Following the web-publication of Alternate Iron #300, I received multiple emails requesting a list of my sources. In other words, people seemed to want blurbs indicating which issues specific parts of continuity took place in, just like those shown in the mainstream comic books. In answer to these requests, here are all the issues of Iron Man which were used in designing the story for Alt-I #300.

The universe of Alternate Iron diverges from mainstream Marvel continuity immediately following Iron Man #299. Thus, that issue and Iron Man #300 (which Alt-I #300 replaces) are references for this entire story.

#1) Tony Stark's health began eroding as a result of the machinations of Kearson DeWitt and the Marrs Corporation in Armor Wars II (Iron Man #258 - #266).

#2) Tony Stark placed himself into cryogenic suspension in Iron Man #284.

#3) Tony Stark returned from his cryogenic sleep in Iron Man #288. Rhodey learned that Tony was still alive at the end of Iron Man #289, and promptly quit his position at Stark Enterprises. He has been harboring a grudge against Tony Stark since then.

#4) Rhodey's first encounter with Tony Stark was told as a flashback in the second story from Iron Man #144.

#5) The "proto-classic" red and gold armor debuted in Tales of Suspense #48 for use against Mister Doll.

#6) The Iron Man helmet which had a nose debuted in Iron Man #68 and was used until the armor was redesigned in Iron Man #85.

#7) Obediah Stane's plotting against Tony Stark began in Iron Man #162 and resulted in Tony's relapse into alcoholism in Iron Man #167. The Rook, an agent of Stane, used acid to melt the most powerful Iron Man armor of the day in Iron Man #165.

#8) Rhodey first donned Iron Man armor at the end of Iron Man #169.

#9) Rhodey used a fusion pod to destroy all Iron Man armors except his own in Iron Man #175.

#10) Rhodey fought the Flying Tiger in Iron Man #177. He tangled with the Brothers Grimm in Iron Man #188 and with Vibro in Iron Man #186 - #187.

#11) The Stark Space Station was damaged by A.I.M. in Iron Man #215. At the end of that issue, Rhodey's armor got set on fire from the heat of re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

#12) Tony Stark rebuilt the armor which Rhodey had worn by Iron Man #220, where Tony used it to battle Spymaster and the Ghost.

#13) Stark International was bought out by Obediah Stane in Iron Man #173.

#14) The Silver Centurion armor was first used in Iron Man #200 to combat Obediah Stane, who was garbed in the armor of the Iron Monger.

#15) The Silver Centurion armor was badly beaten by Firepower in Iron Man #230, and then destroyed by a nuke (called the "Terminax") in the same issue.

#16) The armors worn by the Iron Legion in this issue debuted in Iron Man #231, first used in a rematch with Firepower.

#17) The first space armor was used from Iron Man #142 - #144 in a battle with Sunturion. The original stealth armor was seen in Iron Man #152, without any weaponry. An upgraded version was used in Iron Man #229, which possessed limited repulsor potential. The undersea armor was used only in Iron Man #218. The second space armor was used in "Operation: Galactic Storm", which ran through many Marvel titles. In Iron Man, it was used for issues #278 - #279. The original War Machine armor was a specialized suit worn by Tony Stark in Iron Man #281 - #282, in battle with the so-called Masters of Silence. The NTU-150 was used by Tony Stark after his return from cryogenic storage. It was first used in Iron Man #290 and continued to be used all the way up through Iron Man #299.

#18) Arctic armor made a brief cameo appearance in Iron Man #318. Though not part of Alt-I continuity, this issue did inspire the appearance of this armor in Alt-I #300. Neither Inferno Armor nor Plastic Armor ever made it into the main title.

#1) Happy Hogan (along with Pepper Potts) first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45. He actually substituted for Iron Man on several occasions, the first of which was in Tales of Suspense #84, where he did so to protect Tony's dual identity (and was kidnapped by the Mandarin via teleportation beam).

#2) Eddie March first appeared in Iron Man #21, where he was hired to be the new Iron Man.

