Iron Man: Extremis

Certain comics have a special significance within my collection, and that’s absolutely the case with the 2004 Marvel miniseries Iron Man: Extremis by writer Warren Ellis and artist Adi Granov. A soft re-baseline of the Tony Stark/ Iron Man dynamic, this occurred outside of the character’s main title, whilst also recapping his origin, and so is accessible to a much broader audience than usual super-hero fare. And yet the miniseries includes critical developments for Tony, and had crucial impacts on Iron Man’s design, abilities and characteristics for years going forward.

Ellis’ techno-thriller pits Iron Man against a cell of biologically enhanced domestic terrorists, and the plot beats sticks pretty close to a standard 3-act conflict structure. What’s different here is that Ellis also takes time for examinations of futurism versus fundamentalism, and on the critical splits between American Left and Right. This is a post 9/11, pre Obama story, and yet in 2019 it’s themes are as timely as ever. If anything, I am struck that 15 years after initial release, the writing’s actually gotten more pertinent.

Probably the biggest achievement of the Extremis miniseries was its influence on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in particular on the inaugural Iron Man movie in 2008. Although artist Adi Granov clearly based his Tony Stark’s appearance on Tom Cruise, the characterization from Ellis directly matches the eventual portrayal by Robert Downey Jr. This is a Tony who is outwardly witty and self-assured, and yet who can barely look at himself in the mirror for shame of his weaponeering history. Certain scenes feel like they were directly picked up for the script of the Marvel movie, including a barbed interview with a tele-journalist, and a knock-down battle on a free-way. And of course, the central bio-engineering plot device was also picked up directly for Iron Man 3 in 2013.

For me, Extremis is one of, if not the biggest break-out superhero comic of the last 20 years. I’d actually go further and say that Extremis was at the forefront of a subtle reinvention across the entire Marvel line, coming out at the same time as Brian Bendis’ Secret War mini, and being followed by the post-Disassembled runs on Captain America and New Avengers; all of which reframed the adventures of Marvel’s tent-pole heroes in a slightly more grounded context. For me, it marks the point where Marvel comics were finally ready to be taken a bit more seriously.