Warning: While junior novelizations are notorious for simplifying, brightening or changing story beats and endings for films, the fact that there’s an official adaptation out there before the film actually hits the cinemas means that probably a good chunk of what we talk about here will be spoilers for Iron Man 3, out in theaters in about a month.
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Going all the way back to the first teaser image for Iron Man 3, fans have been operating under a false impression, if the Iron Man 3 junior novel is to be believed.Shortly before Comic Con last year, an image appeared in Entertainment Weekly that appeared to be Tony Stark using Extremis to “call” his armor to him. In the comics, Tony infects himself with Extremis, which allows him to manipulate the armor remotely, among a number of other things. It’s been widely believed that the surgery seen in the Iron Man 3 trailer is part of that process in the film.Well, if the movie unfolds in the same way the book does, Tony is never infected with Extremis at all. Instead, he has had implants put under his skin that let him control the Mark XLII armor mentally. This allows the armor to function without him even in it, something that’s a great function when you’re having panic attacks relating to your recent alien invasion-related near-death experience.In fact, Tony becomes so agoraphobic that he tries to avoid leaving his secure lab at one point by sending the armor out in his stead to spend time with Pepper (it doesn’t work). And on a related note, the scene from the trailer with the armor attacking Pepper in bed is not, as has been widely predicted, a dream sequence (although it has something to do with nightmares). Tony is having a nightmare at that point, and when Pepper tries to awaken him the suit attacks, thinking she is causing him distress.The fact that Tony doesn’t have Extremis plays into the way the virus works in the film–there’s not the variety of powers that it gives users in the comics; rather, it applies the same handful of abilities (speed, healing, strength, ability to generate enormous levels of heat) to all of the Extremis soldiers. If Tony were to infect himself with this version of the virus, it would do him little good.
