The summer blockbuster season has started! Iron Man 3 has premiered, and it is a great start to Marvel Phase 2. Taking place after The Avengers film, the story is still independent of all the other features, but has ties to the previous Iron Man films as well as The Avengers. Check out Wizard Victor’s fairly non-spoiler review of the third Iron Man movie, or go watch the movie, then check out the following, because I will be spoiling some things of the film…
Iron Patriot
First up is the presence of Iron Patriot in the film. Some movie goers may be asking “what happened to War Machine?” In the movie, Iron Patriot was said to be a re-issued War Machine armor, meaning it was repainted and had some added bells and whistles. Where this serves as another ongoing idea of the armor being compromised, and Rhody never really being able to have his own armor, the comics portrayed Iron Patriot differently.
Iron Patriot was a recommissioned Iron Man armor and worn by Spider-Man’s arch nemesis, Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin. Confused yet? Sorry. All that is needed to know is that Iron Patriot in the comics was not a good guy, and was more like the anti-Iron Man. So, the movie did keep with some of that tradition where Iron Patriot served the Mandarin and Killian.
The Mandarin
In the comics, The Mandarin was the other side of a yin and yang with Iron Man. He was magic to Stark’s science. Probably the biggest disappointment of the movie for big comic fans was how the Mandarin ended up being a villain. He wasn’t, basically. Though involved in the overall plot, the Mandarin had no magic, no real threat to Iron Man. In the comics, the Mandarin is near immortal and is a great nemesis to Tony Stark and the world.
It ended up not disappointing me like other comic movie interpretations have gone. I would’ve like to have seen him be a threat that could have moved into another sequel, but it was obvious from the beginning that the real villain was going to have to do with Extremis. Which brings me to…
The Extremis Plot
First off, I need to be honest that I had been pronouncing Extremis wrong for many years now. It’s Extremis, not Extremis. Ok, that didn’t really show up in writing.
Anyway, the plot to Iron Man 3 was terrific! I think it paid homage to some famous plots of the comics, but helped shape the Marvel cinema universe. The famous Extremis plotline that happened almost a decade ago (whoa!) featured a similar problem where an experimental formula wrecked havoc for Stark, and others. The differences were the roles of Killian and Tony Stark’s ultimate solution. Killian was the scientist that helped get the formula into the wrong hands, but was never the villain. Pepper was not in the storyline at all. And Stark’s solution was to inject himself with Extremis.
What!? Well, it’s not as one would think both in comics and the movie. The Extremis he takes is engineered by both himself and Maya Hansen (who was also featured in the movie). This Extremis is stable and serves more as a way for Tony Stark to have fast healing and direct connection to the armor. Similar to the way the movie portrayed it, he can call on the armor at anytime. But, the comics version made it more of something built into his body. It really became that Tony Stark is Iron Man.
Which does bring me to a little speculation to the end. Tony’s last line is the famous “I am Iron Man.” But, most of his armor is gone. He has no arc reactor in his chest. How is he still going to be Iron Man? He also mentioned how he fixed Pepper from having the Extremis in her. Could he have done something similar to the comics? Only time will tell as the Marvel movies keep going.
Back to Extremis…The rest of the ideas from the story stay somewhat the same. It’s a dangerous formula that people have that makes them near unstoppable.
The Armors
The big end battle of the movie was spectacular! I imagine the filmmakers were trying to figure out how to showcase Stark’s endless supply of armor, but there is just not enough time in movies to do so. Their solution: bring them all to the battle with Jarvis!
Some of the cadre of armor Stark made is the Brute, Stealth, Layered, some kind possibly fashioned after the Asgardian Destroyer from Thor, Heart Breaker armor, Deep Space, and the Godkiller. It may be hard to distinguish each of them, but these are the most likely iterations of armor found in the comics and portrayed in the film. My guess with some other is the Hulkbuster, Ghost, and even the new Marvel NOW! armor all made appearances as well. There were so many, it was hard to keep track.
Well, that oughta be enough for now. Until next time, have a Marvel-ous day!
The post Watcher Wednesday: Your Guide To Iron Man 3 appeared first on DAPs Magic Geeks Corner.
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