Inventing Iron Man (13 page)

The main point of discussing these examples is to make clear just how much human performance and judgment degrade when in an extremely stressful environment or when distracted. We need also to consider the arousal level related to the level of stress. In psychology, this has been described as the “inverted U” (
figure 4.2
). There is an optimal level of arousal due to stress that allows for the best performance. In this context, “arousal” refers to heightened sense perceptions and mental alertness, both essential attributes for high-level functioning. Tony Stark as Iron Man needs some stress to have enough arousal to perform. And, since he has been successfully trained as Iron Man, he can perform at a very high level under stress (high
arousal). I have contrasted this “superhero” performance with that of a “normal” supervillain in the form of Obidiah Stane. Recall Stane was shown in all his villainy as the culprit who took over Tony's company, created Iron Monger, and then tried repeatedly to kill Tony. Not nice. Anyway, Tony's optimal mix of arousal leading to his maximum performance is shown by the arrow. If he moves beyond this optimal arousal level, his performance will decline. Obidiah Stane (see dashed arrow line) is shown as having both a lower maximum performance and a lower ability to function at high stress levels.

Figure 4.2. The “inverted U” effect of physiological and psychological arousal on performance ability. With training, superhero Tony Stark is able to perform better and under more stressful environments than supervillain Obidiah Stane.

However, despite all manner of training and natural ability at managing stress and arousal, adding more stress to further increase arousal eventually leads to a decrease in performance. When attentional resources are at maximum, there can be increased errors. And piloting a hugely powerful armored exoskeleton loaded with weapons can be extremely dangerous. Let's talk next about the extreme military adaptation of Iron Man encompassed in War Machine, the name given to the most highly developed military armor that Tony
invented. This armor debuted in “Legacy of Iron” (Invincible Iron Man #284, 1992).

Figure 4.3. War Machine armor as shown on action figures representing a character in the Marvel Studios film
Iron Man 2
(2010). Note the extreme militarization of the suit with shoulder and gauntlet cannons. Having this type of equipment built into the suit would make it difficult for the brain-machine interface to occur.

The gist of the story line is that Tony Stark is apparently dead and leaves a taped message for his trusted friend Jim Rhodes to take over the company and assume the mantle of Iron Man. But Rhodey would be using a new silvery gray armor—the so-called War Machine armor. If you want to get technical, the original armor for War Machine was called “Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, Mark I” and the version for Rhodey was “Mark II Model JRXL-1000.” I think it is easier to just call it War Machine armor for now. In an exchange that will have a lot of resonance for us later in this book, Tony explicitly explains to Rhodey that he “designed this last suit of armor specifically for you—to work with your own individual attributes, rather than mine.” Even at this stage of Iron Man, there was some concession about how the armor needs “tailoring” for each user. (However,
this is not addressed like this in
Iron Man 2
. In that movie, Rhodey just jumps in the suit, slugs it out with Tony, and eventually flies away!) We will come back to this concept. The War Machine armor is basically similar to the “standard” (hard to really use that word considering how many versions of the armor have appeared over the years) armor but with a real nod toward armaments.
Figure 4.3
shows an action figure of War Machine as portrayed in the 2010 Marvel Studios movie
Iron Man 2
. See the attached mini gun on the right shoulder and the double barrel cannons on each gauntlet. While it may seem like a small add-on to the suit, having these as integrated parts or attachments on the armor would create some problems with control later on. Will these weapons become part of Jim Rhodes's body in the same way a prosthetic limb can? Or a suit of iron itself? And, does that hard suit of iron mean that the man inside gets soft? We deal with that in the next few pages.

WHY THE MAN WITH A SUIT OF IRON COULD GET A JELLY BELLY

I'll just stand if you don't mind. I've got to do something about the flexibility of this armor when I get back to my lab … [Later, crushes a cigarette offered by Jim Rhodes (maybe he knew smoking was bad for you?)]—oops! S-sorry about that. I guess I haven't got as much control over these gloves as I'd like.

—Tony as Iron Man describing problems with using the suit prototype, “Apocalypse Then” (Iron Man #144, 1980)

I have full mental control over the extremis armor—all the time. Even when it's deactivated. The trick is to zero in on the control systems … One part engineering, one part inspiration.

—Tony Stark, in “With Iron Hands Part 3 of 4” (Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #31, 2007)

No doubt about it, Iron Man's armor is really cool. As I read the Iron Man comics over the years, I was always captivated by that armor. Then, the first Marvel Studios
Iron Man
movie rolled out in 2008, ratcheting up the gadgets on the armor. I like to imagine what a blast it would be to drive. Or wear. Or ride. Or merge with? Er, you
know what I mean. Before you start building such a suit for yourself, we ought to discuss a few problems that might be created by throwing something as complex and sturdy as an armored exoskeleton on top of your trusty human body. First, since you already have a skeleton inside your body, putting on an exoskeleton means you would have to deal with two skeletons. That would create some real challenges in getting around! All throughout your life, your body has been well calibrated for how big you are and how your body moves. Second, wearing a suit such as Tony's would affect your ability to walk properly for a while after you took it off. Third, let's also not forget how uncomfortable wearing it would really make you feel. Rather than soft pliable clothing, your skin would be covered with layers of metal.

