The term superhero conjures up images of people with special powers - Superman flying through the air or the Hulk hurling tanks at a sea of enemies. Yet there’s one superhero who’s actually just a man: Iron Man.

Taking his turn in the spotlight this spring with a new movie and game, Tony Stark is the man in the iron mask. He has no super powers of his own, but as a technologist and arms designer he creates his superhero ‘Iron Man’ suit, replete with a range of weapons that could equip a small army.

So what’s it like to focus on real, tangible technology rather than fanciful fantasy powers when you research and write a comic book? We caught up with Iron Man comic book writer Matt Fraction at Marvel HQ, New York to ask him ourselves.

Sitting down in an office where the walls are covered with posters of Marvel characters, Fraction explains that the process is part real tech research and part crazy tech idea.

‘I read enough to sound clever and then extrapolate,’ he says. ‘I base my ideas on a little kernel of truth and then devise whatever cool stuff we need for it to be visual, rather than be constrained by the realities of science, physics and technology. I find, however, that the world often catches up with you anyway.’

Fraction explains that for his stories he always begins by considering where war is going, as that would be what Stark would be most interested in stopping. Originally a ‘weaponeer’, Stark’s view on war changes after he sees his own inventions being used for evil. Fraction’s stories follow this theme, with Stark out to stop the warmongers by using and creating new technologies to end conflicts rather than fight them.

‘I knock ideas together and sketch a notion of what might happen. I read about cybernetics, where we’re going with that - people putting electromagnets in their fingertips so they have a magnetic sense when they come close to surfaces, the future of body modification. Tony is an accessible superhero, a man taking evolution by the throat and pushing it where he wants to push it. Ultimately Iron Man’s genius is that he has a foot in each world: he’s a superhero technologist.’...