Thanks to the efforts of Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr. and company, the Iron Man character has become an icon outside of the pages of the Marvel comic book. Had more people seen the 1994 cartoon starring Tony Stark and his fancy suit, I have a hunch the ascension would have been a little tougher. Filled with C-list supporting characters, poor animation and repetitive storylines, the early 90’s Iron Man cartoon is nothing short of a disaster.
Tony Stark is Marvel’s answer to Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego. Stark is a playboy billionaire with more money than things to spend it on. So, like Wayne, Stark builds a fancy suit of armor that’s used to fend of fiends and spread the gospel of justice. Iron Man is a hero of technology. The cartoon stresses Iron Man’s seemingly never-ending feud with the green-skinned Mandarin, who, like Cobra Commander, Megatron, Skeletor and Dr. Claw before him, keeps coming back for more immediately following each embarrassing defeat.
Both sides of good and evil have their sidekicks that only work to water down the show. On the side of good are a weak lineup that includes War Machine, Spider Woman, Scarlet Witch and Century. Floating on Mandarin’s side is the peculiar Modok, who reminds me a lot of Krang, the disembodied brain villain from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Joining them are such lame villains as Dreadknight, Cyclone, Hypnotia and Grey Gargoyle. The only bad guy I found consistently interesting was the dragon, Fin Fang Foom. The show jumps right into the action and doesn’t give any background or characterization to anyone. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the show starred the likes of Spider-man or Wolverine, but having not read much Iron Man, I have no clue who Century is. And the bad guys – no clue. So not only are they lame characters, I had no way of figuring out what they were about other than henchmen to Mandarin in his quest for Iron Man’s technology.
Iron Man lasted two seasons, running on Saturday mornings between 1994 and 1996. While it’s not uncommon for shows to overhaul themselves late in a long run, the cartoon did it following the first season. The cast was pared down somewhat for the later episodes and there was more focus but the show still isn’t very interesting. The animation was cleaned up somewhat, given a more distinct look. Also ditched for the second season is one of the more abrupt sequences that might have wrecked several episodes had they not sucked so bad already. The early 90s were a time of experimentation in computer animation. So whenever Stark decided it was time to put on his red super suit, the traditional animation switched over to the same horrid CG bit of Stark flipping open a suitcase and transforming into his hero persona. Not only was it ugly, but it served no purpose other than to show off 10 seconds worth of technology that wasn’t worth showing off – at least not in that form in that show.
Despite improving in the last handful of episodes, the storylines are not the type of material normally reserved for hero shows. The episodes are largely interchangeable with Mandarin hatching a new plan for Iron Man’s armor, chasing after him and Stark ending up outsmarting whatever villains were thrown at him with little ease and only a short moment of doubt. This wouldn’t be so bad if there was other things going on in the background, like developing the characters. But this rarely shows except for brief moments here and there.
As a cartoon, this incarnation of Iron Man is all but forgotten even though it was made relatively recently. But there’s a reason for it – there’s nothing in it worth remembering except maybe how bad the characters were.
Iron Man: The Complete 1994 Animated Television Series DVD Review
Iron Man is a three-disc set containing 26 episodes. Each are shown in full screen with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio. Additional French and Spanish tracks and subtitles are also included.
Iron Man: The Complete 1994 Animated Television Series Gallery
