Extremis, Part Five of Six

A homegrown terrorist named Mallen has injected himself with Extremis. Endowed with superhuman powers, he is now racing to Washington, DC. Completely wrecked in a fight with Mallen, Iron Man (Tony Stark) has just had himself injected with a modified version of Extremis that will allow him to interface with his armor, making it an extension of his body.

After being injected, Tony blacks out and begins reliving when he first became Iron Man. Tony remembers being woken up and discovering he was a prisoner along with brilliant inventor Ho Yinsen. Yinsen tells them that they are the prisoners of a terrorist group that wants them to build weapons for them. Worse, Tony has a piece of shrapnel stuck near his heart which will kill him in a week.

The two remember meeting each other at a conference. Yinsen was there to pitch an idea for magnetic wound extraction to assist landmine victims. Tony was trying to to get funding exo-skeleton projects. while Tony was courting the military, he explains that his real motivation was creating technology that enhances and improves humans. Tony is suddenly inspired, they are going to make a prototype for his “Iron Man” idea. However, it’s not going to be a weapon for the terrorists, it’s going to keep Tony alive and help them escape.

As Tony is reliving his past, his Extermis has encased his entire body in a cocoon as it knits his body back together.

In his dream, Tony and Ho Yinsen have completed building the chestplate that would become integral to the first suit of Iron Man armor. Tony believes either it’s finished or he is. Yinsen helps him put the chest plate on and activate it. The moment it is powered up, Tony feels instant relief from his heart. Suiting up as Iron Man for the first time, Tony wipes out all the terrorists that have been holding him hostage.[1]

In the waking world, the cocoon suddenly begins to glow and then crumbles away revealing a fully healed Tony Stark. Maya Hansen tells him to hold still while she checks him out. He had been out for 24 hours which is faster than it should have. Tony explains that he modified the code, removing a lot of the fail safes. He gets up and shows her what he has done to himself. With a verbal command, holes open on Tony’s wrists, chest, and back. From these holes emerges a new body sheath that is directly wired into his brain. He can now also control machinery with his mind. He shows this off by unlocking his briefcase, calling Maya on her phone, and then having his armor assemble itself on his body. On top of this, his body has been remade to peak human levels, Tony has even grown new organs to replace his old one.[2]

Now he’s ready to track down Mallen and put a stop to him. When Maya asks how he plans on finding him, Tony reveals that he can see through orbital spy satellites now.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Maya Hensen, Ho Yinsen (in Flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. This story tells a modified version of Iron Man’s origins that were originally told in Tales of Suspense #39. However, events have been updated. See below for more details.

2. This does away with the mechanical heart that Tony was saddled with in Iron Man (vol. 3) #30.

Iron Man’s Origin

This story continues the revamped Iron Man origin that began in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1. In that issue, the setting and reason for Tony Stark’s getting shrapnel in his heart were changed in an attempt to modernize the story. The relevant change for this issue was the change of setting, which moved Tony’s origin story from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. This story doesn’t outright state this, but it is implied. However, later retelling of the origin (notably Invincible Iron Man #593 and History of the Marvel Universe #3) the location has since been moved back to Southeast Asia.

Since the location is implied (based on issue #1) and the artwork doesn’t implicitly showing it taking place in the middle of a desert, you don’t really have to do much explaining how this fits with the original origin story. This flashback could have easily taken place in between the panels of other origin stories. Why are the enemy soldiers dressed in Middle Eastern clothing? One could argue that the organization that kidnapped Stark and Yinsen was multinational and has recruited multiple ethnicities.

The only things that are omitted here are what happened to Ho Yinsen (which will be addressed in issue #9. We’ll get to it, trust me) and all reference to Wong Chu is absent. That said, absence of evidence doesn’t mean evidence of absence. Just because Wong Chu isn’t mentioned doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved.