It’s been a long time since we had a really good Iron Man book, so Extremis is a very welcome change. It’s intent was to reboot Iron Man, much like Thor and Captain America also underwent major changes in 2005.
Much has been written about it and I can’t imagine readers of this blog are wholly unfamiliar so I’ll just summarize the main story beats.
In a flashback to before 9/11, Tony Stark returns to his roots as a contributor to the military industrial complex, selling weapons to the U.S. for use against Al Qaeda. He is hurt by one of his own bombs, shrapnel goes into his heart, he’s captures by the terrorists, and creates a suit of armor for Ho Yinsen–the terrorist leader. Only is this origin reboot, Yinsen dies.
We then flash forward to the present where a new, military grade virus is created that takes over every cell in the human body, drives a person mad, and gives powers to the infected. The virus gets transmitted, Iron Man fights the infected individual, and loses.
He realizes the only way to win is to be infected himself. Using a sample, Stark manipulates the virus so that it becomes part of his armor–meaning his armor is now made of nanobytes that can fuse with the cells in his body. They also give him new abilities–like connecting to space satellites….
Along the way, we meet Maya Hansen, who is one of the smartest people on the planet–a much better match for Iron Man than Pepper Potts. It’s always a “decision” for me whether to tag non-powered, non-costumed supporting characters. I’m doing it for Maya, even though I didn’t for Pepper. I don’t want my character tags muddied up with non-supers, but she plays a pretty major role on the Iron Man side of things–not just the Tony side. So I think of her as distinct from Mary Jane, Pepper, etc.
His new armor enables him to literally blow the head off of the infected “villain.”
And that’s the new Iron Man!
The original character was envisioned in the context of espionage and action. This one still has that military/political connection, but leans much heavier on science fiction. I also really like how it’s a standalone story. Warren Ellis reboots one of Marvel’s most important characters without reference to the greater 616 chronology. I suspect it is because of the origin retcon–maybe it wasn’t intended to be canon at first. But it is canonical, without a doubt.
Sadly, this is the sole Iron Man story that Warren Ellis writes.
As I said, a very welcome change and one of the best Iron Man stories of all time.
English (US) · 