A big part of Captain America’s lore is how the most important part of the selection process was finding a good man rather than a ‘perfect soldier.’ The character that receives the Extremis injection in this story, is essentially the entire opposite of this mentality. As the book itself points out, it is similar to the Captain America serum in a lot of ways, however it is way more volatile and unpredictable. Additionally, I found the interview scene where Stark justifies the repulsor technology used in his weapons by saying that they can be used in other practical ways such as to aid in space travel, but then admitting that he hasn’t ever actually used them for that reason, to be eerily similar to some of the tech being produced in the real world and the justifications given for their existence.Ī huge aspect of the book’s plot is of course, the titular Extremis drug. The scene of the protesters outside the Stark Industries building also really reminded me of the scenes of the Sekovian protesters in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Again the kid-gloves are off here as subjects such as the right to protest, national identity and excessive use of force are interweaved throughout the entire plot of the book. Unlike a lot of other Iron Man stories, the highlight of this book isn’t the intense scenes of action, but instead the conversations featured and the ideologies that are discussed. However at no point did I feel that any of this was gratuitous, but instead that it all served to inform the story being told and was necessary to show how much was at stake.Īnother stand out part of the book is the dialogue between its characters. This book features scenes of suicide, Nazism and plenty of strong violence and gore. One thing that stood out to me whilst writing my review for Review – Iron Man: Extremis, was just how many mature themes are present within the story. I also find his slightly more reserved, introspective version of Tony to be pretty interesting. The story is written by Warren Ellis and I love the way that he choose to present the plot in Extremis as more of an agenda stating what Iron Man should mean to the world, rather than following the tropes of a play by play generic superhero story.

Extremis by warren ellis