#3) Kevin O'Brien died in Iron Man #46, prompting Mike O'Brien to later hunt down Tony Stark. Mike first donned the armor of the Guardsman (designed for Kevin) in Iron Man #96 (ironically, this is also the last appearance of Ultimo before Iron Man #298... which leads into Alt-I #300). By Iron Man #98, Mike was convinced of Tony's innocence, and donned the Iron Man armor to aid Tony (who was wearing the Guardsman armor... it's complicated) to fight Sunfire. At the end of this issues, Mike was kidnapped by the Mandarin, via teleportation beam. Sound familiar?

#4) Clay Wilson, as Force, first fought Iron Man in Iron Man #140 - #141. Later, in Iron Man #223 - #224, he retired the Force persona. He first wore the Iron Man stealth armor in Iron Man #244.

#5) Bethany Cabe first appeared in Iron Man #117. She was revealed to be married to Alexander Van Tilburg in Iron Man #152 - #153.

#1) The "Time is running out" quote is from Tales of Suspense #39.

#2) "Beth, please. Help me." is from Iron Man #128.

#3) "That doesn't mean Iron Man has to sit around on his thumbs" is from Iron Man #225.

#4) "Kath -- oh, god." was Tony's reply to being shot by Kathy Dare in Iron Man #242.

#5) The "To the world at large" quote is from Iron Man #231.

#6) "You can't blame me for this! It was the monster!" was from Iron Man #232.

#7) The monster inside Tony Stark's head was first seen in Iron Man #232 during a nightmare. In that instance, it represented Tony's guilt over his victims, those harmed by villains using stolen Stark technology.

#8) Janice Cord was killed in Iron Man #22.

#9) Marianne Rogers fell over the edge of insanity in Iron Man #107, following a psychic attach directed at Tony Stark (which felled Midas instead).

#10) The Carnelian ambassador was slain by a repulsor blast in Iron Man #124. Although Tony Stark was wearing the Iron Man armor at that time, it was being externally controlled by Justin Hammer.

#11) Morley Erwin was slain by a bomb (planted by Obediah Stane) at the end of Iron Man #199.

#12) Clytemnestra Erwin betrayed Tony to A.I.M. out of revenge for her brother's death (which she blamed Tony for). She died at the end of Iron Man #216 in an attempt to kill Tony.

#13) As far as Tony Stark knows, Whitney Frost (a.k.a. Madame Masque) died in Iron Man #238. She was shot, and then dumped in the East River, where she was discovered in Iron Man #245. The mysterious details of her death are still unknown. However, in the Alternate Iron continuity, they are not the same as what has been revealed in recent Avengers issues.

#14) Tony Stark invented weapons which were used in Vietnam. Hence the large number of Vietnamese "victims" seen on the television screens.

#15) Tony had initially helped to reprogram his artificial nervous system in Iron Man #288.

#16) After being shot by Kathy Dare in Iron Man #242, Tony had been a paraplegic until the installation of a biochip in Iron Man #248. Ironically, the biochip had been sabotaged by Kearson DeWitt and the Marrs Corporation, leading the Armor Wars II.

#1) The six second force field was installed in the Silver Centurion armor and first used to block a repulsor blast from the Iron Monger in Iron Man #200.

#2) Pulse bolts were also first seen in Iron Man #200. Unlike the force field, the pulse bolts were also installed on the post-Armor Wars red-and-gold armor.

#3) The armor from issue #231 was the first to employ the energy shield, which was taken from the Raiders. The Raiders first employed an energy shield in Iron Man #145 and again in Iron Man #226.

#1) H.O.M.E.R. was first seen in Iron Man #298. Conversation in that issue indicates that he was created somewhat earlier, however.

#2) The beta power particle generator was developed by Accutech, and first shown in Iron Man #219 - #222. In Iron Man #231, it was incorporated into the Iron Man armor, making the hip storage pods obsolete. For a detailed description of how the beta particle power generator works, please see Advanced Iron #35, where an article to this effect was written by budding particle physicist, Matthew Malek (the "beta particles" referred to are actually "neutrinos", which are the topic of my doctoral thesis).

