Marvel: I am Iron Man

New Mexico, an object falling from the sky...

Tony got it. The Meowth Hammer, right?

All encounters with extraterrestrials and UFOs are categorized into three types based on the degree of interaction.

The most common type is the observation of unidentified flying objects by humans, which is called a Type I event.

Extraterrestrial objects leave verifiable physical evidence in the environment, but there is no direct contact between extraterrestrial life forms and humans; this is called a second kind of contact.

The highest level of contact, where human groups directly observe extraterrestrials or even interact directly with extraterrestrial life forms, is called the third kind of contact.

In the early part of the Thor movie, when Mjolnir crashes to Earth, it's a typical second-kind encounter. However, later in the movie, Thor wields Mjolnir and directly communicates with and even makes close contact with humans, which escalates to a third-kind encounter.

Tony quickly went through the plot of Thor 1 in his mind. Although it was a long time ago, he at least remembered the general outline.

The story opens with a blond, blue-eyed, muscular Asgardian man wielding a giant hammer and yelling—a typical Asgardian street thug. Odin, seeing this, thought his son was unfit for greatness and needed more training, so he kicked the brat to Earth.

So Thor, along with his hammer, was banished to Earth, landing face-first and almost getting blown away by a car. Thus began his journey of drinking, picking up girls, and finding his hammer on Earth.

However, it was later discovered that the demotion of Hammer was actually orchestrated by Loki, Hammer's brother, from the very beginning.

Loki discovered he was the adopted son of his enemy, and after a string of persuasive words, he convinced his father Odin to give up, causing Odin to enter a dormant state. Not content with just kicking his brother down to Earth, Loki then sent an Asgardian armored warrior called the Destroyer to kill him and silence him.

Unexpectedly, while his brother's intelligence was lacking, his stats were insane, and he even had a resurrection item. Loki's schemes and calculations ultimately couldn't defeat his brother's overpowered resurrection and explosive stats, and Loki shattered his plot and his imperial dreams with a single blow.

Loki fell off the Rainbow Bridge and began a bizarre adventure as a street urchin in the vast universe. Thor also began a journey of mutual torment with Loki, a relationship of "my brother abuses me a thousand times, but I treat him like my first love."

"...You mean, a hammer fell from the sky?"

After listening to Coulson's brief explanation, Tony asked again.

Coulson nodded: "That's right."

"And you're saying no one can lift that thing?" Tony asked.

Coulson: "That's right."

"Okay, so it sounds like you're looking for King Arthur. And I'm just a businessman." Tony leaned back on the sofa. "What do you want with me?"

“You’re too modest, Mr. Stark. Before becoming a businessman, you were one of the world’s leading physicists,” Coulson said. “Frankly, we don’t often encounter this kind of situation. We consulted experts from all sorts of fields—astronomy, physics, materials science, engineering…”

"Wow, that sounds like this is really making you guys nervous," Tony said.

Coulson didn't deny it: "S.H.I.E.L.D. is nervous. Because... well, these were supposed to be classified, but the director said it wouldn't matter if it were you... since it might involve aliens after all."

He lowered his voice even further, and his expression became very tense.

"We need all the help we can."

Tony tapped his knuckles on the table, as if deep in thought.

Thor's hammer crashed in New Mexico. Tony certainly remembered this crucial plot point; in fact, he had been waiting for it to happen, and even if S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't invited him, he had already planned to go and see it.

This is quite important.

To succeed in the Marvel universe, advanced technology and powerful firepower aren't enough; you also need to know some magic, or at least have magical countermeasures.

After all, the Marvel universe is full of powerful figures in the magical realm. Moreover, magical methods are often more unpredictable and unpredictable, with endless tricks and schemes that are difficult to defend against.

Fortunately, there is no absolute boundary between technology and magic in the Marvel universe.

Thor himself mentioned this in Thor 1, telling Jane Foster, "Where we live, technology and magic are one and the same." For Asgard, magic is simply another technological system they have established, different from that of humans.

Various animations and comics, including Iron Man, have demonstrated that magic is merely a form of science that cannot be fully explained at present. In the comics, Iron Man's armor successfully replicated and reproduced Doctor Strange's magical beams, and Tony Stark even created a magical armor.

Even in the animated series "Avengers: The World's Strongest Heroes," Thor actively cooperated with Tony, allowing Tony to use his hammer as a sample to study magic using scientific power.

Tony, the master of cutting-edge technology, lived up to expectations, obtaining a wealth of data from Thor's hammer. He even used this data to develop a magical artifact called the "Magic Eliminator" in the animated series.

As its name suggests, this artifact can block all kinds of magic within a certain range once activated. And it was actually tested in the animation, proving its effectiveness, even against high-ranking Asgardian mages like the Enchantress Amora.

The animated Iron Man once again demonstrated with its achievements what it means to be "a masterpiece made by Stark".

In terms of actual performance, the "magic eraser" developed by Iron Man is very similar to the magic effect that can block everything that appeared in the TV series "WandaVision".

Based on his understanding of Marvel magic from comics and online resources from his past life, Tony could vaguely guess the working principle of the eliminator.

Viewers familiar with the original Marvel comics know that the magic system in Marvel is a bit of a pain. Most sorcerers, including Doctor Strange, don't use their own magic; they "borrow" it.

Mages typically borrow magic from higher-ranking gods, demons, or other higher-dimensional beings. For example, the Kamar-Taj branch mainly borrows from the Vishanti, Asgardian mages borrow from the Tree of Life of the Nine Realms, and dark magicians prefer to borrow from demons like Dormammu and Sithon...

Simply put, these otherworldly demons are like financial institutions and lending companies, and the mages of various factions are like loan clients. At first glance, this setting seems absurd, yet beneath the absurdity lies a strange sense of realism.

Therefore, Tony speculates that Iron Man's "magic eraser" in the animation is likely a "signal shielding device" for magical energy.

If we compare the loan shark to a router, then the mages are like mobile phones receiving Wi-Fi signals. And the ingenious Tony Stark has developed a device that can block Wi-Fi signals, forcibly disconnecting the mages from the internet.

Just as a phone without a signal becomes a glowing brick, a mage without a loan will become a Muggle on the spot.

Of course, in the cartoons, Tony only tested this trick on the Asgardian mage Amora. So even if he successfully created a magic eraser, Tony wasn't sure what level of mage it would work on.

You won't know until you try.

So Tony had already planned to go to New Mexico. Now that S.H.I.E.L.D. had extended an invitation, it saved him a lot of trouble. This way, he wouldn't have to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s camp or spy on them remotely with his stealth armor.

Tony had already made up his mind, but still said in a tone befitting Stark's image, "Helping is fine, but my fees aren't cheap."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is willing to pay consulting fees," said the honest Coulson.

"No, I've been thinking about it, and I don't think you can afford it," Tony said. "Besides, I'm not short of money myself."

Coulson said, "Okay. So what do you want? Anything we can do..."

"Alright, how about this then? Consider it Nick Fury owing me a favor." Tony tilted his head and thought for a moment. "Maybe one day I'll need S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help, maybe I won't. But until that day comes, I hope S.H.I.E.L.D. considers this our friendship. What do you think?"

Coulson put on his serious expression again, as if he had seriously considered the proposal.

Then he nodded, stood up, and extended his hand to Tony.

"Okay. On behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., I thank you for your help, Mr. Stark."