Saturday 23 July 2011

Books: Iron Man: Extremis

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Iron Man: Extremis
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Adi Granov

2007




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/

"DMT interests me because it gets to a place beyond your memory stores. You know something like sixty percent of people have the same hallucinations on DMT? Terence McKenna, rest his soul, called them "self-transforming machine elves." Yes. This is an Iron Man comic that has Tony Stark go up against 21st Century terrorists every bit as powerful as he is - with car crashing action, fiery fights to the death and lots of cool gadgets and nano-technology stuff and - but because it's written by Warren Ellis you also get trippy dialogue that deals with the relationships between drugs, human potential and the shape of the future - plus an interview conducted by a left-wing journalist called "John Pillinger." All this - plus a retelling of his origin story which it then overwrites - updating and redefining the Iron Man concept in exciting new ways as well as probing into Tony Stark's psyche and showing just what he has to do to be able to look at himself in the mirror. The artwork does have a peculiar computer-generated sheen - that at the start is a little off-putting - but it's a good match for the voltaic story and helps it stand apart from it's superhero contemporaries and helps to place it in new places in your head. The best Iron Man story out there (as consistently voted for by the fans) and the ideal place for new readers to start.

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Links: Comics Bulletin Review, The M0vie Blog Review.

Further reading: Iron Man: The Invincible Iron Man, The Ultimates, Ultimate Comics: Iron Man: Armor Wars, Ultimate Galactus Trilogy.

Profiles: Warren Ellis.

All comments welcome.

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