It all started when I was a boy. I loved super heroes. Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Robin, all of them. Well, the major ones, anyway. I knew Hulk all right, and Captain America was in there somewhere, although Iron Man and the other Avengers meant nothing to me. I remember how Robin got his own TV show with four other characters. Teen Titans, go! I loved that show. I saw it all. The Batman, Legion of Superheroes, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Teen Titans. I loved it.
I remember when my Dad quizzed me on a very important matter: What was Batman's secret identity?
I thought for a moment. Secret identity... well, there was only one secret identity I knew of.
"Peter Parker?"
"Nope. Guess again."
Logically, "I give up."
"Bruce Wayne."
Strange name, I thought. But I never forgot it.
But now I know a lot. Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Miles Morales is the 13-year-old Spider-Man from a world where Peter got smashed saving the world. Peter Porker is Spider-Ham.
Bruce Banner is the Hulk, while Amadeus Cho is the Totally Awesome Hulk, as well as the Iron Spider. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Jason Todd, Barry Allen, Ezekiel Sims, Nick Fury, Natasha Romanova. A world of zombies, out of time, too small to find, where the heroes are vampires and werewolves.
And yet, the super hero world is still bigger than I can possibly imagine. So I have taken up a new hobby: reading collected editions of all my favorite heroes. And maybe some new ones along the way.
Oh yeah. I'm gonna do this thing, and no one, not even Galactus, is gonna stop me.
Will you join me on this adventure? If not, go ahead and read the reviews. Believe it, super hero comics are more than super-powered men in tights beating the snot outta bank robbers. Remember, "with great power, comes great responsibility".
Believe it or not, Ben Parker as not the first person to say that power/responsibility bit. It was actually the narrator. And he said something more like, "Great power must come with great responsibility."
Mind-blowing, right?
The first time I read Spider-Man Blue, I started out with a vague knowledge of the complicated lives super heroes have. Sure, you see how in Iron Man, Tony has a struggle with Pepper, and his company, and his ego. Steve has to cope with the modern world in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Bruce has to face the fact that he can't live with Rachel because he would put her in danger.
But here we see something deeper. Spider-Man Blue, a collection of issues from The Amazing Spider-Man, details a love story featuring Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, and Gwen Stacy, who is "all kinds of amazing" and probably Spider-Man's only true love.
It starts out small. Pete is in college, living with his Aunt May. He, along with Flash, Harry, Gwen, and a few unnamed are kinda like "the gang". No longer is he Peter Parker, bookworm, he is Peter Parker, not such a bad guy. Already Pete and Gwen have taken a liking to each other.
Things get better when Peter moves into a large apartment with Harry, and confusing when Peter "hits the jackpot" and meets Mary Jane Watson, the party animal.
The Pete/Gwen/MJ love triangle is paired with the returns of old villains, such as the Lizard, the Rhino, the Vultures (yep, two of 'em). A perfect mix of Spider-Man action and tragic love stories.
Tragic, especially. It ain't called Blue for nothing. All of the stories are transcribed on a tape recorder in the attic of the adult Peter Parker. It is Valentines Day, the anniversary of the day he and Gwen fell in love.
Peter, in the guise of Spider-Man, had just dropped off a rose on top of the bridge where Gwen Stacy met her tragic and totally undeserved fate. He does this every Valentine's Day.
This year, he sits in his attic, his wife, MJ, is asleep, and he tells the story of him and Gwen.
Sad, right? The recording ends when they fall in love, that Valentine's night.
Beautiful. You have to read it to understand. Highly recommended.
But enough on the tragedy. What gives this comic another star is the fact the writers intertwined an excellent action story in with the romance.
The comic begins with the final battle between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man. Goblin, aka Norman Osborn, knows everything. Spidey's secret identity, everything. If Goblin gets out now, all that Peter loves would be in danger.
Only one of them was getting out of that warehouse alive.
Fortunately, murder wasn't part of the equation. A bump on the head erases all memory of the Green Goblin, and Norman is hospitalized.
But before his defeat, Goblin hired an unknown entity to destroy Spider-Man. The entity brings back several foes from Spidey's past, animal-themed foes. The entity watched from afar, studying the Web-Slinger.
Near the end, we discover the entity is none other than Kraven the Hunter!
We also witness Flash Thompson being saved by Spidey during a battle. Flash, the high school jock, suddenly takes a look at his life and asks, "what have you done with your life?" Then Flash does something that will change his life forever. He joins the army.
