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...Tony Stark's redemption is possible because he didn't back up his hard drive often enough? :D
If I'm reading this right, Tony's backup of his brain doesn't include any knowledge of the Civil War or any events following. That's an innnn-teresing twist on the ol' mindwipe. But will "I don't remember doing that" be enough of a reason for his friends, allies and others to forgive him? It probably will be, but I'm not sure it should. What say you?
Replies
I agree that there are some very interesting philosophical ramifications here. The extremis upgrade radically altered Tony in ways that went beyond the physical. It could very easily be argued that extremis-free Tony would not have acted the way he did when perceived the world in vastly different ways.
In other words, Extremis is Tony's Parallax.
Why would the backup have to have been pre-Extremis? (I'm not arguing, I'm just not following the story closely enough to know the answer...) It was my understanding that the Extremis is what made it possible for him to treat his brain like a giant computer in the first place. If he has the technology to "back up" any average person's brain...well, that has more far-reaching consequences than if it's something that was unique to him particularly.
Of course, I personally like the Extremis upgrade to Iron Man, and am sorry to see it go. But that's the way of things, I guess...
I say "had to" be pre-Extremis because in his video will that explained what he did, he said he made a backup in case the Extremis upgrade went wrong.
From Iron Man 21:
"If we think of our minds as our bodies' operating systems and Extremis was an upgrade, I did what any good geek would do before installing it. I backed myself up."
The implications were laid out right there, but I didn't pick up on them until they were spelled out at the end of the most recent issue.
Genius, I tells ya.
Yup, and I called it waaaay back in the previous forum. Before the Civil War had even begun, in Iron Man's own book, Nick Fury personally told Tony that the Extremis was changing Tony's personality.
And yes, Fraction's solution is neat and perfect. But I wonder how much time it will take before some writer forgets this development and has Iron Man mentioning things he did/experienced in the period between the personality backup and the reinstallation of the backup. For example, Tony shouldn't be able to recall anything he did in Secret Invasion or in the Avengers' battle with 'Naked Janet' Ultron. He shouldn't be able to remember T'challa and Ororo's wedding either.
He may not remember it, but we've already seen him reading up on what "he" did since he created the back-up.