An Axol by any other name…
Many of Iron Man’s armors have nicknames. The comics have Extremis, Bleeding Edge, Hulkbuster, and Silver Centurion. The movies have Heartbreaker, Igor… Hulkbuster and Silver Centurion.
While I’ve been planning this site for a year and wrote most of the copy last Christmas, it only occurred to me last month that the Ablative Armor Mark 1, aka Model 23 (sometimes aka Model 24) didn’t have a name. This armor replaced Tin Man, so Tin Man obviously had a name. The Ablative should have a name.
So I figured, why shouldn’t I go ahead and name it? Call it fan fiction, call it retconning, call it what you will, but I think it should have a name. And while Marvel Comic owns the character and armor design, I figured I could name him for fun. I even let the writer of the Ablative Armor issues know that I’d given it a nickname. No word yet on what he thinks(!).
The Armor’s Speciality
Way to get hit by a rock, Ablative Suit!
I started to think about the primary function of Iron Man’s Ablative Armor: to lose a part of itself in order to protect the whole. That’s when I thought about lizards that lose their tales so that they can get away if trapped by a predator. The technical name for it is autotomy. The thing is, not all creatures that practice autotomy regrow anything, while the Ablative Armor can cook up new tiles and put them back. It regrows and can be good as new, unlike some lizards that lose their tale. Not only do some lizards not grow their tales back, but when they do they’re only growing the cartilage back, not the bone.
So, Why Axol ?
I went looking for a creature that can really get back into perfect shape after injury, and the king of regeneration is a salamander called the axolotl. This “fish with legs” can grow back any and every part of its body, including less important parts of its brain! As a bonus, axol sound like axle, a key mechanical component in most Iron Man armors.
I considered other names for about 10 minutes, but Axol just seemed right. What other names, you might ask?
I Might Have Gone With…
I have no authority to name Axol anything, which means I also had no authority to name him any of the following clever names:
Percy - Yeah, like from Thomas the Tank Engine. Believe it or not, this was actually my second choice. And it might have even been a better choice considering the skin connection. Percival’s Spiny Mouse is a species of rodent that can regrow skin. And before you start thinking “well I can heal too,” know that this mouse can do it without creating scar tissue. It can also regrow hair follicles, fur, sweat glands, and cartilage. You can’t do that. A second and similar rodent, Kemp’s Spiny Mouse, can do the same…but I never considered the name “Kemp.”
Liz - Short for lizard. Tony’s armors tend to have male names (Jack, Igor), while his A.I. have female names (Veronica and Edith), plus this name wasn’t really working for me. (Wait, I just remembered Jarvis. Disregard.)
Sally - Short for salamander. It just didn’t seem to fit the armor.
Iggy - Short for iguana, this wouldn’t have been a bad choice at all. I have to admit, I really do like the song “Candy” by Iggy Pop and Kate Pierson. But not all iguanas grow their tales back, so there’s that.
Skink - A skink is a type of lizard, and some of them practice autotomy. They’re pretty cool, but it just didn’t seem to match the Ablative Armor.
Gecko - Honestly, I didn’t want people thinking about insurance every time they looked at Axol.
Tommy - A play on the word autotomy. It fits in with the whole “Iron Man armors having male names” thing, but I’m not sure if the Ablative can “sure play a mean pinball” or not (despite the Pinball Hall of Fame being in Las Vegas where the Ablative story is set).
So It’s Named Axol Then?
Oh yeah, Model 23 is Axol! Again, I have no authority to name Iron Man’s Ablative Armor Axol, but I respectfully hope that Mr. Laws, the writer of the comic in which this armor debuted, doesn’t mind. I’ve given him the link to the site…
