Quick, what do you do after you have a surprise success with a major comic book movie of a character that nobody had really heard of previously? Why, you fire up production on the sequel and start up an animated series, that’s what! While no one saw the success of Iron Man being as strong as it was once it finally bowed out of theaters, studios were quick to react. The Iron Man Armored Adventures series debuted in November of 2008 on the Nick network and fans of the armored hero found the series to be an odd mixture of the Iron Man mythos while at the same time also appealing much more to the younger crowd.
Synopsis
Join the adventures of teenage prodigy Tony Stark, and his alter ego Iron Man, as he uses his technological inventions to battle villains and save the world! When new threats like Living Laser and Madame Masque bring their own brand o chaos, it’s up to Iron Man to answer the call! Suit up and get back in action with Tony and his best friends, Rhodey and Pepper, as they risk it all to defeat evil and save the day using their futuristic gadgets and a little teamwork. Enjoy 6 action-packed episodes frilled with bigger challenges, more secrets and pulse-pounding showdowns!
Man, this series sounds so tubular! Aside from the fact that it makes no real sense. I mean it kind of works in an Ultimate Spider-Man or Batman Beyond sort of way, but the extreme de-aging of the individuals in the show just really doesn’t make for believability in any form. I honestly was cringing quite frequently while watching this show, simply because it did so many things in a cartoon that I find irksome today. The writing, the extreme pandering to the younger audience and…honestly, I wasn’t a big fan of Marvel cartoons prior to this, but it really didn’t help any.
In a nut shell, in case you didn’t read my review of Volume 1…I don’t like this show. The theme song is grating, the CGI is horrible, the stories are stupid and annoying and there just isn’t anything about this series that appeals to me in any way, shape or form. Checking out the first volume was bad enough, but with these six additional episodes I really didn’t find myself getting into it any more than before. I went in biased, granted, because I knew I didn’t like the first batch of episodes. But I thought to myself…hey, a lot of shows are rough in their first few episodes. Now they should be hitting their stride…or so I thought. I just…really couldn’t get into this series.
This group of six did absolutely nothing different from the first six. I mean we start off with Tony feeling that he’s too good for high school (he is) and so he quits. But once he gets his but whooped, he goes crawling back because he realize he has to graduate high school to take over the company. Really? Just high school? But, fine. A “stay in school” type message, I get it. I can appreciate that. Even Batman Beyond had those elements. There’s some more nonsense, like armor upgrades and shape shifting villainesses posing as Tony’s mentor, Obidiah, but truthfully I just can’t get into the series.
I know I’m not in its age group, but this really feels like a show better suited for a comic book hero who isn’t most known for his alcoholic adult self. Overall a release you can Skip, as these six episodes are really nothing special and pander to the younger audience than anything. Hell, I think the Super Hero Squad show is a great deal more entertaining than this, because at least that show has a Muppet Babies kind of vibe. Armored Adventures is just Batman Beyond, but with a young Bruce Wayne under the suit. For me it just doesn’t work.
The DVD
Genius tosses out the second batch of six episodes onto DVD with little else accompanying them. The set itself arrives in a standard Amaray case with a standard/plain slipcover over the outside. Inside is just the basic disc art with a rather boring menu system (complete with that damn annoying theme playing over a few of them). Video is a 4×3 transfer (likely 16×9 on the Blu-ray release, although I’m not sure if this volume is seeing one even though Volume 1 did) and it looks as good as a digital show can possibly look on DVD. It’s paired with a DD5.1 track (5.1 but no widescreen? What the…) that manages to pack a punch in action scenes, but does little else with the LFE and surrounds aside from that.
Extras include:
The Super Hero Squad Show “A Day in the Life”
Iron Man Armored Adventures Trailer
Wolverine and the X-Men Trailer
Aside from the trailer, there is nothing pertaining to these six episodes on this set. Overall a release that you can very easily Skip. Unless you have a four or five year old, in which case you might get some replay out of this disc.
Iron Man Armored Adventures – Volume Two is now available on DVD.
