Iron Man 1994 The Animated Series Review

Hey, it's your friendly neighborhood Spider -Man

here, and I'm swinging by the Geekcast Radio

Network. Beyond good. Beyond evil. Beyond your

wildest imagination. I know that it's confusing.

It is one thing to question the official story

and another thing entirely to make wild accusations

or insinuate that I'm a superhero. I never said

you're a superhero. Didn't? Well, good, because

that would be outlandish and fantastic. I'm just

not the hero type, clearly, with this laundry

list of character defects, all the mistakes I've

made, largely public. Truth is... I am Iron Man.

Hello and welcome to ToonCast. This is episode

288. I am, of course, TFG1 Mike. Joining me is

Eduardo M. Freyer. How do I say your last name?

Think Friar. Like, you know, Friar Tuck, Friar

Lawrence from Mumia and Juliet, Deep Friar, you

know, whatever works. Now all I can think of

is forget about it, I'll join you. Say hello

to Friar Duck, Porky and Daffy with Robin Hood

Daffy. It's all I can think of now. We are here

and we are going back to the 90s, folks. That's

right. It is a DeLorean time episode. We're going

back in time to September of 1994 when... The

Iron Man animated series first debuted. It debuted

three months before, yeah, technically three

months, before Spider -Man the animated series

did. Spider -Man debuted in November 19th of

94, and Iron Man was September of 94. This series,

I like it. I think it's cool, but there are a

lot of problems. Yeah, some people... Okay, there's

always the phrase, this hasn't aged well. The

thing with the Iron Man animated series, and

I like it too, and actually the voice of Iron

Man has been my default for ages. Yeah. It's

not that it didn't age well, it's that it didn't...

The not aging well started right out of the womb,

so to speak. I mean, it... What it did was...

It wanted to tell individual, you know, bookend

to bookend stories per episode in the first season.

And then in the second season, because it's,

so that's the thing. The thing about this show

is the first season was done by a whole different

set of people versus the second season. And I

like that. I think that's fine, cool, whatever.

But, you know. I don't know. Well, I was saying

before we started recording, I was saying to

you, to me, the biggest thing when you look at

season one of the Iron Man cartoon, and actually

you can also see this in the Fantastic Four cartoon

that was on at the same time, is if season one

of those two cartoons had come out like five

to ten years before, nobody would bat an eye.

And there wouldn't be an issue, but coming out

when they did, it just looks so, I mean, especially

because we had Spider -Man, the animated series

came out about two months after this. And, you

know, you already had X -Men, the animated series,

you already had Batman, the animated series.

You already had an example of some stuff that

was just really good next to this. And it's like,

guys, what, what, what's, what's going on here?

Like, you're just, you're just like, why, you

know, I mean, it's, yeah, it's night and day.

Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, a part of me

is willing to say, okay, maybe, maybe it's because,

you know, the, the two cartoons were syndication,

not, um, you know, not on network TV. So I don't

know, maybe that. kind of screwed things up because,

you know, they didn't have, you know, they had

to sell to like different networks. So it's like,

okay, you know, they didn't really have the freedom

to, you know, kick things up a notch. I don't

know, but it just, yeah, it, you compare it to

some of the things at the time and it just looks

so different. And the thing for me is the con,

and I know this happens all the time and I know

things happen and whatever else, but This series,

specifically out of all of the Marvel cartoons

back then, to me, out of the ones I remember

watching, has the most inconsistent voice acting.

I'm not saying the voice acting is bad. I'm not

saying the voice actors and actresses are bad.

I'm saying in season one, for half of the season,

you have James, the Shredder, Avery as Rhodey.

And then, at some point, mid -season one, Dorian

Harewood takes over and is the voice of Rhodey

for the rest of the series. At some point in

the second season, I don't know when this happened,

but the Mandarin's voice completely changed.

Like, I didn't know who the hell it was. Like,

it did not sound like what he... Like, by the

end of the series finale, like... I just finished

watching it right before we did this, and I'm

like, that doesn't sound like the Mandarin at

all. So I don't know what was going on with the

voice cast in this show. Well, at least there

were maybe a handful of characters that stayed.

The voices stayed the same throughout. I know

that Robert Hayes of... airplane fame that he

was, uh, he was the voice of Tony Stark for the

whole thing. And actually, and actually he reprised

Tony Stark like in Spider -Man. Yeah. Yeah. And

I think, and I know that, uh, we're talking Mandarin.

I Gilbert in season one and then Robert, I think

it was Robert Eto. Yeah. In season two. Yeah.

Which. Ed Gilbert was the better voice for me,

personally. Yeah, well, yeah, and I think Ito

was... I think he was probably the... He, as

the voice of the Mandarin, he would probably

be a little bit more appropriate. I know that

they tried to give the Mandarin an updated origin,

you know, kind of take away the... take away

some of his Asian villain -ness although I think

it's one of those things where I don't know maybe

it backfired you know maybe it was like one of

those things that was a great idea at the time

but you know looking at it it's like okay maybe

we you know kind of like with Doctor Strange

how they made the ancient one Caucasian you know

maybe it's one of those things of the heart was

in the right place it just didn't come off well.

Yeah. And I mean, I'm not because, sadly, Ed

Gilbert passed away in 1999. Yeah. Basically,

he died of lung cancer, which sucks. Yeah. But

I... So, specifically to the Mandarin's voice.

And... I'm not talking about the person. I'm

not talking about any political things. I'm not

talking about any of the real world things that

people try to bring into cartoons. What I'm saying

is the voice between Ed Gilbert and Robert Ito.

Ed Gilbert was more menacing. And Robert Ito

felt like it was more like... He was on a season

of Jerry Springer sometimes. Like, seriously,

the way that he voices the character and the

way the story is told, it just does not... In

season two, Modok feels more villainous than

the Mandarin does. To me, personally. I kind

of like Robert Ito's voice for Mandarin. I think

the line that sticks with me is from the final

episode where Tony confronts him while the Mandarin's

wearing a set of armor and he goes, ooh, look

at Mr. Anti -Technology now. Mandarin just goes,

I may be anti -technology, but I am not a fanatic.

And I do love how they did this. I love how that,

so yes, technically from the start, from season,

so in season one, the first six episodes are

like what we said. It's basically villain of

the week. It's basically open and shut books,

that kind of thing. And then you get episode

seven, which is the origin of the Mandarin. And

this for me is the, Or at least it was, and it

still is. The definitive sort of... Because I

was always a cartoon guy. I wasn't a comic guy.

I wasn't a comic kid back in the 90s. I was all

about the cartoons. Oh, that's what I was going

to say. Not just Jerry Springer. The difference

between Ed Gilbert and Robert Ito is like what

Ben Kingsley puts on as the Mandarin versus what

he actually is off -camera in. Iron Man 3. Huh.

So from season one with Ed Gilbert and all of

the, Modok, if you don't do what I'm telling

you, I'm going to fry. All this, Iron Man, I

want to. The performance. And then by the second

season, it's like, oh, hi, I'm Trevor. It's just

an act. Oh, I'm the manager. It's just, I'm an

actual. I wouldn't know it. I don't feel like

the same. I don't feel the same way. I do understand

where you're coming from. I don't feel the same

way. I mean, I do think that Ito does. I mean,

but it is, I will say that I do understand that

the two voices. are incredibly different. That's

my point. Ito's voice is kind of a bit more restrained,

a bit less bombastic, even a bit more kind of

master plantery, not the type who always goes

into the field, but kind of sits back, throws

minions and stuff at the problem, and then when

something doesn't go right, just... They simply

just say, it didn't work out today, but there's

always tomorrow. That kind of thing. Yeah. And

like I said, I'm not saying they're bad at all.

But I just feel that the better voice in my head

is Ed Gilbert's. Because when he's talking to

Fin Fang Foom in the first season a couple of

times, it's like, ooh, chills. Although it does

– I'll say this, that I think that Gilbert does

fit with the first season aesthetic, which again

feels like cartoon from the 80s or so where,

yeah, they do want to do – with the exception

of the occasional two -parter, they do want to

do one and dones. So – and kind of keep the plot

simple. But I think Ito for, you know, the Mandarin

that we got in season two kind of fits a little

better. It would have probably been cool if we

would have had some sort of vocal continuity

because, yeah, you have the deep grumble of Ed

Gilbert versus the, you know, the more softer

lilt of Ito. So that's kind of weird. I mean,

we did talk about how War Machine had different

voice. had two different voices. And at least

those two voices sounded similar enough that

unless you're like, unless you're somebody like

me who pays attention to the closing credits,

you know, you know, you wouldn't be able to tell.

And hey, at least Robert Hayes stuck around the

whole, the whole time. Yeah. Or unless you're

somebody like me that I'm legally blind and yes,

I can see the stuff and whatever else, but I

hear better than I see. And it's like, okay.

First half of season one, that's Shredder as

James Rhodes. And then, yeah. And then Dorian

comes in and I'm like, oh, okay. That's cool.

Like, it's different. It's cool. It surprises

me. This show head voice actor changes. And for

no apparent reason, I need to do more research

on this, but also. I have the Turtle Van DVD

set of the 87 cartoon. That show changed voices

like in the middle, like various episodes. I

don't know if somebody couldn't show up or whatever

or anything. But anyway, what I wish we had a

little bit more of and not just like one appearance

or one episode was Jennifer Hale and Tom Kane,

who shared the voice of Ghost. That was cool.

And this, by the way, this means technically

that the Iron Man cartoon had a female ghost

decades before the MCU. Yep. I mean, okay, not

exact, but, you know. Yeah. We'll count it. And

hey, Jen Hale was the second voice for Spider

-Woman. Oh, she was the first? Oh, no. Oh, yeah.

Wait, what? I thought she was the voice for her

the whole time. So did I, but apparently when

I was researching for this, I was like, oh, so

wait, so Jen Hale wasn't there the whole time?

I thought she was, but now that I'm remembering,

yeah, the Casey DeFranco version in season one

is a little bit different. No wonder I like season

two more than season one. Yeah, and actually

the Casey DeFranco one sounds older. Yeah, it

does. Actually, her voice sounds older. I think

maybe that's why. I wouldn't be surprised if

that's one of the reasons why they switched out.

Yeah. It's like, let's get a younger voice. Well,

and then they were trying to obviously, you know,

get Spider -Woman and Iron Man into a relationship

because technically Julia Carpenter is the Pepper

Potts of this series. Yeah. I mean, just for

– I'm not saying that, oh, my God, Julia Carpenter's

Spider -Woman is – no. I'm saying maybe they

couldn't use Pepper. Maybe they – maybe Pepper

wasn't – I don't know. I don't have Pepper's

information in front of me to see when she was

created, but I mean – Well, no. She's been around

– Pepper has been around since – around in Iron

Man since the beginning. I think probably the

reason why they didn't use Pepper is that in

the comics at the time, Pepper was not around.

Right. So Julia comes in. Yeah, she was alive,

but she wasn't a part of the comics. So it's

like, oh, since Julia's around as Spider -Woman

in Force works, we'll have her and her civilian

identity be part of Stark Enterprises. The one

thing, though, it's interesting because we're

starting to talk about the supporting cast. I

always thought it was curious because the team

that Iron Man had around him, especially in season

one, season two, these guys, the guys took a

break. They got pissed at Tony and were like,

okay, fine, we're walking. You know, Tony had

force works around him. And I've always been

curious and trying to do some research. I couldn't

find a definitive answer. In the comics, a U

.S. agent was in force works while Hawkeye was

kind of... trying to figure some stuff out because

his wife had, had, had died at this point. Yeah.

