Warning! Spoilers for Extreme Carnage: Alpha #1 below.
The King in Black event might be over at Marvel Comics, but Tony Stark hasn’t stopped experimenting on his symbiote Iron Man armor. In Extreme Carnage: Alpha #1, Iron Man teams up with Flash Thompson’s Anti-Venom, and when he shows him around his new compound, Stark reveals he kept the disgusting (and quite powerful) suit of armor that he created while symbiotes were overtaking the world.
During the King in Black event, Tony Stark reverse-engineered his Extremis armor to save Eddie Brock’s life and fight against the symbiote army unleashed by Knull, the God of Symbiotes. Unfortunately, Stark failed in saving Brock but ended up bonding with his armor to create a horrifying new symbiote-Extremis hybrid. The on-the-fly creation led to Stark taking control of a Celestial. However, while the armor was powerful, it was highly volatile; it felt like an abomination. In a sense, it felt like Stark was playing God.
In Extreme Carnage: Alpha #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Manuel Garcia, Cam Smith, Marc Deering, Robert Poggi, Guru-eFX, and VC’s Travis Lanham, Carnage is back and terrorizing the Marvel Universe again. Flash Thompson is struck with a vision of Carnage and nearly kills one of his coworkers. Iron Man arrives on the scene but immediately ends the tension by saying he needs Anti-Venom’s help, as a huge problem is coming for both of them. Back at Stark’s new lab, he tells Thompson he’s changed things up depending on what crisis the Avengers are facing and reveals he’s kept his Extremis-symbiote armor.
![Iron Man’s Living Armor Is His Most Terrifying Ever](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Iron-Man-Extremis-Marvel-Comics.jpg)
Stark even has a new name for his armor, calling the creation the Extrembiote. He tells Flash he can control it like any other armor but is warned by the symbiote hero that it’s a living thing that Tony can’t manage long term. After confirming Carnage is back and stronger than ever, Iron Man asks Flash to track down him and other symbiotes before people are scared again as they were during King in Black’s takeover.
It’s pretty fascinating to see Extreme Carnage: Alpha #1 pull on the previous threads of one of Stark’s most powerful and terrifying suits. His Extrembiote armor might have massive power, but given how it’s a living thing and symbiotes are so hard to control, using it would be a risk. Stark should have destroyed the suit because right now, he’s setting up Carnage or someone else to steal it and have the suit fall into the wrong hands. Time will tell if Iron Man made the right call in keeping his most terrifying armor around. Extreme Carnage: Alpha #1 is in comic book stores now.