Iron Man question

[doctorchallenger]

Could someone more versed in Iron Man's history than I, tell me when Stark's heart issue ceased to be a problem for the character?  It would be much appreciated if the reference could be specific to the issue, but if no one is sure to that degree of specificity, then if you can point me to the right era, so I can narrow down my search.  This is for my academic research.  Thanks in advance for any and all assistance in this regard.

[Ajax]

From what I can tell his first artificial heart came either just before or during the story Demon in A Bottle. So the late 70's (1978-1979 just to be safe). He got another artificial heart after the Onslaught event and yet another one in the early 2000's when his armor, which had become sentient/evil (cause whenever a robot becomes sentient it immediately becomes evil). The two did battle and Stark was unable to beat the thing, but in a strange turn of events had a heart attack and the armor uses it's own components to build it's creator a new heart. Hope that helps.

[The Hitman]

As a side note, the reason Tony's armor became sentient in early 2000's was becasue of Ultron.

[thalaw2]

I thought it was because he never washed it inside and the resulting growth in fungus and other stuff eventually became conscious....

[Zippo]

I have somewhat of an Iron man question as well: Does anybody understand what actually happened with the skrull virus during Secret Invasion? I know it screwed up all the Stark-tech, but from what I've read places it also took away his Extremis abilities? How is that even possible? As I understood it, Extremis wasn't Stark-tech in the normal sense, and was actually something that rewrote his DNA to allow his body to do the crazy things it was doing, apparently by "changing the brain's blueprint of what his body should be like" so it would "heal" himself into this new configuration.... or something...

Anyway, I'm just totally confused as to what the current state of Tony is, and whether he'll have his Extremis powers when this whole "World's Most Wanted" thing is over...

[Talavar]

Oh yeah, the Skrull computer virus negating his Extremis abilities is pure, grade-A balonium.  Extremis basically gave Tony a direct mental link with his armour, eliminating the need for a complex armour control system (because it was his brain) and speeding up his reaction time in the armour greatly.  It also gave him the ability to mentally control other technology through the broadcasting abilities of the armour.  And it did all this by rewriting his biology - a computer virus shouldn't be able to do squat to that.  It's the equivalent of a computer virus taking away Spider-man's abilities.

[tommyboy]

Didn't he leave his heart in San Francisco?
No...wait...that was Tony Bennet. I always mix them up...

[John Jr.]

Could someone more versed in Iron Man's history than I, tell me when Stark's heart issue ceased to be a problem for the character?  It would be much appreciated if the reference could be specific to the issue, but if no one is sure to that degree of specificity, then if you can point me to the right era, so I can narrow down my search.  This is for my academic research.  Thanks in advance for any and all assistance in this regard.

Stark undergoes heart surgery after a fight with a LMD who stolen his identity and armor. To fight the android Stark used his old, heavier, armor and the strain was too much for his heart.
This story was told on Iron Man (1st series) 17-19.
The surgery's issue was 19:

[BlueBard]

Oh yeah, the Skrull computer virus negating his Extremis abilities is pure, grade-A balonium.  Extremis basically gave Tony a direct mental link with his armour, eliminating the need for a complex armour control system (because it was his brain) and speeding up his reaction time in the armour greatly.  It also gave him the ability to mentally control other technology through the broadcasting abilities of the armour.  And it did all this by rewriting his biology - a computer virus shouldn't be able to do squat to that.  It's the equivalent of a computer virus taking away Spider-man's abilities.

It's not like there haven't been sillier storylines from the House of (Lately Bad) Ideas.

I always thought the Extremis tech as portrayed was too powerful anyway, and a really bad plot device.  One thing to be able to mentally control the armor, quite another to do all of the things Extremis allowed him to do.  It took all pressure off the writer to write a good ending for every event.  When faced with a tough battle, he just invokes godlike Extremis powers and it's over with (at least in the few stories I read).  If it's really gone forever, I won't miss it... but the genie is already out of the bottle.  Why couldn't Stark just do it again?  If they (Marvel) recognized that Extremis was too powerful, they could have come up with a less lame explanation for getting rid of it.

I will say that Extremis made perfect sense from a character-development point of view.  Stark is so guilt-ridden and obsessed over the things others did with his technology that he wants to have total control over it that nobody else can override.

[Talavar]

Oh yeah, the Skrull computer virus negating his Extremis abilities is pure, grade-A balonium.  Extremis basically gave Tony a direct mental link with his armour, eliminating the need for a complex armour control system (because it was his brain) and speeding up his reaction time in the armour greatly.  It also gave him the ability to mentally control other technology through the broadcasting abilities of the armour.  And it did all this by rewriting his biology - a computer virus shouldn't be able to do squat to that.  It's the equivalent of a computer virus taking away Spider-man's abilities.

It's not like there haven't been sillier storylines from the House of (Lately Bad) Ideas.

I always thought the Extremis tech as portrayed was too powerful anyway, and a really bad plot device.  One thing to be able to mentally control the armor, quite another to do all of the things Extremis allowed him to do.  It took all pressure off the writer to write a good ending for every event.  When faced with a tough battle, he just invokes godlike Extremis powers and it's over with (at least in the few stories I read).  If it's really gone forever, I won't miss it... but the genie is already out of the bottle.  Why couldn't Stark just do it again?  If they (Marvel) recognized that Extremis was too powerful, they could have come up with a less lame explanation for getting rid of it.

I will say that Extremis made perfect sense from a character-development point of view.  Stark is so guilt-ridden and obsessed over the things others did with his technology that he wants to have total control over it that nobody else can override.

As portrayed in its initial appearance, Extremis, by Warren Ellis, it's handled well and not uber-powerful; it was about speeding up control times (something most Marvel writers would never think of as an issue anyway).  Some of the things other writers did with it (giving Tony the ability to control all of his armours simultaneously for instance) made it too powerful.

[BlueBard]

I don't even have a problem with the idea that Tony could control multiple suits of armor.  One of the stories I did read showed him beating Mr. Fantastic while playing chess on several boards simultaneously... not because he's smarter, but because his brain was more effective at multi-tasking. I could buy that and I thought that particular plot line was well done.  You could debate whether or not Tony should be able to beat Reed at chess, but at least it was plausible.

I forget exactly what struck me as taking the idea too far.  I didn't buy those books, so I don't have anything to refer back to.  All I remember is thinking that some of the things he did seemed too 'godlike'.