Inventing Iron Man (25 page)

Weber offers a further reality check when he goes on to say that it is difficult to really predict how complex a device—think the complexity of Iron Man—could be controlled with any such approach. That is because all the studies to date have used very simple tasks and participants have solely focused on a single task. The point is that this is “pretty artificial, since we rarely focus so much attention on simple or even more complex motor tasks. No one has really studied how BMI [brain-machine interface] performance changes when the user is performing other tasks in parallel. ‘Multi-tasking' would require at least a portion of the BMI control to be performed subconsciously.” This last comment about multitasking is particularly relevant when we think back to our discussion of how attentionally demanding that would be in
chapter 4
.

The bottom line of all of this is that upon first “jacking in” to the Iron Man suit any user would probably be able to fairly quickly (within a few hours) learn how to do something straightforward like opening or closing one hand. How long to do something even more complex like standing up and walking? Using benchmarks from neural rehabilitation and attempts at relearning skills like walking after spinal cord injury or stroke, it is reasonable to estimate that this could be achieved in about three months of training. That might give enough time to provide the ability to stand up slowly and to walk at about one-half the normal pace across a space of about 30 feet. That is pretty sobering when we think of what is shown in the comic books and movies. So, running in and grabbing the suit, throwing it on, plugging it in, is just not possible. At least, not yet.

I can see why the writers and artists show that, though, instead of a panel that says “three months later” and shows the thief slowly shuffling across the floor in the stolen Iron Man suit! Not very thrilling, but that's the truth. Even the comic book writers did acknowledge a bit of this. Returning to the story “And Who Shall Clothe Himself in Iron?” (Iron Man #170) we began with above, Jim Rhodes does find he is having difficulty just moving around. So, he tracks
down a scientist working in one of Tony's labs for help. All we see is that some time later, the scientist tells Rhodey, “like I said it'd take months—maybe years—to dope out all that circuitry.” Umm. Yes. At the very least—for now. Just as the first “gray armor” Iron Man presaged things that are just appearing now, perhaps we will see a more intuitive control system that can be easily learned.

You might ask at this point why the suit couldn't just remain a device that only triggers its activity from the activity of the user. Kind of like an amplified passive suit like the ReWalk we first discussed back in
chapter 2
. This design could work for simple and very slow tasks like walking carefully across a room with a smooth floor. However, to do sophisticated things like maneuver out of the way of Whiplash or fight Iron Monger, it would be far too slow.

Your biological body makes use of many different timescales when you move. Your neurons work with a millisecond (thousandths of a second) scale, your muscles use tens of milliseconds, your movements take hundredths of a second, and your overall impression of what is happening occurs on a “seconds” timescale. You are fully calibrated for this in the same way that your brain body maps are calibrated to your body parts as we learned in
chapter 3
. In order for the Iron Man suit to respond in a way that you or Tony or Rhodey could control effectively, it would need to work on command signals for your neurons on that millisecond timescale. Anything further downstream (like using actual movements of the body to trigger the motors in the suit) would introduce huge delays. Using that approach would be like trying to move around and fight Whiplash with the kinds of feedback delays you used to get on a poor transatlantic telephone connection but which is nicely mimicked now by using a low bandwidth Internet connection to have delayed Skype conversation. Everything would be out of synch. Even small delays would be catastrophic.

Now let's move on and think about what kind of real-life examples of training would be needed. So, this means we have dealt with the fairly difficult problems outlined above and assume that the suit itself can be controlled—remember this is really just saying that the user has
the ability to use his or her body. Now we have to superimpose all the technical training on top of that. This issue was hinted at in the 2008
Iron Man
movie in a scene where Colonel Jim Rhodes is touring some recruits through a hangar and discussing the role of pilots and advanced fighter jet technology. Rhodey says, “In my experience no unmanned vehicle will ever trump a pilot's instinct, his insight—that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern the outcome. Or a pilot's judgment.” Just after that, Tony Stark strolls in and says, “Colonel … why not a pilot without the plane?” Let's pause for a minute to think about how much training just that part would take.

To think this through, let's use qualifying as a jet fighter pilot as the example of training. Typically you need at least a bachelor's degree. You would have to be in top physical and psychological condition. OK. Assuming you got accepted and completed officer training school, the next step would be flight school. There you would study aerodynamics, aviation physiology, engine mechanics, principles of navigation, and land and sea survival. Then, during primary flight training, you spend many hours in the air (with four solo flights) and many more in flight simulator training. That would not include additional lecture hours for flight support instruction. Upon completion of this training, the top, top candidates would go on to five more weeks of jet training “ground school,” which could include classes in meteorology, rules and safety of visual flight followed by actual flight training in aerobatics, communications, weapons use, and specialized takeoffs and landings. Next is advanced flight training, in which jet fighter pilots perform combat maneuvers and learn about flying at night. You get your wings only after five to seven years of training. That's a lot of work. But every step here is a step that an Iron Man “trainee” would absolutely need to complete.

Iron Man is often shown having kind of standard “mano a mano” fights as well. This was clearly shown in extended sequences of hitting, blocking, punching and kicking between Iron Man and War Machine in
Iron Man 2
. He would need at least some basic training in martial arts—something hinted at but never really directly addressed in the Iron Man comics. It is important that he can do this, though, as his suit often powers down or malfunctions and he loses his advanced weapons capabilities. He needs at least some grounding in this.

