Breaking down where in nerdom the TALOS exo-suit belongs

Toiling away deep in the U.S. Army's research and development arm of the Special Operations Command are the scientists crafting the Tactical Assault Light Operations Suit. It looks slick. It looks awesome. It looks like it's going to change the battlefield in a big way.

The only problem with it is that when military journalists cover it, they see how it looks and immediately attribute it to some sci-fi universe by saying something like, "it's a real-life Iron Man suit!" So, let's take a closer look and determine where, exactly, within the broad horizon of nerdom this high-tech exo-suit belongs.

We weren't exaggerating: Right off the bat, a comparison to Iron Man's suit is invariably struck by nearly every single news outlet. To a degree, we can see why. The suit, officials have said, will be considered complete when it's functional, bullet-proof, and weaponized.

Even Jim Geurtz of SOCOM jokingly told NPR that it's "not at the Iron Man-flying-suit, you know, flying-at-50,000-feet level." Since he's developing the suit, he gets a pass on calling it an Iron Man suit — but a more apt comparison is a War Machine suit. Since the suit is not going to be powered by a nuclear fission reactor and fire lasers, it's a better match with War Machine's kinetic arsenal.

Though there's no proof, we're pretty sure the name TALOS is a backronym designed to share a name with the ancient Greek legend. In mythology, Talos is a bronze automaton said to have protected Crete from pirates and scoundrels (and is the God of Man in the Elder Scrolls universe, but that's fantasy and not sci-fi). Coincidentally, Talos' mythological job would fit it perfectly within the Boba Fett-inspired H&K AR500 suit. Looking at their helmet design, it's obvious that they know full-well who they want it to look like.

A comparison that the TALOS suit doesn't get often enough is to the armor of Halo's Space Marines. The design is strikingly similar to the armor worn by non-player characters in the series.

The suit was also once projected to be able to relay vital information to the wearer via a heads-up display. Command information could also be relayed to the user through their fancy set of glasses. The early designs weren't too far off from the in-game version, but that was also back when they thought Google Glass was going to change the battlefield...