Of course, you who are familiar with certain symbiote-enhanced espionage agents know what this means. Agent Venom, anyone?
In short, drama, action, and mystery, all in one. An excellent read for ages 12+. 'Course, younger kids may get a kick out of it, but they may not appreciate the love story behind it all.
A truly unique novel, this story takes place in the year 1602, as the name implies.
This is the time of old, when brave explorers sail to find a new world, where bards make a humble living singing in taverns, when brave soldiers protect their queen with their last breath.
But what if the explorers returned with fantastic powers, or the bards were capable of extraordinary feats, and soldiers were heads of secret intelligance organizations, a league of spies and assassins?
Well, then you've got MARVEL 1602.
Basically, in a nutshell, and void of major spoilers, all of the MARVEL heroes appear four hundred years earlier than intended, and because of this, reality as they know it is coming to an end.
Now for the major spoilers: Captain America is one of the remaining super heroes in the world. The others have been hunted down in their old age and executed. Cap hasn't aged a bit, because of the syrum. Potent stuff.
So Captain America is leading an underground resistance in the year 2061. One day, he gets captured, and is about to be executed with a piece of high-tech torture whatever.
Something goes wrong, and he winds up in Native American territory, a few years before 1602.
Steve Rogers finds a friendly Native American tribe that took him in. He becomes Rojhaz. Get it? Rodgers, Rojhaz. Heh.
While the memory of his past life becomes like a dream to him, Rojhaz finds the Roanoke colony. They were in trouble, so he helped them. Like Squanto and the pilgrims.
This presents a major tear in history. As we all know from studying American history, the Roanoke tribe was supposed to vanish. But with Rojhaz's help, they survived.
Enter Virginia Dare, the first child born in the New World. Rojhaz sees her as the America he fought for, before corruption, before the hunting of heroes. He is determined to protect her, and to preserve old America for the rest of his life, which, he presumed, would be forever.
Anyway, Virginia is also a shape changer. Eagles, deer, wolves, etc. She transforms when she is surprised, and doesn't remember any of what happens during her transformations. Rojhaz protects her and keeps her from causing too big of accidents. He becomes her sworn protector.
Now, the colony needs new resources, so Virginia's father sends her and her massive blonde-haired-white-skinned "Native American" bodyguard to ask Queen Elizabeth for stuff.
That last paragraph is about all you know about the two as the story begins. You find out all that other stuff and what comes next later.
Anyway, here's the problem: Steve Rodgers, being sent to a time that isn't his own, makes him a Forerunner. Remember how he is the First Avenger?
Well, his appearence brings forth a new age... an age of Marvels... and age of heroes. More of these entities start popping up.
Sir Nicholas Fury, intelligence officer to her majesty, the Queen.
Sir Stephen Strange, the Queen's physician.
Peter Parquagh, Nick's apprentice.
Captain Ben Grimm, Lord Richard Reed, Lord Jonathan Storm, Lady Susan Storm, explorers whose ship, the Fantastick, was caught in a dreadful storm.
Who else to sing their tale in taverns that Mathew Murdock, a blind bard who works for diamonds.
Then there's the backstabbing assassin, Black Widow, and her boss: Count Otto von Doom.
Among others, including the X-Men and Thor.
Anyway, the age of heroes has begun four hundred years early. The universe isn't taking kindly to that. Huge electrical storms are brewing, unearthly, like no one has ever seen.
Sir Fury learns of a weapon being moved from point A to point B and believes it the cause of the storm. It isn't. It's actually a stick that turns you into Thor. More characters come together, more major events happen, but in the end, everybody is in Roanoke. Reed and Magneto use their abilities to send Rojhaz, and consequentially Nicholas Fury, back to Steve's home time.
Lots of drama, action, betrayal, excitement, suspence, and more in MARVEL 1602. I enjoy every panel of it. You will too, if you read it.
Now, combine this story with the excellent storytelling and the beautiful art, and you've got yourself a treasure.
I look forward to it's hinted sequels, MARVEL 1607 which takes place five years later, and MARVEL 2061, when Rojhaz and Sir Nicholas Fury end up in the future together.
That's right, ladies and gents. The classic TV show was made into a comic book. Not the old comics that the show was based on, but new comics based on the show. We see Adam West's Batman, Burt Ward's Robin, Cesar Romero's Joker, Burgess Meredith's Penguin, and more original characters from the show, as well as other characters like Harley Quinn and Red Hood.