I have the, I have the force works article up

here on Wikipedia and it lists every. Yeah. So

yeah. I'm just curious as to why they swapped

out us agent for Hawkeye. I, I like wrong because

I don't, I'm not somebody, like I said, I was

a cartoon kid. I was not a comic kid. I knew

of U .S. Agent. I didn't know of him then, but

obviously now and in more recent times I know

of him. But I think it's because Hawkeye is more

recognizable. Clint is, even back then, everybody

knew Avengers was like Iron Man and Hawkeye and

blah, blah, blah, and this, that, and the other

thing. So I think that's maybe why. I could be

wrong. I don't know. I'm just assuming. You know

what? I assume, but that's, that's fine. I mean,

Hey, you know, we don't, if, if we don't add,

like if anybody out there has like an answer,

please go, you know, please enlighten. But my,

I have like two prevailing theories. Yes. Okay.

I have like two prevailing theories. Uh, one

us agent has always been kind of, uh, his characterization

is kind of jingoism gone wrong. So I wonder if

the creators of the cartoon were like, okay,

I don't know if we want to go this route. The

other possibility, and this might be a little

closer to the truth, is I know that at some point

in the 90s, there was the idea to give Captain

America his own cartoon. So it could be that

certain... you know, certain characters and concepts

were being held back for use there. So it could

just be that, yeah, things, you know, things

Captain America related, we want to keep it for

the Captain America cartoon. And yeah, it could

also be a little mix of what you were saying,

you know, since Hawkeye is the more recognizable,

it's okay. Why don't we use Hawkeye? Yeah. And

I come home. Okay. So you have a lot of crossover

in this show. Tony Steedman was Justin Hammer

in Season 1. He did a decent job of playing the

character. I have no nitpicks against the person.

I have no nitpicks against him for playing the

character. But in Season 2... Why is Alfred playing

a villain? Ephraim Zimbliss Jr. was Justin Hammer

in Season 2. Now, this is where the crossover

comes in. So that's Batman. And I'm going to

reach on some of these folks because that's just

how I am. But then you have, in season two, Aster

Splinter. You have Peter Renaday as Howard Stark.

And then the reaching part is because I remember

this at the time. So this was 94, 95, 96, somewhere

around there. And what I remember from Matthew,

oh, that was 1990. So it was a few years before

this. So the main film I remember Matthew Frewer

from is Short Time in 1990. I believe he starred

with Burt Reynolds in that movie. And he is the

voice of the leader in this series. And he went

on to do it in the Hulk series on UPN. I'm correcting

myself. No, it was not Bert. It was Dabney Coleman.

Bert Simpson is the character's name. They both

had a mustache. Yeah, exactly. I was like, wait

a minute. Yeah, like literally. You look at Dabney

Coleman and you look at Burt Reynolds, you put

them side by side. Dabney's got a little bit

more, you know, on the sides of him. But, like,

seriously, yeah. A little less on the top. Yeah.

I mean, Dabney could easily be, you know, Bernie

Lomax and we could have a weekend at Bernie's

3 or something. Oh, God. Hollywood, don't listen

to this. No weekend at Bernie's 3. Don't you

dare. Well, actually, isn't Dabney Coleman gone?

I would probably sadly know. I feel like he might.

He's 90 years old, according to Wikipedia. Holy

cow. Active 1961 to present. Dang. That's a little

crazy. From 1961 to 1984, he was married to Jean

Hale. I saw the Hale, and I'm like, wait a minute.

Is that? Jen's mom, yeah. No, no, I don't think

so. Oh, man, she was 82. She died August 3rd.

Anyway, Iron Man, folks, Iron Man. This is not

the Celebrity Death podcast. Yeah, no, no, no.

That'll be a different episode. Yeah, that's

a whole other bag of wax. You had, oh, no, that's

a short time. I've got to get out of that. Go

away, short time. Okay, we spoke about Matt Feuer.

Moving on. Yeah, we spoke about him. Who else

do I recognize? David Warner as Arthur Dearborn.

Which I noticed that the character design they

used for Dearborn was actually another character

in the comics named Abner Doolittle. Like, I

saw the character design and I'm like, that's

not... Dearborn, and then I ran and I grabbed

one of my Marvel handbooks, and I'm like, oh

yeah, no, they gave him Doolittle's look for

some weird reason. I guess it's because if you

look at Dearborn in the comics, he looks a lot

like Tony, so it's like, yeah, no, we don't need

that. And I mean, there are a couple other famous

ones, like Neil McDonagh as Firebrand slash Gary

Gilbert, but then you hit who Hulk slash Bruce

Banner is. And I'm like, wait, what in the hell

is Hellboy doing voicing Hulk? Obviously he wasn't

Hellboy yet, but yeah. To be fair, I think the

only things he had on his, uh, he really had

on his resume at the time were the Beauty and

the Beast TV show and, uh, and, um, the adventures

of Captain Zoom. So that, so yeah, it's, It's

not like they had to break the bank getting him.

No offense to Ron Perlman. Yeah, no, obviously

not. But yeah, I mean, I'm looking at his films

here, and between 94 and 95, it's like, whoa.

I think the most famous film he was in between

94 and 96, Police Academy, Mission to Moscow,

which was a... Whatever. It was a movie. The

Island of Dr. Moreau. Oh yeah, I forgot he was

in that. Yep. And then TV around that time. The

Cisco Kid, Mr. Stitch, Adventures of Captain

Zoom in Outer Space. So there's that. He's had

an interesting career. Yep. But, yeah. So this

show, like I said, I like it. I like how it takes

the character of Tony Stark and basically makes

him out to be an anti -person. I don't want to

say hero, but he's not, like, Punisher -ish.

