| HistoryText | - Aldrich Killian was a budding, but crippled, scientist in 1999, heading up a fledgling think tank known as Advanced Idea Mechanics. Always on the lookout for sponsors to gain recognition for his group, he attended a New Year's Eve party in Bern, Switzerland, where he encountered Tony Stark. He approached Stark with a business proposition, but Stark brushed him off, lying that he'd meet Killian on the roof a short while later. Killian waited, but Stark never arrived, and over the next hour, he contemplated jumping from the roof to end his own life. Eventually, he resolved to stand up against the injustice of the situation and prove himself to the world without needing the likes of Tony Stark.
The experience of that night hardened Aldrich Killian to the realities of life, and he quickly came around to the idea of acting as a facilitator, drawing fine scientific minds to himself instead of reaching out to others for support. Among his earliest recruits was Dr. Maya Hansen, a woman who had been spurned by Stark after a one night stand on that same night. Hansen brought her Extremis virus research with her into the folds of A.I.M. and Killian quickly grasped its potential in gaining lucrative military contracts.
Over the years, the Extremis process was refined to the point where Killian had himself infused with it, before having it administered to a number of other human test subjects. The power it granted was extreme, although it was also very dangerous, and Killian became reliant on Dr. Hansen to perfect the process, lest he too suffer the fate of others who failed to regulate the Extremis virus. Some of those others became the hapless victims of their own infusions when they became unstable and exploded. These explosions would leave no trace of the host, but would kill others in the near vicinity, so Killian created a cover story of a terror plot to obscure A.I.M.'s involvement. While the U.S. government chased phantom terrorists in the Middle East, Killian was left to pursue his shady activities with impunity.
With solutions to his Extremis problems still proving elusive, Killian again approached Stark, this time courting the interest of its president Pepper Potts. His meeting with Potts gained him nothing however, and he withdrew to further his machinations.
Another explosion drew the attention of Tony Stark when Stark's friend and security chief Happy Hogan got caught in the blast. Killian's response of having his fake terrorist, the Mandarin, claim responsibility had Stark promising revenge and so Killian sent armed helicopters to attack Stark at his Malibu home. Stark barely escaped the destruction of the mansion, as did Dr. Hansen who was visiting at the time, and Pepper Potts. Killian then used the opportunity of Dr. Hansen being in the company of Potts to personally intercept and capture Potts himself.
His next target was Colonel Rhodes and the Iron Patriot battlesuit that Rhodes often wore in service to the American government. Rhodes was captured in the Middle East and shipped back to Killian still cocooned within the Iron Patriot.
Killian then ensnared Tony Stark, who had come snooping around Killian's Miami mansion looking for the Mandarin. He attempted to goad Stark into working for him, but without success. Not even a real time transmission of Pepper Potts, now in restraints and suffering the effects of an Extremis infusion, could persuade Stark's cooperation. Dr. Hansen objected to the extremes that Killian was willing to undertake, and threatened to inject herself with a lethal dose of the Extremis virus. Killian responded by rounding on her and shooting her in the chest.
Leaving Stark in the hands of his men, Killian went to Colonel Rhodes who was being held elsewhere in the mansion. He used his Extremis power to heat the Iron Patriot suit and force Rhodes out of it. Having subdued Rhodes, Killian then sent his main enforcer to capture the United States president, and left to rendezvous with the president aboard the Norco, a salvaged Roxxon oil tanker docked in an east coast port.
The Norco had been set to stage a very public display where President Ellis was to be executed while wearing the Iron Patriot armor, and the whole affair would be televised live to the world in a bid to send world leaders to Killian for countermeasures against the Mandarin's terror threat. Killian indulged Pepper Potts, who was being held on the Norco, in various details of his plans, and then assured the president, when he arrived, that his imminent death was nothing personal. He then had the president stuffed back into the Iron Patriot and strung up for the grand finale.
Before President Ellis could be sacrificed in fire, Tony Stark and Colonel Rhodes arrived on the scene and started fighting Killian's Extremis-powered security force. Stark summoned a force of Iron Man battlesuits himself, prompting Killian to enter the fray and confront Stark personally. Neither man could fully conquer the other and eventually Stark managed to temporarily weaken Killian by sealing him into the Mark XLII Iron Man armor and setting it to self destruct. Killian, grievously injured, rose from the wreckage and advanced on Stark, maniacally calling himself the real Mandarin, but was intercepted by Pepper Potts whose Extremis virus had successfully bonded with her. She first bashed Killian away with a metal bar, then followed the surprise attack with a Stark explosive and repulsor ripped from a passing Iron Man armor. Detonated by the repulsor, the explosive munition apparently obliterated all that was of Aldrich Killian.
|
| Abilities | - *Genius Level Intellect: Killian was an intelligent boy since young, and had an affinity for science. Initially being rejected by Tony Stark, Killian managed to start up A.I.M. and his Extremis project.
*Master Scientist: Killian started to study many scientific fields in order to cure himself from his disability and manage to get revenge from Tony Stark, successfully becoming a great scientist.
*Expert Businessman: Killian was able to turn A.I.M., a privately funded think-tank, into one of the main Primary Systems Contractor for the United States Armed Forces and the United States Government.
*Expert Martial Artist: Killian was highly-skilled in martial arts, in which he was able to effectively tear through many Iron Man suits with ease and even best Tony Stark in melee combat. During the battle of Norco, Killian was able to use his Extremis abilities to target vital parts in the Iron Man armor, allowing him to destroy a number of them.
|
| Powers | - Thanks to Extremis, Killian displays various superhuman abilities, such as being able to regrow entire body parts, strength, enhanced healing factor, a touch able to melt Iron Man's armor, and at one point channels the heat produced by Extremis to spit fire at James Rhodes.
*Superhuman Strength: Extremis enhanced Killian's muscles to the point of being able to tear several Iron Man Armors with his bare hands.
*Enhanced Agility: Extremis enhanced Killian's speed and agility to the point where he was able to effortlessly dodge many of Iron Man's repulsor attacks.
*Regenerative Healing Factor: Killian used Extremis to heal his previous disabilities, as it was the primary original intention of Extremis. He was able to heal superficial wounds almost immediately, and regrow severed limbs in a matter of seconds.
*Exothermic Manipulation: Hosts of Extremis are able to consciously raise the temperature of parts of their bodies. The effect can be controlled to the extent that it might only scorch skin, or increased to the point where it can cause steel to turn into a molten state.
*Firebreathing: An advanced control of Extremis granted Killian the ability to breath fire, using it as an offensive power against James Rhodes when taking control of the Iron Patriot Armor.
|
