Hey everyone, new to the Iron Man comics and started with Marvel Now! series for Iron Man. I did some google searches to kind of get a back story and figured this was a good place to get started. So far I have the first 5 issues of the new Iron Man and I have a couple of questions.

From what I can gather Iron Man is no longer using the Extremis in him, and appears to have ditched the Bleeding Edge armor. Did he have Extremis removed from him or does he still have it in his body?

Secondly After reading the 5 issues I am a bit unclear about how the Model 40 armor works. Is it a liquid alloy armor, or was the liquid suite in the brief case just a test suit to see how a design would function, kind of like a prototype suit before the final version is finished, in which case he later created the suite like standard armors used to be mad? They made it sound like the latter but I am unsure of how it actually works.

Anyways I appreciate any help for a Iron Man newbie.

Hi there!

I am also new to Iron-Man, but I started with Extremis and then Matt Fraction's run, so I believe that I can answer your problem.

The Extremis virus changed Tony's biology. However, Tony was infected by a virus during Secret Invasion, thus losing control over his Extremis armor. Later, at the beginning of Stark Resilient, Tony built a new armor - the Bleeding Edge armor, which is stored inside his bones. This armor utilizes smart metals, much like the one Tony uses in the first issue of Believe. It had a lot of cool features but was ultimately sucked out of Tony's body during Long Way Down. The next armor Tony built was given to Rhodes, and a while later was taken back by Tony. We don't know much about the suit but it seems like an improvement upon the Bleeding Edge armor, and while it was not stored inside Rhodes' bones I think it's safe to assume that it also utilized smart metals and was kept in a liquid form.

Tony was then kidnapped by the Mandarin, which eventually resulted in a rebellion against the Mandarin and in the Mandarin's death in the hands of Ezekiel Stane (I suggest you read Five Nightmares to know more about him). This happened during The Future, which ends Matt's incredible run.

Next, Iron-Man was relaunched as a part of the Marvel NOW! event. Tony's current armor does not utilize smart metals, which is a bit of a disappointment in my opinion.

I strongly recommend you read Matt Fraction's run before continuing with the relaunch.

Hope I helped!

You helped a lot. I will have to check them out, I chose NOW to start because I just had no idea where to start at. Thanks for the help!