2013 Snowstorm Sci-Fi — “Iron Man: Extremis” Motion Comic

One more sci-fi story (well, maybe two) for those of you who are stuck at home thanks to the great snowstorm of 2013!

Iron Man: Extremis was a story arc from the Iron Man comic books that ran from the start of 2005 until about mid-2006 in which writer Warren Ellis redefined Iron Man as “a test pilot for the future”. The story line introduced Extremis, a military nanotech serum that allows the brain to consciously command the body to rebuild itself to be superhuman. It’s not a new idea; my friend Cory Doctorow covered this territory in the short story 0wnz0red (which you can consider some bonus sci-fi). Of course, as with the best Iron Man stories, the technology is just window-dressing; what’s truly interesting are the ideas that get tossed about within the stories.

In Extremis, the Iron Man suit gets redefined as an extension of Tony Stark, but even more importantly, Tony Stark himself gets redefined. His Cold War/Vietnam origin story (remember, Iron Man was created in the 1960s) gets updated to Afghanistan — an idea later appropriated by the first Iron Man film. Another idea that found its way into the film is Stark’s discomfort with being an arms dealer, which gets covered in an uncomfortable interview for a documentary film, a meeting with his board of directors about their new smartphone, and a heart-to-heart with his tech-hippie mentor. The story is rich with ideas about mind-over-matter transhumanism, the world as a post-political corporate conglomerate, right-wing militia thinking, the ongoing march of technology, great inventors best being remembered for their chindogu, what happens when you go from “changing the world” to “selling out”, and most importantly, the raison d’etre for the Iron Man suit. Watch and enjoy!