It had a decent run, enough to expand the '66 universe. It even had a few crossovers.
In this volume, we see the story of the Red Hood, the story of Penguin and Mr. Freeze creating a nation in Gotham Harbor, another Joker story (of course ), and more.
Way back when, and even before then, Superman was in the funny pages. Although his adventures were more action and less comedy.
Yep, a massive collection of black-and-white comic strips from ye olde days when Lois Lane actually had competition, a deceitful red head named Lana.
In this volume, we see Lois getting turned into a baby, Superman from the future, a Superman imposter, the Black Knight, and more.
But something ain't quite right. Superman turned Lois into a baby to teach her a lesson. Superman pretended to be from the future to fool a criminal or something. The imposter was a wrestler who fell in love with Lois, and the real Supes got jealous and made the other guy look bad. The Black Knight was Perry White, another ruse to fool someone else.
Superman was kinda a jerk. Just gotta say it.
But, all in all, he had excellent adventures. None of the same-old. No super villains, though. He just saved the day from crafty thugs and natural disasters.
Not to mention he wasn't the OP near-god he is today. He was strong, and he could leap (not fly), and his X-Ray vision gave off enough heat to set fire to stuff.
His average intelligence was one of his flaws. He was tricked into stealing a bunch of valuables by a couple'a low-lifes. He gets out of it, of course. But still.
Nothing like a shot of nostalgia to get you thinking about ye olde Superman, who was truly a super man.
Ho-ho-ho, this comic was truly Amazing. I mean, come on! Straight-up incredible! Let's take a look:
We have Peter Parker, an adult, Spider-Man, saving New York from the usual cast of slime.
Now, this is original Spidey. That John Romita Sr. guy didn't mess around. It may not be as old as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, but still. Issue #35 and on a few.
Okay, so it opens up with Spider-Man demolishing a building with his powers. Letting off some steam. 'Course, the building was scheduled to be taken down. But this is a great way to open it up. He's stressed, and lettin' it all out. I think it was pretty cool.
Later, Peter walks by his old high school. Memories. But all this nostalgia is spoiled by the status. Broken windows, incompetent and inconsistant teachers, bullies. Peter gets a job as a science teacher. He meets this nerd, who was getting picked on by a bunch of beef logs.
Anyway, that night, he spots the human farts trying to hijack a car. He scares the brick outta them as Spider-Man. Spidey's feeling kinda proud of himself, when this old guy with similar spider-powers appears. Spider-Man chases him, but he gets away, saying he'll be in touch.
Later, there's a school shooting, and Spider-Man conveniently appears to save the day. Tragic thing, the shooter was the poor kid from earlier. Snapped like a twig.
So Peter's out and about when he runs into his mystery-crawler. The guy buys him pizza and explains himself. The guy, Ezekiel Sims, says that in the beginning of time, there were totems, bridges between man and animal with extraordinary abilities. There were also pretenders, who pretended to be totems for different purposes. Then there were predators, beings who fed off of a totem's life source.
Peter and Ezekiel are totems. Their power is pure. Ezekiel explains that the spider that bit Peter was trying to give Peter his powers even before it was irradiated.
Peter also fought pretenders. A lot. Doc Ock, the Scorpion, the Rhino, etc.
And then there is the predator. A Devourer of Totems. He came in a rickety old ship and started stealing the life force of civilians.
You see, the old predators can feast on mortals and pretenders for however long, but they are always compelled to devour pure totems.
Like Spider-Man.
Ezekiel offers Peter a safe place to hide from the predator. The plan is Pete hides for four or five months and the devourer moves on. Ezekiel does this because they are similar.
But Peter doesn't listen and says he prefers to face the devourer head-on.
And so Morlun, the Devourer of Totems, appears and beats the living snot out of Spider-Man. "He hit me harder than anyone ever has. Harder than Thor... even Hulk." Well, he said something along those lines. But dang... once Morlun touched Spidey, he could always find him. Peter managed to get away and find Ezekiel, but he told him it was too late.
Morlun found him again, and again, and again. He moved in an instant, found Peter in uniform and out, in disguises and in plain sight. He basically played with his food.
That's right. Every time Morlun hits Spider-Man, he takes more power. More life. Peter's pure powers are only making him stronger.
We go to the docks. Morlun is fighting Spider-Man, and Ezekiel comes to save the day. He catches Morlun off-guard and gives him a bloody nose. Ezekiel is supposedly smashed, but Spider-Man gets away with the blood sample. With it, he devises a plan to defeat the undefeatable.
