating humanity and calls himself "Deathlok". Tony, meanwhile, was off-planet when this happened, meaning he was physically unaffected by Wanda's spell and has spent all of his time since his return leading a resistance effort while also miserable and drinking. This is a great universe for angst.

Pulling back, X-Factor, which features this universe, is a comic about a mutant named Jamie Madrox (Multiple Man), who leads a mutant detective agency. There is an arc in which he gets killed and starts finding himself waking up in a different alternate universe every time he does. One of these is the Deathlok universe, in which Tony finds Madrox but is then drawn by Steve into a fight. Madrox eventually makes it back to his own universe (616), though Deathlok and some other bad guys get pulled over to 616 with him. Deathlok is eventually killed by Polaris while trying to do bad guy things.

If you ONLY care about the Steve/Tony aspect, you can read X-Factor Vol 3 #231 and absolutely nothing else. However, Steve/Deathlok also shows up in #232 (where he's shown coming over to 616) and #241 (where he dies while fighting against members of the X-Factor team), if you want to see all of his available content. He is not mentioned in any of the surrounding issues (I checked).

All issues covered by this blog for X-Factor Vol 3 can be found here.

Issue-by-Issue Synopsis

[XF #229] Madrox is killed and finds himself in another universe. Then he gets killed again.

[XF #230] Madrox finds himself in yet another universe, which he realizes has giant Iron-Man-shaped Sentinels.

[XF #231] Tony captures Madrox and wants his help in escaping this universe because he's tired. However, Steve-as-Deathlok comes and attacks them. Steve and Tony exchange many words and Steve apparently tolerates Tony calling him "Steve". Madrox dies again and wakes up in yet another universe.

[XF #232] Madrox eventually gets back to 616 with the help of the other universe's Doctor Strange (who is also Madrox), but the portal is shown to pull Deathlok Steve and some other bad guys over to 616 as well.

[XF #233-240] The X-Factor team investigates things and has team drama. (These are not relevant issues from a Steve or Tony perspective.)

[XF #241] Steve and the other bad guys fight the X-Factor team, during which Polaris forces Steve's gun to shoot himself; he dies.

#231 was the big issue for Steve and Tony in this universe, but #241 does conclude Deathlok's story by killing him off. Below the cut are the comic blurbs for 233-242 (mostly X-Factor team investigating things and having team drama; none of it is relevant from a Steve or Tony perspective but yes I had to read all the issues to make sure lol), then blurb and notes for #241, which picks up on the thread left in #232 when Steve and other baddies were pulled into the 616 universe.

X-Factor Vol 3 #232 (2012)

Having apparently been murdered by the demonic Bloodbath, Madrox is ricocheting through alternate realities via the bodies of other recently slain Madrox-Primes.  Having left behind dimensions where Rahne has a grown, vicious daughter and Steve Rogers is the cyborg Deathlok, he's now landed in the middle of a climactic showdown between Doctor Strange and an alternate Dormammu.  While that's happening, Layla has faithfully sat vigil on his slain body, hoping for a miracle.

Madrox ends up in the same room as Dormammu, who realizes he's from a different universe

Madrox makes duplicates, one of which seems to have been the one native to this universe, and who takes the opportunity to defeat Doramammu

This universe's Madrox actually was killed and can't exist much longer, but he was this universe's Doctor Strange, so he opens a portal to help Madrox get back to his universe

Unfortunately, Madrox seems to be killed yet again before he can step through, although this actually works out for him because he does wind back up in his universe, where Layla's been waiting for him

X-Factor Vol 3 #231 (2012)

With the rest of the team believing that he was killed by the villainous Bloodbath, Madrox has actually been catapulting from one reality to the next for no reason he understands, each time incarnating into a new body via a recently deceased Madrox Prime.

The giant Iron Men get ready to kill Madrox but then realize he doesn't belong to this universe and take him to their boss, who turns out to be Tony Stark himself

Tony is kind of a dick to him and tells him his powers are neutralized thanks to the vibranium manacles Madrox is wearing

Tony is drinking; Madrox comments on it and wonders if Tony's misery is related to fallout from the Registration Act

Tony realizes he is indeed not from this universe and tells him Wanda destroyed their world: "No more humans"

Tony and some others were in space at the time, so that's why they weren't affected by her spell, but on Earth, barely ten percent of humanity remained intact (the rest became mutants or worse)

Tony tells Madrox he's been fighting for humanity for so long and is tired now, so he wants Madrox's help to get to a better universe

They are interrupted by Tryp (some mystical guy who seems to be friendly toward Madrox) and Deathlok, who is... mutated Steve D:

Tony suits up, and he and Steve fight

Steve straight up murders Tony's secretary (who ends up being an android, but yes he did not know that)

He also continues to beat Tony up, even though Tryp tries telling him that Tony can help Madrox

Steve: "I'd rather see a mutant die than be indebted to a human"

So sometimes you go on a posting blitz and then disappear for 1.5 years, as is normal. Well, I am here today to post some notes from reading X-Factor Vol 3, specifically the issues that involve Steve as Deathlok. The relevant issues are 231, 232, and 241, but this post covers 229 and 230 because I thought starting a bit earlier would give me more context. ...It didn't, not about Steve, anyway, but at least we got giant Iron Men. Anyway, these are just the comic blurbs + bullet point notes because I realized the best kind of notes are ones I'll actually take.