But some of the time, like... When he goes through

and does things, this whole lone wolf thing,

like he doesn't want Forceworks to help. He doesn't

want to endanger them. He doesn't want to endanger

Julia. And the most crazy thing to me is Julia's

there. The rest of Forceworks is there. She's

supposed to be Spider -Woman. Now I need to look

into her history after this recording. She doesn't

really, she uses her spider powers maybe twice

in the entire series. Hello? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

No, I'm just, sorry, I was just... Yeah, I mean,

she uses her spider powers like twice in the

entire series, and she says something about that

they... faded a long time ago or something. So

again, my theory of them throwing her in there

as a pepper replacement kind of stands. Yeah.

You know, one thing though, I mean, to invoke

another of Tony's girlfriends, Bethany Cabe,

you had the episode with Madam Mask, you know,

Tony's ex -girlfriend who got facial scarred.

And I know in the comics, at one point, Madam

Mask and Tony's on -and -off girlfriend at the

time, Bethany Cabe, actually switched brains

in one story. Oh, jeez. A supervillain switched

Madam Mask's brain and Bethany Cabe's. So you

had Mask and Cabe's body for a while, and then

Cabe and Mask's body showed up and was like,

yeah, Tony, we got brain swapped. When they had

that episode where Madam Mask showed up, there

was a moment there where I'm like, oh, are they

going to end up doing an episode in the future

where we have the brain switching? Yeah. If we

would have gotten season three, would that have

been in the works? Would we have had the Madam

Mask Spider -Woman? Maybe. I don't know. And

then they had their own little version of the

Armor Wars, which... I like that. So that's mainly

what I remember from this series. I remember

the origin of the Mandarin. I remember the origin

of Tony Stark. I remember Armor Wars and I remember

Hands of the Mandarin because that was the other

thing in season two that they did because at

some point, oh, it was when he and Tony had to

combine powers to destroy Fing Fang Foom. The

rings got scattered across wherever and you had

these little. vignettes at the end of almost

every episode close to the end of the second

season where the Mandarin would like walk into

a pawn shop or be on an island somewhere and

he would find a number of his you know the rings

so but yeah I mean that's really what I remember

from this is Armored Wars and some other you

know what that actually reminds me of the whole

the whole thing of Mandarin's little hunt for

his rings it reminds me of season two of X -Men

the animated series Where you'd have some episodes

end with Magneto and Professor Xavier's little

trek through the Savage Land. Yeah. It's like,

well, hey guys, remember Professor Xavier? Well,

this is what he's doing this week. Yeah. Running

into Shauna the She -Devil. But yeah, it kind

of reminded me of that. It's like, okay, this

was standalone except. And one of the things

in Armor Wars, I noticed that... Well, first

of all, they actually had the moment where Iron

Man and Hawkeye have it out when Iron Man tries

to break into the vault. In the original comics,

that was Captain America, or at least that was

Steve Rogers. At the time, Steve didn't have

his identity, but he had gone to Tony Stark for

help, and then he found out about what Tony was

doing and was like, Tony, you're not going to

break into the vault, right? And Tony's like,

yes, Tony Stark won't break into the vault. And

then, you know, Steve's like, okay, glad we had

this conversation. And then he's like, wait a

minute. He said, Tony won't break into the vault.

Son of a bitch. Yeah. You're like, you know,

he finds Iron Man breaking into the vault. And

yeah, basically about the, about the kind of

almost the same thing happens. Like what happened

in the cartoon where Cap turns his back for like

two seconds because the, the poor guy in the

armor that he's protecting is like, running out

of air, so Cap goes to treat him, and when his

back is turned, Iron Man, like, pretty much sucker

punches him. And, like, that was kind of the

beginning of a running subplot where Tony and

Cap were not getting along. But, yeah, you had

that, and there was, like, a bunch... I noticed

that Armor Wars, they did include a few cameos

by, like, you know, they had the Beetle, they

had Stiltman, they had Controller, but, like,

there were a few others that showed up in the

comics that they didn't. I guess they decided

not to give airtime to. I don't, I need to see

this, but I don't. So stilt man makes me laugh

because the way, like he has like a half of a,

of a cameo. Like it's not, it's a cameo. He's

there. Yeah. But like, I need to figure out who

did his voice because I kind of look, he's like,

Ooh, Iron Man. I'm like, why would you say it

like that? But I love it because it was so funny.

Yeah, I feel like Stiltman was one of the regulars

from the TV series just doing double duty. I

can't remember exactly off the top of my head.

Let me see. I'm already looking. Yeah, I'm trying

to. Oh, it was Dorian Hayward. Was it really?

Yeah. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, he

was the one who did the voice. Okay. But yeah,

it does seem like something where they just,

you know, he's going to be in there for like

a few seconds and it's like, okay, we don't want

to hire like a new guy just for like one or two

lines. Dorian, what are you doing? You're not

doing anything today? Come on in. Here's in the

booth. You're doing Stiltman. Just make sure

you don't sound like War Machine when you do

it. Yeah. So, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

Yeah, and I cannot believe this, and I didn't

even recognize the voice, but Fing Fang Foam

is Neil Flippin' Ross, is friggin' Springer from

Transformers. Yeah. Okay, that, you know, hey,

that... I mean... It is what it is. Plus, you

know, some of these guys from that animation

heyday, they can handle a wide variety of stuff.

Now, I'm curious, and you know more about the

comics from this time than I do. Why did they

call him Walter Stark and not Howard Stark? You

know, that one I don't know. Yeah, I was like,

wait a minute. That's his dad. That's Howard,

right? And then all of a sudden, Walter. Like,

who the fuck is Walter? Yeah, I don't know. I

don't know. I mean, I know that when the Incredible

Hulk TV show came out that they called him David

because Bruce sounded a little too. A little

too wishy -washy. So, you know, that's that one.

