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(March 2006) "Extremis, part 5."
Cover art:
Adi Granov. Script: Warren Ellis. Art: Adi Granov.
Stark is encased in the
Extremis cocoon, and in the meantime he's dreaming about the origin of
Iron Man!
Common sensically, it's updated, occurring in, apparently, Iraq.
Professor Yinsen
is there, a "great medical innovator." And even with the gravely injured
Tony Stark, near death, Ellis can't help but lay on the thick politics, with
Yinsen lecturing Tony about his weapons-making and even referring to him as
"whitey." Still, the origin scenes are fairly well-done, keeping pretty true
to the feel of the 1963 original. Granov's
original gray armor
is superb, including a fantastic splash page of that suit! Eventually, Stark
awakens from his "bout" with Extremis, and boy, is he improved! He has
programmed Extremis to incorporate many aspects of the
IM armor
... directly into his body! The armor's "undersheath" is now stored in
Stark's bones, and he can control the
IM armor
with but a thought, even when he's not wearing it! Granov treats us to
yet another awesome splash page, this time of the current suit. We're now
set up for the grand finale.
Hube's Recommendation:
repulsors!
Fan Reaction:
First of all, to me, Ellis's
whole IM run is nothing more than a big WHAT IF?: "What If Warren Ellis
Created Iron Man?" There's no substance to his run that I can see.
"Extreme-mess" is just that, a mess. Ellis provides no build-up and no
true-to-character motivation for Tony's use of the virus. Plus, Tony's
tweaking of Extremis all happens off-camera. Where did the new bio-link
armor come from? Did it just grow out of Stark's ass? (Come to think of it,
that seems a more likely route from Ellis, knowing his work and sense of
dark and droll humor, than the primary armor layer spewing from Tony's bone
marrow.) In issue 5, Tony's origin rehash takes up most of the book! Those
pages could have been used to show and define Stark's painful and ultimate
conclusion that ingesting Extremis was the only answer to defeat the menace
at hand! Furthermore, what was once a compact armor is now a bulky two-piece
affair. One of Stark's mainstay technological trademarks was the use of
miniaturized electronics and etc. Not anymore. In addition, he seems too
preoccupied with cell phones these days to create any BIG TECH of days long
and sadly passed. I cannot wait for this convoluted WHAT IF? nightmare to
end. -- Mike Kalibabky
Fan Reaction 2:
Again with the wait. This is not the Sopranos Misters Ellis and Granov.
There's a new meeting between Tony and Professor Yinsen and a Middle East
backdrop I don't like. I like the new version of Professor Yinsen. If
there's a plan to dump the Sons of Yinsen, it's no great loss. But I hope
they'll keep Wong-Chu. Tony literally becoming a computer (I hope I got it
right) is a neat concept that could stay for awhile. Did you notice that
Granov drew Professor Yinsen like he was based on the actor who played the
old gangster from Lethal Weapon 4 and would be a great choice for an Iron
Man film. -- FastMike
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