Iron Man: Armored Adventures - A Pimping Post
So I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now, (RL being pretty distracting for a change) but now that I haz yay news! (that is the new season 2 of Iron Man: Armored Adventures is finally going to start airing in the US come next week) and I finally have some free(-ish) time, I thought it was a good time to get this done.
Now I know a lot of the older fans have been giving this a miss because of the dreaded ‘teen!Tony’ thing in comics canon which we’d all rather forget. Surfing through the net back to when the series had just been announced, I also found a lot of apprehension in forums about the ability of a ‘children’s cartoon’ to accurately depict Tony Stark- a man whose best known characteristics are playboy and (ex-) alcoholic and that the end result was going to be ‘Spidey in Armor’.
I was one of these people (though granted it was less, ‘before the show came out’ than ‘when I heard of the show’ considering my rather recent entry into canon). And I admit I first started watching the show mainly to mock. I could not have been more wrong about my assumptions and I don’t want people missing something that is an awesome Tony-Stark-show and hence this post.
We in comics fandom (probably) all know the lure of a good AU. We've messed around a lot with 'What If X (often Tony, thanks to Earth-3490) was born a woman?' Well, this series here is a very well done extrapolation of 'What If Howard Stark was not a dick (to Tony, atleast)?' and 'What If Tony's 'accident' happened a LOT younger?' There’s no Steve (yet) but that’s why fanfic exists! I would personally love to read an IM: AA fic where a young Captain America wakes from the ice.
So for a non-spoilery run-down of why this show might be worth your time.
The Story (And The Names)
Well, first of all it is the brainchild of Chris Yost, another thing by whom, most of you are probably already watching- Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (and if you are not, that’s another thing as Avengers fans you definitely need to). He's also been involved in the the old X-Men Evolution cartoons, and clearly knows what he's doing. Then, considering the absolute complexity, we as fans know 'children's cartoons' can have (Avatar: TLA anyone? The DCAU?), Iron Man: Armored Adventures absolutely delivers in terms of storylines. Many episodes might seem to have a kernel of familiarity to long-time fans considering quite a few are adapted from comics storylines but done in a delightfully fresh manner. (Bonus: They actually adapted the Sentient Armor storyline! True Fact! It was interesting and different and a surprisingly awesome experience (for me) in Gender Tropes, of all things…) Villains die, people have miserable lives, people even go insane, people let power get their head, people make morally ambiguous decisions (and no, people /= Tony Stark all of the time) Of course, a lot of the core mythology is different from comics!mythology but then that's part and parcel of the whole 'fresh take' thing, and imo, a well-executed bonus.
The Supporting Characters
Secondly, for people already familiar with Marvel- specially Iron Man history, the show is populated by not just awesome regulars, but also has a lot of absolute-win 'team-up' episodes (examples Black Panther and The Hulk!), a lot of canon villains- big and small- showing up and of course, SHIELD and Nick Fury are a constant presence. Pepper and Rhodey are completely in their element (keeping Tony in check!) and Happy is hilarious. Extra bonus special person, which I think this fandom will like is Roberta Rhodes - high powered successful lawyer and mother to one Jim Rhodes, whose hobby is being awesome all the time! Some more very interesting (and surprising) characters are also pretty important but more on them in a bit. (I think they're going to get their own sub-heading, sort of...)
TONY STARK!
Now to the MOST important bit - the reason I personally liked it so very much - Tony Stark, ladies and gentlemen. Because let's face it, no matter how awesome the stories and the supporting characters, I'm not going to watch an Iron Man show if I think their Tony Stark sucks / is-OOC / whatever. As (hopefully) fans of Tony Stark, the man (or the boy in this case) fandom seems to agree on a few things re: alcoholism and the sex. They have underlying causes and while the series might not have the two (it is aimed at younger audiences, after all) the causes themselves are all present and an intrinsic part of the show- Tony's need to feel loved, inexpertness in connecting with people, Tony's need for control, Tony's over-developed sense of personal responsibility, Tony's off-the-charts stress levels and even Tony's tendency to be attracted to people who are eminently Not Good For Him. They just manifest in ways more suitable to the age of the characters and situations of the verse.
