Iron Man Extremis review



Writer:Warren Ellis

Artist:Adi Granov

Colorist:Adi Granov



(Warning i’m going to be talking about some mildly political stuff in this. I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee I know what I’m talking about. Please rant at me about what I’ve got wrong. I suspect it’s a lot. I’m kinda out of my depth here, but I still feel like I have interesting things to say about this story arc)



“Eating the rich” is a popular concept. Nobody seems to like the rich. In most cases the rich deserve it, but it’s kinda reached a point where I feel people would keep hating the rich no matter what they do out of a sort of pavlov’s dog effect. However, there’s no saying being rich has to make you a bad person?



Or is there?



I haven’t read much Warren Ellis but from what I’ve heard he seems like the sort of person who absolutely would eat the rich. Here, he treats them with more sympathy but suggests the lifestyle lends itself inherently to moral compromises.



It’s hard for a good person to make money. Just as an example to make things most companies rely on cheap often exploitive labour from poorer or less regulated countries. This is so common that it’s hard to compete on more ethical labour. Even moving away from that sort of thing is not perfect as it’s been argued that this labour is preferable to being left without these dubious economic opportunities, since they could potentially be alternatives to even worse jobs (I feel I’m not explaining this very accurately as I’m not as politically informed as I should be but the point is it has some benefits but is also pretty sketchy).



Tony certainly wants to be a good person but he has to make moral compromises in order to pay the bills. He gave up weapons manufacturing but he’s not gone purely absolute morality just yet. He still designs for SHIELD he still commits acts of violence on a daily basis including one he’s clearly hesitant about in the climax of the story (killing Mallen). The old hippie scientist Stark and Killian talk to in issue two implies that corporation the government and the military are so interconnected Tony is indirectly supporting the military by supporting corporations and the government.



The movie version of Iron Man has him be self-centred and never looking at the bigger picture before he becomes Iron Man. That works for that version but here it’s a bit more nuanced. Tony in this version has always wanted to do the right thing, he just didn’t hesitate to do the wrong thing to get there, as implied by him saying to Ho Yinsen that the military money was “just to get the funding” for Iron Man. To an extent, Tony hasn’t changed that much since then.



To a certain extent, this conflict is one we all must struggle with. We’re not all billionares, but most people have a role, however small, in how the world works through who we vote for, what we choose to buy, and any other activity we choose to take part in.



Every decision we make can do good or harm, but in many cases, they do both. Most people we vote for might do some good things, and some very, very bad things, and the struggle of what’s worth it may paralyze us. When we buy things, the chances are we’ll eventually need to buy something from a company that’s done something wrong. It’s hard to boycott everything. In this way, we can all relate to Tony.



Another major aspect of the book is Tony’s existential crisis as to who he wants to be. This is resolved with him deciding he is the man who makes the future and protects it from those who wants to destroy it. This leads to a classic example of hero vs villain thematic paralleling with Mallen, the man who wants to kill the future. Villains being thematic counterparts to the hero is a classic part of the superhero formula. It’s been used a million times and for reasons I can’t quite explain, I love it every damn time.



This also leads to yet more interesting political commentary with Mallen. Racist characters, particularly in action oriented stories, can often be one dimension and cliche’d, and on some level it’s what they deserve. Mallen isn’t super sympathetic here, but Ellis adds an interesting wrinkle with the idea of Mallen as being reflexively stuck in the past as a coping mechanism. Viewing these struggles through the lens of the future vs the past can be oversimplification, but it’s an interesting underused take that has a lot of truth to it. It’s a reminder that nostalgia is not just sentimentality but can be actively dangerous. I also like how it paints Mallen as someone who has genuine reasons to distrust the government but who’s paranoia pushed him off the deep end. It adds some sympathy to an otherwise unsympathetic character.



The theme of the future allows for art that gels perfectly with the story. Adi Granov’s art and colouring has such a sleak look to it, which fits the futuristic vibe of the story. There’s also the decision to not have anyone look too stylistically exaggerated or buff, which adds to the humanity of the story.



The big problem with the book is that it kind of has too many thought provoking ideas to fit into just six issues. It has to deal with racism, capitalism, the military industrial complex, absolutism vs utilitarianism, guilt and the future. It doesn’t really have time to resolve all the questions it raises.



The resolution of the story with Iron Man being able to accept himself because he’s trying to be better feels fundamentally unsatisfying. Most people try to be better. It’s like the character arc equivalent of a participation trophy. Trying to be better does not excuse someone from the moral implications of being who they are.



I don’t mean to imply Iron Man is a bad guy. In fact I really respect Ellis for treating the character sympathetically when many cynical political satirists in this vain would automatically condemn a rich character with even the slightest moral ambiguity. (For example, I feel like a lot of the leftist critique around Batman feels like people looking for an excuse to complain because they don’t like a rich person being a good person. However, that’s a whole other rant).



One last thing is that the action scenes are super well choreographed. There are a lot of cool little moments like Iron Man attacking mallen by kicking him with his rocket booster turned on and Mallen using part of a crane as a sort of impromptu nunchuck. It’s all really fun, creative and badass for action sequences that by superhero standards are relatively small scale.



Overall, this is a fascinating story that while not perfectly resolving it’s ideas, is still an excellent read.



8/10