The spider gave Peter his powers, but the radiation is what would save him. Peter was able to inject doses of radiation into his blood, making him more and more impure. He was practically glowing.
He fought Morlun, and when the big oaf tried to suck Spider-Man's life force, he got a big helping of toxic radiation. He can't digest it, and goes down. As Peter is deciding whether to finish him off or not, Morlun's servant pumps the devourer full of lead.
And so ends the story, with Peter finding out that Ezekiel isn't dead and Aunt May walking in on Peter dressed as Spider-Man with various injuries.
All in all, this comic details Spider-Man's origin, the reality of his powers, potentially his strongest opponent in the history of ever, one of the coolest allies a hero could have, and the continuing story of our favorite web-slinger.
Combine this wicked story with the classic art, you've go yourself a deal.
I am personally looking forward to the day Sony and MARVEL make a movie featuring Ezekiel and Morlun.
Here we get on later in the comic series, somewhere in the 600s. Allow me to set the scene:
>Peter has been blackmailed and can never work as a photographer again.
>Flash Thompson is back from the army and is missing a coupla appendages.
>Peter fell in love with a girl named Carlie Cooper, a freaking forensic scientist.
>Peter lives in a bricky apartment doing odd jobs.
>J. Jonah Jameson is mayor of New York City and the Bugle is no more.
>JJJ is married to a woman who apparently created something called Spider-Slayers in the past? I'm not sure, but she seems nice.
>JJJ's father is married to... Aunt... May. That traitorous... You know what this means, right? Peter is Jameson's COUSIN! If only Jameson knew who Peter realy was. HAHAHAHAHA!
>Spidey is friends with the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.
>JJJ's son used to be Captain America's pilot.
>The Sinister Six, consisting of Rhino, Doc Ock, Sandman, Chameleon, Mysterio, and Electro, are attacking New York City with an army of octo-robots.
We'll start with that last one. We open to Spider-Man, a member of the Avengers, battling Octo-bots with the FF in the city. Epic fight. Spidey saves the day thanks to daylight saving time. Long story.
Peter goes home to see his landlord is moving and that he's getting kicked out. No luck, until Mrs. Jameson offer him a job working in a laboratory with other scientifically-gifted nerds. Awesome job. The job comes with an apartment. Awesome home.
And he's an Avenger. Awesome team.
Everything's going great. His friends reopen the Bugle, which is awesome.
Not so awesome. Some punk there is one of several Hobgoblins.
After old Norman Osborn kicked the bucket, he'd become a sort of cult. Like the Anacondrai in Ninjago. Except these are biker gangs and assorted Hobgoblins.
So, Kingpin tells a Hobgoblin to do something. New Hobgoblin smashed the other one and takes his job. The new guy's got a sonic laugh. Creepy.
Bad stuff: Spider-Man's Spidey Sense is broken, maybe forever, by the sonic scream. This is ground-breaking stuff. Peter's hurt bad, so he creates a new techno-suit to help him. He and his sidekick, Black Cat, take down the Hobgoblin and Kingpin. They get away, if I recall, but hey, what can you do?
Next story: Mac Gargan, aka Scorpion aka Venom, is seperated fom the symbiote by the government and put into cold storage. He's broken out by this suped-up bug guy who hates Jameson, but who can blame him?
Gargan becomes Scorpion again, and he and an army of bug-mutants try to eliminate Jameson.
Spider-Man and others intervene and save the day.
What of the symbiote? Flash gets his first assignment as Agent Venom. We'll see how that goes later on.
Then there's a tragedy I couldn't have foreseen. The Fantastic Four loses a member.
A bit of background, Reed and Sue have appatrently had a few kids. There's also a dragon, and a bunch of alien kids.
So, who could it be?
Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic?
Sue Richards, aka the Invisible Woman?
Ben Grimm, aka the Thing?
No. It is Johnny Storm.
Really, it was quite a shock. Johnny was there during the battle against Doc Ock's robots, and to see him gone like that... wow. After the remaining three and Peter tell stories of their past adventures together, Reed shows them a holographic message from Johnny, made in case anything bad were to happen to him. He offered Peter a place on the team.
Mind blown, he accepts.
Spider-Man: a member of the Fantastic Four! Wow! Except they abandoned the name and colors out of respect for Johnny. They are now the Future Foundation, and they wear black and white.
After complaining that he looks like Anti-Venom in the new suit (which he does), the four go and do their quantum-realm dimenional-portal FF business. They fight the Sinister Six in a huge battle that potentially wrecked the space-time continuum.
Afterwords, Spider-Man teaches a bunch of kids with powers to be Avengers and helps Magnet Man become a solid citizen.
And more. I can't even begin to list all of the little storylines that go on here. Truly a web of stories expertly woven into a beautiful fabric for generations to come. After reading Volume 1, I will be sure to read 2-4.
As far as I knew, the X-Men were mutants led by Professor X and Wolverine. And... uh, Storm. She's one of them, right?
Now I am wiser. Cyclops. Storm. Wolverine. Colossus. Nightcrawler. Children of the Atom, hated by the world they have sworn to protect: Mutants! Behold the strangest super hero team led by Professor Charles Xavier. Stan Lee presents: The Uncanny X-Men!
Or something like that.
But these guys are awesome! Wolverine, of course. Nightcrawler, German blue guy who can climb walls, teleport, and has a tail!
Colossus, Russion and can turn into metal!
Storm, aka Ororo, African weather goddess!
Cyclops, with those epic laser beam eyes!
And more, like Banshee, who lost his sonic scream in this story. Where have I heard that before? Angel, who I met in MARVEL 1602, retired and wealthy. Beast, an Avenger! Multiple Man and that other guy!
And finally, Jean Grey. Apparently she'd already died and resurrected before. She was known as Ms. Marvel or something, then Phoenix. Her powers grew steadily over time.
All of these heroes have probably been in an X-Men movie at one time or another, although I personally have never seen them. But the era of the comics really got me. These are from the days of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and the others. These are the days when the comics were in miniature magazines, barely bigger than a postcard.
I used to own a few of these. One features Spider-Man's origin story, and another had Spider-Man meets the Fantastic Four. Geez, those may have been worth a fortune. I should'a kept them.
Anyway, back to the story. It starts when the X-Men visit some friends on an island in Scotland. They are reunited with Jean, whom they thought perished along with Beast. All's cool, but then Mutant X gets out.
Mutant X is like a parasite. He exists in a host body until he uses up the body's life force, then he dumps it by hopping into another body. Seemingly unstoppable. Physical contact will smash you forever.
It's only weakness? Metal. Metal will smash him.
So our heroes track down Mutant X and put the kaibosh on them. A few things to note, Wolverine, having metal bones, cannot be possessed by Mutant X, and Colossus, in metal form, ultimately defeated him.
Now, because of his injuries and the fact he fell in love with a woman on the island, Banshee left the X-Men, leaving them a team of five plus Jean.
The X-Men return home, and catch word of two new mutants. The Dazzler, a disco chick with light powers, and a teen named Kitten (or something like that) who can phase through walls and obstacles.
But someone else is watching them: the White Queen! She's got tech and thugs meant specifically to bring down the X-Men. She captures a few of them, but eventually defeat them.
Then the X-Men find out that the Queen worked for a high-class group of mutants, one of whom is Jason Wyngarde, aka the Mastermind.
All throught the story so far, Wyngarde has been telepathically corrupting Jean Grey, making her think that he is her true love and that her true destiny is to become the Black Queen. She used her OP telekinetic powers to capture the X-Men. Save Wolverine, who was stuck in the sewers.
Wolverine returned and exacted his ruthless revenge. Cyclops and Black Queen's love shattered Mastermind's hold on Jean. The X-Men kicked tail and took names.
Unfortunately, all was not well with Jean. She got a little dark for a second and smashed Mastermind.
The X-Men started to fly home when Dark Phoenix finally reared her ugly head (not literally, she was quite stunning ). She crashed their ship, kicked their tails, flew into space, ate a star, wiped out a planet, and still had room for dessert.
Jean returned to wipe out the others, and Professor X put the telekinetic kaibosh on her sorry flaming self. Kaibosh, I love the word.
Jean was back to normal, and everyone was good. Then the aliens who lived on the planet Dark Phoenix destroyed abducted everyone. The X-Men, Jean, Prof. X, Angel, and Beast. They were given a deal: defeat the alien's mightiest warriors, and they go free. If they didn't, they'd all perish.
So they fought. In the end, Jean was able to save them all, by dying again.
All in all, this story documents the first and original appearance of one of the most powerful foes ever to haunt the MARVEL Universe, Dark Phoenix.