I don't know why it would switch from Howard

to Walter. Yeah. Because as far as I know in

the comics, he was always Howard. Yeah. So I

don't know where the Walter came from. But for

me, something that is like, it's funny, but in

the wrong way is how they gave the beetle. like

a Liverpool accent and they, he, and, uh, Iron

Man threw in like a, a Beatles joke, like for

his little, you know? Well, yeah, he, well, I

did all have it in the audio somewhere. Yeah.

I caught that. I was like, Oh, funny, funny,

funny, funny. Yeah. It's cause again, like if

you look at the comics, yeah, he's, he's American,

you know, he's not, he's not British. And yeah,

that was just, to me, it felt like, It was just,

okay, let's do, you know, it's the beetle. Hey,

I think the kids would love a funny little joke

like that. That was the reasoning behind that.

Let's just do a cute little joke. But yeah, I

also noticed they also had the controller. And

yeah, the controller's cameo, or his appearance

in Armor Wars, is lifted straight from when he

showed up. storyline in the comics. He was trying

to run a cult type thing. You even have the moment

where Iron Man walks in on one of the treatment

rooms and takes out the little control disc.

That's lifted straight from there. I'm just curious

about the guys they didn't have. There was a

great moment in the Armor Wars comics where you

had an armored supervillain called the Mauler.

Iron Man goes to get the armor, and Mauler just

gives it up. He's just like, you know what? I'm

not going to fight you if nobody's paying me,

so just take it. I'll just find another one.

He's just mercenary to the core. He's just like,

you know what? I'm not getting paid for this.

Just take it. Whatever. Screw it. Just take it.

And then I know that they had a scene with Whiplash,

and I think it was Blizzard. where they hijacked

a plane. And then for some reason, the guys are

wearing armor. I know that they don't even use,

they use black lash and not, not black lash.

Oh yeah. It was black. Yeah. Well, which same

character, same character, different, you know,

but yeah, they had, they had, uh, you know, they

had them in armor like for whatever reason, but

I know in the comics it was this trio called

the Raiders. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, I, I think

they were just, I think they just probably, what

they probably wanted to do was use like established

characters. It's like, okay, we threw in some

cameos. Now let's give the established guys something

to do. Well, I mean like armor war is part one

and part two. It's like the whole point of the

two parter is Tony's trying to negate the armor

that has been given to all these, these villains.

Yeah. Well, and even a couple of it. even some

heroes, like even some heroes, even like Navy

people in the army and all that. Yes, absolutely.

But like, yeah, but that's why all the villains

had the armor was so he could go around and negate

it because what, you know, what, what's he going

to do? I thought it was kind of weird that the,

the guys that protected the vault that They used

the term Mandroids instead of Guardsmen. I just

wonder why the switch. Especially because the

Mandroids were their own thing. If you look at

their armor, if you look it up, if you do Google

Image Marvel Mandroids, it's like the armors

are hella different. As the saying goes. So I

just kind of wonder why they did the Mandroid's

name with the Guardsmen look. Especially because...

I know that the toys that they tied into it,

that they tied into the cartoon, had a Guardsman

toy, and it was called Guardsman. Yeah. I actually

tricked my – which, funny story about that, funny

segue. I tricked my little sister because after

I bought the Guardsman toy, I told my little

sister it's a special toy where they put Green

Lantern and Iron Man together. She's like, what,

for real? And I'm like, yeah, no, I'm just kidding.

I mean, I could... Go ahead. No, you go ahead.

I mean, I could see, you know, Tony flying around

with Jon Stewart. That would be cool. Or Hal.

I think Tony and Hal. Hal is too overrated in

my mind. Well, but I could see... You know what?

I could actually see Jon with Jim Rhodes. Yeah.

I think those two would have a lot more in common.

Yeah. And they would probably like bond over

their, their partners being lone wolves in such

a pain. It's like, yeah, Tony's such a pain.

Yeah. How's the same way? Really? And plus they're

both military guys. So, you know, it's like,

where'd you serve? Oh, I was in Southeast Asia

during this. Oh, I was there during this. Yep.

And now all as I am waiting for, and I don't

think this is going to happen because I don't

think you would be right for the role, but. All

I'm waiting for is the next Iron whatever, the

next appearance of Rhodey as Don Cheadle. You

put Terrence Howard in there as Jon Stewart for

a DC crossover and people would lose their fucking

minds. Next time, baby. There ain't no next time

for you. Yeah, shouldn't have argued about a

bigger salary. Shouldn't have done that. Well,

you know, You could still, actually, you could

still have a Terrence Howard war machine in the

MCU. Yeah, he could be. Multiverse, man. Multiverse.

No, I know. There you go. There you go. Problem

solved. You know, you get your cake and eat it

too. You know, Cheetle still gets to be the 616

or whatever, you know, Rhodey. We can have him

in his dark gray machine gun armor, and then

we can have the super silver armor from the first

movie that Rodi was – that Terrence was supposed

to get. Yeah. Or, you know, give him – or even

give him the – or, I mean, if you really want

to have a difference between the two, give the

Terrence Rodi that alien armor that Rodi wore

for like a year or two. Yeah. That's the other

thing with this cartoon series. In the first

season – Tony always had to either have Homer

there or have whatever there to change. Like,

what was that? Stingray? That flying vehicle.

Not the virtual computer, but in season one.

he had Stingray or something following him around

and he would change armors that way versus the

second season. It was just one armor and he could

just say, I want drill armor or I want this armor

or I want that armor. It just magically changed.

And I was like, that's cooler than having to

be held by a robot midair. Yeah, not to mention...

