Friday, May 21, 2010

a cool exec with a heart of steel

 in 1994 the tv was awash in Marvel Hero cartoons.  this was a response to the excellent DC Batman cartoons. this included X-Men, Spider-man,  Fantastic Four and the subject here in, Iron Man.

like the other series of this type, it's not bad, but nowhere near as good as DC cartoons on at the same time.  it deals with Iron Man fighting the Mandarin ALL the time.  at least in the first season that I have watched. I don't mind a running villain, but I like the menaces to be mixed up every so often.

seems like the DC toons had better scripts to work with.  the voice cast here is just fine, but some of the lines are just cornball.

Iron Man himself looks pretty good, but the sleeker look of the DC cartoons would also work with the Marvel toons.  we also get to see War Machine, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman/Julia Carpenter (II), some guy named Century I don't know at all, the Scarlet Witch and a variety of guest stars.

looks like there were two seasons.  I watched some of this when it aired originally, but kept forgetting to tape it. 

there are some references to the overall Marvel Universe, but of course, properties licensed for other shows wouldn't be on this one.  it corresponded with a line of toys with a ton of Iron Man armor varients (what a surprise) damn toy companies!
they used then current storylines from Iron Man comics, though I've never been a huge fan I knew some of them.  very cool to see Fin Fang Foom animated though, and some of the lesser heroes.

still, I'd love to see Bruce Timm take on Captain America, especially if he was set back in the 40s.

5 comments:

C. Elam said...

Well, since you were wondering, I'll tell you all I know about Century.

Marvel cancelled Avengers West Coast and replaced it with a new book entitled Force Works. Despite having much of the same cast, I recall Force Works as being an appallingly bad book even by the standards of the 1990s. That's why characters like Spider-Woman II, Scarlet Witch, and yes, Century are in the cartoon. Force Works supposedly had a heavy tie-in with the then-current Iron Man book.

Oh yeah, Century. He was introduced in Force Works, and I think he's an alien. That is all I know. I could wiki him, but why bother?

X7 said...

I did wiki him. the cartoon version makes him sound like the Vision.

Wanda sounds like The Black Widow here, and acts like the early Wasp, fighting with Spider Woman II over Tony's affections.

not a horrible cartoon, but not great.

C. Elam said...

I think the Avengers cartoon from a few years later did the same trick with Wanda's accent. Considering her European heritage, I never minded that sort of thing. It actually makes a certain degree of sense.

I have the vague idea that Wanda and Julia Carpenter haggling over Tony's affections might be a carryover from Force Works. I dropped that book before I even bought the first issue (based on a B&W preview ashcan).

X7 said...

oh, I don't mind her accent (though I do believe there's a story with the Black Widow stating both she and Ivan have no noticeable accents). I never thought of Wanda having one growing up, but it does make sense now. it's the flightiness they gave her that was stupid.

I never saw the comic book it was based on. not surprised it sucked, Marvel was making more money off X books then, and their former mainstays were relegated to, shall we say, lesser talents.

Danny Coffin said...

You know,I'm one of the very few people who actually LIKED the costume Clint wore in this series(which debuted in the second ''HAWKEYE'' limited series)...