Iron Man: Extremis

Collects Iron Man 1- 6 written by Warren Ellis with artwork by Adi Granov

According to British writer Warren Ellis his job at Marvel consists of being the mad scientist in the basement messing around with things and reinventing them. He took a number of D-list characters and created the brilliant Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. (love that title!) and he was also the writer behind the recent shake-up in Thunderbolts. He states that his job isn’t creating anything new, as he has other outlets for that. This also means that he only works on titles for very limited runs as was indeed the case with Thunderbolts and even more so with his brief six issue run on Iron Man a few years back.

Iron Man needed to be brought into the 21st century and since Ellis is the King of Technobabble (not necessarily a bad thing) he was the natural choice for the job. As a result Iron Man: Extremis feels a bit like a pilot episode for a TV-series more than its own entity. Ellis is planting the seeds for future Iron Man stories and he does a very good job at it, but there really isn’t much of a story here.

But Ellis does manage to reinvent Iron Man in a big way. No longer is Tony Stark the Bruce Wayne of the Marvel Universe, as he is now the proud owner of actual superpowers! And that is quite a big thing for Iron Man. Some people might argue that it’s too big a departure from the original concept as Tony was always a real human being with flaws, trying to atone for past sins. In Ellis’ version he is a futurist trying to control the escalating evolution of technology, which has in some ways become a danger in itself. Caught between the military and the corporations (which may be the same thing in the world of today) it’s a constant struggle for the future and his own soul.

It’s heavy stuff.

The story is very simple: A domestic terrorist is injected with the latest in nano-tech turning him into a virtually unstoppable super soldier. As the mad man is heading for Washington to get his revenge, Iron Man has to stop him. In order to do this Tony has to make a tough choice. But we all know that Tony Stark is the one man in the Marvel Universe who is not afraid to make the hard decisions! And this time it changes him forever! No really. It does.

I imagine that this story would have felt rather decompressed in single issues, but it flows nicely in a trade. As a superhero story it never gets terribly exciting, but as a smart, modern, contemporary science fiction story it works like a charm. It feels a bit like a short story by William Gibson, which in my opinion is also a good thing as he has an uncanny understanding (and fascination) of the shadowy side of the corporate world and the dangers of technology. And so does Ellis. If you watch JJ Abrams TV-show Fringe you might recognize certain themes similar to the ones in Extremis in the show: Technology is growing at a dangerous rate and people have become mere ants compared to the corporate leviathan.

So the themes of Extremis are very clever and topical, but what keeps the book from being more than “just a good read” is the lack of an actual storyline. Ellis seems content with reinventing Tony Stark and Iron Man while hinting at certain themes. Which is why the book reminds me of a pilot for a TV-show: It is only the beginning and meant as a teaser. Only Ellis never follows up on it himself.

The artwork from Adi Granov is very good. The action scenes seem a bit static, but he handles atmosphere and talking head scenes brilliantly. The characters do seem a bit passionless, but that might come from Ellis’ script and be the intended tone of the story. The story is hardcore science fiction and about Tony Stark becoming part machine, so the coldness of the dialogue and artwork works nicely with the overall theme of the story. Granov is also the artist behind the forthcoming trade paperback Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas written by Jon Favreau, the director of the wonderful Iron Man movie. I assume that will be a more colourful and silly read, which should put Granov’s ability to draw human emotions to the test.

The colouring is also very good and deserves a special mention.

Overall Iron Man: Extremis is not the best thing since the iPod, but it is an interesting new beginning for the character. The other guy writing reviews for this blog (apparently it’s “his blog”. Whatever!) seems to love the run by the Knaufs which followed directly after this “Pilot episode”. I will have to give it a go.

Rating: 6/10

Review by Michael Lindal (self-proclaimed fill-in artist)