A bit more convenient because, I mean, if you

want to play with the trope and have, you know,

the bad guys are like, he's going to switch armors,

shoot down the little robot thingy. It's like

you can prevent mishaps like that. Yeah. Yeah,

absolutely. I mean, like I said, the only other

thing that I have negative against this show

is the constant. threesome with Hypnotia, Dreadknight,

and Blacklash. Dreadknight is dreadful. Here's

the other thing, because if he's anything like

his comic book counterpart, he can't take that

helmet off. So it's like, how is this supposed

to work? Yeah. In the comics, that helmet is

fused to his To his head. Yeah. Like he cannot

take that off. So it's like, okay, you want to

like, you know, you want to have, uh, you know,

you want to have relations with this lady. Um,

yeah, I, I hope she doesn't mind kissing metal

mask because that, that, that, that's the only

way this is going to work. Yeah. But I do notice

hypnosis was made for the cartoon and she has

not. appeared anywhere else. Nobody has jumped

at the chance to have Hypnotia go into the MCU.

Or the regular 616 Marvel Universe. It's not

like Harley, where it's like, took off by storm

and it's like, okay, let's bring Harley into

the regular DC universe. It's like, nope, nobody's...

Nobody's rushing for that. No. I mean, hypnotizing

villains, it's not exactly okay. It works. You

can get the villain or you can get the hero to

do what you want for however long, but it's not

exactly a compelling power. Yeah. I mean, I think

the most I've seen hypnosis used outside the

Iron Man cartoon is a few people having fun with

the concept on deviant art. Oh, Lord. That's

about it. That's about it. It's like, yeah. Yeah.

So the other thing is that I noticed and I was

like, wait, why? But Dread Knight's horse is

Nightwing? What the actual fuck? Yeah, that seems

like a TV edit because, yeah, I know in the comics

his name is Hell Horse. Oh, okay. I don't think

you could, yeah, I don't think you could, you

know, because that's the thing. This series also.

You could tell that the makers of the series

were also looking at toy sales. You probably

could not get a mom to buy Iron Man toys for

her kid if Dread Knight comes with Hell Horse.

I don't think the mom wants to have something

called Hell Horse under the Christmas tree for

her kid. Let's just call it Nightwing. And apparently

Bill Mantlo named that horse back in the 70s.

So, I don't know. It is what it is. Have we covered

this? I mean, is there anything else you want

to talk about with this? Um, I think we've talked

most of it. I think we've... pretty much talked

about, you know, the, the, the bigger point,

you know, the biggest points of it. I mean, other

than, other than the fact that, um, Scarlet,

Scarlet Witch, which, which by the way, they

had her in her force works look. So you didn't

have like the classic Scarlet Witch with the

headband and the cape, you know, instead it was

her force works look. Um, for me, this was by

the way, I never like, yeah, I'd been a comics

guy before the cartoon came out. And I had never

– reading comics, it never crossed my mind to

give Scarlet Witch a bit of an accent until this

series. And then I'm like, actually, you know

what? That works. That does work. I mean maybe

not as thick, but yeah. Maybe she does have a

bit of an accent, a bit of kind of an Eastern

European, almost Romany accent. But yeah, Robert

Hayes, I mean, we've mentioned it before, but

for the longest time, he was my default voice

I heard in my head. Yeah, up until 2008, honestly,

up until 2008. In fact, actually, there's still

some comics, I mean, depending on the comic,

where the voice that gets in my head is Robert

Hayes, not Robert Downey Jr. I mean, no offense

to Robert Downey Jr., he's freaking iconic, but

I'm just saying. Yeah, no, absolutely. Depending

on the comic. You know, I actually, I think I

do, I think I do hear a little bit of Jen Hale

whenever I read Julia Carpenter. And then Hawkeye's

voice. I actually like Hawkeye's voice from Iron

Man better than the voice he had in the Avengers

cartoon, United We Stand. Right, right, yeah.

I think this one just works. I mean, no offense,

because I know that you're not going to understand

that the Lee Waltz worked on it, but I prefer

this voice. Yeah, I think this voice is, again,

my default unless, depending, sometimes I click

back to, I click over to the voice that was in

Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Yeah. Yeah, for me,

it's always between Robert and And, and Robert,

Robert and Robert. It's either Robert, Robert

and Robert. Who do you want in the armor? Robert

Hayes or Robert? Yeah. Robert Downey jr. Yeah.

Well, I think, I think it just, it depends on

how he's portrayed, like in the, in the story

that you're reading. Yeah. Cause if it's like,

if it's kicking the suave up a notch, then you

probably think Downey jr. And then if it's a

little less, like if it's more, if it's something

more from the eighties or something, you're probably

thinking haze. Yeah. At least that's me. You

know, like I don't, well, I remember when the

very short lived, what is it? Uh, superior Ironman

came out. It was, um, Oh yeah. Like a four issue

is because like 10 years ago now or so. And we

covered it on the show. And all is I could hear

in my head is our DJ. And here, Robert, I heard

R .D. because it's superior. Like, I'm always

right. And this, that, and the other. And then

when Dan, you know, the big news years and years

ago was like, oh, my God, Dan Slott is leaving

Spider -Man and he's going to go do Iron Man.

What's going on? Tony Stark, Iron Man has three

volumes that Dan Slott wrote. And, yeah, I hear

Downey in that as well. Yeah. But almost anything

else, it's Haze. Yep. It just depends on what

it is. It depends on what line it is. And like

I've said before on many other podcasts, when

I saw Iron Man in theaters at the end, before

the credits hit, I was like, okay, you said the

line. Now I'm waiting for the right song to show

up. And all of a sudden, here comes Black Sabbath.

I'm like, okay, that works. That wasn't what

I was expecting, but that works. Because, let's

face it, the season two theme song is the best

Iron Man. Oh, yeah. Water down the wrong pipe.

Yeah, the season one tune feels just very generic,

whereas the season two tune does kind of, yeah,

it fits a little bit more. Kind of fits the tone.