#3) Ronan the Accuser and his Ultimate Weapon fought Iron Man (who was wearing the second space armor) in Iron Man #279. This was during Operation: Galactic Storm. No squid ink was seen in this encounter.

#4) A Nobel prize was recently awarded for the discovery that plastic could be made to conduct electricity.

#5) Compressed gas propulsion was used by the third space armor in the Iron Man: Bad Blood mini-series. Although this is not part of the Alt-I continuity, such propulsion will be used in future stories.

#6) The electromagnetic pulse was adopted in Iron Man #231 based on designs used in the Force armor worn by Clay Wilson.

#7) In Iron Man #298, Tony almost got out of his hoverchair and walked on his own.

#8) In Iron Man #258, Tony used encephalo-circuits to control a second suit of #231 Iron Man armor. Unlike the NTU-150, which was operated by instantaneous subspace transmission, the encephalo-circuits used simple radio waves for remote control.

#1) Pepper Potts, like Happy Hogan, first appeared in Tales of Suspense #45. The love triangle with her, Happy, and Tony Stark went on for a really long time. Really long.

#2) Read Advanced Iron #37 for more information about the thermocouple. (See the Accutech article)

#3) Clay Wilson was "killed" in Iron Man #224, and Carl Walker began his job at Barstow Electronics at the end of the same issue.

#4) The first, and only, appearance of Happy & Pepper's adopted children was in Iron Man #210. In the same issue, we see the saga of Jake Jordan (a.k.a. Spymaster) unfold.

#5) Iron Man #297 was the first appearance of Happy Hogan after Iron Man #210. In #297, Happy tells Tony that he lost his job as a result of the recession.

#6) In Iron Man #4 (volume 3), Happy Hogan tells Tony about losing their adopted children. Although this is not a part of Alternate Iron continuity, it inspired part of this chapter.

#7) Timothy Anders was born to Greytl Anders in Iron Man #182. She died while giving birth. Timothy's first action was to save Tony Stark's life. If you haven't read the issue, do yourself a favour and track it down. It's good. Very good. Later, in Iron Man #199, Obediah Stane kidnapped Timothy, and attempted to use him as a hostage in Iron Man #200. This was the last time Timothy was seen before now (in either continuity). Our last view of him was when Iron Man gave him to the authorities after rescuing him from Stane.

#1) We first learned that light could be stopped, and then re-started again in the year 2000. This is real physics, not any part of the Marvel Universe.

#2) All of Ultimo's innards appear here for the first time. They were created jointly by Pam Williams and Matthew Malek.

#1) In Iron Man #282, we learned about the additional polycarbon coating on the War Machine armor. In Iron Man #285, we saw that this coating resulted in a much heavier armor than that which Tony Stark used to carry in a briefcase (estimated weight is 200 to 300 pounds). In Iron Man #288, we saw that the added weight makes the War Machine armor unable to maintain basic mobility during an EMP attack.

#2) In the Iron Man: Bad Blood mini-series (issue #3), we see that Tony's resident A.I., Jocasta, received downloads of biological data from the person in the Iron Man armor. While not part of Alternate Iron continuity, this inspired the downloads to H.O.M.E.R.'s mainframe seen here.

#3) We saw Iron Man use a cyber-probe in Iron Man #231 in order to disarm the Terminax missile used by Firepower.

#1) Bethany Cabe first left Tony Stark in Iron Man #153 when she learned that her husband was still alive. She then left Tony a second time in Iron Man #205 in order to return to Germany and find her husband once again.

#2) Eddie March's medical problems ended his career as a boxer in Iron Man #21.

#1) Marcy Pearson was initially hired to be the public relations manager from Stark Enterprises. Later, she was fired by James Rhodes when she tried to usurp the position of CEO from him. In retaliation, she worked with Morgan Stark to place "evidence" that Rhodey was responsible for the death of Tony Stark. She was found out, and is now working for others to help bring about the fall of Stark Enterprises.