Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Vol. 1

The Nicktoons Version of Iron Man Comes to DVD
Unlike the DC Animated Universe (DCAU) DVD releases, Marvel properties have all pretty much suffered from the same issue in that it isn't easy to discern exactly which animated incarnation of the franchise in question you're actually buying. I speak from experience as through the animated X-Men collections I happened upon when hoping for a release of The Animated Series (which is actually officially titled The Comic Book Collection).

That said, this much-anticipated DVD collection represents the latest series airing on NickToons in the USA and TeleToon up in Canada. Genius Entertainment is the company behind the Iron Man: Armored Adventures - Volume 1 release on both DVD and Blu-ray.

While many fans of the 1994 Iron Man the Animated Series were hoping for an official Marvel release due to the popularity of the 2008 live action feature film, it was this NickToons version of the franchise that was spawned to meet the demand. It should also be noted that while the...

A series that succeeds despite itself
"Iron Man: Armoured Adventures" did NOT fill me with confidence when it first came to light. After the huge success of the live-action movie, the news that the series would be presenting Tony Stark as a teenager seemed an unnecessary storytelling device (the movie didn't need to make the character younger in order to sell him to a younger audience, why should the cartoon?), and compounding that was the fact that it harkened back to a very unpopular period from the character's history in the mid-90s, when he was replaced with a teenage version of himself. After all, by removing the adult Stark from the equation, you remove the opportunity to tell some of his greatest stories, like the seminal, alcohol-fuelled "Demon in a Bottle", or his many tales of loves lost and won. The concurrent age-regression of many of his supporting cast like James Rhodes, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan was a rude accompanying shock, albeit a neeeded one to make the ensemble work. The discovery that his...

"His teenaged life will never be the same... He's Iron Maaaan!"
Thanks mostly to Robert Downey, Jr. and Jon Favreau, Iron Man has been elevated to top tier superhero status. And since this kind of unexpected success simply cries out for an animated TV show, sho 'nuff, we get one. Thing is, one pretty important change was implemented. And, so, if you can get past Tony Stark being reinterpreted as a teenager, then you may find this to be a dang watchable series - but that's a big if. IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES Vol. 1 collects the first six episodes of Season One, and my 3 star rating reflects the sheer suckability of the powers-that-be once again dishing out meager servings as opposed to releasing the entire season in one package. I'd say the show itself is worth a 4-star rating. But that's 'cause I pretty quickly got over Tony Stark's age reduction.

Maybe that's because I wasn't ever that big a fan of Tony Stark. Until Robert Downey, Jr. got his mitts on the character, I saw Stark as a smug, egotistical genius industrialist/superhero...

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