Comments on: Tony Stark’s Heart

By: Mithel

Mithel — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:50:01 +0000

I just assumed the Extremis/Internal Armor was being referenced here.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 03:16:56 +0000

Plus, what kind of communist guerrilla leader indulges in such a bourgeois affectation as a cigarette holder?

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:57:56 +0000

As far as I know, “myocardial infarction” actually refers to the death of the tissue, so no, you can’t have one in an artificial heart.

By: Dr Archeville

Dr Archeville — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:42:41 +0000

I believe you’re right, Keith, the heart he’s got now was once in his “sentient” Armor; it ripped out it’s own “cybernetic heart” and crammed it into Tony (it somehow installed itself). Since then Tony’s gotten the Extremis, though, so maybe that nanotech turned his cybernetic heart into technorganic hybrid.

‘Course, with all that Stark’s been doing of late, one wonders if he truly has a heart….

By: Keith Martin

Keith Martin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:14:47 +0000

If I recall correctly (and it’s hard to keep up with the retcon cycle), Tony has a mechanical artificial heart these days. Can you have a “serious acute myocardial infarction” in an artificial heart?

By: Matthew E

Matthew E — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:09:07 +0000

Reminds me of a story about a guy who took one of those magazine quizzes where you start with x number of years, add so much if you’re a woman, subtract so much if you’re a man, add so much if you live in the country, et cetera, and when you’re all done you’ve got your life expectancy. And this guy took the quiz and it turned out that he was five years older than his life expectancy. Someone asked him if this didn’t worry him a bit, and he said, hell no, imagine how healthy I must be to have made it this far.

By: Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:05:09 +0000

I suspect the Extremis intervened in the latter instance. The very thing that rendered him vulnerable to everything first Ultron and then the Sentry did to him ended up saving him.

By: MSJ

MSJ — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:27:30 +0000

Sounds like Tony would be dead without all that tech he has.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 08:16:34 +0000

Obviously, a tough one, that’s taken a lot of damage but still survives. Assuming he hasn’t gotten some magic or high-tech healing in the interim. Given all the superhero tech, you’d think there would be a booming market (or even a black market) in purely medical applications. Sort of like china organ-transplant medical tourism, but far crazier.

By: Johnny Bacardi

Johnny Bacardi — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:58:36 +0000

What happened? Improvements in surgical technology happened, to the point where it seemed very ridiculous for Tony to be wearing a big chest plate that emitted magnetic waves that kept the shrapnel entering his heart! So, and I don’t remember when (late 60’s-early 70’s, I believe), they started changing it.