Absolutely, it does. Not to mention we don't

have the roll call of villains. It's like, that's

kind of like the 80s, Masters of the Universe,

you know? Towards the end, you have the headshots

of Skeletor and his foes, his henchmen. I think

what they were trying to do with the season one

intro is they were trying to make it very comic

book -y, which they did. But once they start

doing Dreadknight and Hypnosia and this, and

I'm like, oh god, can we just get to the cartoon,

please? Yeah, no kidding. Like, where is the

skip intro button that always shows up? And it's

funny because I watched season one on my computer,

and I watched it on my phone a couple of times.

On my computer, I never saw the skip intro button.

As soon as I started watching it on my phone,

I'm like, yep, skip the intro. Skip intro, yep.

Don't need that theme song, but it was like season

two. It was like, nope, we're not skipping that

intro. Just like you don't skip the X -Men intro

on Disney+. Yeah, exactly. You don't do that.

My only other comment for season one, like, the

other two -parter they had was Iron Man to the

second power with, like, the evil Iron Man clone.

Yeah. Was it a clone or a robot? It was a robot.

It was a robot, yeah. My thing is, so we have

the character of Sentry that has, like, his magic

axe. And the damn thing can't, like, tell you,

here are two Iron Men, but ignore this one. It's

a robot clone. It's like, nope, there's just

two Iron Men and I have no idea why. It's like,

wow, your magic axe sucks, bro. I'm sorry, man.

Take it back in for a refund because if it can't

tell when between your boss and an evil clone

robot thingy, dude, take it back, man. Go to

the shop and say, can you repair this? Because

it can't tell what's a freaking evil robot duplicate

of my boss. Dude, your magic sucks, man. Go back

home to your dimension or whatever and get a

tune -up. And again, like I said, this whole

Hawkeye, I understood. Spider -Woman, I understood.

Scarlet Witch, I understood. Even when I was

watching the show back then. Because I actually

tried to go out and get comics that were kind

of on the show or whatever else. I never understood

Sentry. I never understood a couple of the other

ones. Sentry, yeah. Again, Sentry, because they

were doing force works for the cartoon. Sentry

was the character that was introduced in the

comic and became a member of the team. So it's

like, okay, let's keep the force works guys for

the most part intact. even Rhodey wasn't in force

works, like in the comics, like at that point

he and Tony were like not getting along. Like,

I think, uh, Rhodey had just had enough of like,

you know, Tony's manipulative, manipulative stuff.

And he's like, all right, I'm out. Yep. Go, you

know, go, go, go stick your, your gauntlet where

the sun don't shine. Yep. Pretty much. Yeah.

All right. What would we rate? Overall, the entire

series, I guess we can split it up by season.

Season one, give it a two and a half. Season

two, three and a half. It goes up a point. It's

not there. Season two, it's not there, but it

was getting there. It probably needed one more

season or so. To really, like, you know, really

get going. Yeah, so for me, it's a scale. Season

one is on one side. Season two is on the other

side. Season one is more episodic. It's more

villain of the week. It's more self -contained

things. Season two, they tried to start doing

continuity. Well, if you're going to create a

continuity, start it. continue it and have it

go through the whole thing. This is why some

cartoons where it's like, Oh, we are a continuity.

And then there's like this singular villain of

the week episode in there. And I'm like, that's

not in continuity. Like, don't do that. Yeah.

Don't do that. So yeah, you got to pick which

side you want to be on. Do you want to just do,

you know, weekly self contained things or do

you want to do a multiverse of madness? Oh boy.

All right. We're going to take a quick break

and we're going to come back to close the show

after this. Should be a nice break from all the

screaming for Iron Man's hide. I'll be in touch.

Have fun. Alas, poor Yuri. I knew him. Wow. That's

weird. Do you like retro cartoons? Then Saturday

Morning Rewind is the podcast for you. Join them

each month as they talk about classic cartoons

and interview legendary voice actors like Jim

Cummings, Corey Burton, Rob Paulson, Nancy Cartwright,

and many more. So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Put on your hammer pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind

.com. And be prepared to feel like a kid again.

Once again, that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com.

Saturday Morning Rewind was voted best podcast

ever by its host, Tim Nydell. So it's got to

be good. Yay! Excuse! Like science fiction? Of

course you do, or you wouldn't be listening to

the Geekcast Radio Network. Well, the Marku 42

Universe podcast is an award -winning sci -fi

radio show that's been around for over 10 years.

We cover everything from Doctor Who to the MCU

to pop culture and everything in between. A new

show drops on Tuesday mornings on the GCRN website

and all of the major podcast platforms. So listen

to the Marku42's Universe podcast from the universe

and beyond. Because the world needs another movie

podcast. The Geek Cast Radio Network presents,

for your listening pleasure, The Cinema Geek.

Hosted by Amanda, Kevin, Matt, and Dan. Each

week, we dive headfirst in the landscape of movies

as we discuss movie news, play movie games, go

in -depth on reviews, and even have a top -ten

countdown or two. Also, don't miss our director

retrospective series, where we review noted directors'

movies, film by film. Bottom line is, if you

love movies and love podcasts, you need to experience

The Cinema Geeks. You can find us on iTunes,

For over six years, my guests and I have been

discussing the soundtracks to our lives. I'm

Jesse Jackson, and I've had hundreds of fans

from around the world share their stories about

the power and magic of all kinds of music. If

you enjoy stories about joy, redemption, trials,

and ultimately triumph, then please check out

Set Listing Bruce, a Bruce Springsteen fan podcast.

Remember, there is magic in the night. Discover

a world of vintage and modern toys that's more

than meets the eye with the Triple Takeover ToyCast.

Hosted by toy writers and photographers Toybox

Soapbox, Sixo and TF Square One, this informal

and chilled out series of discussions cover everything

from vintage Transformers to Mask, Diaclone,

Microman and more, be it nostalgic or current.