The Core Group Dynamics
And now for the last point and the ‘interesting and surprising’ series regulars- Madame Masque and Temugin/Mandarin. That’s right, the whole ‘People Who Are Not Good For Him’ thing. Of course, they’re teenagers too, and just fellow students when we meet them, but they have very compelling reasons to be there and both not just vital to the show but also extremely complicated and interesting characters. And here’s the other thing which makes me love the show - the group dynamics. Tony’s circle of friends, as it builds up over the season, is Pepper and Rhodey on one side and Whitney and Gene (KHAAAAN! As Happy is ever-happy to remind us!) on the other. The ‘good kids’, the responsible ones who ground Tony, on one side and the ‘filthy rich brats’ the ones who know the high pressure, high society life Tony knows and have daddy! issues the size of small sky-scrapers to match. And the two groups interact in very very interesting ways - in and out of Tony’s sight. There are intriguing alliances and tentative friendships, jealousy, plain dislike and constantly evolving permutations of normal and not-so-normal teen interactions.
The Reason For Fandom aka Shipping
Last but not the least, shipping potential. Tony, being Tony has a lot of chemistry with everyone (though less sexualized Tony seems to be rather clueless in matters of the heart and more emotional, I guess?) especially in the core group of Rhodey, Pepper, Whitney and Gene. But there’s also some very very fertile shipping grounds between the ‘good kids’/’rich kids’ groups. Then of course there are the 'safe pairings' of Pepper/Rhodey and/or Gene/Whitney, threesomes in every permutation and so on and so forth. (I personally, sorta-kinda ship Pepper/Gene and Rhodey/Whitney and in my opinion this leaves Tony feeling rather lonely… cue STEVE! :D or moresomes! :D I love both! <3)
According to wiki, Season 2 starts airing July 13 in the USofA, so while there’s still time to catch up atleast somewhat with Season 1, I feel it’s entirely possible to jump in with just the episode summaries at Wiki here. Of course, watching the series has no substitute, but if you really don’t have time (or energy) to watch the whole season (26 episodes) in just a week, atleast be sure to watch the awesome season finale ‘Tales Of Supense’ two-parter (though a lot of the emotional impact might be a little diluted, as comics!fen it shouldn’t be too confusing, I hope)
Anyway, this was my teal deer, I hope I didn’t scare you off, and that you’ll give the show a try (and produce fic! Haha, my secret agenda! all along! is now revealed! :D)
Now I know a lot of the older fans have been giving this a miss because of the dreaded ‘teen!Tony’ thing in comics canon which we’d all rather forget. Surfing through the net back to when the series had just been announced, I also found a lot of apprehension in forums about the ability of a ‘children’s cartoon’ to accurately depict Tony Stark- a man whose best known characteristics are playboy and (ex-) alcoholic and that the end result was going to be ‘Spidey in Armor’.
I was one of these people (though granted it was less, ‘before the show came out’ than ‘when I heard of the show’ considering my rather recent entry into canon). And I admit I first started watching the show mainly to mock. I could not have been more wrong about my assumptions and I don’t want people missing something that is an awesome Tony-Stark-show and hence this post.
We in comics fandom (probably) all know the lure of a good AU. We've messed around a lot with 'What If X (often Tony, thanks to Earth-3490) was born a woman?' Well, this series here is a very well done extrapolation of 'What If Howard Stark was not a dick (to Tony, atleast)?' and 'What If Tony's 'accident' happened a LOT younger?' There’s no Steve (yet) but that’s why fanfic exists! I would personally love to read an IM: AA fic where a young Captain America wakes from the ice.
So for a non-spoilery run-down of why this show might be worth your time.
The Story (And The Names)
Well, first of all it is the brainchild of Chris Yost, another thing by whom, most of you are probably already watching- Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (and if you are not, that’s another thing as Avengers fans you definitely need to). He's also been involved in the the old X-Men Evolution cartoons, and clearly knows what he's doing. Then, considering the absolute complexity, we as fans know 'children's cartoons' can have (Avatar: TLA anyone? The DCAU?), Iron Man: Armored Adventures absolutely delivers in terms of storylines. Many episodes might seem to have a kernel of familiarity to long-time fans considering quite a few are adapted from comics storylines but done in a delightfully fresh manner. (Bonus: They actually adapted the Sentient Armor storyline! True Fact! It was interesting and different and a surprisingly awesome experience (for me) in Gender Tropes, of all things…) Villains die, people have miserable lives, people even go insane, people let power get their head, people make morally ambiguous decisions (and no, people /= Tony Stark all of the time) Of course, a lot of the core mythology is different from comics!mythology but then that's part and parcel of the whole 'fresh take' thing, and imo, a well-executed bonus.
