Iron Man (vol. 4) #3
Extremis, Part Three of Six
Someone has stolen Extremis and used it to slaughter everyone in an FBI offices in Texas. Tony Stark races there in his private jet along with Maya Hansen, the creator of Extremis. Along the way, Tony has her explain what Extremis is and what it can do.
The creation was an attempt to create a new version of the Super Soldier Serum. Once injected into the base of the neck it hacks into the repair center of the brain and begins rewriting the human body. During the transformation process, the subject’s entire body is transformed into one big open wound that scabs over. After the metamorphosis is complete, they emerge from their scab cocoon transformed to a perfect human.
That’s when Tony gets a call from his programmer. They have managed to crack the hard drive of Aldrich Killan, Maya’s assistant who stole Extremis. They have learned that it was given to a local militia. Tony then excuses himself so he can make some calls to law enforcement on a secure line. Using his Avengers Liaison Channel, he shares his information with law enforcement and that he is dispatching Iron Man to assist in the capture of this new superhuman threat. When Tony pulls up his Iron Man schematics to prep, he notices that now his election is able to look him in the eye.
When they land at a private airfield in Texas, Tony has a car take Maya back to FuturePharm. Tony isn’t going with her, saying that he has to help Iron Man suit up to cover for the fact that he is actually Iron Man himself.[1] Another Stark private plane has just arrived with his Iron Man suit crated up for him. Sealing up his private hanger, Tony complains to himself about the lack of seclusion at this airport and hopes that nobody manages to snap a picture of Iron Man.
Later, Mallen — the homegrown terrorist who used Extremis to attack a FBI field office — has a dream. He is reliving a moment from his childhood. His parents were part of a militia that lived off the grid. His father had just been caught trying to buy illegal guns from an undercover ATF agent. He managed to flee back home but the authorities were not very far behind. Soon, there is an armed stand-off. However, it is short lived and Mallon watches as his entire family is gunned down. One of Mallen’s accomplices wakes him up because he was making weird noises in his sleep. When asked if he is ok, Mallen says he’s fine.
By this time, Iron Man has managed to track down Mallen’s van and is following it from the air. Using his repulsors, Iron Man cleaves the van in half in order to separate Mallen from his friends. Mallen, however, emerges from the wrecked van uninjured. When Iron Man orders him to stand down, he refuses. Iron Man then unleashes his repulsors, but Mallen is able to easily shrug them off. Moving at super speed, he gets up close enough to the hero to breath fire on him. When Tony grabs Mallen, the Extremis augmented terrorist is able to grow electrified needles from his finger tips which shorts out the Iron Man armor.
Mallen then picks up Iron Man and tosses him onto the highway. As Stark desperately tries to reboot his armor, Mallen begins tossing abandoned cars at him. When Mallen catches up he shrugs off all of Iron Man’s other hands. In hand to hand combat, Mallen is able to crush Tony’s hand, snap one of his legs, and shatter his ribcage. Struggling to stay up right, Iron Man is powerless when Mallen grabs a car that is still occupied and tries to srike him with it.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Maya Hansen, Mallen
Continuity Notes
Recently, Tony revealed his identity to the world in Iron Man (vol. 3) #55. However, he put the genie back in the bottle in issue #89. This will remain the status quo until Civil War #1.
Topical References
Tony hopes a kid with a digital camera doesn’t snap a photo of him. At the time of this story, digital cameras were common place. While they are still around today, they are mostly used by professionals. Most people don’t own digital cameras anymore because smartphones have built in cameras. As such, Tony’s specific reference to digital cameras should be considered topical.
