Iron Man is a 2004 comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Launched in the wake of Avengers Disassembled, the series was originally written by Warren Ellis with art by Adi Granov, debuting with the six-issue story arc Extremis. The story reinvented Iron Man's origin for the modern age, and gave him a biotech-based armor that fused with his body, making him genuinely superhuman for the first time.
After Ellis's departure, Charles and Daniel Knauf took over writing for issues #7–35, joined by artists Patrick Zircher and Rob de la Torre. Their run explored the moral fallout of Stark's technology, the ethics of power, and his new role as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. during Civil War, as Tony struggled to balance heroism with control and public distrust.
The series concluded with issue #35, wrapping up Tony Stark's tenure as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and setting the stage for a new direction. It was soon followed by the relaunch Invincible Iron Man (2008), by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca.
The first issue was released November 10, 2004. The series ran for 35 issues, with the final issue released November 19, 2008.
Iron Man (2004) provides examples of:
- Arc Villain: Mallen only showed up for the Extremis arc.
- Ax-Crazy: A secondary effect of the Extremis virus is increased aggressiveness, and Mallen was already a pretty ill-minded person. As a result, he is very eager to kill people.
- Body Surf: Tony's mind is taken over by the son of Ho Yinsen who is looking for revenge on the people who murdered his father.
- Brought Down to Badass: While investigating the conspiracy concerning the Mandarin's use of Extremis, Tony is forced to wear an ankle bracelet that shuts down his Extremis abilities for a fortnight to deal with apparent psychological problems caused by his powers. He can still use his old armors, but many of these are simply inadequate for the scale of the threat he's facing.
- Cassandra Truth: When Tony realises that the Mandarin is part of the conspiracy he's currently investigating, most people don't believe him because the Mandarin is currently believed to be dead and Tony was forced to destroy any evidence he discovered to the contrary while fighting the Mandarin's associates.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mallen gives one to Iron Man in their first encounter. It goes the other way in the second round.
- Dye or Die: In the "Execute Program" story arc, Tony Stark shaves off his beard and dyed his hair blond while on the run. It works, as no one recognizes him, but he feels he looks like "an idiot".
- Hate Sink: Mallen. Rooting for Iron Man to defeat him in the story is pretty damn easy.
- Healing Factor: Due to the Extremis virus, Mallen regenerates everything but head wounds.
- Killed Off for Real: Mallen never brought back afterwards, and after Extremis was dropped, there was no reason to do so.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: In order to access his Extremis powers at a key moment, Stark has to literally cut off part of his own foot to remove the ankle bracelet preventing him from using his powers (the bracelet couldn't be removed on its own before the two-week period was up, although Tony's Extremis-provided Healing Factor would help him cope with the damage later).
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Mandarin intends to release Extremis on a mass scale to force the human race to "evolve", even though this will result in a 97.5% fatality rate for most of those infected (to be "fair" to the Mandarin, he has determined that he isn't one of those who possess the relevant gene sequence to be safely exposed to Extremis, so he would die along with everyone else).
- Off with His Head!: How Tony finally puts Mallen down for good, by blowing his head up.
- Playing with Fire: Mallen, in Breath Weapon fashion.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Mallen is a White Supremacist and has no problem saying that the Ku Klux Klan is doing a "good" job.Mallen: Regular white folks built this country. Without government or spies or regulations or people with badges who kill your family for fun.
Student: Yeah, except regular white folks did all that too.
Mallen: Don't say that. It all went wrong. I'm going to fix it. I've got this stuff inside me, see? From the future they were going to make. And I'm using it to turn back the clock.
Student: Back to lynchings and giving smallpox-infected blankets to the different looking people? You're as bad as them. - Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mallen's eyes turn red while Extremis is mutating his body.
- Science Is Bad: Inverted in the Invincible Iron Man series during the Extremis arc. Stark agrees to an interview with a journalist based on real-life Intrepid Reporter John Pilger, who wants to understand why Tony does what he does (and actually intends to peg him as a heartless profiteer of war). After being constantly railroaded by the interview, Stark cuts off the documentarian and admits yes, he creates weapons of war for use by the United States government, but goes on to explain that every microchip he manufactured for use in American smart-bombs has since being widely developed for civilian purposes; the technology itself isn't inherently 'good' or 'bad'. In short, he regards the development of weapons as an unfortunate, but necessary evil that finances his humanitarian projects.
- Shock and Awe: Mallen can shock someone directly from his hands.
- Spotting the Thread: As a side-effect of Tony's new Extremis powers, his brain has been accelerated to process the new link to his armour, with the result that he occasionally experiences hallucinations of people whose deaths he feels responsible for, such as Happy Hogan or Captain America. These hallucinations drew his attention to information he hadn't properly processed on a conscious level, such as realising that a member of the Initiative had lied about the nature of his powers; it was speculated that this information was being filtered into his subconscious where he "stored" his guilt to stop himself having to face it.
- Super-Speed: The military clocked Mallen's running speed at 300mph; this probably wasn't even his top speed.
- Super-Strength: Mallen is powerful enough to break Iron Man's bones through the armor, rip said armor like tin foil, blow a protester's head with one punch and use the "razor" of a bulldozer as a baseball bat.
- Super-Toughness: Iron Man's Repulsors were powerful enough to cut metal. They barely touched Mallen. The mighty Unibeam? It hurt a little more.