Iron Man: Extremis 2007 (SC TPB) 144 pgs.

Written by Warren Ellis. Art by Adi Granov.
Letters: Randy Gentile. Editor: Tom Brevoort.

Reprinting: Iron Man (3rd or 4th series!) #1-6, 2005-2006 (with covers)

Rating: * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Extremis collects the first six issues of yet another restart of Iron Man (man, remember when comics could go for hundreds of issues without anyone feeling they needed to re-start it from an issue #1?). I picked this up on a whim, partly after picking up the mini-series, Dr. Strange: The Oath on a similar whim. On-lines reviews had said the Oath was the best Doc Strange story in years and, reading it, I agreed -- it was a well written, cleverly plotted tale. Coming across reviews of Extremis claiming fan favourite Warren Ellis had delivered the best Iron Man story in years, I decided to try two-times-lucky.

Sadly, I guess I was only one-time-lucky.

Extremis has Iron Man becoming involved when an old friend, a lady scientist, of Tony Stark calls for help. A super soldier serum she was working on has been stolen and injected into a crazed right-wing survivalist with a grudge against the government.

So here's the story in a nutshell: Iron Man tackles a super baddy, gets his butt kicked, so needs to revamp his armour to tackle and defeat the baddy in the climax.

So here's the story in detail: Iron Man tackles a super baddy, gets his butt kicked, so needs to revamp his armour to tackle and defeat the baddy in the climax.

Not exactly War and Peace is it? Yet Ellis manages to get six issues out of this. More and more I find myself talking -- and complaining -- about the way too many modern comics writers just stretch out thin plots over multiple issues that, in the old days, would only warrant an issue or two. And they do it by stretching conversations over a bunch of pages, when all that needs to be said could be said in a few lines, and by breaking down extraneous actions over multiple panels (why cut to a character in an office, when you can show the character get out of his car, walk up the steps, etc.), and long, largely wordless action/fight scenes. In one issue, for example, most of the issue is comprised of two scenes, intercut -- a talking head scene of Tony Stark, his lady friend, and a third character basically lecturing them on their character quirks, and a wordless (and rather bloody) sequence of the villain rampaging through an FBI building.

Comic book marketers point to the fact that TPB collections sell better than monthly comics these days as proof TPBs are the future -- but isn't it possible it's because too many modern writers write monthly comics that aren't really worth picking up once a month? So little happens, so little progresses the overall story arc (as reflected in the generic cover images), that a lot of readers wait for the trades simply because the story isn't interesting enough to hold their attention from month to month.

Ellis tries to toss in some weighty themes and ideas, dealing with Tony's ambivalence about his days as a weapon's designer -- but, the thing is, writers have already covered that ground in earlier Iron Man stories. It's not like Ellis is exploring radical territory. And as too often happens with modern, "sophisticated" writers, he more just explains his ideas rather than develops or explores them. We get exposition rather than dialogue. We get character devoid of characterization. For all that this is about Tony Stark -- there's little of Tony Stark in the story, no sub-plots involving romance or personal troubles, and even when he's Iron Man we get very little in the way of internal musings. In fact, he is crippled so badly he's on the point of death -- but he takes it all in unflappable stride!

Ellis wants to explain (not explore) Tony's character, emphasizing him as a "futurist", one who sees his inventions as benefitting humanity...but doesn't really take it anywhere, or entirely make it convincing. In a way, I'd argue a better interpretation of Tony Stark is that the reason he obsessively-compulsively is constantly tinkering with his Iron Man suit is because, ultimately, it's his sanctuary -- a man who lost his parents when he was young, whose relationships have fizzled, who leads a very public life as a CEO, wunderkind, and playboy, who once found solace in booze...Iron Man is his shell, his protection from the world.

Another thing I just find...tedious. The story is basically geared to re-inventing Iron Man, augmenting his powers (for a character who, I'd argue, is too powerful as it is). And that might be okay, if Ellis had a vision of where he wanted to take this new improved Iron Man -- but I believe this was his only work on the character. He writes it, then bails out, making it all kind of pointless, dramatically speaking. It seems every time you open a comic these days, some "hot" writer is trying to make his mark by re-inventing aspects of the character...when they'd be better sticking with the existing character and work on telling better plots!

