Iron Man is a popular fella these days. With Iron Man 2 hitting the big screen on May 7, 2010 it's only natural that we'd see a resurgence in the prior efforts to bring the Iron Man hero to life from the pages of Marvel Comics. So when I heard that Iron Man: The Complete 1994 Animated Television Series was coming to DVD, I had to check it out. Though I'd seen a few episodes here and there on Jetix or Disney XD, I knew I had missed many of the episodes and wanted to see the series from beginning to end.
Let me start by providing a bit of history about Iron Man. He's been around for a while as the veritable Tin Man of comic books. Tony Stark, heir to the Stark Industries (or Stark Enterprises in the animated series) fortune, follows a similar path to Bruce Wayne from DC Comics. However, where Wayne plays the role of a playboy and uses his dour, more serious Batman persona to fight crime. Stark is actually a playboy. Well, at least until he gets kidnapped and has to build a special device to keep himself alive after a serious wound to his heart. The Iron Man armor is originally built to help Stark escape his captors, but it evolves into much more as he tries to redeem himself by saving others. Stan Lee, his creator, has been quoted as saying that Stark was based on Howard Hughes - a brilliant inventor, womanizer, and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who eventually goes a bit crazy.
The character has been around since the early 1960s and changed over time to reflect current technology and more modern villains. Recently we've seen Iron Man on the big screen in 2008's Iron Man movie, which earned nearly $600 million worldwide, the sequel which is hitting theaters this month, and a new animated series in 2009 - Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Obviously Stark and Iron Man are back in the mainstream media in a big way.
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Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Iron Man was also created by scripter Larry Lieber and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby.
This was one weird show. I am not sure what the first season is based on but it must have been some popular cartoon show of the time.