 | Quick Review- Iron Man: Execute Program |
Iron Man: Execute Program
By Daniel and Charlie Knauf and Patrick Zircher
It may sound hard to believe now that the character is the star of two major motion pictures and has been featured on everything from action figures to party favors, but Iron Man was not always as popular as he is today. In fact, he was dead wood on the chopping block of Marvel Comics just before cult writer Warren Ellis teamed up with graphic artist Adi Gravnov to completely revolutionize the armored avenger. Ellis introduced a viral technology that bridged the gap between humanity and technology called Extremis, an invention so bleeding edge that it challenged Stark's ego and morals. The revival of Iron Man wasn't just one of ideas, either. The book was made much slicker-looking than ever before thanks to Gravnov's cover designs (which earned him a welcome onto the crew of the Iron Man feature film). Iron Man is tremendously popular today and that renewed celebrity all started with Extremis, a story so important that it has been re-envisioned as a motion comic. However, the actual hard work of using those ideas to carve out a new face for Iron Man started in the following story, Execute Program.
Execute Program was the first story line to follow the game-changing Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Gravnov. It has always struck me as unfortunate that bookended by Extremis on one end and the Invincible Iron Man relaunch by Matt Fraction and Salvador LaRocca, this run has gone unnoticed. Written by Daniel and Charlie Knauf, the story picks up the threads left by Ellis' story in which Stark has become superhuman, more machine than man and hooked up to his technology through a virus coursing through his veins. It's a clever concept but with a lesser writer, the ideas would have been used to simply tell adventures similar to what fans had read before only with a higher standard of tech-jargon.
The Knaufs, familiar to some as the writers of HBO's Carnivale, brought with them a kind of drama and tension that had been lacking from the book. The version of Tony Stark is so advanced that he appears to be alien even to his closest allies. He fights Crimson Dynamo while bidding on antique armor and conducting business at the same time via a holographic link-up. What's more, he kills Dynamo just to show that he can use his repulsors as a kind of defibrillator to bring him right back. This frightens his Avengers team-mates who recognize that the Tony of old is long gone. When murders start popping up and Iron Man is identified as the prime suspect, Stark does everything he can to clear his name only to find that he has been compromised. The most advanced privately-owned technology on the planet is being hacked from Internet Cafe's and sent on killing sprees.
Execute Program is a smart, fast-moving tale that singles out Iron Man as one of if not the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe and the revelation is rather staggering. It's a thrilling story that builds to a tremendous climax and has a true cinematic feel to it. It even ties neatly into Civil War when Stark states that he has been used as a weapon, and weapons need to be registered. Daniel and Charlie Knauf's run on Iron Man is incredible and at the time it was initially released I was shocked to see it fail to gain a strong foothold in the comic book market (at least in my area). The only negative comment that I can make about Execute Program is that the artwork looks very dated, especially when compared to the work preceding this book by Gravnov and what follows by Robert de la Torre.
It's important to note that the entire Daniel and Charlie Knauf run of Iron Man; Execute Program, Civil War, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Haunted, and With Iron Hands have yet to be collected in hardcover editions and Execute Program has gone out of print. Possibly there are plans to collect the entire run in an Omnibus-style book, buy I have not heard anything to date. The price of Execute Program online is escalating, so if you are interested, make sure to grab one today.
Buy Daniel and Charlie Knauf's Iron Man run on Amazon.com
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