Iron Man (1994–1996) User Reviews

Skip the first season, enjoy the second

[Danja · 6/10 · 21 November 2006]

In the mid-90s there was a string of cartoons based on Marvel comics, from the wildly successful Spider-Man and X-Men to the lesser ones such as The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and this show, Iron Man. FF and Iron Man both started as part of the Marvel Action Hour with debut seasons of 13 episodes each. They were both rubbish. Choppy animation, lame out of place CGI and inconsistent voice acting didn't help the stories, which ranged from limp and mediocre to indecipherable (one episode about a plane being stolen through some sort of time displacement makes absolutely no sense).

Despite this, Iron Man got a second season and managed to prove itself as a good show. The glut of regular characters was cut down. The Mandarin being reduced to appearing in minuscule vignettes at the end of each episode while hislackeys disappeared almost completely, allowing for a fresh batch of villains such as Firebrand and AIM to appear. The Force Works team also broke up, with Century and (the terribly accented) Scarlet Witch being cut almost entirely and Hawkeye reduced to a handful of appearances. War Machine and Spider-Woman were keep along and both managed to grow more as interesting characters in their own right, helped by War Machine finally getting a consistent voice artist in Dorian Harewood. Robert Hays stayed on as the best interpretation of Iron Man yet; smart and funny, yet able to convey action and drama well. He was joined by his armour's new AI Homer, who added some nice comic relief. The show improved in the second season visually as well. The art became more detailed and moodier, the animation much smoother and the mind-numbing opening credits of the MAH season were replaced with a fairly cool rock theme. If you can catch it in repeats, the second season of Iron Man is well worth watching, with engaging and entertaining super-hero stories (many of which are adaptations of stories from the comics, such as the Armour Wars two-parter). Just try and avoid the first season.

Get's better when you keep watching

[antirytas · 6/10 · 4 September 2016]

When I first watched this, too be honest, I HATED it.. The episodes, quite frankly, were some of the worst I ever seen. The story lines were non-existent (save for some origin episodes), the plots barely made any sense.. The CGI Iron Man scenes...

And then, the second season started and I was amazed - never have I seen such improvement, such insane increase in quality in an animated series ever. The show that I was planning to drop became can't miss TV, with mature story lines (James Rhodes claustrophobia, new characters introduced, ARMOR WARS !) and just some great episodes.

If your a huge Iron Man fan, watch the series, but my advice is to start from the second season - skip the first one, or if your curious, watch it and pretend it never happened, you won't miss much. The second season even does it.

1/10 for the first season, 8/10 for the second.

Skip the the first 13 episodes

[jimbo_zinoh · 7/10 · 14 November 2019]

The first 13 episodes are some strange 80s cartoon fever dream. What makes episode 14 so special? New writers, new director, new theme song. All waaaaay better. Episode 14 and onward is actually worth your time if you enjoy 90s superhero shows.

"It's the direct object of the verb."

[gears_chatroom_god · 7 May 2003]

The first season of "Iron Man" was written for the most part by Ron Friedman, who would be better known to most animation fans as the writer of "Transformers: The Movie." And, quite frankly, the first season of "Iron Man" sucked.

The overlarge cast of characters did not help Friedman's meandering scripts, which were usually needless complex (the first episode, "And The Sea Shall Give Up It's Dead," is a very good example of this) - and not in an intelligent way, more of a lurching, stumbling way. Crammed to the gills with awful pseudo-science which didn't make a lick of sense, bizarre, out-of-left-field dialogue (the title of this review is one such example, which Tony spontaneously recites while briefing his teammates), and ill-fitting humour that, for the most part, just wasn't funny, about the only thing this show had going for it was the animation, and even that was weaker than other shows on TV at the time. "Iron Man" season one was entirely too 80's to stack up against it's fellow Marvel shows, such as "X-Men" and "Spider-Man."

It's bizarre, because Friedman also wrote the first season of "Iron Man"'s sister show on the Marvel Action Hour, "Fantastic Four," and it was much better. The pseudo-science and humour WORKED on that show, sounding just right coming out of Mr. Fantastic and the Thing - Friedman seems to be a better hand at dealing with outer space fantasy than with the business-and-espionage world of Iron Man. Regrettably, FF was hampered by truly, truly appalling animation, which could have stepped right out of the 70's. To me, however, "Iron Man" was just the show I had to sit through before I could watch "Fantastic Four."

The SECOND season of "Iron Man," however, saw Marvel Productions switch animation houses, and the whole series got a makeover. Gone was Friedman - gone were the bad humour, oversized cast and stupid plots. The show started to make *sense.* Some of the changes were a little sudden, yes, and could have done with a little exposition to help them (Iron Man's new armour, the sudden appearance of HOMER), and it'd be lying to say that the shift in voice actors for the bulk of the cast wasn't jarring. Ultimately, though, the performances on the show were better in the second season, the animation was modernised, and there was finally a sense of arced plot, as we watched the Mandarin reclaim his rings.