Ironically, there are ways Extremis reminds me of Dr. Strange: The Oath, in that both work in flashbacks that reiterate the characters' origins (though here Iron Man's origin has been up-dated from the Vietnam War to the current War on Terror), and both try to throw in weighty themes. It's just the Oath succeeded, and Extremis really doesn't.

The art by Adi Granov is initially quite impressive, of a realist, three-D style using computer colouring -- but it too quickly is overshadowed by itss weaknesses. There's a stiffness to the characters, a blandness to the composition. It's like looking at stills lifted from a really hi-end video game (or the animated movie Final Fantasy) in that initially you can be impressed by the realism...but soon you only notice the stiffness the lack of life, of...soul. As well, Granov isn't that hot at backgrounds, often putting his talking heads against ill-defined settings. And he often uses the same hues and shades, so that whether the characters are in a drab garage, or under a bright summer sky, everything has the same dull grey tone.

Ultimately, Extremis is just a thinly plotted, barely developed riff on familiar Iron Man themes, lacking sub-plots, plot twists, or any real emotion (for a supposed character-based story). It would barely justify an annual, let alone 132 pages!

Cover price: $__ CDN./$14.99 USA.

The Invincible Iron Man: The Five Nightmares  2008 (HC & SC TPB) 144 pgs.

Written by Matt Fraction. Illustrated by Salavador Larroca.
Colours: Frank D'Armata, with Stephane Peru. Letters: Chris Eliopoulos. Editors: Warren Simons, Alejandro Arbona.

Reprinting: The Invincible Iron Man #1-6 (2008)

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

I'm not necessarily a big Iron Man fan. I like the character, he's one of those touchstones I grew up on (he's a character I almost appreciate more as part of The Avengers). But I'm not predisposed to love an Iron Man comic -- that is: the story has to win me over.

Which brings us to The Five Nightmares -- the first story from yet another "new" Iron Man comic...and one sharing shelf space with another on going title: Iron Man: Director of SHIELD. Currently comicdoms most famous billionaire industrialist is also director of Marvel Comic's pre-eminent spy agency, and his secret identity...ain't no secret. This sprang out of Marvel's cross company epic -- Civil War -- in which, in a metaphor for the War on Terror/post-9/11 world, super heroes were told to register with the government or be outlawed. Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) led the pro-registration movement.

Writer Matt Fraction's opening arc had been getting great reviews, everyone seeming to feel it pulled off the hat trick of being sophisticated drama and old fashioned adventure, while successfully getting away from the moral quagmire raised by the Civil War story.

The idea is that terrorist/suicide bombers are using technology that seems derived from Stark's own Iron Man inventions -- and behind it is one Ezekiel Stane, hitherto unknown son of an old foe, Obidiah Stane. And Ezekiel has augmented himself, to boot.

As a concept it might warrant six issues: international terrorism, personal vendettas, a foe as smart and powerful as Iron Man seeking to destroy him. But in execution...no. Recently reading some old Stan Lee scripted Spider-Man and Daredevil comics from the '60s/early '70s, I felt that, despite some goofy simplicity, Lee often came up with twists and turns that justified multi-issues.

The Five Nightmares doesn't really offer many twists. The few "revelations" it throws at you are kind of undermined because Fraction himself doesn't think to hold back the info for dramatic surprise.

There are logic and storytelling holes. Even Stane's motivation is unclear. He sort of seems to be trying to avenge his father (though Stane rarely mentions his dad)...and sort of motivated by one-up-manship ("Beat that, dad," he mutters at one point). Stane seems less to exist as a character than as a metaphor for the brutality of international terrorists (as he taunts Iron Man by saying he's out of step with the modern world). Yet even then, it's unclear whether Stane is motivated by ideology (like a terrorist) or is simply a mercenary...or is simply a comic book-y foe out for comic book-y revenge

And some of this has been done before in Iron Man stories, as the characters acknowledge (villains mis-using Stark's tech, etc.)

