Inventing Iron Man (28 page)

The last point of this chapter is that for a real Iron Man suit of armor to exist and to be usefully applied, it must be based on the kind of brain-machine interface hinted at in the Extremis story line. It must respond without having to be consciously commanded. This would free up the neurological resources needed for more challenging tasks and environments. The user must be highly trained and in tip-top shape. Remember, the suit amplifies the user. If the user is “poor quality,” you just get “louder” poor quality when it is amplified. This was pointed out by Whiplash (Ivan Vanko) in
Iron Man 2
. He was brought in by Justin Hammer to create an army (and navy, and air force, and marines!) of “Iron Man–like” suits for soldiers to wear. But instead he creates remote-controlled robot drones. He tells Hammer “Drone better … human causes problems.” Getting around those problems requires a lot of work still.

We are on a line of discovery that may well one day produce what was written on the Invincible Iron Man masthead beginning with issue #70 in September 1974: “When millionaire industrialist Tony Stark, inventor extraordinaire, garbs himself in solar-charged, steel-mesh armor he becomes the world's greatest human fighting machine.” Tony's father, Howard Stark, said it best in one of the old Super 8 film montages shown in
Iron Man 2
: “everything is achievable through technology.” The fields of neuroscience and biomedical engineering continue to lead efforts to arrive at a useful working concept like that of an Iron Man neuroprosthetic. We aren't there
yet. And certainly the jet boots and repulsor rays are not even on the radar. But much of what we have discussed is on the horizon. We look to the efforts of scientists, engineers, and inventors to continue to take us along that path. The real-life Invention of Iron Man lies ahead.

TEN MOMENTOUS MOMENTS OF THE METAL MAN

Iron Man comics have been divided (so far) into five volumes. This does not include the original Iron Man stories in Tales of Suspense. As detailed in Marvel Comics'
Iron Man: The Official Index to the Marvel Universe
(2010), Iron Man showed up in Tales of Suspense from his debut in issue #39 from 1963 up until issue #99 in March 1968. Then Iron Man debuted in his own comic from Iron Man #1 in May 1968. This “volume 1” of Iron Man was maintained until issue #332 in September of 1996. Volume 2 spanned Iron Man #1 in November 1996 until #13 in November 1997. Volume 3 began with Iron Man #1 (yes, this is a little confusing) in February 1998 until #89 in December 2004. Volume 4 began as Iron Man #1 (again!) in January 2005 and ran until #32 in October 2008 (although it was called Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. from issue #15). Volume 5 started as The Invincible Iron Man #1 in July 2008. In January 2011, the numbering became consecutive, beginning with #500 to mark the five hundredth issue of the comic. There have also been additional offshoot titles (such as War Machine, which also has several volumes) and special collections across the years.

The ten momentous moments of Iron Man are listed in the table following.

For further reading about the realities of superheroes, have a look at
Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).
Physics of Superheroes
by friendly-neighborhood physics professor James Kakalios (Gotham, 2009) is a great book. If you want further information on Iron Man, I suggest
Iron Man: Beneath the Armor
by Andy Mangels (Del Rey 2008),
Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Superhero
by Matthew Manning (Doring Kindersley, 2010), or
Marvel Chronicle
by Tom DeFalco, Peter Sanderson, Tom Brevoort, and Matthew Manning (Doring Kindersley, 2008). An excellent exploration of Iron Man in pop culture is
Comic Book Nation
by Bradford Wright (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). For more on neuroscience, I suggest checking out “Brain Facts,” a primer on the nervous system published and made freely available at
www.sfn.org
by the Society for Neuroscience. More on brain-machine interface can be found in
Beyond Boundaries
by Miguel Nicolelis (Times Books, 2011).

Avatar
(2009, 20th Century Fox)

Doctor Who
(1963–1989, 2005–present; BBC TV series)

Iron Man
(2008, Marvel Studios)

Iron Man 2
(2010, Marvel Studios)

The Six Million Dollar Man
(1974–78; ABC TV series)

Surrogates
(2009, Touchstone)

The Terminator
(1984, MGM)

Mangels, A. (2008)
Iron Man: Beneath the armor
. Del Ray Books, New York.

de La Hire, J. (2009)
Enter the Nyctalope
, translated by Brian Stableford. Hollywood Comics, Encino, CA.

Mangels, A. (2008)
Iron Man: Beneath the armor
. Del Ray Books, New York.