Finally making my Fall of X/Duggan-/MacKay-/Straczynski-era (2022-2024) summary post now that I've read everything that could conceivably relate to Steve or Tony for this event. To be quite clear, this is NOT a comprehensive Fall of X guide - outside of crossovers, I'm not an X-Men reader and there were a bunch of other titles for this event that I didn't read, and I've also been behind on comics in general which means I've lacked a lot of context. This guide is specifically for people who want to understand what Steve and Tony were up to during this time period (which may just be me, but hopefully will help other people too).

This guide contains the following (again, note that all of the below is from the perspective of someone reading this event for Steve and Tony):

A high-level summary of Fall of X, plus Avengers-, Steve-, and Tony-related events that happened around this time (link to section)

An issue-by-issue synopsis in rough chronological order (link to section)

An issue-by-issue synopsis for Steve and Tony specifically (this is a subset of the above bullet point) (link to section)

Steve-related trivia (link to section)

Tony-related trivia (link to section)

Unfortunately, I found out while trying to post this that it seems that Tumblr has length limitations now, and I don't want to split this into multiple posts, so you'll have to make do with this being hosted on Dreamwidth instead. Warning! It is super long!!

Cap #16: the last issue of this run, and our last two instances of "copy that". So: Steve, Peter, Thor, and Bill (the restore point) fight their way out of Dark Asgard and make it back to the real world. Ghostly Kelda comes through as well and is able to bring Broxton back and also stop being ghostly, so she and Bill get their happy ending. I have no idea how comics work, but I assume that the author learned that the Cap run would be ending soon and took the chance to wrap up some loose ends from his Thor run, since this definitely felt like a Thor story. (I am going to assume this is also why the last arc ended so abruptly.)

We do end with a nice Steve speech where he says that it's starting to feel like these United States again, and not the United States, but shared humanity doesn't stop at state lines. The world is just one great big neighborhood!

Aaand that's the end of JMS' Cap run. I will be putting together a massive Fall of X compilation post next because agonizing over ordering a bunch of issues written by different authors brings me joy, and then I'll read... well, who knows! I might also just disappear for a few years, since apparently I've done that before. We'll see!

Cap #15. The trio take the Bifrost over to Broxton. Steve says he always has a spoon with him. Peter always has his phone. "Copy that," they say to each other. Also, Peter's trying to play it cool in front of Steve. It isn't working.

They also have a conversation about the multiverse and how it may not actually exist, which is kind of weird because in the Marvel universe, it... definitely does? But okay. Anyway. They find out that an Asgardian named Kelda created the "restore point" but for reasons, they have to go to "Dark Asgard" to retrieve it. So they do, and they have to fight "Dark Asgardians" along the way (you can tell I have no idea what is going on, since I don't read Thor). Fortunately, they find the restore point... but it's a person! A guy named Bill, who is also Kelda's lover, to be exact.

Cap #14. Sparrows at the park, but also, Steve and Peter being anxious about calling each other to hang out? Peter's still embarrassed from when he wasted Steve's time in CA #2, and Steve inexplicably believes he has no real friends beyond the people at the Front Door Cabaret, who, as far as I can tell, he only ever really watched perform and rarely actually talked to. Like... Steve's neighbor checks in on him and Steve goes on a long ramble about how his relationships have felt very surface-level and he just talks to a feral cat about his problems and also bonding with superheroes just doesn't work because of issues with secret identities. What??????? This very run itself shows Steve and Sam hanging out in an earlier issue!! Steve and Sharon are dating! All the core Avengers know each other's identities - and we know this run acknowledges the existence of the Avengers because Steve is wearing an Avengers tracksuit for some reason!! Argh!!

Anyway, have some assorted panels that drop bits of canon that you are free to use or ignore.

Steve loves Rhapsody in Blue.

Steve likes everything bagels. This is something to ignore, because if you read New Avengers Vol 1 #3, you'll know that Steve actually loves sesame seed bagels the most, and Tony knows that too.

Steve did group therapy for a while. (Ignore the rest, where he implies he never felt like he was part of the Avengers, because that's just bizarre.)