You can bet your booties that if an "Iron Man" motion picture is produced, then some old episodes of this series will see a DVD/video re-release - hopefully they'll elect to go with the vastly superior second season.

Shellhead at his best......mostly

[xindi005 · 7/10 · 28 June 2008]

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.

A decent Iron Man series

[WeAreLive · 7/10 · 22 December 2018]

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.

Questionable

[angelasaban · 7/10 · 11 June 2011]

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!

Good show

[ITALUKE · 7/10 · 7 March 2022]

I like how in the show the hero isn't a lonely hero. I think that the Force Works are cool and the relationship between Julia and Tony was really good.

Cute!

[AnnaPagrati · 8/10 · 29 March 2022]

I really like the Tony Stark story in the Marvel universe and this show was great, but not my favorite out of all the Marvel animated shows! It's an 8/10!

I! AM! IRON MAN! *cue electric guitar riff*

[xamtaro · 5/10 · 5 May 2010]

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

Iron Hero

[hellraiser7 · 8/10 · 9 March 2021]

This is another under the radar gem, this was a show in the 90's alongside "The Fantastic Four" which made "The Marvel Hour".

I was a kid from the 90's and a comic book fan, I have heard of the "Iron Man" series before but didn't get into it until this animated adaptation. It's really cool whenever Marvel focuses on a property that doesn't always get the most attention despite its popularity, this show helped reinvigorate it for a while and generate new fans, I'm one of them.

There has been one other animated adaptation after this one in 2008 called "Iron Man: Armored Adventures" which is another under the radar gem, but still this Iron Man animated series is still the best in my book (for now anyway).

The music is good, there are two styles of tune that are from both seasons. Personally, I really love the second season's music tunes. The music from first season was decent, but the music from the second season I felt was a lot better as it heavy metal soundtrack just fit the series better as it had more punch and was a lot more memorable just sings out metal action. I really love that second season theme song which is one of my favorite theme's songs of all time, it's such a simple and short heavy metal like tune but feels so right as it simply sings out one sentence over and over.

The animation is good, mainly the animation for the second season which was an improvement from the details but mainly down to the color scheme with the use of bolds. This made it all the truer to the comic animation from the latter 80's to early and mid-90's run of "Iron Man". The storytelling is solid, obviously taken a little inspiration from John Byrne's run which was always my favorite run of Iron Man.

Action is solid, it's well chorographed as it's more aerial action, which is cool, really love seeing Iron Man use all the gizmos and tricks he's armed with. But also, all the different types of armor that he uses each have different functions, makes me wonder why the heck this series never got a toy line.

Storytelling is solid, though the storytelling for the second season I felt was a lot stronger as it had plotlines with more depth and even a little dark but with a little pulpish fun. There were some two part arcs along with a a little revolving plotline with the Mandarin regaining his rings which lead to the big series finale, which I like as animated shows and even live action TV shows weren't known to have that at the time.

The characters are solid, true to their predecessors from the comics. From the Villains, the two that stand out are the Mandarin. Really like the look of him as it's obviously the Fu Manchu look. He's pretty much the main villain for Iron Man, he's kind of your power mongering archetype but what's unique about him is that he's doing this through the power of mysticism where he's armed with nine rings that do different things. I thought that was cool as the conflict between Iron Man and him is the old motif of science and technology versus mystic arts, but it's a turn on the motif because most of the time science and tech are always welded by the villains and get undermined by magic. I like this because for once seeing science used for good along with logic and reason to counterattack magic.

His cohort or flunky is Mordok (voiced by Jim Cummings) whom is practically a giant floating bobble head literally. He's the guy that supplies Mandarin with all the tech he needs to aid him in his nefarious goals. Mordok is funny as he's has this Peter Lore like voice and mannerism, he shares in the Mandarin's nefarious goals but despite hard working for Mandarin the poor fluky as Rodney Dangerfield puts it just gets no respect. He gets kicked around by the Mandarin occasionally, even none of the members of Mandarin's leagon of doom respect him. But also, Mordok isn't all that evil, for one thing he's not that good at it but also you get the feeling he might actually be an alright guy but just working for the wrong company and influenced by the wrong people.

Then there are the good guys, like the fact that in the show we saw Tony/Iron Man have a super team of his own called "Force Works". In a way this show was the closest we ever had to an animated adaptation of "The Avengers" at the time; though there was that one in the late 90's on Fox called "Avengers: United they Stand" but that sucked.

However, for the good guys it's really the trio dynamic throughout the show that consisted of Tony, Julia and Rhodey. The chemistry like any well put together machine runs well. Julia Carpenter/Spider Woman voiced well by Jennifer Hale one of my favorite voice actresses who is no stranger to comic book animated shows. She a strong female type that is slightly feisty but also levelheaded. Roddie/War Machine (voiced by Dorian Harewood) whom is one that is sort of the straight man for Tony as he's very orderly set in his military customs. Both really help keep Tony grounded and flying straight.