This was cleverly shown as part of the huge Marvel-wide “Civil War” epic. In the portion unfolding mostly in Iron Man (and collected in the 2007 graphic novel
Iron Man: Civil War
), Tony is shown in a flashback asking Captain America for some pointers on hand-to-hand fighting. This was meant to dovetail into the early years of the Avengers and clearly highlights the status Captain America has as a dominant hand-to-hand fighter in the Marvel Universe. The images in
figure 9.2
are extracted from the “Iron Man: Civil War” story and show Tony learning (panel A) and receiving (panel B) various techniques from “Cap.” Later, Tony shows that he has learned a bit from his training. I love how Cap congratulates Tony on getting it right and sweeping his legs out from under him. As Cap is falling to the floor, panel C shows him shouting, “Nice. Good follow through.” When teaching martial arts this kind of thing actually happens all the time. I always let my trainees know if they are getting it right. It is kind of bizarre, though, because really you are congratulating them on throwing you down, intercepting your attack, or applying some kind of painful joint lock!

Anyway, using a framework and timeline I outlined in
Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero
, Tony would need at least the initial and middle training stages. I reckon he should train in some form of martial arts emphasizing striking, kicking, and joint locking (like Cap is doing to Tony's elbow in panel B) for five to eight years. He could do much of this training in parallel with his jet fighter qualifying. So, quite a bit of training is needed to be Iron Man. Or, check that. To be a successful Iron Man, a lot of training is needed!

All that extra training paid off handsomely for Tony in the story “The War with the Kree Is Over” found in the New Avengers: Illuminati comic miniseries that ran in 2007. In the miniseries, Iron Man, along with the rest of the Illuminati (such as Captain America, Professor Xavier, Reed Richards, Dr. Strange, Namor, and Black Bolt), is captured by the Skrull. In this particular story by Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed, Tony loses his armor to the Skrull and is awaiting his fate in a prison cell on board the ship. For some reason, the Skrull think it would be a neat idea to pretend to be other members of the Avengers (like Thor) to see what Tony would do. Because the Skrull are just Skrull and not super-powered Avengers, what Tony does is, well, kick butt and take names (although not so much on the names part). Once he has subdued all of the evil Skrull, he quips
“Thanks for the combat training, Cap.” It is worth noting also that beyond the need for being able to fight in the Iron Man suit, the general body awareness that accrues with extended martial arts training would be very useful for keeping Tony Stark's nervous system highly “tuned” and ready to go. Robert Downey Jr., who has so capably played Tony Stark in the Iron Man film adaptations, has found martial arts training to be a useful and tuning influence in his own life. He has studied wing chun, a very direct and effective Chinese martial art, for many years.

Figure 9.2. Tony Stark and Captain America training in martial arts from the graphic novel
Iron Man: Civil War
(2007). Note that Tony focuses on simple and effective techniques he could use while wearing his armor if his weapons systems failed. Copyright Marvel Comics.

So, Iron Man as a possibility of a human machine certainly exists. However, the closest that we have today is more reflective of the original Iron Man introduced by Stan Lee back in 1963. The capabilities of that Iron Man are very similar to a combination of the Cyberdyne HAL and the fixed wing of Yves Rossy. Just as the Iron Man of almost 50 years ago is only now being realized, perhaps the fantastic seeming Iron Man of our day will be a reality 50 years from now.

In my view, exploring the bits of Iron Man that are realistic unveils the fantastic capacities the human body possesses. What is my verdict on the possibility of Iron Man? Well, it is possible if we accept a 1963 comic book version with some caveats. However, the length of Iron Man's career would be very short. (We will look at this more in detail later in the chapter.) Tony Stark as Iron Man faces three main problems in trying to have a long life as an armored superhero: concussion, the integrity of his neural implants, and the danger associated with experimenting on and implementing of the Iron Man suit. That is, Tony Stark would likely have killed himself in some accident or during flight. Also, given the need for direct nervous system connection, all the health issues associated with implanting man-made materials into the body would severely limit his ability to have a long career.

Concussion is a huge issue for Tony to get past. Tony stated this very plainly in the 2010 graphic novel
Iron Man: The End
: “All those years trusting my armor to protect me, I forgot there was just a man inside. That pummeling took a toll. Degenerative nerve damage eating away my coordination like a boxer after too many shots to the head.” Very graphic stuff, even for a graphic novel. And very true. Recently concussion in sports has received a lot of attention. Some years ago the NFL got quite serious about addressing concussion in football, particularly as it affected the marquee quarterback position. More recently the issue of concussion has—finally—received more attention in the high impact sport of ice hockey. There is still a long way to go when it comes to a widespread change in attitude.

I really enjoy hockey and football, and this past year I was watching Hockey Night in Canada on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC's Hockey Night in Canada is the NHL equivalent of NFL's Monday Night Football). At the end of the Montreal Canadiens versus Toronto Maple Leafs game (if you're not familiar with ice hockey, you can think Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys to get the NFL equivalent, or Manchester United versus Liverpool for the English football equivalent, of the rivalry), one of the co-hosts in a between-period segment presented an overview of the night's major head injuries in a short video montage. Following this the host managed a kind of weak joke about squashed melons (or something similar to that—the key word was squash, it being Hallowe'en and visions of pumpkins were in the air I guess. Ha ha.). Another co-host laughed but clearly mostly out of pity, as he looked quite uncomfortable.