Next consider how that suit would affect your body temperature. Scientists call this “thermoregulation,” or the ability to adjust your body temperature within a normal range. Kind of like a room temperature setting for your internal organs. Well, all the systems that affect body temperature are well suited (all right, pun intended!) for you when you are not wearing a huge metal suit of armor. Putting one on and then doing an extreme amount of exercise is likely to feel quite warm. (If you recall, that was my daughters' objection to wearing the armor. It would be too hot!)

Some of the issues Iron Man has to consider are pretty similar to those for deep-sea divers, firefighters who wear heavy and very hot protective gear, and astronauts. We will look at all these potential effects of wearing the suit and more in this chapter.

Wearing unpowered, that is, regular armor, would be really fatiguing. And awkward to move around in. This point was brought home to me quite clearly while writing this book. I had just watched (again) the fantastic
Lord of the Rings
trilogy on DVD. This time I also watched the special features on the third disc in which the actors are interviewed in the “Weta Workshop.” Karl Urban, who played Éomer, said that when he first put on the armor “I went to walk and I just about keeled over. I was just so unused to the sheer weight of the costume.” He also said that “once I put it on I was loath to take it off because it was quite a process…. Going to the toilet was fun … trying to fit into those small “port-a-loos” when your shoulders are 10 feet
wide.” (Despite its importance, we aren't going to touch on how Tony Stark goes #1 or #2 when he is in the Iron Man suit.)

Let's think about this further by using an issue I introduced in
Becoming Batman
: the effects of stress and physiological adaptation on the body. The body attempts to adapt so that the stress has a minimal effect. In
Becoming Batman
, I wrote about the stresses needed to produce Batman, stresses over and above what we would normally experience in our daily lives. Here I want to talk about the opposite: what happens if you remove the stresses? That is, imagine what would happen if we had fewer physical stresses on our body than normal. The bottom line is that our body systems work in a very predictable way when it comes to adaptations to stress. This means that removing the stresses also leads to a reduction in the benefits that occurred when the stresses were present. If we do exercise training that leads to stresses on our muscles, they get stronger to compensate for the stress. The reverse scenario is maybe a bit harder to grasp.

A way that the effects of decreased use have been studied is to use bed rest. Yes, this means literally resting in a bed—as did John Lennon and Yoko Ono—for many weeks at a time. Prolonged bed rest doesn't remove all the effects of gravity—which provide crucial stress cues for keeping many physiological systems working well—but it does lead to an overall reduced activity level. The idea of using bed rest in people to study the effects of decreased use of the body came from work in other animals, such as the rat. Overall, there are some clear effects. The neurons in the spinal cord that make muscles work behave differently and are more difficult to activate than in an active animal, the protein content of the muscles decreases, and overall force output declines. At the same time, the cardiovascular system also degrades, so the amount of muscle energy and the ability to move are both reduced. I have highlighted a bit about what this would mean in
figure 5.1
. The first column lists different systems (e.g., muscle) or specific items (e.g., reaction time) and then the effects of either being generally physically inactive or undergoing prolonged bed rest, spaceflight, or habitual use of Iron Man armor. The important thing to note is the effects of using Iron Man armor shown in the far right column. The overall effect is universally decreased function,
with a startling result: using the Iron Man suit to enhance ability leads to a decreased functional ability of the human inside.

Figure 5.1. The severe deconditioning effects of prolonged periods of wearing the Iron Man armor on Tony Stark and many of his body systems would be similar to those seen during bed rest, reduced physical activity, or prolonged spaceflight.

Probably the best, and most relevant, example to think about, though, is the literal “out of this world” experiences of astronauts during spaceflight and while working in space. Many of the stresses that help maintain the density of our bones and the strength of our muscles comes from the direct and indirect effects that the force of gravity has on us. When astronauts and cosmonauts are on long-duration spaceflights, they are working in an environment where the force of earth's gravity is essentially completely removed. This means that the stresses are removed, leading to weaker muscles and lower bone density. There are also problems in processing of sensation occurring during movement. The end results are overall weakness and reduced ability to coordinate the body, including the arms and legs. This can be seen in the plots of movement shown in
figure 5.2
, which shows how movement or position of the head is coordinated with the body (the trunk) before and after spaceflight. This tight coordination is seen by the close clumping together of all the points before spaceflight. In contrast, after spaceflight, there is much looser control between the different parts of the body. This can be seen by the much larger area covered by the plot in the diagram on the right.