Ahem. Back to the plot. Steve is lonely and feels like he has no friends for some reason, so he calls up Peter and asks for dinner. Peter, who had been thinking about calling up Steve, happily agrees. Then Thor comes!

So apparently in a previous Thor story (and it's probs not coincidental that the author of that story, JMS, is bringing it up here), Broxton, Oklahoma, was destroyed and Thor blames himself. But he followed a lead and now sees a chance to restore the town because there's a sort of "system restore point" (or like, a save point) that was made and if they can trigger it, they can bring Broxton back. So with that, they depart.

Cap #13. As the other change agents attempt to handle/avoid the people being possessed by Death (there is another "copy that" from Steve in one of their exchanges), Steve fights Death itself, now in human form! He has a chance because he's wearing rings that Lyra gave him (though this is never actually explained in any detail) and also because he figures Death is weaker because he's expending energy possessing people. Then Carlos tells him they made it through, so Steve can leave too - but Steve realizes that if he leaves, the people Death is possessing are probably going to all actually die, and he doesn't want that to happen. So he stays and fights, even though this means he will miss out on his chance at a real "home". This gives the other change agents enough time to actually make it to the Front Door, which Death then senses. He is upset and leaves, telling Steve that he'll see him again (when he dies in the vision that an earlier issue showed).

Steve goes back to the Front Door, but it's gone. He never hears from Lyra, Carlos, Becca, Malik, Julie, or the Guardian again (though the very last panel at least implies that Lyra is okay). He has no idea what happened to any of them. The vision Malik shared with Carlos? Didn't matter. The arc with Becca working with Death to betray them? Didn't matter. The implication that Malik was supposed to die in order to bring about something? Didn't matter. Like I said earlier, this was a weird arc. But we got Steve with a penguin out of it, so that's... something. Onward to the final arc of this run!

Cap #12. Steve talks about why sometimes you have to fight even when the odds are against you. "Sometimes you fight the battle because you think you can win. Other times - you fight the battle even thought you know you can't win. Because the job ends with making sure the other guys don't win either."

There's also some more annoying (to me, anyway) stuff from Lyra about how Steve doesn't have a home and has been looking for one, 'cause, you know, Tony, Sharon, Sam, Carol, Thor, Bucky, Fury, Logan, Natasha, etc. don't exist. And like... Bucky, Fury, and Logan are all from his original time, too. Keeping three friends for that long is a really great feat, Steve. What more do you want?? (Okay, I don't actually know what's up with Bucky or Fury at this moment in canon, but Steve did have an adventure with Wolverine recently.) Anyway, basically she's saying that he also needs to be there when the others arrive at the Front Door in order to be given this home he apparently doesn't have.

So. Steve and his gang of change agents (Carlos, Becca, Malik, Julie, and the Guardian) head toward NYC, but they encounter a hoard of people that Death is more or less possessing in order to block them from proceeding.

(Timeline note: the solicit for the next issue, #13, starts with "As the Krakoan era ends, mutants need allies more than ever"... so yeah, this is meant to be around Fall of X despite never being referenced in the comic itself ahaha.)

Cap #11. Steve calls up Sharon to vent a little about looking for change agents, because it's usually a pretty convoluted process to find them. Sharon roasts him bad. Steve calls her "sweetie". I am not up to date on the terms of endearment Steve uses so I can't tell if this is the usual for him or not, but it did stand out to me, lol.

They find a lead and follow it. Steve says "welp" and "copy that". Anyway, they find three people of interest: Julie, the Guardian, and Malik, the latter two of which are mutants. Malik tells Carlos his future and is implied to have an extremely meaningful death upcoming (Malik I mean, not Carlos). The party grows.

There's also a weirdly charged scene with Lyra where she says that she's offering him a home, which apparently he feels he has lacked for some time. I am obviously biased and think the quote "You gave me a home" that he says to Tony is one of the greatest things ever, but even ignoring that, what the heck? Steve has a full life in the present by this point. But whatever, it's inconsequential so we'll set it aside. The point is that if he does the needful, she says that he can become the guardian of the Front Door, and that will be his home.

Cap #10. Steve and Carlos go to London to find the next change agent. He thinks about a lot of London quotes from assorted people: Samuel Johnson, Paul Theroux, Oscar Wilde. He also gets defensive over his sense of humor.

Also I guess he solves a grammar puzzle? Who knows what to call it. Anyway, they do find the second change agent, a mutant named Becca, and recruit her (though another fight happens and she uses her mutant power to kill the baddies, which Steve is unhappy about). All is not well, though: Becca has apparently made some sort of deal with Death, and things are going swimmingly for her now that she has Cap's trust. Oh no!