What really interests me is, again, the fact it is a reprint of the original magazines. I've been trying to find collected editions of the classic Spider-Man comics for about a year now, and this is as close as I could find. Fortunately, I found a similar collected edition entitled "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". The Amazing Spider-Man 2, anyone?
Finally, the X-Men in their original form was truly a sight to behold. I hope to find more editions like this, as well as more X-Men comics, in the future.
As you may have realized, but probably not, I've been reading through the MARVEL Graphic Novel Collection, which consists of Spider-Man: Coming Home, The Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and Iron Man: Extremis. I have enjoyed it so far and, if you read the list, you'll see there's more to come.
If you have seen Iron Man and Iron Man 3, you may be interested. Extremis was a six-part series, the first few issues of the comic Iron Man. The art was detailed and lively, almost like real people. The story would be adapted into the two movies mentioned above.
The story takes place later on during Iron Man's career. No one knows his true identity, he's an Avenger, he's had his Arc reactor and the shrapnel successfully removed, and he doesn't make weapons any more. Well, sort of.
The story begins when a scientist steals a bio-electric goop called Extremis and gives it to a bunch of terrorists.
Extremis is a bunch of tiny electrical reprogrammers that tell your brain that your body is made wrong. The brain responds by breaking your body and regrowing a new, better one according to the design suggested by Extremis, which allowed fire breath, bulletproofedness, Flash-like speed, Hulk-like strength, and general OPness. Basically a super soldier serum.
Anyway, one of the terrorists, a guy named Mallen, takes the serum and becomes so OP it can only be described as "scary".
Mallen's story? When he was a kid, his family was a bunch of hillbilly crooks. The cops came, shot 'em up, leaving little Mallen with a Batman-like childhood, except he plans to "reverse the clock", restore America back to what it was, before corruption. Being a nutjob, this isn't good for the modern world.
And with Extremis, this REALLY isn't good.
Now, back to Tony. He's having doubts about whether he's a good guy or not, similar to the movies. Weapons manufacturer, or peacekeeping super hero? Eh, he'll have to dwell on that later. He's gotta get back into the real world, outta his garage, and maybe become Iron Man again.
FYI, the suit is usually locked away in a crate or compacted in a suitcase. Tony has a special implant in his arm that allows him to open the suit's container. Most of the time he locks it in a crate and tells his employees to move it anywhere, and to not look inside no matter what. He tells everybody it's his car. He really likes his car.
Big thing, he can't wear the armor over his clothes like in he movies. He has to wear a special thin metal suit underneath that allows him to control the armor. Remember that now.
So, he gets a call from an old friend, Maya Henson, creator of Extremis. Tells Tony that it's been stolen. Tony investigates, wile Mallen is robbing a bank. One thing leads to another, and Iron Man confronts Extremis.
Allow me to illustrate with a mathematical equation.
Tony and Mallen both start as 1.
1 versus 1.
Tony has the suit, another 1.
2 versus 1.
But Extremis makes Mallen pretty powerful. 1 1/2.
2 versus 2 1/2.
Iron Man gets the stuffing kicked out of him, so he has Maya hook him up with a new version of Extremis. A few features: He can control the armor telepathically, giving him more speed and control. The under suit is stored in the hollows of his bones. Say the magic words, and he's ready to become Iron Man. That's a plus 1.
3 versus 2 1/2.
Wouldn't you know it, Iron Man electrocuted him, blasted him, torched him, smashed him through several walls, and he still wouldn't give. Finally a unibeam through the torso and a repulsor to the head defeated Mallen once and for all.
The story ends with the reveal that Maya was one of the scientists who gave the terrorists the Extremis in the first place.
Now, you see the elements used as the basis for Iron Man 3. But as for Iron Man?
Thorughout the story, we cut to Tony's flashbacks. He's overseeing weaponry in the middle east, when a seedpod bomb goes off and activates a landmine. Tony is down with a load of shrapnel near his heart.
Stark's taken hostage by terrorists. He meets a scientist, Ho Yinsen. They create a prototype Iron Man armor that will not only get them out and defeat the baddies, it would keep the shrapnel away from Tony's heart.
Sadly, Ho didn't make it. But everything else worked, and Iron Man was born.
And so ends the review on Iron Man: Extremis. Detailed high-quality art, two intertwining storylines, a well-known hero getting new powers, and a lazy billionaire who gets off his brick and back into the world.
I liked the movies better. :l
Coming up next, Batman archives, and a classic Spider-Man story including a Goblin, a Gwen, and a bridge.
), and more. 
