9) Iron Man And War Machine Eliminate Whiplash, Justin Hammer Gets Arrested – Iron Man 2
Industrialist (and not-so secret Tony Stark admirer/frenemy) Justin Hammer thought he had it made in the shade: he retrofitted an early version of the Iron Man armor to create War Machine, and he had drones designed by Ivan Vanko that despite being only functional to “make salute,” still looked pretty. But as the man once said, “It’s a trap!”
After blowing up the Stark Expo but good, Iron Man leads the suit-jacked War Machine and all of Vanko’s apparently functional drones on a merry chase across Queens that ends in the biodome back at the fair. With the assistance of a rebooted War Machine (thanks to the intervention of Black Widow), Iron Man takes out the last of the drones. Of course, that’s when Vanko, in a brand new Whiplash suit, reveals himself.
Whiplash’s powerful new suit, complete with brand new electro-whips, is more than a match for both Iron Man and War Machine and requires somewhat radical measures. In a copy of their maneuver at Stark’s birthday party, Iron Man and War Machine fire their repulsor beams at each other, causing a massive explosion with Whiplash at the center. Vanko has one more move of his own though: a self-destruct option in his armor.
Unfortunately for Whiplash, both heroes are too quick and manage to escape his final revenge. Not so lucky is Justin Hammer, who after losing control of all his machines is picked up by the NYPD thanks to Pepper Potts. Hammer makes some vague threats about being a problem for Pepper in the future, but, as of yet, he hasn’t been able to follow-up on his histrionics.
10) Mjolnir (Thor’s Hammer) Is Found By S.H.I.E.L.D. – Iron Man 2
Dir. Fury said he had bigger fish to fry in the southwest region, and he wasn’t kidding. Not far from where an electrical disturbance brought Thor to Earth near a small New Mexico town, one of the locals find what is assumed to be a “downed satellite.” The hammer-shaped object is actually Mjolnir, an enchanted hammer of ancient power, and Thor’s superhero sidearm.
Landing with a thud in a big crater, the man who finds it gets out of his truck, heads down to the crater and tries to lift the object. He fails, of course. Maybe he should have read the inscription on the side of the head: “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”
The discovery of Mjolnir attracts a lot of local interest, and many of the townspeople come out to the crater to yank on the hammer and see if they can pick it up, or even move it. The attempts become more and more elaborate, including one attempt by an old-timer (played by Thor co-creator Stan Lee) to run a chain on the hammer and pull it out with his truck. Brute force doesn’t work, but before the townsfolk think of something new to try, a contingent of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Phil Coulson arrive on the scene and shutdown the sideshow. S.H.I.E.L.D. builds a bunker over Mjolnir and locks down the area. Presumably their toughest guys tried to pull the hammer from the rock, but what they don’t know is that its previous possessor is very close by…
11) Loki Discovers That He’s Not A Real Son Of Odin – Thor
During Thor’s ill-advised incursion into Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants, Loki was touched on his bare skin by one of the giants. Under normal circumstances, this would have meant that Loki should have suffered some kind of severe freezer burn, but the spot where the Frost Giant touched his arm quickly healed. That could mean one of two things: either Loki was Wolverine, or he wasn’t exactly the full-blooded Asgardian that he had been raised to think he was.
Loki, always being the suspicious type, decides to test a theory by venturing into Asgard’s vault to see if he can handle the Casket, the Frost Giants’ powerful weapon. It turns out, he can. Next, he decides to confront his father Odin. “Am I cursed?” he asks. No, Odin says, and he tells Loki his origin story.
During Asgard’s war against the Frost Giants, Odin entered the temple in Jotunheim and found a solitary baby there amongst the dead Frost Giants. It was a great deal smaller than a normal Frost Giant baby and Odin took the baby back to Asgard and adopted him as his own. Loki refuses to believe that Odin saved him out of the goodness of his heart, so Odin reveals that it was his hope that one day Loki mighty unite Asgard and Jotunheim in a bright, shiny future, a future that may not matter after Thor’s rash actions.
Loki’s unsatisfied with Odin’s explanation and he lays into the king. The stress forces Odin into the Odinsleep and with Thor exiled, it effectively makes Loki the acting king of Asgard.
12) Thor Finds A Tether To Earth, And A Reason To Care For It – Thor
Having offended his father, Odin, with his arrogant and aggressive approach to the Frost Giants, Thor is stripped of his god-like powers and exiled to Earth as a mortal. The travel between two worlds is achieved with the bifrost – a wormhole of sorts – that deposits the mortal
Thor ends up in New Mexico, where he is discovered by Dr. Jane Foster, her assistant Darcy Lewis and mentor Dr. Erik Selvig.
Jane is an astrophysicist and is fascinated to hear Thor’s explanation – not only of the worlds that lie beyond her own (the nine realms), but also of the tether that exists between them, and the passage for travel that it provides. As Jane works to help Thor recover his hammer, and Thor works to recover his worthiness, a tether of a more romantic kind begins to form between the two of them.
Back on Asgard, Thor’s adoptive brother, Loki, has taken the throne in the absence of his sibling, and is attempting to put down an insurrection staged by Thor’s friends and colleagues. He sends an automaton Destructor to Earth to kill Thor and thus secure his own assumed power. With Jane and the people of Earth now under threat, Thor offers himself in sacrifice to save everyone else. In doing so, he redeems himself to the point of once again being worthy of the ‘power of Thor,’ and uses it to defeat the automaton. As he calls for the bifrost to be opened so that he can return to Asgard and confront Loki, Thor makes his promise to Jane, stating, “I give you my word – I will return. For you.”