Whether you're a seasoned collector or a casual

robot enthusiast, all are welcome. Triple Takeover

ToyCast. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast, we

talk movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello, Julie,

what the heck are you doing? Trying to make our

spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. Why am I always the bearer of bad news?

Big bucks, big headaches, Ms. Company Spokesperson.

That means you get to tell Tony the UN voted

to condemn Iron Man. And I get to keep my head

attached to my neck. Maybe he's not in a good

mood. Hey, you sure can't call him. No, it can't

be. All those people. All those lives. Time out,

Tony. Game's over. That lady's singing. What

are you doing? He is. Don't answer, Homer. That's

an order. Tony, whatever it is, we want to help.

You can't. It's my problem. My fault. I have

to deal with this alone. I heard that song before.

Come on, come on. Give the man space to cool

down. Homer. Yes, Mr. Rhodes. If Tony decides

to redecorate any other rooms, call us. All right,

let's close this out, and then it's dinner time

for me. Oh, cool. What's on the menu? I don't

know. Whatever's in the freezer. Days like that.

Yep. Don't die. Ah, today's not the day I die,

okay? We shall rise again! All right, folks,

we are back here on ToonCast. Any final thoughts

from you, Edward, or anything you want to promote,

anything like that? Nope. As far as promotion,

like, I have some stuff percolating, but I can't

talk about it right now. Uh -huh. but there is

stuff coming and it's going to be some cool stuff.

That's all I'm going to say. But aren't you on

some sort of universal police? Oh yeah. No. Yeah.

I'm still, yeah. I still, I'm still part of,

uh, Mark who 42. Uh, I think we're going to,

we're going to be trying to, we're going to,

we are going to have, uh, some episodes coming

up. I know that. Mark and my co -host Vicki Jacobowski

have been doing a lot of stuff with British comics.

So I think there's another one of those coming

up. And of course, when Jodie Whittaker bows

out, we are going to be covering that. Oh boy.

So she's not going to get another season. Is

she or another series? Nope. She's walking out.

There's going to be a special to tie in with

the 100th anniversary of BBC, which is going

to be her swan song. Very cool, very cool. And

then, hey, next year is going to be Doctor Who's

60th, and we already know there's a 60th anniversary

special coming, which is going to have the return

of David Tennant's 10th Doctor, and the bad guy

is going to be played by NPH, Neil Patrick Harris.

Ah, very cool. Neil Patrick Harris and Doctor

Who. Yep. I find it hilarious that you guys,

as of this recording, because I don't know when

I'm editing or putting this online, but as of

this recording a week ago, X6 Childhood Toys,

we always wanted it. It's so funny that you guys

did that because... Over on ToyCast, we just

did Toy Talk, No Toy for You, Part 1, Denial

of Toys. Yeah. So this new series on ToyCast,

No Toy for You, obviously no soup for you. It's

a Seinfeld thing, but basically my buddy Josh

and I were talking about toys that we were either

denied as kids or, like you said, like toys you

always wanted but never got kind of thing. So

it's kind of interesting that we released. Almost

the same type of episode. Great minds think alike.

Yeah, absolutely. I will say this. A toy I've

always wanted as an adult, I finally got my hands

on. Okay. And that's I had wanted one of the

San Diego Comic -Con exclusive Sergeant Slaughter's

from the G .I. Joe Modern line. I had always

wanted one. I could either never find it. or

it was way too pricey. And finally, like the

heavens aligned and I had enough money and the

price was cheap enough that I got one. So now

I finally have one. There you go. You know, it's

the one with the USA shirt, you know, so it's

not, it's not the cartoon one, but you know what?

Yeah. It's a GI Joe Sergeant slaughter figure.

So you know what? I'm, I'm calling it a win.

Yeah. I'm calling it a win. I'm waiting to see.

I think there is one. I don't remember. I'm waiting

to see if there's a Sergeant Slaughter Funko

Pop. That's what I'm waiting on. I want to say

there is. I want to say there is. I think there

is. I don't remember off the top of my head.

Of course, it may be an exclusive. It may have

been an exclusive. Yeah, it probably is. Of course,

even though this is cartoons. There's always

what Hasbro is doing with G .I. Joe, making pretty

much the entire franchise online selling only.

Yeah, unfortunately. That's a whole other topic

for a whole different podcast that we could talk

about. But all right, Toonsters, that's going

to do it for us here on ToonCast. Thank you for

joining us. If you'd like to get contact with

us or leave feedback for the show, there are

several ways to do so. Visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can listen to and comment on all

of our content. Send us email to feedback at

geekcastradio .com. You can check us out on Spotify,

Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, whatever podcatching

client you choose to use. Follow us on Twitter

at GCR and ToonCast and at ToonCastBeyonder for

the show. I am at TF2 and Mike. What is your

Twitter? And my Twitter, of course, is WhiteBalloonKing,

spelled W -H -T -B -L -L -N -K -I -N -G. Because,

of course, they're not going to let me do the

whole thing because character limits. But worst

case, if you're having a problem, just look up

Eduardo M. Fryer, and you should be able to find

it. Absolutely. Here's hoping a lot of the Twitter

problems get solved once Musk finally buys it.

Oh, wait, you're not joking. No, I'm not joking.

Become a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook .com

slash ski cast radio. You can also look for tune

cast all tunes all the time over there as well

as Mark who 42s universe. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of tune cast. I wish you'll join

us next time for something. I don't know. I have

nothing planned yet, so I'm in the middle of

planning the end of the year for the pull bag,

and that's taking up all my time, hence why I've

been doing the origins over here on ToonCast

for the most part, because they're just easier,

and it's just, you know, ask the questions, get

the answers, get the story, record it, edit it,

put it online, boom, you're done. So for now,

I am TF2 and Mike with... Eduardo and Friar.

Thank you for listening. Until next time. Oh,

and by the way, unleash the tune in you.