(Also yes, this is a very short summary. This arc is really weird and ends underwhelmingly so there isn't much point in going into detail lol. You will see.)

Cap #9, or: the penguin comic. Steve is in Chile looking for one of the change agents, who is a mutant. (Also, everyone at the Front Door Cabaret does explicitly seem to be a mutant, which is awkward given the current events with Fall of X, which, again, this run makes no effort to acknowledge. My best attempt to reconcile this with canon is that because the Front Door is a magical place, it was shielded from Orchis and Xavier's summons to go through the Krakoan gates.) Anyway, along the way, he runs into a penguin in the desert. Because he is a good boy, he does not let the penguin die out there, and so he puts it in his bag. Also, based on its size and location, this is likely a king penguin, which is obviously not a usual visitor to the Atacama Desert, but has at least been (rarely) spotted around Santiago, so... it's something. (This will be explained soon.)

EVIL PENGUIN. Ahem. So Steve finds the change agent, a mutant named Carlos, but even though the place is deserted, they still get attacked by soldiers. They get away, but Steve realizes it's because Death is out in the real world and possessed the penguin (and presumably made it waddle to the desert) so that it could spy on him. Steve makes Death let go of the penguin. The freed penguin then leaps into the water and lives happily ever after. There is a shark fin, but it is totally coincidental!! Let the penguin be happy!!

Cap #8. Steve is a Star Wars fan! Though he also mentions having seen "an awful [movie] with Brad Pitt that [he] can never remember because we forget that which brings us pain". Lol. I think this is Meet Joe Black, but I haven't seen it myself, so who knows.

Plot-wise, Steve and Lyra face down Lyra's brother, aka Death. Death wants to destroy the change agents so that he can bring about the end of the human race. Death also shows Steve a vision of his dying moment, which involves him being old and holding his crystal shield, so he's presumably in the Pale City. (Spoiler alert: Steve doesn't actually die in this run, so this future vision is not actually going to happen, though as I mentioned it did also get shown in Cap #3.) Death also tricks him into lowering his guard and injures his arm before bouncing. Lyra and Steve then head back to the Front Door, where she heals his arm and tells him she'll point him toward the other change agents so that they can be found and protected. Also, it's implied that Steve makes more visits to see the Front Door Cabaret, 'cause he likes it.

Cap #7. We enter the second arc of JMS' run, which is... weird. But first, enjoy Sam and Steve hanging out in Steve's apartment and watching a movie! Steve has a flag framed on his wall! Sam has a shirt with an Avengers logo on it! They talk about CGI and stuff, but then Sam has to go. He later tells Steve that a cat got into his apartment and had kittens.

There's also this panel, which seems to retcon Steve's birthday into being September 28, 1922. I swear it used to be July 4th. And a different year. But whatever I guess.

Plot-wise, the short of it is that the embodiment of life, Lyra, approaches Steve once he's finally finished renovating his old childhood building to his satisfaction. She asks him to come to a place called the Front Door, which seems to be like, kind of a magical cabaret that mostly has a bunch of mutants in it. They perform, and Steve is moved. Then Lyra appears and takes him to what seems to be another realm connected to the Front Door called the Pale City, where his shield looks like crystal because it absorbed stuff when Asmoday died. She asks him for help finding the other "change agents" and bringing them to the Front Door so that they can be protected.

Cap #6. Steve and the Emissary/Asmoday fight. Steve is losing the battle, until the Stephen doll head comes in clutch with the Eye of Agamotto, which he uses to take Asmoday out. A little awkward symbolically, but hey, it gets the job done. That ends the active threat to present-day Steve, though there's a little coda about how one of the buildings near the one he recently bought is covered with Nazi graffiti. He paints over it and thinks: "We didn't end the war with Germany because we decided to stop fighting Nazis. We stopped because we ran out of Nazis to fight. They ditched their uniforms and ran from the field of battle. So if anyone else ever wants to put those uniforms on again, and step back onto the battlefield, well - I'll be waiting for them."

In February 1939, they find the bomb in a locked vehicle, but then the timer goes off. There isn't enough time to break in, but Steve is small enough to crawl through the windshield, so he does and manages to drive it into the river - fully expecting to die once he does. 😭 (Also, he knows how to drive, it seems.) Anyway, obviously he actually finds the will to escape and does so before the bomb blows up in his face.

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he's in the clear. He wakes up in the hospital and is told that he's been unconscious for three days and that between his existing ailments, the cold, and the toxicity of the river, he doesn't have a lot of time left - and he's only like, 16 right now. Asmoday, meanwhile, is watching contentedly, happy to just let him die in misery instead of sending an assassin after him. Obviously, with Project Rebirth on the horizon, he'll end up regretting that big time. The end (of this arc)!