Throwback Thursday: Iron Man: The Animated Series

For the month of March, here at ComicBook.com, we are presenting March (Animated Marvel) Madness. First on the checklist is the Iron Man: The Animated Series that ran from 1994-1996. 

Sing along with me now…

“I…am…Iron Maaaaan!”

Before Tony Stark and Iron Man were household names and featured on SNL skits (along with the rest of the Avengers) and on boatloads and boatloads of merchandise, there was Iron Man: The Animated Series. Part of The Marvel Action Hour, it was paired with the Fantastic Four animated series (which we will get into later), and helped launch a sort of cohesive animated Marvel Universe involving crossovers into The Incredible Hulk series as well as the Spider-Man animated series. 

Iron Man: The Animated Series lasted two seasons with 26 episodes, with a major overhaul in tone and improvement in animation between the seasons. Even the intro was redone and seemed more “mature” instead of just showing clips of characters with title cards, it showed Tony making his armor with a more rock sound to it. Comparing the two was night and day, even with the first season being more of one-shot episodes, the second season produced more lengthened story arcs. 

The story structure of the first season followed more of the animated shows of the 1980’s, simpler and easy to access for children to get into. They mainly involved Mandarin and his goons (Dreadknight, Whirlwind, Grey Gargoyles, Blacklash, Living Laser, and Hypnotia) trying to steal Tony Stark’s technology, as well as Iron Man’s armor. Think of it like Skeletor always after He-Man’s Sword of Power or Castle Greyskull, with pretty much the same results. Iron Man had his own team of combatants as well to come to his aid: Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), War Machine, and of course, Century. Yes, that guy.

Such a motley crew, right? So the first season ended and was retooled and taken to a new direction. No longer was it simple open-and-shut situations of good vs. evil, but involved more “serious” content and an extended narrative involving Mandarin finding his rings that were scattered across the globe. The series also dealt with then-current comic stories such as Jim Rhodes (voiced by James “Uncle Phil” Avery for most of the show) feeling trapped within his War Machine armor after almost drowning in it. The series’ finale was also something cartoons rarely did and that was vaguely kill off the villain at the end. During the final showdown, Iron Man was unmasked as Tony Stark and used Mandarin’s powers against him, giving him amnesia and destroying his rings. He was then left at the mercy of some bandits and is seemingly murdered. 

After the series wrapped up, the show went off and Iron Man made appearances in the Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk series in crossover events. All the while voice actor Robert Hays reprised his role of Tony Stark/Iron Man. The series also had its only toyline featuring heroes and villains from the series as well as Iron Man’s myriad sets of armor. 

Another thing about the show is that it was one of the first cartoons to incorporate CGI into the animation and used in Tony’s transformation sequence into Iron Man. It’s pretty rough, but for the time on a television program, it was groundbreaking, and probably very expensive. 

Iron Man: The Animated Series might not be as favored or as well-remembered as the X-Men or Spider-Man animated series around the same time, but at the same time has its memorable, if not purely insane moments like Iron Man fighting radioactive zombies, or Hawkeye saying how he hates “squishy women” as he takes down Hypnotia, and of course, the infamous MODOK in a stroller. 

So what are your memories about the series? Do you remember it fondly or more in tune with insane story lines like GI Joe and Masters of the Universe?