Iron Man Armoured Adventures Season 2 - Vol. 1   Starring (voice): Adrian Petriw, Daniel Bacon, Vincent Tong, Anna Cummer and Mackenzie Gray Distributor: Clear Vision RRP: £14.99 Certificate: PG Release Date: 22 April 2013

Tony Stark is seventeen and already well-established as Iron Man. In less than a year he will take control of his missing father’s company, Stark Enterprises. In the meantime, Obadiah Stane is acting chairman, and will stop at nothing to win the board’s approval and discredit Tony’s name. The company is the largest supplier of military weaponry; however, Justin Hammer’s company is a deadly rival, hell bent on usurping that supremacy. Both men are determined to defeat Iron Man and obtain the powerful armour...

This Clear Vision release from the prolific and extensive animated vaults of Marvel comprises the first thirteen episodes of Season 2, over two DVD discs, with a total running time of 4 hours, 51 minutes.

Although I love the Iron Man of the live action films and Avengers Assemble, and am a Marvel characters fan in general, the animated serials of the 1960s and 1990s did little for me. As I haven’t seen Season 1 of these Armoured Adventures, I wondered how these new episodes would come across for the casual viewer. Initially, the idea of a young Tony Stark being Iron man already and yet still attending high school although he is a genius far beyond the capacity of his fellow students, seems somewhat ridiculous. You realise pretty early on that it’s simply used as a means to an end. However, once you get used to the idea you soon realise this series has heart.

I watched all thirteen episodes with great interest, and the entire concept grew on me pretty quickly. Yes, he has help from War Machine and Pepper, but I think what really makes this work is that Iron Man is always on the back foot, fighting against almost impossible odds. He spends the majority of episodes being beaten-up and thrown around like an empty beer can.

Hammer has stolen some of his files and has built his own robots with the intention of taking out Iron Man and ultimately selling them to the military. So this is a race against time to make it to his eighteenth birthday before his identity is discovered, and in the meantime steal back his designs. Along the way, there is The Spider, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. and Doctor Doom to contend with.

An enjoyable bunch of episodes, with a catchy rock-oriented theme tune.

7

Ty Power