"I can understand liking Spider-Man. I like Spider-Man." Phil admitted as he pulled open the door to the comic shop, held it open for his friend David and followed in after him. "Peter Parker is a great character. He's a young, nerdy college guy trying to juggle school work, family, friends, a job and the daunting responsibilities of fighting crime all over New York and upholding a secret identity to protect himself and the people he cares about. That's intense. But Superman? Get out of my face, He's an alien orphan who has pretty much every superpower you can think of. The only thing he really has to worry about is staying away from Kryptonite and remembering when to put his stupid glasses on. Yeah, he does a great job of protecting Metropolis and saving the world, but I would too if I had that kind of resume. He's just not cool to me."

Phil reached down and picked up the new issue of Daredevil, then turned back to David who just kept looking at him, straight-faced.

"Surely you aren't serious." David said.

"I'm always serious." Phil started. "…And don't--"

"Shut up." David laughed, picking up Justice League #1. "Superman is an American icon, he's pretty much the poster boy for superheroes and for comics in general. Comics wouldn't be anywhere near what they are today without his influence."

"Whatever, Dude. " Phil replied. "American icon? I'll take Cap over Superman any day. Guys like Stan Lee or Jack Kirby have had enough influence on comics that they'd be just fine, if not better, without ridiculous heroes like Superman."

"Come talk to me about ridiculous heroes when you stop liking Rocket Raccoon." David joked as he flipped through the pages of the comic he was holding.

"Shut up." Phil said with a chuckle as he searched for more comics he might like to buy.

David closed the Justice League book and started looking for some other comics.

"How's the new Daredevil series looking?" David asked, calling back to Phil who was still looking around himself.

"It's good so far." Phil answered. "Mark Waid's got a nice style, he's doing some interesting things with Daredevil. I'm still getting used to it.

"Cool, What do you think of Rivera's art?" David asked, picking up Fear Itself #6 and adding it to his growing stack of comics.

"I'm likin' it, He's kinda changing things up, giving a new perspective of how Matt views of the world, it's neat. I loved Brubaker and Lark's run so much, they had a much darker, grittier noir style. Brubaker and Andy Diggle  beat Matt down pretty bad, but Waid's letting him breathe, letting him live a little. It's different but it's good."

"Good stuff. How do you think the new 'Schism' story will pan out?" David said, checking out the artwork to the new X-men series. When Phil didn't answer he asked a different question. "You think Cyclops will die like they've been rumoring?"

Phil didn't answer again. David looked up from the x-men comic and back to where Phil was standing. Phil was holding a comic book open, but he was staring off into space.

"Phil." David said, trying to get his attention. No luck. "Phil!"

Phil didn't respond to David. Then, David turned around to see what Phil might be staring at. He saw a cute girl. Short red hair, glasses, indigo lantern t-shirt and jeans. She was flipping through a back issue of 'The Immortal Iron Fist.' David chuckled and smiled back at Phil before shaking his head.

"Phil!" David tried again. "Phil!"

The evening was cold and dark. She was walking down the sidewalk, reading through her issue of Iron Fist. Making her way home, she took a turn down an alley. The alley turned out to be a dead end. Distracted by her comic, she had inadvertently taken a wrong turn. When she turned around she was surrounded by 5 masked men in green suits, all of which had the HYDRA symbol decorating their chest.

"Wha-What do you want?" She stammered in fear.

"Give us the book…" One of the masked agents demanded. "…Or else."

"M-My comic?" She asked.

"Now!" Another demanded. They started encroaching and drawing nearer and nearer to her, she slowly back away until her back hit the brick wall behind her.

"Hey!" Yelled a voice from nowhere. "Leave her alone!"

The agents twisted around to see who would dare try and stop them. There, at the mouth of the alley, stood a tall figure in a green suit that appeared to be about 2 sizes too small for him, with yellow gloves, sash belt and boots and a yellow mask with black around the eyes covering the top half of his face. A chubbier version of the yellow symbol of Shou-Lao the Undying adorned his chest. He stood with arms akimbo, looking as valiant as possible.

"What? How dare you!?" One of the HYDRA agents shouted. "Who do you think you are!?"

The man walked towards the masked HYDRA agents, stretching his arms, popping his knuckles and his neck side to side.

"I'm the immortal weapon of Kun'Lun." He told them before stopping a few feet away. "I'm the immortal Iron Phil."

"Get'im!" An agent shouted. The others quickly pounced on the man who called himself Iron Phil.

They were many but Iron Phil was strong. It wasn't their fault, they didn't know who they were up against. Iron Phil was as graceful as a crane in the way he dodged all of their attacks, smart as a fox in the way he skillfully countered and strong as a dragon in the way he powerfully defeated them all. They never stood a chance.

After they were defeated, Iron Phil stood between them and the frightened girl. The thwarted HYDRA agents swiftly turned and ran away.

"Oh, Iron Phil!" The girl said as she embraced her hero. "Thank you so much!"

She looked up at him with starry eyes and then puckered her lips to kiss him.

"PHIL!" David yelled as he smacked Phil on the arm.

"Who-What?" Phil asked, disoriented but still pretending to be paying attention to David.

"She left." David told him.

"Who?" Phil asked trying to play it off, pretending he didn't know who David was talking about.

"That Mary-Jane Watson you were droolin' over." David laughed.

"Shut up." Phil chuckled with a stupid grin on his face. "Let's get these books and get out of there."