Extremis.
What is it according to Marvel? A nanotech virus that enhances Tony Stark’s physical capabilities including a healing factor. It allows him to patch directly into electronics and multitask like a super computer. It was supposed to “reinvent” the character.
What is it to us readers, us true Iron Man fans who have read the character for decades? It’s what took away the character we loved. It is what killed Tony Stark.
In an interview with Brian Michael Bendis from Newsarama, this was a portion of the article:
Bendis related a question that was posed at a Marvel Editorial retreat a few years back of, “what is the point of Iron Man?”
“From there, seeds were sown which started in Warren Ellis’ run and reinventing his powers for the modern day
This really irks me. The point of Iron Man has always been there, it's just that Marvel completely lost touched with it. They saw the problem as Tony being a stale character. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the writers at Marvel didn’t know who Tony was and how to write him. They mistook their lack of ability to delve into human nature and it’s limitations for seeing the character as not having enough interesting about him. So instead of just going back and reading the pre-Crossing days, they just came up with some "improvements." Laziness seems to be the way to go at Marvel anymore. But Stark didn’t need to be reinvented, he didn’t need super powers; he needed a good writer! His "reinvention" taken away from what was originally intended for his character. Tony Stark was a man. A playboy, an inventor, a genius, a risk taker and flawed in his own ways. But he was a man, and that’s what was great about him. He had a broken heart that while was fixed later on had left the impression needed for the character so that the issue had become more bothersome than anything.
Tony didn’t need to be in the Iron Man suit and be a hero. He chose to be a hero. He wasn’t given powers that required him to do the greater good or cast him into a specific group like mutants, he chose that on his own. He’s just a man in a suit. And anyone one of us could be in that suit. There was a level of connection there that few characters have. He didn’t need a super serum, bit by a spider, bombarded with gamma rays. Everyone of us could say “I could be Iron Man.”
But now that is gone. Now the lower layer of the suit resides in his bones and oozes out. Now he can communicate and control computers world wide. Now he is no longer just a man in a suit. He’s now an enhanced human who is the only one capable on the planet of doing what he does.
How was Tony written since Warren Ellis destroyed... err, excuse me, “improved” his character? As a cold, detached man driven by the bottom line of his ideals.
I’m sorry, who is this we’re talking about?
Sadly, it is in fact Tony Stark. Gone is our moralistic businessman who cared more for his employees and the world than his own ideas becoming reality. Gone is the man who tried to minimize damage while doing the best for everyone, rather than sticking to an ideal and using himself as a blunt instrument of delivery.
In one issue Tony Stark said “You know what it took to make me human again? War.” The REAL Tony Stark would have never forgotten what it was to be human. After all, he knows very well about being all too human, as he once stated “Hero. Would the world really think that if they knew the story of the frail man inside the armor?” To Marvel that answer is “no” because otherwise there would be no extremis.
And don’t be mistaken. Iron Man is not popular now due to his newfound abilities. It’s because he has been put in the limelight as the pro-registration leader during the Civil War event and more recently as a prime target of the Hulk as one of the Illuminati in Marvel’s Hulk Hard-on event (which they refer to as the World War Hulk event).
It’s not the powers of the man inside the suit has that made Iron Man interesting. It was the man inside the suit that made Iron Man interesting, but Marvel doesn’t realize that. They thought he needed updating. Tony Stark was fine, the problem was the writers didn’t understand who Tony Stark is and what drove him.
So with these thoughts I can honestly say, Extremis killed Tony Stark. All we are left with is a pale imitator to the original.
I miss the moralistic and personable Tony, and I definitely miss the idea it is the man in the armor that defines the character, not the powers the man has.
