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It basically reads like it could be a movie and I personally liked the digital art. I've been reading comics since 1963 (yeah THAT old). I think this was a pretty good update of the Iron Man origin and update of the character. I have a friend who has been reading them almost as long (favorite is Iron Man) and a wife who did not grow up on comics. All of us liked this story. I'm not sure I like the idea of Stark having that nano-virus (or whatever) in him but that aside, all three of us enjoyed it. I may have to pick up vol 2.
In "Iron Man: Extremis" writer Warren Ellis introduces us to the most modern incarnation of ol' Shellhead ever, i.e Iron man amplified by nano-technology. The story takes a dark turn as the body count that the new villain racks up rises, and Tony Stark faces additional pressure as he is accused of being a weapons designer and mass murderer. This trade collects issues 1-6 of the new series, and right off the bat Ellis turns the tables on our hero by introducing a new villain that Iron Man, despite his advanced onboard weapon systems and nigh-indestructible armor, simply cannot beat. This forces Tony to up the stakes and delve into forbidden technological research that promises to take the character to new heights, as questions arise whether the new Iron Man might struggle to retain his humanity in future issues. All-out action and shocking twists make this trade a must-buy, and all the finer points of Ellis' writing are augmented by the fantastic art of Adi Granov who makes Iron Man look even better on the page than what the character did in last year's film. Pick up this trade if you're in the mood for a good story and violent, mind-blowing superhero action scenes.
The Extremis concept itself and how it's implemented is classic Warren Ellis sci-fi and it's really interesting but Tony Stark with super powers such as a healing factor just kind of seems wrong.Adi Granov's amazing digital artwork is what really carries the book and it's also what caused all of the delays in the initial printing of the issues. I'm not a big fan of Ellis's compressed storytelling style and the dialog that is present in the book isn't really that incredible. This often delayed Iron Man restart does a good job of upgrading the Golden Avenger for the 21st century but trips up in a few places. Though the realistic, almost painted looking art is fantastic it sometimes feels a little dull when it's used to tell a super hero story. The story reboots Iron Man's origin story to bring him up to date and gives him some updated abilities to boot even though the current Marvel stories has him in the process of losing them already.The characterization of Tony Stark feels a little off to me and I don't dig the Tom Cruise look (Cruise was still the front runner for the movie role of Tony Stark when Extremis was published). The story is dark and broody and the villain isn't terribly interesting or inspiring. It's just too static and I found the muted colors throughout the entire comic to be a bit drab and depressing. The art really serves to cover up what I feel isn't a very impressive story underneath however and I think Granov deserves the credit for the success of Extremis far more than Ellis does despite the flack I'll take from Ellis fans for saying so.Though a lot of people are hailing this as the greatest Iron Man story in years, I personally don't feel that this is one of Iron Man's better story arcs though I will admit it is an important one if you want to get into reading modern Iron Man books.
Iron Man Definitely DoableIron Man is among the most practical of condensed symbols because he is definitely doable.Iron Man connects imagination with real-world technologies like those described by D'Souza in "The Virtue of Prosperity."Iron Man as a symbol also connects real-world cloak-and-dagger-type intrigue, described by Ann Coulter's tales of the hero Joe McCarthy in her surprise bestseller, "Treason," (there really were/are communists in the government).Further, Coulter sheds more light onto these possibilities and intrigue with her descriptions of the Intelligent Design debate in another one of her surprise bestsellers, "Godless."However, Ellis' "Iron Man" loses its connection to reality (Iron Man's preeminent virtue as a symbol) when he tries to pull a symbolic bait-and-switch by using as the nemesis, the nebulous concept of "white supremacist" instead of symbolizing real-world villains such as O.J., Ayers and the beltway snipers; or real-world terrorists such as Muslim extremists.But this politically correct impurity is smelted and hammered out of Iron Man's refined and tempered armor in the 2008 movie,where Rhodey's role and dialog symbolizes the vacuous and preferential treatment concept of affirmative "dumbing down.".
The art is amazing. The best I've seen in comics. The story is pretty good too.
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