Aldrich Killian

Doctor Aldrich Killian has fair skin, golden-brown hair, and blue eyes, standing at 5'10". He weighs 180 lbs, built considerably well with noticeable musculature when shirtless.

Aldrich Killian was in many ways the antithesis of Tony Stark, ranging from his motivations to his approach to technology, and described as a personal demon created by Stark's mistakes. He is introduced as an idealistic, albeit shy and socially awkward scientist, who is outwardly composed and friendly. Killian's physical disabilities and awkwardness hinder him from being taken seriously, leading him to be frequently overlooked, dismissed, or blown over by the scientific community. This fuels deep-rooted insecurities that set a precedent for his fragile mental health. Killian's long-fueled spiteful vendetta against Stark, his idol, stems from their encounter at the Bern 2000 event in Switzerland, where Stark made the promise of meeting Killian to discuss Advanced Idea Mechanics and never fulfilled it. After briefly contemplating suicide over what he perceived as rejection, Killian became more callous, and instead swore revenge against Stark, vowing to make him feel the same "desperation" he felt.

After subjecting himself to Extremis and overcoming his disabilities, Killian immediately became more confident. Killian was very charismatic, luring war veterans into subjecting themselves to the Extremis procedure under the promise of helping them overcome their limitations. Killian's master manipulation extended to persuading even Rodriguez, the Vice President of the United States, to join his cause. Throughout the progression of his failed Extremis trials, Killian became increasingly arrogant and later adopted criminal tactics to cover up his failures, apathetic to the lives lost along the way. Killian's brilliance and ingenuity were demonstrated remarkably not just through his research with Extremis, but masterminding a grander campaign to perpetuate the War on Terror and make some profit, while offloading his crimes to a public enemy, the Mandarin, to take credit for the "bombings" caused by the Extremis misfires.

Additionally, Killian's upper torso was riddled with tattoos of dragons and Chinese proverbs, which Killian later incorporated into the Mandarin character he wrote for Trevor Slattery. Having tattooed this on his own body, it is indicative that Killian is a believer in those philosophies.

Despite having taken up grander and more ambitious aspirations, Killian's wish to cause Stark and his loved ones suffering remained a constant and thus was very sadistic. After Killian's attempt to kill Stark in the destruction of his mansion failed, he went to the length of kidnapping his girlfriend Pepper Potts as leverage, later claiming her to be his trophy. While admitting this to a captive Potts, Killian subtly expressed he's had a crush on her, another of the many reasons Killian had to be jealous of Stark. To add further insult to injury against Stark, Killian also executed Maya Hansen — his own business partner and Stark's old friend — right in front of him due to not only her insubordination against Killian but partially to spite Stark, all the while being very unrepentant that he had killed someone. He frequently acted on impulse, not just in shooting Hansen, but also when he attempted to incinerate James Rhodes with his Extremis-inherited fire breath.

EXTREMIS: Extremis enhances the user's physiology by rewriting their DNA. It harnesses the body's bio-electricity and uses it to activate parts of the brain that govern repair and chemically recode them. This can allow Extremis to hack into the basic operating system of living organisms. If the user's body chooses to accept it, they will gain regenerative healing abilities, enabling to heal all wounds, including previously amputated limbs or even physiological damage. When regenerating lost body parts, the wounds take on the appearance of burning embers while growing back the limb in a matter of minutes, and then cools into regular flesh, blood, and bone. Extremis also enhances physical performance, granting superhuman strength, reflexes, and overall higher resilience. Additionally, normal Extremis users gain the ability to generate extreme amounts of heat through a complex metabolic process, with temperatures of up to several thousand degrees Celsius. Extremis users are able to consciously control the amount of heat expelled from their body, causing the area of their body generating it to glow intensely, superheating their tissues, blood vessels and nerves, while outlining them inside the body. This effect has been shown to be unstable in the event of an Extremis overload, burning the flesh and causing an explosion. Trained Extremis users can focus and conduct heat through a single area of their body such as their arms or hands, and even emit fire from their mouths, though it would seem that only the most disciplined of Extremis users can perform this feat. Certain users also demonstrated the ability to conduct heat through other objects with physical contact, allowing them to superheat targets by touching them. Through a combination of superhuman strength and a focus of extreme heat conduction through their arms and hands, Extremis users can strike through and destroy a majority of metal structures on contact. Due to this, they are able to overpower and burn through the metal alloys that are used in most Iron Man armors, easily destroying many of the suits in combat.

Extremis users can be easily recognized through thermal imaging as they have a much higher heat signature. They can also be identified when their pupils glow while using their powers. Extremis does not make its users entirely invincible, as direct wounds through the chest, such as a uni-beam, will be lethal, destroying the victim's heart and therefore cutting off blood flow to the brain. When the body is regenerating, it is fragile and can be destroyed with a powerful enough force such as a repulsor shot. Destroying the users' brains and major organs through incineration has also been shown to be fatal. The main weakness of Extremis is the possibility that its user's body will reject the serum upon initial injection, or that the serum may become unstable within the user if they fail to properly regulate their usage of it. Extremis users are able to consciously control the amount of heat expelled from their body, but this effect has been shown to be unstable in the event of an overload within. If the virus is not accepted by or regulated in the human body, the metabolic process which causes the user to generates excessive heat and the bio-electricity harnessed by Extremis will overload. As a result, the users will rapidly build up energy and force, cumulating in a massive explosion and powerful shockwave. The resulting explosion is an excess of 3,000°C and instantly vaporizes the Extremis user's body, along with anything within a certain proximity, leaving behind shadow-like marks. A.I.M. created several terrorist attacks on United States soil to cover up the explosions caused by Extremis test subjects.

Superhuman Strength: Extremis enhanced Killian's strength enough to almost match Iron Man's strength while using the armor. He can tear several Iron Man Armors with his bare hands, though his raw lifting strength isn't quite at Iron Man's level.

Superhuman 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.

Superhuman Stamina: The physiological enhancements brought by Extremis allowed Killian to battle for an extended period.

Regenerative Healing Factor: Killian was able to heal his previous disabilities, as it was the primary original intention of Extremis. He was able to heal superficial wounds almost immediately, regrow severed limbs in a matter of seconds, and even withstand powerful explosions

Heat Generation: 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. In an attempt to get the Iron Patriot out of his armor, he generated enough heat with his hand to get the armor to open itself up due to the heat. However, the Extremis host can get so hot that they explode.

Fire Breath: An advanced control of Extremis granted Killian the ability to breathe fire, using it as an offensive power against James Rhodes when taking control of the Iron Patriot Armor, though it's not something he uses typically.

Genius-Level Intellect: Killian was a highly intelligent individual, known to be a genius while still young, and had an affinity for science. Despite his disability, he was able to develop Extremis. Initially being rejected by Tony Stark, Killian would self-improve his intelligence to the point that he managed to effectively start up A.I.M. and his Extremis project on his own. This rejection pushed Killian throughout his journey of perfecting the serum as well as trying to prove he was better than Stark.

Master Scientist: Killian had a natural gift for science ever since he was young and started to study many scientific fields in order to cure himself of his disability and manage to get revenge from Tony Stark, successfully becoming a great scientist. Alongside Maya Hansen, he was able to construct the Extremis, originally created to rewrite genetic code and allow to improve the performance of the human body.

Expert Businessperson: Killian was an excellent businessman, as he was able to effectively manage A.I.M., a privately funded think-tank, and boost it to the point where it became one of the main Primary Systems Contractor for the United States Armed Forces and the United States Government. He was able to effectively impress Pepper Potts with his Extremis presentation as well.