And of course, Robert Hays as Tony Stark/Iron Man, he's still my favorite voice for Iron Man. I like that he's not like the Robert Downey Jr version, don't get me wrong I do like that version of Tony, but I do feel that version is imitated/impersonated a little too much these days. Here he's a little more dialed down, slightly more accurate to the John Byrne "Iron Man" run from 80's to 90's.

Tony in this show feels a little more balanced where he a bit of an introvert and passive aggressive which is something I can emphasize with as I'm that way too. Still has that sharp charisma but the kind that doesn't overstay its purpose. Constantly inventive and determined to always do the right thing but doesn't let that overshadow his life.

Really like the romance chemistry between both Tony and Julia. Yeah, it's true that in the comic series they were never a couple but since this is an animated adaptation liberties are inevitable. And I know that it's Pepper Potts that suppose to be Tony's significant other, but in a way Julia in reality actually kind of is that character as Julia physically looks, professional role, and even has a few of the familiar personality traits.

But anyway, the chemistry with both characters is soild, you really buy them as a couple as they have their ups and downs. Really like how you see the value in comic heroes having a significant other as we see Julia not just gives him professional support but emotional as well, and even helps him with the aggressive part of his persona from doing what must be done but also to open more letting her and his friends in a little more. This is a good thing because some battles and wars can't be won with a sole soldier.

This vintage Marvel show picks up altitude.

Rating: 3 stars

No

[tomsievins · 2/10 · 17 April 2022]

I watched it and i really don't like it i never wanna remember this its just soo painful to watch like I don't know what's happening the first episode feels like a second episode because theres missing stuff that hasn't been made.

BRILLIANT MARVEL SERIES

[Big Movie Fan · 6 May 2002]

I don't think any current Marvel cartoons can compare to the awesome 1960's cartoons but the Marvel cartoons from the 90's and early 21st century are still entertaining enough.

This Iron Man series was shown in 1994 and Iron Man was joined by other superheroes which meant much more action and excitement. Joining Iron Man were the likes of Hawkeye, War Machine and Spider-Woman. And Iron Man's armour was so cool.

The villains were okay but Iron Man's arch-enemy The Mandarin tended to be over-exposed a bit too much. He didn't look much like The Mandarin from the comic book;he looked more like Ming the Merciless from the 1980's Defenders Of The Earth cartoon.

All in all, there was plenty of action throughout the series run.

They tried man

[ThunderKing6 · 3/10 · 16 December 2021]

About: A rich herald called Tony Stark becomes a superhero known as Iron Man. He uses his suit to fight politics and bad beings.

Theme Song: It's not bad. It's forgetable by all means.

Story: Very political and science based.

Production: The animation is fine. It's just the stories lacked energy. Voice overs were decent to say the least.

Main intelligence: 9

Should you watch?: Flip a coin. Head you watch, Tails you don't. Either way, you'll be satisfied. If you want a 90s superhero cartoon, then settle for Spiderman or X-Men.

Great Marvel series

[Op_Prime · 5 January 2000]

Iron Man was a great Marvel cartoon series. Just as good as Spider-Man and X-Men. The series focused on the super hero team formed by Iron Man, Force Works. The team consisted of Iron Man, War Machine, Spider-Woman, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Century. They fought Mandarin and his group of super villians. The series was good from start to finish, but the last season left something to be desired.

Cool Cartoon For Shellhead Fans Like Me.

[verbusen · 25 February 2006]

I missed this series when it originally ran (no surprise because I never catch any shows when they first air). But I am seeing Iron Man on the Jetix channel which I think is a European network. My first comment is the intro, it's really cool and maybe my favorite part. It shows Tony Stark building the Iron Man armor and shows the progression of what the armor first looked like (a tin can) to the 90's version (I have no idea what it looks like now). Also in the intro is a really cool theme song that is very very catchy, its the same words of the Black Sabbath Iron Man song "I-AM-IRON-MAN" sung to like a Whitesnake heavy metal rhythm, its right now my favorite cartoon song on out there (yes I know, I lead a boring life, lol). Nick Fury and Shield are in this series a lot (I have only watched about 5 episodes so far), growing up I like Fury and Shield as they took on AIM. There is a lot of material for Shellhead from the comic book and this looks like a pretty good translation to the TV realm because I have seen some cool Marvel supervillan's here like the Crimson Dynamo and the Mandarin among others. Animation is not bad from what I've seen and people did die in one episode where a nuke missile exploded in a Russian silo so I like that for some realism. Is it perfect? No, but they made it for kids and its still pretty good for me as an adult to watch. I can't wait for it to come out as a movie I pray it's not a total rewrite like they did to the Hulk (I think Marvel learned the errors of their ways though in destroying that movie franchise with a convoluted plot, hey I still buy the radioactive mutant superpower bit so just stay with that, lol). Recommended for Shellhead fans. Hey my favorite Shellhead comic book moment, when Iron Man gets zapped by Thor (who's being controlled by Moondragon) and with the huge energy boost slams Thor through 10 marble columns!