The Supporting Characters
Secondly, for people already familiar with Marvel- specially Iron Man history, the show is populated by not just awesome regulars, but also has a lot of absolute-win 'team-up' episodes (examples Black Panther and The Hulk!), a lot of canon villains- big and small- showing up and of course, SHIELD and Nick Fury are a constant presence. Pepper and Rhodey are completely in their element (keeping Tony in check!) and Happy is hilarious. Extra bonus special person, which I think this fandom will like is Roberta Rhodes - high powered successful lawyer and mother to one Jim Rhodes, whose hobby is being awesome all the time! Some more very interesting (and surprising) characters are also pretty important but more on them in a bit. (I think they're going to get their own sub-heading, sort of...)
TONY STARK!
Now to the MOST important bit - the reason I personally liked it so very much - Tony Stark, ladies and gentlemen. Because let's face it, no matter how awesome the stories and the supporting characters, I'm not going to watch an Iron Man show if I think their Tony Stark sucks / is-OOC / whatever. As (hopefully) fans of Tony Stark, the man (or the boy in this case) fandom seems to agree on a few things re: alcoholism and the sex. They have underlying causes and while the series might not have the two (it is aimed at younger audiences, after all) the causes themselves are all present and an intrinsic part of the show- Tony's need to feel loved, inexpertness in connecting with people, Tony's need for control, Tony's over-developed sense of personal responsibility, Tony's off-the-charts stress levels and even Tony's tendency to be attracted to people who are eminently Not Good For Him. They just manifest in ways more suitable to the age of the characters and situations of the verse.
The Core Group Dynamics
And now for the last point and the ‘interesting and surprising’ series regulars- Madame Masque and Temugin/Mandarin. That’s right, the whole ‘People Who Are Not Good For Him’ thing. Of course, they’re teenagers too, and just fellow students when we meet them, but they have very compelling reasons to be there and both not just vital to the show but also extremely complicated and interesting characters. And here’s the other thing which makes me love the show - the group dynamics. Tony’s circle of friends, as it builds up over the season, is Pepper and Rhodey on one side and Whitney and Gene (KHAAAAN! As Happy is ever-happy to remind us!) on the other. The ‘good kids’, the responsible ones who ground Tony, on one side and the ‘filthy rich brats’ the ones who know the high pressure, high society life Tony knows and have daddy! issues the size of small sky-scrapers to match. And the two groups interact in very very interesting ways - in and out of Tony’s sight. There are intriguing alliances and tentative friendships, jealousy, plain dislike and constantly evolving permutations of normal and not-so-normal teen interactions.
The Reason For Fandom aka Shipping
Last but not the least, shipping potential. Tony, being Tony has a lot of chemistry with everyone (though less sexualized Tony seems to be rather clueless in matters of the heart and more emotional, I guess?) especially in the core group of Rhodey, Pepper, Whitney and Gene. But there’s also some very very fertile shipping grounds between the ‘good kids’/’rich kids’ groups. Then of course there are the 'safe pairings' of Pepper/Rhodey and/or Gene/Whitney, threesomes in every permutation and so on and so forth. (I personally, sorta-kinda ship Pepper/Gene and Rhodey/Whitney and in my opinion this leaves Tony feeling rather lonely… cue STEVE! :D or moresomes! :D I love both! <3)
According to wiki, Season 2 starts airing July 13 in the USofA, so while there’s still time to catch up atleast somewhat with Season 1, I feel it’s entirely possible to jump in with just the episode summaries at Wiki here. Of course, watching the series has no substitute, but if you really don’t have time (or energy) to watch the whole season (26 episodes) in just a week, atleast be sure to watch the awesome season finale ‘Tales Of Supense’ two-parter (though a lot of the emotional impact might be a little diluted, as comics!fen it shouldn’t be too confusing, I hope)
Anyway, this was my teal deer, I hope I didn’t scare you off, and that you’ll give the show a try (and produce fic! Haha, my secret agenda! all along! is now revealed! :D)