Tony as director of SHIELD doesn't really seem a comfortable fit for the character we used to know. And though running a major corporation and running a major spy organization might seem similar...I'm not sure they are. I realize in his own comic, each super hero gets to be the #1 super hero. But when Tony is described as the smartest guy in the world it seems kind of odd. "Smarts" entails a multitude of disciplines. Tony may be the smartest inventor in the Marvel Universe -- that doesn't make him the smartest, period.

It may seem like an odd thing to quibble about, but a character is as humanized by his short comings as he is glorified by his attributes.

By entrenching Tony in SHIELD, it loses touch with the humanity/reality that was the whole point of the Marvel Age revolution back in the 1960s. Iron Man is a character who can be as interesting out-of-costume as in, but this new direction kind of robs that "civilian" side of things. Even his armour technology has been altered. Whereas once Tony was vulnerable without his suit, his modern armour can wrap around him in an instant so that he's as invulnerable in a tux as he is in his costume.

Even erstwhile secretary, Pepper Potts, has returned to the cast...but now part of the super hero/action, feeding Tony info while in battle, etc. And though it's presumptuous of me to claim any expertise on Pepper -- not having even heard of the character until reading Essential Iron Man 2 -- her personality seems to have been altered to suit the modern sensibility where everyone is a wisecracking member of the "team".

Fraction does try to work in a human drama sub-plot involving Pepper being injured...but it is too rooted in the sci-fi heroism to totally act as a realist anchor to the fantasy.

The art and colour is advanced stuff, particularly the colouring, affecting an almost painted vibe. But though initially impressive, you begin to notice short comings. The characters and expressions are a bit stiff, the backgrounds oddly geometric so that it's sometimes even hard to tell what it is you're supposed to be seeing. And the action scenes can be a bit muddled and confusing, partly because Larroca draws familiar abilities oddly (I think there were a few repulsor blasts here and there) and partly because Iron Man seems to have new tricks that aren't explained in the dialogue. There's a kind of computer-art look to the visuals that may be on purpose, evocative of Crash and Extremis -- but it further means that in the "domestic" scenes, you still don't fully feel like Tony's in the real world.

Still, the art is okay and writer Fraction offers some cute quips and thoughtful observations through Tony's narration. The story is certainly meant to be character driven. The (minor) idea that the Philippines has its own super hero group was interesting and one wouldn't mind seeing more of these characters than their cameo here.

In "Civil War", which pundits viewed as a Republican/Democrat metaphor, a lot of comics reviewers -- seeing themselves as "liberal" -- tended to side with the anti-registration side, therefore seeing Iron Man as the villain of that particular story line. And I sort of got the impression they thought that was Marvel's intention. But the pro-registration side won and Iron Man, the proponent of that side, is starring in two monthly comics...while Captain America, proponent of the anti-registration side...has been killed off! (Heck, Marvel's current regime erased Spider-Man's marriage by introducing a ludicrous reality altering mystical deal with the Devil because they felt it was unacceptable for Spidey and Mary Jane to get a divorce; if that doesn't smack of Republican social-conservatism I don't know what does).

And here we have a story which has echoes of real world terrorism, in which Iron Man leads a raid into Africa based on the erroneous assumption of a connection to the attacks, and which ends with a final message that seems not incompatible with George W. Bush/Republican sentiments.

That doesn't make the story right or wrong. But I do think fans need to be a little more critical in their thinking before blindly assuming today's Marvel is a bastion of liberal sympathies.

The Five Nightmares kind of left me a bit blah. It does tell a story that begins and ends in these pages. But I picked this up hoping for a great Iron Man saga...and didn't get it. The story here is just a tad thin on plot and twists, while often fumbling whatever themes and issues it seems to be trying to address.

This is a review of the story as it was originally serialized in the comics.

Cover price: ___