Der unbesiegbare Iron Man

Following the success of 1992's "X-men" animated series, Marvel returned to daytime TV entertainment with "Iron Man The Animated series" as part of the "Marvel Action hour". Any discerning viewer would be able to pin point the exact purpose of this animated series, and that is to sell toys to children. As a result, whatever complexities about the character that were inherent in the comics, including his womanizing nature and his alcohol addiction, were discarded in favor of a more child friendly premise. And what could be more child-friendly than "heroic good guy team versus dastardly bad guy team".

Much of the show's first season was a dismal disappointment. It was easily a cut and paste rehash of G I Joe or the cheesy 1980s He-Man cartoon with Iron Man leading his "Force Works" team against the evil Mandarin and his cronies. Every episode was largely the same as the last: The Mandarin attempts another goofy world domination plot or to steal a new Stark invention, there is some dissension caused within Iron Man's team, evil plot seems to succeed but Iron Man's team settle their differences in time to save the day.

Formulaic, bland and actually boring at times, season 1 also featured some horrendous animation. It was not just bad in terms of 1990s standards, but bad even when compared to animated series of the 1980s or late 1970s. Artwork would constantly go "off model" and character movements were strictly twelve frames per second. Furthermore in order to save costs, the animation company would use a lot of stock footage from past episodes in subsequent ones with no effort made to cover the cost cutting measure.

A year later, Marvel re-vamped the Iron Man series by hiring a new creative team and animation company. The results were a drastic improvement. The show took a darker turn in season 2 where the Force works team is disbanded after Tony Stark betrays their trust. Now working alone with occasional help from James Rhodes Aka War Machine, Stark must fend off his competitor Justin Hammer while dealing with new threats despite the disappearance of the Mandarin.

Season 2 largely discards the formulaic style, choosing to directly adapt popular story-lines from the Iron Man comics while having more character centered episodes that deal with common themes that anyone can relate to such as phobias, trust, the price of beauty and obsession. There is also a greater sense of continuity as the affects of events in one episode carry over into the next. Koko Enterprises, known for their work on the award winning Batman The Animated series give the animation in Iron Man's second season a much needed bump in the right direction. Character movements are smoother, art detail is better and the color scheme loses that bright cheery look of season one, replacing it with heavier blacks and more angular designs.

After twenty six episodes, Iron Man the animated series remains a very mixed bag. Blame for this shows disappointing quality can be attributed to constrictions placed upon the writers to feature as many Iron Man suits as possible in each episode as free publicity for the toys. On the bright side, it got better, allowing the audience at least 13 episodes of decent animated entertainment.

2/10 for season 1 7/10 for season 2.

Average to 4.5/10 round up to 5/10

I didn't watch Iron Man on Sky Digital. Instead, I watched every Iron Man episode (26 episodes) at a hospital when I was a boy. Iron Man was shown on the this tv channel - Fox Kids. It belonged over there. So did other ones such as The Incredible Hulk, Silver Surfur, and the Fantastic Four. Neither was as popular as Spider-Man and the X-Men on Fox Kids, however, among the children. If I could reverse back-the-clock, I would've made an effort to see every episode or season of Iron Man (26 episodes), Spider-Man (65 episodes), The Incredible Hulk (21 episodes), Fantastic Four (26 episodes) and Silver Surfur (13 episodes). Not the X-Men (76 episodes) however though it was deemed too long. I didn't mind if for example X-Men had over a 100 episodes even, but I still wouldn't watch it. Realism I presume. If the Spider-Man had over a 100 episodes, I still would've made an effort to watch these 100 or so episodes of this spectacular show ;) I'm glad for 65 episodes in the end ;) I liked how Iron Man looked in this animated series ;) I even liked how Tony Stark looked in this Iron Man series ;) Yet I would've preferred had Tony Stark looked different completely to the one we usually know or see ;) Not some man. If you want to see the Mandarin, see this tv series. Iron Man 3 will disappoint you. 8/10.

In an age where animated features that had more than just the simplistic bluntness of such shows like Animaniacs or Tiny Toons, a show that had more to say or rather show was extremely rare. The WB or rather Fox delved into what was only seen in Anime, a cartoon that wasn't a cartoon. Batman: The Animated Series reshaped what was considered the only way comic 'toons was to be done. The X-Men re-introduced the world to comic 'toons after the "Superfriends" era, but it was Iron Man, or rather its second season; we try to forget the first one, that really expanded the world of comic 'toons. In fact, it took the "cartoon" away from such features.

To be honest, when Iron Man started, it was crappy. The artwork was a bit too detailed and the voice acting hurt the ears spoiled by such talents from WB animation. The plots for the show were more childish then necessary. Simply, I hated it and didn't miss it when it disappeared, along with its kindred of similarly pathetic story-telling, Fantastic Four.

But, in 1995, the series, along with the four in blue, returned with not only more stylish animation that didn't turn the stomach, voice action that had a sense of professionalism, and even the theme took on a style of its own that was really one of the best out there at the time. I was saddened, this time, when the series didn't return with a third season, but was hoping to see it back in some form or another.

Thankfully, and in awesome style, shell-head did return in one of the best films,in regards to comic book movies, since Batman Begins. Iron Man became a feature film in May 2008 and it was awesome. I still haven't seen this animated series come out on DVD as yet, but I have a feeling that it will eventually( the lack-luster animated antics of Fan Four came out on DVD the same year as it's first, good movie, so who knows).

Even though it wasn't the best series to Marvel's credit, it was still, for me, the best introduction to Iron Man in animation. I can't wait to see it....again.

Everything here lists this as being shown in the 90's--I think it was recycled from an earlier show. I am almost positive that I watched this show in the 80's--there is no other cartoon I can find with these characters from Saturday mornings when I was growing up--and I know I watched Iron Man then! Plus, the animation (at least for that listed as season 1) is not on par with other shows from the 90's. I think they recycled a program (at least Iron Man) and reused it here. The updated computer animation does not blend well with the older animation. The references to the sudden "improvement" in animation also leads me to believe they ran out of the old footage--or got funding for new animation!! I had a crush on Robert Hays, and to me, he was always Tony Stark!

Well my last review on this show was negative, but now that I have watched the whole series that has changed. Just like everyone else has stated that season one was terrible and i agree with them . As, I felt that every single episode of that season had the same formula, the same villains, the same plots and just the same everything. This was pretty obvious to know how each episode would end. Also, the terrible CGI did not help.

But season, came along and changed things up a bit, by actually adding new villains, having this home computer called H.O.M.M.E.R who is in J.A.R.V.I.S. I especially like how episode 7 s2 was handled.

The voice actors was good but season 1 felt it was lacking, Robert Hayes is a pretty underrated voice actor in my opinion.

I wish they explained though how he got H.O.M.M.E.R, I also wish they did more crossover episode that would have debuted Spider-Man, Captain America, The Fantastic Four and the X-Men but other then that it was a decent iron man cartoon.