Review: Iron Man: Extremis Part 4
Iron Man - Extremis part 4, Written by Warren Ellis, Illustrated by Adi Granov
Well. here we are once more. This was actually supposed to be a much more detailed review of Iron Man: Extremis part four. However, I neglected to actually bring the comic with me on the trip, so I’m operating off of memory here. I’m sure if I mess something up too badly, someone will complain. The short version: The art is good, the dialog is good. I'm not so sure about the direction the plot is taking however. My major complaint is the page count is a little sparse for a quarterly.
But seriously. I’ve come to terms with the inverse relationship between the wonderfulness of the art and the frequency of new issues on the stands. I can deal with the slow pacing. I’ve even come to terms with the glacial release schedule. With the Iron Man: Inevitable six-part coming out, I should be able to get my Iron Man fix on a more regular basis. But I’m not sure I like the direction Extremis is taking with part four.
The thing I’ve always liked about Iron Man is that ultimately, there’s a normal man underneath the armor. An incredibly intelligent and skilled man, to be sure, but a man nonetheless. When the Iron Man armor was not up to the task in the past, Tony Stark would find a way to bridge the gap, either with some improvement to the armor or by finding some weakness in his opponent. Now, with Extremis part four, we seem to have reached the point where the man inside the suit needs some sort of superhuman edge to face his opponent. I can accept the argument that this is essentially a science fiction story. I can accept that the ramifications of brain augmentation are just as valid a concept to explore as any technological solution Tony Stark might devise. It’s just that Stark rewiring his own brain doesn’t feel like an Iron Man story to me.
I shouldn't complain too much. It could be worse. I flipped through a recent issue of The Ultimates while Christmas shopping and stopped when the Black Widow shot Jarvis dead. Because, you know, people really want to read depressing ultra-violent comics about un-likable people. It’s possible people do, but it’s less depressing to think of the editors as clueless idiots than the entire market. No, this is nowhere that bad.