| Genre: | Superhero |
| Camera: | Setup |
| Runtime: | 26 minutes |
| Executive Producer: | Avi Arad Stan Lee Rick Ungar |
| Producer: | Glen Hill Dennis Ho Ted Tchoe |
| Voices: | Robert Hays James Avery Dorian Harewood John Reilly Ed Gilbert Robert Ito Jim Cummings Katherine Moffat Jennifer Darling Casey Defranco Jennifer Hale James Warwick Tom Kane |
| Narrated: | George Johnson |
| Theme Music Composer: | Keith Emerson (season 1) William Kevin Anderson (season 2) |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Company: | Marvel Entertainment Group Marvel Films Rainbow Animation Korea Koko Enterprises |
| Network: | Syndication (The Marvel Action Hour/Marvel Action Universe) |
| Num Seasons: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
Iron Man, also known as Iron Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated television series based on Marvel Comics' superhero, Iron Man. The series aired from 1994 to 1996 in syndication as part of The Marvel Action Hour, which packaged Iron Man with other animated series based on Marvel properties, the Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, with one half-hour episode from each series airing back-to-back. The show was backed by a toy line that featured many armor variants.[1] [2] Off the heels of the release of the live-action Iron Man film in 2008, reruns began airing on the Jetix block on Toon Disney.
Although only lasting two seasons, Iron Man was the subject of a major overhaul between seasons when its production studio was changed. The result was a massively changed premise, tone, and general approach, which left the disparate seasons scarcely recognizable as being two halves of the same series.[1]
The first season of Iron Man involves Iron Man battling the Mandarin and his minions, who seek to steal his technology. The Mandarin's army consists of Dreadknight, Blizzard, Blacklash, Grey Gargoyle, Whirlwind, Living Laser, MODOK, Fin Fang Foom, Justin Hammer, and series-original character Hypnotia. Iron Man has a group of allies who are based on Force Works and include Century, War Machine, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Spider Woman.
The season consisted mostly of episodic, original stories, with the exception of "The Origin of Iron Man". This late-run recounting of the title character's origin is symptomatic of what is generally thought of as the season's greatest weakness – despite the series' large cast of characters, few of them are developed, leaving viewers unaware of their origins and powers.[3] The show is generally held to have been at its best when telling characters' backstories.[4] [5] [6]
Throughout the season, the Mandarin spies on Force Works and almost deduces Iron Man's secret identity before Iron Man tricks him with an android duplicate of himself.
In this first season, the theme song was composed by progressive rock artist Keith Emerson, known for his work on the supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer and for his soundtrack for Dario Argento's horror Inferno.
The second season had a new animation studio, Koko Enterprises; a new head writer, Tom Tataranowicz; and a new electric guitar theme composed by William Kevin Anderson.[7] [8] Additionally, Iron Man was redesigned to resemble artist Mark Bright's depiction of the character from the late 1980s.[9]
In the season premiere, "The Beast Within", Iron Man is struck by a missile, weakening his body and forcing him to wear cybernetic tech on his chest. Throughout the season, he utilizes various armors built for specific situations that he can change on the fly.
The Mandarin is given a significantly reduced role after losing his rings. His remaining appearances see him attempt to recover his rings and disable technology worldwide before being killed by bandits.[10] [11]
Another change was that Force Works is mostly written out of the series, parting ways with Iron Man after works with the Mandarin to battle Fin Fang Foom. Julia Carpenter and War Machine are the only ones who continue to work with Stark, with the latter temporarily developing claustrophobia after almost drowning in his armor.
See also: The Incredible Hulk (1996 TV series), Spider-Man (1994 TV series) and List of Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episodes.
Iron Man and War Machine appear in The Incredible Hulk episode "Helping Hand, Iron Fist", where they help the Hulk and Rick Jones battle a squad of Hulkbusters.
Iron Man and War Machine appear in Spider-Man. Throughout the series, they serve as allies to Spider-Man; at one point, they are transported to the Beyonder's Battleworld before being returned to Earth with no memory of the events.[12]
See main article: List of Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episodes.
On October 8, 2007, Maximum Entertainment released a three-disc DVD set that contained all twenty-six episodes of the series.[16] Maximum released all twenty-six episodes as separate three-disc sets in April 2008, with each disc also including two Iron Man segments from The Marvel Super Heroes. These discs also came bundled together as a boxset titled Iron Man: The Ultimate Super Hero. The third was also released separately as Iron Man: Special Edition.[17] In April 2008, Maximum released a 5-disc boxset containing both complete series sets for this show and the one for The Marvel Super Heroes segments.
Clear Vision later took over European rights and released a 4-disc complete series set exclusively to their website on April 19, 2010. A six-disc set that was released on the same day bundled both series together.[18]
Buena Vista Home Entertainment released the entire series on Region 4 DVD – which spans three separate volumes – on March 30, 2010[19]
Buena Vista Home Entertainment later released the series on Region 1 DVD on May 4, 2010. This complete series release was made to cash-in and coincide with the release of Iron Man 2, which opened in theaters a few days later, on May 7.
The complete series is available to stream on Disney+ although all seasons are erroneously grouped under season 1, as of the service's launch on November 12, 2019.
An eight-issue comic-book series based on the show was published by Marvel: