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The [[UsefulNotes/TheNineties '90s]] AnimatedAdaptation based on the Franchise/MarvelUniverse {{Superhero}} and his alter ego, Tony Stark. (An earlier Iron Man animated series was shown as part of the ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelSuperHeroes'' lineup that ran in 1966.)
This series ran for two seasons from 1994 to 1996 alongside ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as part of the syndicated ''Marvel Action Hour''. Like ''Fantastic Four'', it had a bland first season and a significantly improved second.
The first season dealt with Iron Man and his team of fellow superheroes, Force Works -- consisting of ComicBook/WarMachine, ComicBook/SpiderWoman (Julia Carpenter), ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, ComicBook/ScarletWitch, and Century -- battling the forces of the evil Mandarin, such as Whirlwind and Grey Gargoyle. The episodes in this season were mostly one-part stories. Common points of contention for many during this season were the shoddy animation, general outdatedness and that other than the "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter, which modernized his origins, there were no attempts to adapt stories from the comic mythos.
The second season featured much [[AnimationBump better animation]] (due in part by switching to a [[Creator/KokoEnterprises different animation studio]]) and stories more similar to the comic. It was more {{Arc}} based, and the {{Superhero}} team aspect was downplayed with all the teammates besides Spider-Woman and War Machine resigning after Tony [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] without letting them in on the plan. Mandarin was also downplayed, having small cameos in some episodes as he reclaims his powerful Ten Rings, which were scattered during a confrontation with Iron Man in the season premiere.
----
!!Provides examples of:
* AbridgedSeries: Got one as part of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelMashUp''; strangely, they chose to use season 2 instead of season 1.
* AchillesInHisTent: Force Works in Season 2 effectively disbands when half the team (Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Century) quits, having become disgusted by Tony faking his death and not letting them in on it. They do come BackForTheFinale.
* AdaptationNameChange:
** Ho Yinsen became ''Wellington'' Yinsen.
** Tony's parents are called Walter and Martha instead of Howard and Maria. That said, season 2 did retcon this as a case of MiddleNameBasis for Walter and that Howard is indeed his first name (it was also RetCanon to the comics in the 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series)
** Tony himself doesn't escape this as his middle initial is "B", suggesting his middle name isn't "Edward" here.
** In keeping with the earlier idea her father was the Whizzer, not ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, the ComicBook/ScarletWitch's last name is "Frank", not "Lehnsherr".
* AdaptationOriginConnection:
** The Mandarin is the one who captures Tony Stark and Yinsen, which results in the creation of the Iron Man armor.
** Yinsen himself is involved in the Mandarin's origin story as well as Iron Man's.
** MODOK's condition wasn't caused by A.I.M. trying to turn a man into a supercomputer (like in the comics); rather, he was mutated by his rival, the Red Ghost (who apparently created Titanium Man)[[note]]in the comics, Red Ghost is typically an enemy of the Fantastic Four, and is/was a Soviet scientist who intentionally exposed himself and his trained apes to cosmic rays to gain superpowers; aside from both having worked for the Soviets, he and Titanium Man have no connection, and he and the comics M.O.D.O.K. have never worked together either[[/note]], over the affections of a woman. This results in MODOK serving the Mandarin as TheIgor, whilst they have never worked together in the comics.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: Firepower is re-envisioned as a mecha, as opposed to the man in a MiniMecha from the comics.
* AdaptedOut:
** The show's version of Force Works replaces U.S. Agent with Hawkeye (apparently due to rights issues as U.S. Agent was tied to Captain America). Strangely, U.S. Agent still received an action figure in the show's toyline, possibly indicating that he ''was'' planned to be part of the team at one point; he and Hawkeye were both on the team in the tie-in comics. (It should be noted that the figure never received a wide release thanks to issues at Toy Biz; the figure later surfaced via semi-illegal means, and the mold was eventually repurposed -- first as Living Laser, but when the ''IM'' line was cancelled along with the show, Toy Biz remolded it once again into [[WesternAnimation/XMen Astral Armor Professor X]].)
** The adaptation of "ComicBook/ArmorWars" is pretty true to the comic that inspired it, but makes a few character changes:
*** Spymaster is replaced by the Ghost as the one who steals the Iron Man plans and sells them to Justin Hammer.
*** The plane hijacking scene has the Raiders replaced by Blizzard and Blacklash.
*** Hawkeye replaces [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica the Captain]] as the Avenger who fights Iron Man at the Vault (presumably due to the aforementioned rights issues).
*** Edwin Cord's role as the backer of the Firepower project is given to Hammer. Since Firepower is changed from an armored suit to a robot, Jack Taggert also doesn't appear.
*** The roles of [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] and Abe Zimmer are cut entirely.
*** The Crimson Dynamo effectively serves as a CompositeCharacter for the Gremlin (the second Titanium Man) and Force. He [[spoiler:dies in battle against Iron Man in Russia]] instead of the Gremlin, and it's his armor, rather than Force's, that reveals the stolen Iron Man tech.
* AffirmativeActionGirl: Hypnotia was created to add a female villain to Iron Man's otherwise mostly-male rogues gallery.
* AllThereInTheManual:
** The show generally assumes the audience is familiar with the comics, as many of the characters never really get their backstories explored. This is especially noticeable with Titanium Man, who is introduced with very little explanation, despite Iron Man claiming to have fought him in the past.
** Madame Masque's past relationship with Tony, as well as the incident that led to her disfigurement, are never explored in any real detail. The most we get is her blaming Tony for ruining her face and Tony talking about how he had to break up with her because she wanted his company.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub uses a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWP_StfvsGs different opening theme song]].
* AmbiguousSituation: It's unclear if the bandits killed the Mandarin at the end of the Season 2 finale, or if they merely cut off his hands.
%%* AndIMustScream: "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead."
* AnimeThemeSong: When broadcast in Japan.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Twice in Season 2.
** In "The Beast Within", Iron Man fakes his death by the Mandarin's hands, leading the rest of the team without their leader and to battle with Fing Fang Foom and the other dragons without him. Just as they seem to be losing, Iron Man appears out of the sky, and teams up with the Mandarin to stop the dragons. The scene has War Machine sound overjoyed at his best friend's survival, but in literally the next scene, Rhodey knocks Tony to the ground and chews him out for not having enough trust in the team to let them know he's alive. This is actually what led to Force Works disbanding.
** During the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, after Tony discovers that his designs have been stolen, he goes on a crusade to disable the armored heroes and villains using his technology to keep them falling into the wrong hands. It gets to the point that he "fires" Iron Man as Stark Enterprises can't associate with a CorporateSamurai gone rogue, and acts more rashly - while shutting out his friends and allies, even attacking one of them. Julia goes out her way to call him out on the crap he's pulled over the years - not just recently, and when he fakes his death again but lets Julia and Rhodey know he's alive, the former goes through the emotional ringer - first in grief to Tony's "death", then elation, and later takes Tony to task again for his recklessness and selfish actions, and makes it very clear to him that he hurt both Rhodey and herself in his paranoia over the stolen Stark tech, even if he hadn't set out to do so.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Tony literally says "WhatHaveIDone" after pointlessly fighting the hero Stingray, War Machine tells him, "Well, let's see: near as I can figure, you've trespassed on federal property, assaulted a naval officer, and taken a dip without waiting an hour after mealtime!"
* AscendedExtra: An odd example. Hypnotia is the first villain actually shown in the first episode, beyond the opening credits, and she's shown successfully completing her mission. She then disappears for the next few episodes and is briefly replaced by another villainess, Elastika, before Hypnotia reappears and starts getting bigger roles. This is only in the first season mind you, as she's mostly absent alongside the other villains for most of season two besides the opening and ending episodes.
** Dreadknight is actually from the comics, but he only had a handful of appearances before the series.
* AvengingTheVillain: Firebrand in "Fire and Rain".
* BackForTheFinale: Scarlet Witch, Century and several of the Mandarin's minions return for the second season finale.
* BackhandedApology: "The Armor Wars" two-parter ends with Iron Man uploading a virus into Hammer Industries' computer systems. It destroys all records of the armor technology, but it also "accidentally" erases everything else. He "apologizes" by noting how "reckless" he was.
* BadBoss: The Mandarin, in the very first episode, almost killed Blizzard as punishment for the villain accidentally ruining the Mandarin's begonias. Hypnotia seems to be the only one of his minions he treats with respect, but that's most likely because she's the only one who is consistently competent.
* BeingGoodSucks: Comicbook/NickFury is certain in "The Armor Wars, Part II" that Justin Hammer is using Firepower to attack Stark Enterprises. Without proof, though, he can't intervene, so he presses Tony to bring back Iron Man.
* BettyAndVeronica: Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch compete for Tony's affections in the first season.
** ThirdOptionLoveInterest: Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist in the first season.
* BigBad: The Mandarin is the main antagonist of the series.
* BittersweetEnding: Several Season 2 episodes.
** "The Beast Within": The Mandarin's team is arrested and the dragons' plan is foiled, but Tony's actions cause half of Force Works and the remaining members to still give him grief. Also, viewers learn that the Mandarin is NotQuiteDead.
** "Fire and Rain": Firebrand is arrested, but Rhodey is left shaken and gives up being War Machine.
** "Cell of Iron": Arthur Dearborn sacrifices his life and dream to save millions of people.
** "Not Far From the Tree": AIM's plot to take over Stark Enterprises fails, but the clone of Walter Stark escapes and intends to revisit his "son" when he's feeling most vulnerable.
** "Beauty Knows No Pain": Madame Masque is stopped, but Tony and Julia are left feeling sorry for her, as well as reflecting on Tony's own lonely life.
* BraggingThemeTune: Distilled into four words in the second season's theme song- "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. AM. IRON MAN!]]"
* BroadStrokes: The second season sometimes had callbacks to events from the first season, like Tony and Julia's fake wedding, and a flashback scene with Tony in his season 1 armor (with mouthslit), but most of these were few and far between (likely because the new episodes were nothing like the earlier ones).
* TheBusCameBack: Even before the finale, Blacklash and Blizzard appeared in the ComicBook/ArmorWars two-parter hijacking a plane. Also, Titanium Man, who only appeared in the first episode of season 1 until his return in the season 2 episode "Distant Boundaries".
* CanonForeigner: Hypnotia, an {{Expy}} of ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' villainess Enchantress, and Dark Aegis, the main villain of the episode, "Distant Boundaries", were both original characters created for this cartoon.
** Elastika is also one, and she only appears once in the first season.
** The Hacker from "Iron Man on the Inside."
* CerebusRetcon: The Season 1 finale showed that Julia was in on the fake wedding with everyone outside of Wanda. Season 2, however, showed that she was actually quite bitter about being left at the altar, and the tension caused by that lingering resentment was used a recurring plot point.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** While the Mandarin's lackeys were used less frequently in Season 2 in general, Justin Hammer, M.O.D.O.K., Hypnotia, Whirlwind, Blizzard, Blacklash and Titanium Man all made at least one guest appearance each. Grey Gargoyle, Living Laser, Elastika and Dreadknight were far less fortunate, and completely stopped appearing after the first season, save for a few of them having a brief cameo in the Season 2 premiere (and Grey Gargoyle having a cameo in prison in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter). What makes it odd is that the Mandarin eventually frees Hypnotia, Blizzard, Whirlwind and Blacklash from prison, but neglects to recover the rest of their former teammates.
** Veronica, Tony's physical therapist, also vanished after Season 1.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: "Hulkbuster" ends with the Mandarin reclaiming his final two rings and vowing to implement his ultimate plan.
* ClipShow: Both seasons had an episode consisting primarily of footage recycled from older episodes - "The Wedding of Iron Man" and "Empowered," respectively.
* CommutingOnABus: Hawkeye in Season 2. Unlike Scarlet Witch or Century, he appeared in two episodes in between the premiere and finale.
* CompositeCharacter:
** Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman) has a lot of traits of Pepper Potts. It's more evident in the second season. She's also somewhat of an {{Expy}} for Bethany Cabe, Stark's other red-haired associate at the time.
** Sunturion's human form, Arthur Dearborn, had a completely different look in the comics; his appearance in the show appears to be taken from another Roxxon-associated character, Abner Doolittle.
** The Mandroids have the same armor as the Guardsmen from the comics.
** Titanium Man is a composite of both comic versions, having the identity of the first (Boris Bullski) and the armor design of the second (the Gremlin). Coincidentally, Bullski eventually did adopt Gremlin's armor design for a while in the comics.
** Roxxon, while namechecked as owning a refinery, has its' villainous role in the Star Well project transferred to AIM.
* {{Crossover}}:
** Iron Man appears (alongside War Machine) in a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (with a new design that mixes his season one and two designs with new elements borrowed from the Telepresence unit from the comics; War Machine also got a different appearance, with comics-accurate shoulder cannons).
** He appears too (alongside War Machine once again) in an episode of the then-latest ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' cartoon. The Hulk himself appears in an episode of this show as he teams up with Iron Man to stop The Leader from going back to the past to take Bruce Banner's place in the gamma bomb explosion that created the Hulk. The episode in question is something of a SequelEpisode to "Hulkbuster", with Tony and Bruce Banner already being friends and being a SecretKeeper for the other.
** He also made a cameo appearance in ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as a member/leader of the Avengers (although he doesn't speak).
** An alternate future counterpart of IM, in green armor, made a quick cameo in the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' episode "One Man's Worth".
* CurseCutShort: "Ultimo! I thought I pulled the plug on that son of a -"
** From "ComicBook/ArmorWars":
-->'''Tony''': Hello Fury, what bug crawled up your -?
-->'''Nick Fury''': It's about Iron Man.
** And later in the same episode:
-->'''Julia''': You lousy, lying -!
* DarkerAndEdgier:
** The second season had darker colors, a more mature tone, and spent time developing the more self-destructive aspects of Stark as a character.
** Ex-KGB who wants to basically bring back the Cold War and win it decides to launch a nuke at a Russian city and make America look responsible, and when stopped, decides to detonate it there, atomizing himself and anyone else in the immediate area, and causing numerous deaths from radiation poisoning. No, this isn't an episode of ''Series/TwentyFour'', it's an episode of a ''kids' cartoon.'' [[spoiler:It's Crimson Dynamo's swan-song, setting off the animated version of the ComicBook/ArmorWars storyline... which is also one of those episodes that shows Stark's dark side.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Hawkeye.
** And of course there's Hypnotia.
--->'''Dreadknight''': Give me a chance, Hypnotia. I'll make you lose your taste for Tony Stark.
--->'''Hypnotia''': I'm more likely to lose my lunch.
* DirtyCommunists: Crimson Dynamo, a deranged KGB agent-turned terrorist obsessed with destroying the capitalist system and bringing back the Soviet Union. Titanium Man counts too, as he also wants to bring the Soviet Union back.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Hacker used Ultimo to attack Stark Enterprises because they turned down his job applications, saying such things as "Please re-apply after college."
* DramaticUnmask: In "Hands of the Mandarin, Part I," [[spoiler:the Mandarin melts off Iron Man's helmet]].
* DrivenToSuicide: "ComicBook/ArmorWars: Part 2" has a scene where Rhodey becomes extremely worried after Tony locks himself in his lab and stops answering when anyone tries to communicate with him. Julia's response implies (but doesn't outright state) that the two of them are worried that Tony may have committed suicide after his latest bout of depression.
-->'''Julia''': You don't think he's gone and -?!
* DueToTheDead: When it looks like Iron Man's been killed in "The Armor Wars, Part II," Nick Fury chastises two soldiers belittling his memory.
-->"There was a good man in that armor, and he deserves your respect. That clear?!"
* EnemyMine:
** In "The Beast Within," Iron Man and the Mandarin are forced to work together to defeat the dragons.
** In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man teams up with Iron Man and War Machine to take Dark Aegis down.
* EnhanceButton: In "The Beast Within," Tony finds Fin Fang Foom's shadow in a satellite snapshot by enlarging, isolating, and enhancing it.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man is disgusted with Dark Aegis for destroying a planet simply ForTheEvulz.
-->"My hunger is different from that of Dark Aegis. I want power to control; to lead. He wants power to annihilate!"
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In "The Defection of Hawkeye", the Mandarin sets up evidence that Hawkeye is a traitor, and is completely shocked that Tony and the others trust him regardless.
* EvilKnockoff: The two-part episode "Iron Man to the Second Power" had M.O.D.O.K. create a robotic duplicate of Iron Man.
* {{Expy}}: Elastika is visually similar to Zarana from ''Franchise/GIJoe'', and has the same basic MasterOfDisguise theme.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: "Iron Man, on the Inside," where Tony does this to fix Hawkeye's spinal injury. (This was adapted from a comic book story, but with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as the patient instead.)
* FanService: Both “And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead” and “The Grim Reaper Wears A Teflon Coat” feature Tony having physiotherapy sessions with a bikini-clad Veronica Benning. The latter episode also features Wanda in a bikini. “Enemy Within, Enemy Without” begins with a photo shoot with a bikini-clad model (M.O.D.O.K.’s former wife) that gets interrupted. She stays in the swimsuit the rest of the episode.
* ForgingScene: The second intro sequence has one of these.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In his first appearance, Crimson Dynamo says that he is willing to sacrifice his life to destroy the capitalist system and Tony Stark. [[spoiler: He does indeed sacrifice himself in his very next appearance, detonating a nuke in an attempt to start WorldWarIII.]]
* TheGentlemanOrTheScoundrel: The Dreadknight (Gentleman) and Blacklash (Scoundrel) compete for Hypnotia's affections
* GrandFinale: Season two's "Hands of the Mandarin" two-parter, where Mandarin--having finally collected all of his Ten Rings--launches a scheme to make all of the planet's technology useless, which would make his arch-enemy Iron Man ineffective against him. As Mandarin reforms his team of super villains, Iron Man reforms his superhero team and develops new armor to negate Mandarin's anti-technology spell, and a final confrontation between the two ends in [[spoiler:Mandarin's (possible) death]].
* HeartOfTheMatter: The series finale saw [[BigBad The Mandarin]] hold the world hostage using a gigantic gem called The Heart of Darkness which, by draining the energy of superbeings, could blanket the world in an anti-technology field, grinding the modern world to a halt
* HeroesWantRedheads: Spider-Woman, Wanda (season one), and Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Titanium Man in "Distant Boundaries," taking Dark Aegis with him.]]
** [[spoiler:Arthur Dearborn/Sunturion at the end of "Cell of Iron," which saves New York City from utter destruction.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: After all the anti-technology railing, the Mandarin reveals he has exo-armor. Iron Man calls him on it.
* ILied: "The Beast Within" offers a two-fer. Once M.O.D.O.K. fulfills his role in the plan, the Mandarin refuses to let him share in the spoils. However, immediately afterwards, Fin Fang Foom reveals his own treachery.
* IdentityImpersonator: Tony pulls this one on the Mandarin in "The Wedding of Iron Man." Tony himself appears at the wedding in disguise (so he can change into Iron Man later), while a robot represents Tony Stark.
* TheIgor: ComicBook/{{MODOK}} serves as this to the Mandarin.
* IllFatedFlowerbed: In the pilot, Blizzard accidentally freezes the Mandarin's begonias to death while cooling off his drink. The Mandarin is '''not''' happy about it.
* InNameOnly: The Scarlet Witch seen here bears no similarities with the comic book character except having the first name Wanda (in the cartoon she's Wanda ''Frank'' rather than Maximoff), and having a vaguely Eastern European accent. Personality-wise, she's quick to anger, man-crazy, [[CloudCuckooLander more than a little weird]], has the hots for Tony, and sees Jessica as her romantic rival for his affections. In the comics she's level-headed ([[ComicBook/HouseOfM normally]]) and has led the Avengers before, and she counts Tony and Jessica among her closest friends. Power-wise, instead of [[WindsOfDestinyChange probability manipulation]], her abilities are vaguely-defined but seem to be explicitly magical, including tarot-reading, shape-shifting, and altering matter. Even her costume is based on a very brief period in the comics where she experimented with short hair, rather than her more recognizable long hair and tiara. And zero references are made to her [[ComicBook/{{Magneto}} father]] or [[ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} twin brother]].
* IneffectualLoner: Deconstructed in Season 2 with Iron Man. Refusing to let the team in on his plan in "The Beast Within" causes half of them to quit. Rushing off in "The Hands of the Mandarin, Part I" nearly gets him killed.
* {{Irony}}: Discussed throughout "Cell of Iron," as Iron Man finds a given something ironic and H.O.M.E.R. tries to understand the concept. PlayedForLaughs, until the end.
-->'''Iron Man:''' Goodbye, Dearborn. It's ironic that your ultimate gift to mankind wasn't the Star-Well after all, but rather the life you sacrificed to destroy it.\\
'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' You say it is ironic, but I fail to detect the previous element of humor. Is irony not always funny?\\
'''Iron Man:''' No, H.O.M.E.R.. Sometimes, it isn't funny at all.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The episode covering his backstory depicted the Mandarin abandoning his own fiancee to die in order to enhance his own chances of survival, all the while justifying it on the grounds that he had a "great destiny" to live for.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Hawkeye.
** Iron Man could count, too, given he does jackass things like faking his death and the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" stuff, but he did believe he trying to help people.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: In the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Tony starts out by simply attacking villains using armor--stopping them in the middle of crimes and demonstrating that they were using technology stolen from him. However, he quickly becomes more obsessive and starts going after good guys that wear armor, such as Stingray and even War Machine. All the while, Iron Man is condemned as a menace, while Julia and Rhodey denounce him, Nearly getting killed by Justin Hammer's new weapon, though, knocks some sense into him and causes him to clean up his act.
* KickTheDog: The Mandarin almost kills Blizzard in the first episode for ''freezing his begonias''.
* KickTheMoralityPet: The Mandarin's backstory in this animated series; he and his fiancee were archaeologists on a dig in Mongolia when their expedition was attacked by bandits. The rest of the team sacrificed their lives so the two of them could escape on the last surviving camel, but the Mandarin betrayed his fiancee and abandoned her to die so as to ensure his own survival.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Fin Fang Foom, Titanium Man (taking Dark Aegis with him), Crimson Dynamo]].
* TheLancer: Hawkeye
* LastMinuteHookup: Tony and Julia
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** When Iron Man and the Hulk get sent to the prehistoric past in "Hulk Buster," Tony sarcastically asks if someone just changed the channel.
** Likewise, in "Hands of the Mandarin: Part 1," Tony says "You don't have to be a cartoon writer to figure out the Mandarin is behind [the terrorist attacks in Hong Kong]." [[note]] This was likely a TakeThat at the first season, where the Mandarin was behind ''every single plot'' and it would typically take a while for Tony and the others to catch on. Blame Ron Friedman, a writer who apparently didn't grasp that the 80s were over {he worked on the original ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon} and people wanted more from their shows.[[/note]]
* LegionOfDoom: The first season exclusively featured the Mandarin as the BigBad with the other villains (Blizzard, Blacklash, Grey Gargoyle, Whirlwind, Hypnotia, Living Laser, M.O.D.O.K., Justin Hammer, and Fin Fang Foom) all working for him and rotating in and out as needed.
* LimitedAnimation: The first season.
* LoveTriangle: Two examples:
** Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch both want Iron Man in the first season.
** Blacklash and Dreadknight both want Hypnotia. Hypnotia, on her end, alternates between slight teasing and being totally fed up with them, and frequently mentions she wants Tony Stark. Though she briefly reciprocates Blacklash's affection when he saves her life.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: In "Hulk Buster," the Leader seeks to eliminate Bruce Banner in the past and claim the Hulk's power for himself.
-->"Our destiny is about to be uncrossed, Banner."
* MerchandiseDriven: Likely the reason why the first season featured Iron Man and Force Works vs. the Mandarin's LegionOfDoom (it was a very similar setup to ''{{Transformers}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''), and ''definitely'' the reason that season 2 gave Iron Man the ability to switch armors on the fly to adapt to any situation. Marvel had looked at the success of the multi-colored Batman toys in the wake of ''Film/BatmanReturns'' and were trying to copy its success with Iron Man by giving him an armor for every occasion (and compared to Batman, IM's different armor variants made sense most of the time). It didn't take off as well as Marvel had hoped.
** This also led to ExecutiveMeddling for comics at the time: ''Comicbook/WestCoastAvengers'' was canceled in favor of the more Iron Man-centric ''Force Works'' in preparation for the hoped-for Iron Man fad.
* MiddleNameBasis: Season 2 retconned that Tony's dad going by "Walter" is a case of this and that, much like the comics, his first name is indeed "Howard".
* MomentKiller: In "Distant Boundaries," H.O.M.E.R. and later Rhodey do this to Tony and Julia.
-->'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' Are we doing facial inspections?\\
'''Tony:''' ''[beat]'' That's right.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: During "Iron Man, on the Inside," Hawkeye suffers a paralyzing, most likely fatal injury while fighting Ultimo. Tony (feeling guilty over their falling out) is particularly hard on himself, but Julia insists that it was an accident.
* MythologyGag:
** Wanda Maximoff being renamed "Wanda Frank" is a reference to the period in the comics (before Magneto was revealed to be her father) where she and her brother were thought to be the children of Robert Frank, the UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} hero known as the Whizzer.
** Julia in a season 2 episode name-checks Captain America.
** In "Fire and Rain" Tony says Jim needs to meet him at the "Roxxon refinery"; in the comics Roxxon is a major oil company and a major foe of Tony's ([[AdaptedOut though their role in the Sunturion plot was transferred to AIM]]).
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Mandarin was originally a white man named Arnold Brock.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Defeating the dragons in "The Beast Within" causes a massive explosion. Iron Man assumes the Mandarin was killed, but viewers quickly learn he's wrong. Justified, though, as the blast was powerful enough to [[spoiler:kill all five dragons]].
* NinjaLog: Iron Man pulls this off on Blacklash in "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination" when he disguises a high-voltage transformer using his hologram.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Arthur Dearborn from "Cell of Iron" used high levels of microwave energy to cure a deadly disease, but he was transformed into Sunturion. He gave off lethal radiation and banished himself to the Starwell space station.
-->'''Dearborn:''' And here I remain, my gift to mankind now serving as my prison. Do you have any idea of what loneliness it is to be cut off from all humanity and locked inside a [[TitleDrop cell of iron]]?\\
'''Iron Man:''' Yes, I do.
* OffModel: The first season even [[EpicFail fails in]] [[UpToEleven comparison to both]] ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' or the first season of sister series ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
* OhCrap:
** Hulk in his crossover episode when he realizes the time travel has brought him to just before the gamma bomb test.
** M.O.D.O.K. in "Empowered" when he learns the Mandarin is still alive.
* OnceAnEpisode:
** Season 1 had a CGI TransformationSequence, where Tony would suit up.
** Most Season 2 episodes in-between the premiere and finale ended with a tag scene showing the Mandarin slowly reclaiming his rings. The only exceptions were "The Armor Wars, Part I" (which had a story-related cliffhanger) and "Empowered" (a ClipShow that featured the Mandarin heavily).
* OnlySaneMan: Among the Mandarin's usual lackeys, Hypnotia consistently came across as the only one that wasn't an idiot. She also proved to be quite powerful with her hypnotic abilities in various occasions, from hypnotizing an entire village for 24 hours to using delayed-action hypnotism in a video recording.
* OrganicTechnology: The final episode sees Tony donning a new suit of armor that runs on "bio-energy," meaning it's immune to the effects of the anti-tech fog the Mandarin has unleashed.
* OriginsEpisode:
** "The Origin of the Mandarin" revealed [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the origin of the Mandarin]].
** How Tony Stark became Iron Man was revealed in the two-part episode "The Origin of Iron Man".
* PetTheDog: Blacklash once saved Hypnotia's life in an act of genuine altruism.
* PowerTrio: Iron Man, War Machine, and Spider-Woman in Season 2.
* PromotedToLoveInterest:
** Spider-Woman, almost definitely because she was more {{Toyetic}} than any of Tony's canon love interests.
** The Scarlet Witch, too, though obviously unrequited.
* PutOnABus: Hawkeye, Century, and Scarlet Witch quit the team after Season 2's premiere. Hawkeye returns for "Iron Man, On The Inside", again the part 1 of the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, and both he and the rest of the team return in the finale.
** M.O.D.O.K. scampers off at the end of "The Beast Within" for parts unknown. He returns in "Empowered" and is revealed to have been busy searching for the Mandarin's rings.
* RaceLift: In the 1994 animated series, the Mandarin is actually ''pure British'' by origin, instead of his comic book self's Mongolian; his green-skinned, pointy-eared, claw-fingered, Fu Manchu-mustachioed form is something he was warped into after he gathered the ten alien power crystals that become the Rings of Power.
* RatedMForManly: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBbnT-cIDVM The second US opening theme]].
* RecapEpisode: "Empowered", which features MODOK getting his hands on one of the Mandarin's rings.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: "Go redeem yourself, [[spoiler:Titanium Man]]."
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** Dark Aegis was introduced as a villain Iron Man had supposedly already fought and defeated in the past, even though he'd never been seen or mentioned before his debut episode.
** The final episode introduces a Chinese scientist named Dr. Su-Yin, who has conveniently developed a special suit of armor that runs on bio-energy, and is thus impervious to the Mandarin's anti-technology mist. She and Tony are clearly very close and it's stated that they had been working together on the bio-energy microprocessors for several years, despite neither Su-Yin nor the project ever having been mentioned before this.
* RetCanon:
** The current comics reveal that the Mandarin was involved in the kidnapping of Tony Stark and Yinsen.
** The post-''[[Comicbook/SecretWars2015 Secret Wars]]'' relaunch incorporates the idea of Tony being able to switch armors at will.
** The 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series brought in the idea that "Walter" is Howard Stark's middle name.
* {{Retcon}}: In Season 1, the accident that killed Tony's father was caused by Justin Hammer. In Season 2, it was caused by A.I.M. Additionally, it was retconned that "Walter" is a case of MiddleNameBasis and indeed Tony's father's first name is "Howard",
* ReversePolarity: Iron Man uses this to get away from Mandarin's traps.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: See ArsonMurderAndJaywalking above.
* RingOfPower: The Mandarin. Ten of them!
* SayMyName: The season two premiere "The Beast Within" features Rhodey, in response to his best friend Tony supposedly getting blown sky high, belting out a tortured [[ChewingTheScenery "TONYYYYYYYYYY!"]]
* SealedWithAKiss: The series ends with a shot of Tony and Julia locking lips.
* SecretKeeper: The end of "Hulk Buster" for both heroes.
-->'''Bruce:''' You know that I'm the Hulk. What now?\\
'''Iron Man:''' ''[removing his helmet]'' I won't tell if you won't.
* SelfServingMemory: In the season 2 premiere, it's the Mandarin's idea for him and Iron Man to combine their powers to defeat the Makluan dragons. However, this results in a large explosion and him losing his rings, and by the season 2 finale he's convinced himself that Iron Man tricked him into the plan to try and get rid of him.
* ShoutOut:
** The villain Beetle talks like a member of [[Music/TheBeatles a certain rock band]]. Iron Man even tells him he's "In for a hard day's night" when they first meet.
** The reporter in "The Wedding of Iron Man" mentions the time Music/{{Madonna}} married "[[Creator/SeanPenn Whatshisname]]," as well as when Creator/ElizabethTaylor married "everyone else."
** In the same episode, M.O.D.O.K. jokingly says they'll have to get Hypnotia to do a standup routine on Creator/DavidLetterman's show.
** Julia once mentioned ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in a season 2 episode.
* StockFootage:
** Season 1 featured the lengthy clip of Tony suiting up as Iron Man and dubbing in new dialogue for different episodes.
** "Hulk Buster" reuses the climatic explosion from "The Beast Within" and a Hulk transformation from ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
** The fight between Iron Man and Hawkeye in the "Armor Wars: Part 1" uses the same close-up of Hawkeye grinning while preparing an arrow at least twice.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Walter Stark looks like Tony Stark with gray hair. Hell, in season 2, he even has his son's mullet!
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: The series was generally lighter on special guest stars than other Marvel cartoons of the era, especially ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''. This is particularly noticeable in the two-part SeriesFinale, where the Mandarin shuts off all of the technology in New York City. Despite New York being home to the vast majority of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe, no other costumed heroes are seen helping out while the city is devolving into chaos.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: H.O.M.E.R. replaces the female-voiced computer from Season 1.
* SwissArmyHero: Iron Man in Season 2, with the power to switch to different armors for different challenges.
* TeamMemberInTheAdaptation: As noted under AdaptedOut, Hawkeye replaced US Agent as a member of Force Works.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After Force Works dissolves in Season 2, War Machine and Hawkeye don't bother to hide their mutual disdain for each other, as Rhodey is angry at Hawkeye for leaving and Hawkeye at Rhodey for staying. Their mutual anger at each other extends to other members on both sides as well as Clint doesn't bother hiding his contempt at Julia for her staying, either, and while Rhodey doesn't say anything about Century, he does make a snide remark about Tony welcoming Wanda back in the GrandFinale.
* TemptingFate[=/=]ChekhovsGun: In "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination", Rachel Carpenter wonders when she will ever need classical music and her mother later gives her a tape of a Van Cliburn performance. Apparently, the music can be used to recharge Iron Man.
* TenMinuteRetirement:
** Tony has one of these in "ComicBook/ArmorWars."
** Rhodey also takes a step back from heroics after "Fire and Rain." Circumstances force him back into the armor a few more times throughout the season, before Tony destroys the War Machine suit during the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter. He finally becomes War Machine again in the two-part series finale.
* TensionCuttingLaughter:
** While chewing Tony out for his actions in ComicBook/ArmorWars, Julia insists that he can't just ask her and Rhodey for forgiveness; their emotions aren't something he can switch on and off like a computer. H.O.M.E.R asks if [[InsultFriendlyFire he should be offended by that]], and Tony, Julia and Rhodey all crack up. Tony isn't laughing for long, since he's in pretty bad shape.
-->'''Tony:''' Whoever said laughter is the best medicine oughta be shot...
** Happens again while Rhodey and Tony are stranded on an alien world with an unbreathable atmosphere - and Rhodey has an attack of claustrophobia in his suit. Tony tries to calm him down, then finally threatens [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan to slap him if necessary.]]
-->'''Rhodey:''' ''(cracking up)'' Gonna pull my hair, too, boss-man? ''(they both laugh)''
* TitleDrop: The big guy himself word-for-word in "Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer"... ''repeatedly''.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Let's just say in Season 2, some of Tony's less admirable personality traits from the comics made their way onto the show.
* ToylessToylineCharacter: For a show meant to shill toys, several:
** On the heroes' side, Scarlet Witch and Stingray.
** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" subline as a figure for Beast.
** Beetle's case may be justifiable because he was released as part of the ''Spider-Man'' toyline, and Marvel toylines from the same time are similar enough to be put together as a same collection, so a Beetle in the ''Iron Man'' line would have been redundant. What is still strange, is that the Spidey toyline was series-based too, and Beetle didn't appear in the Spider-Man cartoon.
** Strangely subverted with US Agent, who was a member of ''ComicBook/ForceWorks'' in the comics but not the show (due to legal issues), yet had a figure produced for this toy line -- though, in this case, it wasn't legally available. See, the US Agent figure was dropped because the number of slots available in the toyline were cutback (company-wide), and the figure was planned to become a figure of the Living Laser in series 5 of the Toy Biz line, but the line was cancelled. However, the figure, with LL's armor pieces, was retooled as the "Astral Armor Professor Xavier" figure in the "X-Men Mutant Armor" line (the other figures from that series were put into the "Spider-Man Techno Wars" and the aforementioned Mutant Armor lines).
** Justified for Stingray, Controller, Stilt-Man, and Firepower, as they were only in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Justin Hammer was merely a civilian (albeit one secretly corrupt), while Firebrand was only in one episode.
* TragicKeepsake: Zigzagged (subverted?)for the Mandarin: the rings he uses to mount the alien gems that serve as his Rings of Power are all he has left of his fiancee after she was killed/dragged away by Mongolian bandits. The tragedy is subverted in that he abandoned her to die in order to heighten his own chance of successfully escaping.
* TransformationSequence: The first season had out-of-place CGI OnceAnEpisode. The second season had a ''much'' better one in the opening sequence.
* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The first season featured a completely CG-rendered [[TransformationSequence suit-up sequence]] whenever Tony donned his Iron Man armor. It looked out-of-place and was scrapped in season 2.
* UnwantedAssistance: While Tony tries to disarm a warhead, H.O.M.E.R provides a countdown.
-->'''Tony:''' H.O.M.E.R? That's not ''helping.''
* UnwittingPawn: The Mandarin is one to the dragons in "The Beast Within."
* WeWillMeetAgain: The Crimson Dynamo promises this to Iron Man in "Not Far From the Tree." They meet again in the first part of "ComicBook/ArmorWars," and it's a complete disaster.
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut:
** Outside of the Scarlet Witch, everyone knew the wedding between Tony and Julia was fake, but they wanted Wanda's reaction to be genuine. As part of the more route of season 2, Julia herself was also shown to be quite resentful of her role in the affair.
** Force Works quits after Tony pulls this on them with faking his own death in the second season premiere.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Tony has these issues with his father, as seen in "Not Far from the Tree."
* WhamEpisode: "The Beast Within" - Fing Fang Foom is written out, the Mandarin's rings are scattered across the world, his LegionOfDoom gets arrested, and Iron Man's {{Jerkass}} scheming costs him half his team.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: In "Distant Boundaries," Iron Man and War Machine head into space to save an alien civilization from Dark Aegis. By the time they arrive, Dark Aegis has already slaughtered them.
-->'''Iron Man:''' You're payin' big time for this crime, Dark Aegis! Bank on it!\\
'''Dark Aegis:''' Crimes? Against who? Humanity? The fools of this planet were grotesquely less than human.\\
'''Iron Man:''' Life is life, pal! Even yours--as twisted as it is--is born with value.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Tony's buddies are rather ticked after learning he faked his death without letting them know it was a ruse to stop Mandarin's scheme in "The Beast Within."
** The "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter is pretty much this non-stop until Tony has a WhatHaveIDone moment after defeating the heroic Stingray only to find that Stingray was not using his technology.
** The first season had an episode where Tony fooled the Mandarin into thinking that Tony Stark and Iron Man were separate people by having Julia (Spider-Woman) marry a robot duplicate with everyone being in on the charade except for Wanda, who was very upset at the deception. And even though she was in on it, [[CerebusRetcon Season 2]] had Julia rightly point out how she was being jerked around.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Rhodey gains a crippling fear of being submerged in water due to watching his friend drown as a young boy, and then getting stuck at the bottom of the ocean in the War Machine armor.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter.
* WolverinePublicity: Netflix listed its streaming of the ''Marvel Action Hour'' under Iron Man's name.
* WomenAreWiser: Hypnotia, compared to the Mandarin's mostly male villain entourage, is a smart and savvy woman who is clearly thinking straight.
* YouKilledMyFather: Firebrand blames Tony for the death of his father, even though his father accidentally killed ''himself'' while trying to blow up a Stark Enterprises building after being fired.
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See also ''Comicbook.IronMan'' and ''Film.IronMan'', other works with this title.
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[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_iron_man_1994.png]]
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The [[UsefulNotes/TheNineties '90s]] AnimatedAdaptation based on the Franchise/MarvelUniverse {{Superhero}} and his alter ego, Tony Stark. (An earlier Iron Man animated series was shown as part of the ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelSuperHeroes'' lineup that ran in 1966.)
This series ran for two seasons from 1994 to 1996 alongside ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as part of the syndicated ''Marvel Action Hour''. Like ''Fantastic Four'', it had a bland first season and a significantly improved second.
The first season dealt with Iron Man and his team of fellow superheroes, Force Works -- consisting of ComicBook/WarMachine, ComicBook/SpiderWoman (Julia Carpenter), ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, ComicBook/ScarletWitch, and Century -- battling the forces of the evil Mandarin, such as Whirlwind and Grey Gargoyle. The episodes in this season were mostly one-part stories. Common points of contention for many during this season were the shoddy animation, general outdatedness and that other than the "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter, which modernized his origins, there were no attempts to adapt stories from the comic mythos.
The second season featured much [[AnimationBump better animation]] (due in part by switching to a [[Creator/KokoEnterprises different animation studio]]) and stories more similar to the comic. It was more {{Arc}} based, and the {{Superhero}} team aspect was downplayed with all the teammates besides Spider-Woman and War Machine resigning after Tony [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] without letting them in on the plan. Mandarin was also downplayed, having small cameos in some episodes as he reclaims his powerful Ten Rings, which were scattered during a confrontation with Iron Man in the season premiere.
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!!Provides examples of:
* AbridgedSeries: Got one as part of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelMashUp''; strangely, they chose to use season 2 instead of season 1.
* AchillesInHisTent: Force Works in Season 2 effectively disbands when half the team (Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Century) quits, having become disgusted by Tony faking his death and not letting them in on it. They do come BackForTheFinale.
* AdaptationNameChange:
** Ho Yinsen became ''Wellington'' Yinsen.
** Tony's parents are called Walter and Martha instead of Howard and Maria. That said, season 2 did retcon this as a case of MiddleNameBasis for Walter and that Howard is indeed his first name (it was also RetCanon to the comics in the 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series)
** Tony himself doesn't escape this as his middle initial is "B", suggesting his middle name isn't "Edward" here.
** In keeping with the earlier idea her father was the Whizzer, not ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, the ComicBook/ScarletWitch's last name is "Frank", not "Lehnsherr".
* AdaptationOriginConnection:
** The Mandarin is the one who captures Tony Stark and Yinsen, which results in the creation of the Iron Man armor.
** Yinsen himself is involved in the Mandarin's origin story as well as Iron Man's.
** MODOK's condition wasn't caused by A.I.M. trying to turn a man into a supercomputer (like in the comics); rather, he was mutated by his rival, the Red Ghost (who apparently created Titanium Man)[[note]]in the comics, Red Ghost is typically an enemy of the Fantastic Four, and is/was a Soviet scientist who intentionally exposed himself and his trained apes to cosmic rays to gain superpowers; aside from both having worked for the Soviets, he and Titanium Man have no connection, and he and the comics M.O.D.O.K. have never worked together either[[/note]], over the affections of a woman. This results in MODOK serving the Mandarin as TheIgor, whilst they have never worked together in the comics.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: Firepower is re-envisioned as a mecha, as opposed to the man in a MiniMecha from the comics.
* AdaptedOut:
** The show's version of Force Works replaces U.S. Agent with Hawkeye (apparently due to rights issues as U.S. Agent was tied to Captain America). Strangely, U.S. Agent still received an action figure in the show's toyline, possibly indicating that he ''was'' planned to be part of the team at one point; he and Hawkeye were both on the team in the tie-in comics. (It should be noted that the figure never received a wide release thanks to issues at Toy Biz; the figure later surfaced via semi-illegal means, and the mold was eventually repurposed -- first as Living Laser, but when the ''IM'' line was cancelled along with the show, Toy Biz remolded it once again into [[WesternAnimation/XMen Astral Armor Professor X]].)
** The adaptation of "ComicBook/ArmorWars" is pretty true to the comic that inspired it, but makes a few character changes:
*** Spymaster is replaced by the Ghost as the one who steals the Iron Man plans and sells them to Justin Hammer.
*** The plane hijacking scene has the Raiders replaced by Blizzard and Blacklash.
*** Hawkeye replaces [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica the Captain]] as the Avenger who fights Iron Man at the Vault (presumably due to the aforementioned rights issues).
*** Edwin Cord's role as the backer of the Firepower project is given to Hammer. Since Firepower is changed from an armored suit to a robot, Jack Taggert also doesn't appear.
*** The roles of [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] and Abe Zimmer are cut entirely.
*** The Crimson Dynamo effectively serves as a CompositeCharacter for the Gremlin (the second Titanium Man) and Force. He [[spoiler:dies in battle against Iron Man in Russia]] instead of the Gremlin, and it's his armor, rather than Force's, that reveals the stolen Iron Man tech.
* AffirmativeActionGirl: Hypnotia was created to add a female villain to Iron Man's otherwise mostly-male rogues gallery.
* AllThereInTheManual:
** The show generally assumes the audience is familiar with the comics, as many of the characters never really get their backstories explored. This is especially noticeable with Titanium Man, who is introduced with very little explanation, despite Iron Man claiming to have fought him in the past.
** Madame Masque's past relationship with Tony, as well as the incident that led to her disfigurement, are never explored in any real detail. The most we get is her blaming Tony for ruining her face and Tony talking about how he had to break up with her because she wanted his company.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub uses a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWP_StfvsGs different opening theme song]].
* AmbiguousSituation: It's unclear if the bandits killed the Mandarin at the end of the Season 2 finale, or if they merely cut off his hands.
%%* AndIMustScream: "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead."
* AnimeThemeSong: When broadcast in Japan.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Twice in Season 2.
** In "The Beast Within", Iron Man fakes his death by the Mandarin's hands, leading the rest of the team without their leader and to battle with Fing Fang Foom and the other dragons without him. Just as they seem to be losing, Iron Man appears out of the sky, and teams up with the Mandarin to stop the dragons. The scene has War Machine sound overjoyed at his best friend's survival, but in literally the next scene, Rhodey knocks Tony to the ground and chews him out for not having enough trust in the team to let them know he's alive. This is actually what led to Force Works disbanding.
** During the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, after Tony discovers that his designs have been stolen, he goes on a crusade to disable the armored heroes and villains using his technology to keep them falling into the wrong hands. It gets to the point that he "fires" Iron Man as Stark Enterprises can't associate with a CorporateSamurai gone rogue, and acts more rashly - while shutting out his friends and allies, even attacking one of them. Julia goes out her way to call him out on the crap he's pulled over the years - not just recently, and when he fakes his death again but lets Julia and Rhodey know he's alive, the former goes through the emotional ringer - first in grief to Tony's "death", then elation, and later takes Tony to task again for his recklessness and selfish actions, and makes it very clear to him that he hurt both Rhodey and herself in his paranoia over the stolen Stark tech, even if he hadn't set out to do so.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Tony literally says "WhatHaveIDone" after pointlessly fighting the hero Stingray, War Machine tells him, "Well, let's see: near as I can figure, you've trespassed on federal property, assaulted a naval officer, and taken a dip without waiting an hour after mealtime!"
* AscendedExtra: An odd example. Hypnotia is the first villain actually shown in the first episode, beyond the opening credits, and she's shown successfully completing her mission. She then disappears for the next few episodes and is briefly replaced by another villainess, Elastika, before Hypnotia reappears and starts getting bigger roles. This is only in the first season mind you, as she's mostly absent alongside the other villains for most of season two besides the opening and ending episodes.
** Dreadknight is actually from the comics, but he only had a handful of appearances before the series.
* AvengingTheVillain: Firebrand in "Fire and Rain".
* BackForTheFinale: Scarlet Witch, Century and several of the Mandarin's minions return for the second season finale.
* BackhandedApology: "The Armor Wars" two-parter ends with Iron Man uploading a virus into Hammer Industries' computer systems. It destroys all records of the armor technology, but it also "accidentally" erases everything else. He "apologizes" by noting how "reckless" he was.
* BadBoss: The Mandarin, in the very first episode, almost killed Blizzard as punishment for the villain accidentally ruining the Mandarin's begonias. Hypnotia seems to be the only one of his minions he treats with respect, but that's most likely because she's the only one who is consistently competent.
* BeingGoodSucks: Comicbook/NickFury is certain in "The Armor Wars, Part II" that Justin Hammer is using Firepower to attack Stark Enterprises. Without proof, though, he can't intervene, so he presses Tony to bring back Iron Man.
* BettyAndVeronica: Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch compete for Tony's affections in the first season.
** ThirdOptionLoveInterest: Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist in the first season.
* BigBad: The Mandarin is the main antagonist of the series.
* BittersweetEnding: Several Season 2 episodes.
** "The Beast Within": The Mandarin's team is arrested and the dragons' plan is foiled, but Tony's actions cause half of Force Works and the remaining members to still give him grief. Also, viewers learn that the Mandarin is NotQuiteDead.
** "Fire and Rain": Firebrand is arrested, but Rhodey is left shaken and gives up being War Machine.
** "Cell of Iron": Arthur Dearborn sacrifices his life and dream to save millions of people.
** "Not Far From the Tree": AIM's plot to take over Stark Enterprises fails, but the clone of Walter Stark escapes and intends to revisit his "son" when he's feeling most vulnerable.
** "Beauty Knows No Pain": Madame Masque is stopped, but Tony and Julia are left feeling sorry for her, as well as reflecting on Tony's own lonely life.
* BraggingThemeTune: Distilled into four words in the second season's theme song- "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. AM. IRON MAN!]]"
* BroadStrokes: The second season sometimes had callbacks to events from the first season, like Tony and Julia's fake wedding, and a flashback scene with Tony in his season 1 armor (with mouthslit), but most of these were few and far between (likely because the new episodes were nothing like the earlier ones).
* TheBusCameBack: Even before the finale, Blacklash and Blizzard appeared in the ComicBook/ArmorWars two-parter hijacking a plane. Also, Titanium Man, who only appeared in the first episode of season 1 until his return in the season 2 episode "Distant Boundaries".
* CanonForeigner: Hypnotia, an {{Expy}} of ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' villainess Enchantress, and Dark Aegis, the main villain of the episode, "Distant Boundaries", were both original characters created for this cartoon.
** Elastika is also one, and she only appears once in the first season.
** The Hacker from "Iron Man on the Inside."
* CerebusRetcon: The Season 1 finale showed that Julia was in on the fake wedding with everyone outside of Wanda. Season 2, however, showed that she was actually quite bitter about being left at the altar, and the tension caused by that lingering resentment was used a recurring plot point.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** While the Mandarin's lackeys were used less frequently in Season 2 in general, Justin Hammer, M.O.D.O.K., Hypnotia, Whirlwind, Blizzard, Blacklash and Titanium Man all made at least one guest appearance each. Grey Gargoyle, Living Laser, Elastika and Dreadknight were far less fortunate, and completely stopped appearing after the first season, save for a few of them having a brief cameo in the Season 2 premiere (and Grey Gargoyle having a cameo in prison in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter). What makes it odd is that the Mandarin eventually frees Hypnotia, Blizzard, Whirlwind and Blacklash from prison, but neglects to recover the rest of their former teammates.
** Veronica, Tony's physical therapist, also vanished after Season 1.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: "Hulkbuster" ends with the Mandarin reclaiming his final two rings and vowing to implement his ultimate plan.
* ClipShow: Both seasons had an episode consisting primarily of footage recycled from older episodes - "The Wedding of Iron Man" and "Empowered," respectively.
* CommutingOnABus: Hawkeye in Season 2. Unlike Scarlet Witch or Century, he appeared in two episodes in between the premiere and finale.
* CompositeCharacter:
** Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman) has a lot of traits of Pepper Potts. It's more evident in the second season. She's also somewhat of an {{Expy}} for Bethany Cabe, Stark's other red-haired associate at the time.
** Sunturion's human form, Arthur Dearborn, had a completely different look in the comics; his appearance in the show appears to be taken from another Roxxon-associated character, Abner Doolittle.
** The Mandroids have the same armor as the Guardsmen from the comics.
** Titanium Man is a composite of both comic versions, having the identity of the first (Boris Bullski) and the armor design of the second (the Gremlin). Coincidentally, Bullski eventually did adopt Gremlin's armor design for a while in the comics.
** Roxxon, while namechecked as owning a refinery, has its' villainous role in the Star Well project transferred to AIM.
* {{Crossover}}:
** Iron Man appears (alongside War Machine) in a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (with a new design that mixes his season one and two designs with new elements borrowed from the Telepresence unit from the comics; War Machine also got a different appearance, with comics-accurate shoulder cannons).
** He appears too (alongside War Machine once again) in an episode of the then-latest ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' cartoon. The Hulk himself appears in an episode of this show as he teams up with Iron Man to stop The Leader from going back to the past to take Bruce Banner's place in the gamma bomb explosion that created the Hulk. The episode in question is something of a SequelEpisode to "Hulkbuster", with Tony and Bruce Banner already being friends and being a SecretKeeper for the other.
** He also made a cameo appearance in ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as a member/leader of the Avengers (although he doesn't speak).
** An alternate future counterpart of IM, in green armor, made a quick cameo in the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' episode "One Man's Worth".
* CurseCutShort: "Ultimo! I thought I pulled the plug on that son of a -"
** From "ComicBook/ArmorWars":
-->'''Tony''': Hello Fury, what bug crawled up your -?
-->'''Nick Fury''': It's about Iron Man.
** And later in the same episode:
-->'''Julia''': You lousy, lying -!
* DarkerAndEdgier:
** The second season had darker colors, a more mature tone, and spent time developing the more self-destructive aspects of Stark as a character.
** Ex-KGB who wants to basically bring back the Cold War and win it decides to launch a nuke at a Russian city and make America look responsible, and when stopped, decides to detonate it there, atomizing himself and anyone else in the immediate area, and causing numerous deaths from radiation poisoning. No, this isn't an episode of ''Series/TwentyFour'', it's an episode of a ''kids' cartoon.'' [[spoiler:It's Crimson Dynamo's swan-song, setting off the animated version of the ComicBook/ArmorWars storyline... which is also one of those episodes that shows Stark's dark side.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Hawkeye.
** And of course there's Hypnotia.
--->'''Dreadknight''': Give me a chance, Hypnotia. I'll make you lose your taste for Tony Stark.
--->'''Hypnotia''': I'm more likely to lose my lunch.
* DirtyCommunists: Crimson Dynamo, a deranged KGB agent-turned terrorist obsessed with destroying the capitalist system and bringing back the Soviet Union. Titanium Man counts too, as he also wants to bring the Soviet Union back.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Hacker used Ultimo to attack Stark Enterprises because they turned down his job applications, saying such things as "Please re-apply after college."
* DramaticUnmask: In "Hands of the Mandarin, Part I," [[spoiler:the Mandarin melts off Iron Man's helmet]].
* DrivenToSuicide: "ComicBook/ArmorWars: Part 2" has a scene where Rhodey becomes extremely worried after Tony locks himself in his lab and stops answering when anyone tries to communicate with him. Julia's response implies (but doesn't outright state) that the two of them are worried that Tony may have committed suicide after his latest bout of depression.
-->'''Julia''': You don't think he's gone and -?!
* DueToTheDead: When it looks like Iron Man's been killed in "The Armor Wars, Part II," Nick Fury chastises two soldiers belittling his memory.
-->"There was a good man in that armor, and he deserves your respect. That clear?!"
* EnemyMine:
** In "The Beast Within," Iron Man and the Mandarin are forced to work together to defeat the dragons.
** In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man teams up with Iron Man and War Machine to take Dark Aegis down.
* EnhanceButton: In "The Beast Within," Tony finds Fin Fang Foom's shadow in a satellite snapshot by enlarging, isolating, and enhancing it.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man is disgusted with Dark Aegis for destroying a planet simply ForTheEvulz.
-->"My hunger is different from that of Dark Aegis. I want power to control; to lead. He wants power to annihilate!"
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In "The Defection of Hawkeye", the Mandarin sets up evidence that Hawkeye is a traitor, and is completely shocked that Tony and the others trust him regardless.
* EvilKnockoff: The two-part episode "Iron Man to the Second Power" had M.O.D.O.K. create a robotic duplicate of Iron Man.
* {{Expy}}: Elastika is visually similar to Zarana from ''Franchise/GIJoe'', and has the same basic MasterOfDisguise theme.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: "Iron Man, on the Inside," where Tony does this to fix Hawkeye's spinal injury. (This was adapted from a comic book story, but with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as the patient instead.)
* FanService: Both “And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead” and “The Grim Reaper Wears A Teflon Coat” feature Tony having physiotherapy sessions with a bikini-clad Veronica Benning. The latter episode also features Wanda in a bikini. “Enemy Within, Enemy Without” begins with a photo shoot with a bikini-clad model (M.O.D.O.K.’s former wife) that gets interrupted. She stays in the swimsuit the rest of the episode.
* ForgingScene: The second intro sequence has one of these.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In his first appearance, Crimson Dynamo says that he is willing to sacrifice his life to destroy the capitalist system and Tony Stark. [[spoiler: He does indeed sacrifice himself in his very next appearance, detonating a nuke in an attempt to start WorldWarIII.]]
* TheGentlemanOrTheScoundrel: The Dreadknight (Gentleman) and Blacklash (Scoundrel) compete for Hypnotia's affections
* GrandFinale: Season two's "Hands of the Mandarin" two-parter, where Mandarin--having finally collected all of his Ten Rings--launches a scheme to make all of the planet's technology useless, which would make his arch-enemy Iron Man ineffective against him. As Mandarin reforms his team of super villains, Iron Man reforms his superhero team and develops new armor to negate Mandarin's anti-technology spell, and a final confrontation between the two ends in [[spoiler:Mandarin's (possible) death]].
* HeartOfTheMatter: The series finale saw [[BigBad The Mandarin]] hold the world hostage using a gigantic gem called The Heart of Darkness which, by draining the energy of superbeings, could blanket the world in an anti-technology field, grinding the modern world to a halt
* HeroesWantRedheads: Spider-Woman, Wanda (season one), and Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Titanium Man in "Distant Boundaries," taking Dark Aegis with him.]]
** [[spoiler:Arthur Dearborn/Sunturion at the end of "Cell of Iron," which saves New York City from utter destruction.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: After all the anti-technology railing, the Mandarin reveals he has exo-armor. Iron Man calls him on it.
* ILied: "The Beast Within" offers a two-fer. Once M.O.D.O.K. fulfills his role in the plan, the Mandarin refuses to let him share in the spoils. However, immediately afterwards, Fin Fang Foom reveals his own treachery.
* IdentityImpersonator: Tony pulls this one on the Mandarin in "The Wedding of Iron Man." Tony himself appears at the wedding in disguise (so he can change into Iron Man later), while a robot represents Tony Stark.
* TheIgor: ComicBook/{{MODOK}} serves as this to the Mandarin.
* IllFatedFlowerbed: In the pilot, Blizzard accidentally freezes the Mandarin's begonias to death while cooling off his drink. The Mandarin is '''not''' happy about it.
* InNameOnly: The Scarlet Witch seen here bears no similarities with the comic book character except having the first name Wanda (in the cartoon she's Wanda ''Frank'' rather than Maximoff), and having a vaguely Eastern European accent. Personality-wise, she's quick to anger, man-crazy, [[CloudCuckooLander more than a little weird]], has the hots for Tony, and sees Jessica as her romantic rival for his affections. In the comics she's level-headed ([[ComicBook/HouseOfM normally]]) and has led the Avengers before, and she counts Tony and Jessica among her closest friends. Power-wise, instead of [[WindsOfDestinyChange probability manipulation]], her abilities are vaguely-defined but seem to be explicitly magical, including tarot-reading, shape-shifting, and altering matter. Even her costume is based on a very brief period in the comics where she experimented with short hair, rather than her more recognizable long hair and tiara. And zero references are made to her [[ComicBook/{{Magneto}} father]] or [[ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} twin brother]].
* IneffectualLoner: Deconstructed in Season 2 with Iron Man. Refusing to let the team in on his plan in "The Beast Within" causes half of them to quit. Rushing off in "The Hands of the Mandarin, Part I" nearly gets him killed.
* {{Irony}}: Discussed throughout "Cell of Iron," as Iron Man finds a given something ironic and H.O.M.E.R. tries to understand the concept. PlayedForLaughs, until the end.
-->'''Iron Man:''' Goodbye, Dearborn. It's ironic that your ultimate gift to mankind wasn't the Star-Well after all, but rather the life you sacrificed to destroy it.\\
'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' You say it is ironic, but I fail to detect the previous element of humor. Is irony not always funny?\\
'''Iron Man:''' No, H.O.M.E.R.. Sometimes, it isn't funny at all.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The episode covering his backstory depicted the Mandarin abandoning his own fiancee to die in order to enhance his own chances of survival, all the while justifying it on the grounds that he had a "great destiny" to live for.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Hawkeye.
** Iron Man could count, too, given he does jackass things like faking his death and the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" stuff, but he did believe he trying to help people.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: In the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Tony starts out by simply attacking villains using armor--stopping them in the middle of crimes and demonstrating that they were using technology stolen from him. However, he quickly becomes more obsessive and starts going after good guys that wear armor, such as Stingray and even War Machine. All the while, Iron Man is condemned as a menace, while Julia and Rhodey denounce him, Nearly getting killed by Justin Hammer's new weapon, though, knocks some sense into him and causes him to clean up his act.
* KickTheDog: The Mandarin almost kills Blizzard in the first episode for ''freezing his begonias''.
* KickTheMoralityPet: The Mandarin's backstory in this animated series; he and his fiancee were archaeologists on a dig in Mongolia when their expedition was attacked by bandits. The rest of the team sacrificed their lives so the two of them could escape on the last surviving camel, but the Mandarin betrayed his fiancee and abandoned her to die so as to ensure his own survival.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Fin Fang Foom, Titanium Man (taking Dark Aegis with him), Crimson Dynamo]].
* TheLancer: Hawkeye
* LastMinuteHookup: Tony and Julia
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** When Iron Man and the Hulk get sent to the prehistoric past in "Hulk Buster," Tony sarcastically asks if someone just changed the channel.
** Likewise, in "Hands of the Mandarin: Part 1," Tony says "You don't have to be a cartoon writer to figure out the Mandarin is behind [the terrorist attacks in Hong Kong]." [[note]] This was likely a TakeThat at the first season, where the Mandarin was behind ''every single plot'' and it would typically take a while for Tony and the others to catch on. Blame Ron Friedman, a writer who apparently didn't grasp that the 80s were over {he worked on the original ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon} and people wanted more from their shows.[[/note]]
* LegionOfDoom: The first season exclusively featured the Mandarin as the BigBad with the other villains (Blizzard, Blacklash, Grey Gargoyle, Whirlwind, Hypnotia, Living Laser, M.O.D.O.K., Justin Hammer, and Fin Fang Foom) all working for him and rotating in and out as needed.
* LimitedAnimation: The first season.
* LoveTriangle: Two examples:
** Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch both want Iron Man in the first season.
** Blacklash and Dreadknight both want Hypnotia. Hypnotia, on her end, alternates between slight teasing and being totally fed up with them, and frequently mentions she wants Tony Stark. Though she briefly reciprocates Blacklash's affection when he saves her life.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: In "Hulk Buster," the Leader seeks to eliminate Bruce Banner in the past and claim the Hulk's power for himself.
-->"Our destiny is about to be uncrossed, Banner."
* MerchandiseDriven: Likely the reason why the first season featured Iron Man and Force Works vs. the Mandarin's LegionOfDoom (it was a very similar setup to ''{{Transformers}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''), and ''definitely'' the reason that season 2 gave Iron Man the ability to switch armors on the fly to adapt to any situation. Marvel had looked at the success of the multi-colored Batman toys in the wake of ''Film/BatmanReturns'' and were trying to copy its success with Iron Man by giving him an armor for every occasion (and compared to Batman, IM's different armor variants made sense most of the time). It didn't take off as well as Marvel had hoped.
** This also led to ExecutiveMeddling for comics at the time: ''Comicbook/WestCoastAvengers'' was canceled in favor of the more Iron Man-centric ''Force Works'' in preparation for the hoped-for Iron Man fad.
* MiddleNameBasis: Season 2 retconned that Tony's dad going by "Walter" is a case of this and that, much like the comics, his first name is indeed "Howard".
* MomentKiller: In "Distant Boundaries," H.O.M.E.R. and later Rhodey do this to Tony and Julia.
-->'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' Are we doing facial inspections?\\
'''Tony:''' ''[beat]'' That's right.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: During "Iron Man, on the Inside," Hawkeye suffers a paralyzing, most likely fatal injury while fighting Ultimo. Tony (feeling guilty over their falling out) is particularly hard on himself, but Julia insists that it was an accident.
* MythologyGag:
** Wanda Maximoff being renamed "Wanda Frank" is a reference to the period in the comics (before Magneto was revealed to be her father) where she and her brother were thought to be the children of Robert Frank, the UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} hero known as the Whizzer.
** Julia in a season 2 episode name-checks Captain America.
** In "Fire and Rain" Tony says Jim needs to meet him at the "Roxxon refinery"; in the comics Roxxon is a major oil company and a major foe of Tony's ([[AdaptedOut though their role in the Sunturion plot was transferred to AIM]]).
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Mandarin was originally a white man named Arnold Brock.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Defeating the dragons in "The Beast Within" causes a massive explosion. Iron Man assumes the Mandarin was killed, but viewers quickly learn he's wrong. Justified, though, as the blast was powerful enough to [[spoiler:kill all five dragons]].
* NinjaLog: Iron Man pulls this off on Blacklash in "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination" when he disguises a high-voltage transformer using his hologram.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Arthur Dearborn from "Cell of Iron" used high levels of microwave energy to cure a deadly disease, but he was transformed into Sunturion. He gave off lethal radiation and banished himself to the Starwell space station.
-->'''Dearborn:''' And here I remain, my gift to mankind now serving as my prison. Do you have any idea of what loneliness it is to be cut off from all humanity and locked inside a [[TitleDrop cell of iron]]?\\
'''Iron Man:''' Yes, I do.
* OffModel: The first season even [[EpicFail fails in]] [[UpToEleven comparison to both]] ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' or the first season of sister series ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
* OhCrap:
** Hulk in his crossover episode when he realizes the time travel has brought him to just before the gamma bomb test.
** M.O.D.O.K. in "Empowered" when he learns the Mandarin is still alive.
* OnceAnEpisode:
** Season 1 had a CGI TransformationSequence, where Tony would suit up.
** Most Season 2 episodes in-between the premiere and finale ended with a tag scene showing the Mandarin slowly reclaiming his rings. The only exceptions were "The Armor Wars, Part I" (which had a story-related cliffhanger) and "Empowered" (a ClipShow that featured the Mandarin heavily).
* OnlySaneMan: Among the Mandarin's usual lackeys, Hypnotia consistently came across as the only one that wasn't an idiot. She also proved to be quite powerful with her hypnotic abilities in various occasions, from hypnotizing an entire village for 24 hours to using delayed-action hypnotism in a video recording.
* OrganicTechnology: The final episode sees Tony donning a new suit of armor that runs on "bio-energy," meaning it's immune to the effects of the anti-tech fog the Mandarin has unleashed.
* OriginsEpisode:
** "The Origin of the Mandarin" revealed [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the origin of the Mandarin]].
** How Tony Stark became Iron Man was revealed in the two-part episode "The Origin of Iron Man".
* PetTheDog: Blacklash once saved Hypnotia's life in an act of genuine altruism.
* PowerTrio: Iron Man, War Machine, and Spider-Woman in Season 2.
* PromotedToLoveInterest:
** Spider-Woman, almost definitely because she was more {{Toyetic}} than any of Tony's canon love interests.
** The Scarlet Witch, too, though obviously unrequited.
* PutOnABus: Hawkeye, Century, and Scarlet Witch quit the team after Season 2's premiere. Hawkeye returns for "Iron Man, On The Inside", again the part 1 of the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, and both he and the rest of the team return in the finale.
** M.O.D.O.K. scampers off at the end of "The Beast Within" for parts unknown. He returns in "Empowered" and is revealed to have been busy searching for the Mandarin's rings.
* RaceLift: In the 1994 animated series, the Mandarin is actually ''pure British'' by origin, instead of his comic book self's Mongolian; his green-skinned, pointy-eared, claw-fingered, Fu Manchu-mustachioed form is something he was warped into after he gathered the ten alien power crystals that become the Rings of Power.
* RatedMForManly: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBbnT-cIDVM The second US opening theme]].
* RecapEpisode: "Empowered", which features MODOK getting his hands on one of the Mandarin's rings.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: "Go redeem yourself, [[spoiler:Titanium Man]]."
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** Dark Aegis was introduced as a villain Iron Man had supposedly already fought and defeated in the past, even though he'd never been seen or mentioned before his debut episode.
** The final episode introduces a Chinese scientist named Dr. Su-Yin, who has conveniently developed a special suit of armor that runs on bio-energy, and is thus impervious to the Mandarin's anti-technology mist. She and Tony are clearly very close and it's stated that they had been working together on the bio-energy microprocessors for several years, despite neither Su-Yin nor the project ever having been mentioned before this.
* RetCanon:
** The current comics reveal that the Mandarin was involved in the kidnapping of Tony Stark and Yinsen.
** The post-''[[Comicbook/SecretWars2015 Secret Wars]]'' relaunch incorporates the idea of Tony being able to switch armors at will.
** The 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series brought in the idea that "Walter" is Howard Stark's middle name.
* {{Retcon}}: In Season 1, the accident that killed Tony's father was caused by Justin Hammer. In Season 2, it was caused by A.I.M. Additionally, it was retconned that "Walter" is a case of MiddleNameBasis and indeed Tony's father's first name is "Howard",
* ReversePolarity: Iron Man uses this to get away from Mandarin's traps.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: See ArsonMurderAndJaywalking above.
* RingOfPower: The Mandarin. Ten of them!
* SayMyName: The season two premiere "The Beast Within" features Rhodey, in response to his best friend Tony supposedly getting blown sky high, belting out a tortured [[ChewingTheScenery "TONYYYYYYYYYY!"]]
* SealedWithAKiss: The series ends with a shot of Tony and Julia locking lips.
* SecretKeeper: The end of "Hulk Buster" for both heroes.
-->'''Bruce:''' You know that I'm the Hulk. What now?\\
'''Iron Man:''' ''[removing his helmet]'' I won't tell if you won't.
* SelfServingMemory: In the season 2 premiere, it's the Mandarin's idea for him and Iron Man to combine their powers to defeat the Makluan dragons. However, this results in a large explosion and him losing his rings, and by the season 2 finale he's convinced himself that Iron Man tricked him into the plan to try and get rid of him.
* ShoutOut:
** The villain Beetle talks like a member of [[Music/TheBeatles a certain rock band]]. Iron Man even tells him he's "In for a hard day's night" when they first meet.
** The reporter in "The Wedding of Iron Man" mentions the time Music/{{Madonna}} married "[[Creator/SeanPenn Whatshisname]]," as well as when Creator/ElizabethTaylor married "everyone else."
** In the same episode, M.O.D.O.K. jokingly says they'll have to get Hypnotia to do a standup routine on Creator/DavidLetterman's show.
** Julia once mentioned ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in a season 2 episode.
* StockFootage:
** Season 1 featured the lengthy clip of Tony suiting up as Iron Man and dubbing in new dialogue for different episodes.
** "Hulk Buster" reuses the climatic explosion from "The Beast Within" and a Hulk transformation from ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
** The fight between Iron Man and Hawkeye in the "Armor Wars: Part 1" uses the same close-up of Hawkeye grinning while preparing an arrow at least twice.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Walter Stark looks like Tony Stark with gray hair. Hell, in season 2, he even has his son's mullet!
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: The series was generally lighter on special guest stars than other Marvel cartoons of the era, especially ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''. This is particularly noticeable in the two-part SeriesFinale, where the Mandarin shuts off all of the technology in New York City. Despite New York being home to the vast majority of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe, no other costumed heroes are seen helping out while the city is devolving into chaos.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: H.O.M.E.R. replaces the female-voiced computer from Season 1.
* SwissArmyHero: Iron Man in Season 2, with the power to switch to different armors for different challenges.
* TeamMemberInTheAdaptation: As noted under AdaptedOut, Hawkeye replaced US Agent as a member of Force Works.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After Force Works dissolves in Season 2, War Machine and Hawkeye don't bother to hide their mutual disdain for each other, as Rhodey is angry at Hawkeye for leaving and Hawkeye at Rhodey for staying. Their mutual anger at each other extends to other members on both sides as well as Clint doesn't bother hiding his contempt at Julia for her staying, either, and while Rhodey doesn't say anything about Century, he does make a snide remark about Tony welcoming Wanda back in the GrandFinale.
* TemptingFate[=/=]ChekhovsGun: In "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination", Rachel Carpenter wonders when she will ever need classical music and her mother later gives her a tape of a Van Cliburn performance. Apparently, the music can be used to recharge Iron Man.
* TenMinuteRetirement:
** Tony has one of these in "ComicBook/ArmorWars."
** Rhodey also takes a step back from heroics after "Fire and Rain." Circumstances force him back into the armor a few more times throughout the season, before Tony destroys the War Machine suit during the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter. He finally becomes War Machine again in the two-part series finale.
* TensionCuttingLaughter:
** While chewing Tony out for his actions in ComicBook/ArmorWars, Julia insists that he can't just ask her and Rhodey for forgiveness; their emotions aren't something he can switch on and off like a computer. H.O.M.E.R asks if [[InsultFriendlyFire he should be offended by that]], and Tony, Julia and Rhodey all crack up. Tony isn't laughing for long, since he's in pretty bad shape.
-->'''Tony:''' Whoever said laughter is the best medicine oughta be shot...
** Happens again while Rhodey and Tony are stranded on an alien world with an unbreathable atmosphere - and Rhodey has an attack of claustrophobia in his suit. Tony tries to calm him down, then finally threatens [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan to slap him if necessary.]]
-->'''Rhodey:''' ''(cracking up)'' Gonna pull my hair, too, boss-man? ''(they both laugh)''
* TitleDrop: The big guy himself word-for-word in "Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer"... ''repeatedly''.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Let's just say in Season 2, some of Tony's less admirable personality traits from the comics made their way onto the show.
* ToylessToylineCharacter: For a show meant to shill toys, several:
** On the heroes' side, Scarlet Witch and Stingray.
** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" subline as a figure for Beast.
** Beetle's case may be justifiable because he was released as part of the ''Spider-Man'' toyline, and Marvel toylines from the same time are similar enough to be put together as a same collection, so a Beetle in the ''Iron Man'' line would have been redundant. What is still strange, is that the Spidey toyline was series-based too, and Beetle didn't appear in the Spider-Man cartoon.
** Strangely subverted with US Agent, who was a member of ''ComicBook/ForceWorks'' in the comics but not the show (due to legal issues), yet had a figure produced for this toy line -- though, in this case, it wasn't legally available. See, the US Agent figure was dropped because the number of slots available in the toyline were cutback (company-wide), and the figure was planned to become a figure of the Living Laser in series 5 of the Toy Biz line, but the line was cancelled. However, the figure, with LL's armor pieces, was retooled as the "Astral Armor Professor Xavier" figure in the "X-Men Mutant Armor" line (the other figures from that series were put into the "Spider-Man Techno Wars" and the aforementioned Mutant Armor lines).
** Justified for Stingray, Controller, Stilt-Man, and Firepower, as they were only in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Justin Hammer was merely a civilian (albeit one secretly corrupt), while Firebrand was only in one episode.
* TragicKeepsake: Zigzagged (subverted?)for the Mandarin: the rings he uses to mount the alien gems that serve as his Rings of Power are all he has left of his fiancee after she was killed/dragged away by Mongolian bandits. The tragedy is subverted in that he abandoned her to die in order to heighten his own chance of successfully escaping.
* TransformationSequence: The first season had out-of-place CGI OnceAnEpisode. The second season had a ''much'' better one in the opening sequence.
* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The first season featured a completely CG-rendered [[TransformationSequence suit-up sequence]] whenever Tony donned his Iron Man armor. It looked out-of-place and was scrapped in season 2.
* UnwantedAssistance: While Tony tries to disarm a warhead, H.O.M.E.R provides a countdown.
-->'''Tony:''' H.O.M.E.R? That's not ''helping.''
* UnwittingPawn: The Mandarin is one to the dragons in "The Beast Within."
* WeWillMeetAgain: The Crimson Dynamo promises this to Iron Man in "Not Far From the Tree." They meet again in the first part of "ComicBook/ArmorWars," and it's a complete disaster.
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut:
** Outside of the Scarlet Witch, everyone knew the wedding between Tony and Julia was fake, but they wanted Wanda's reaction to be genuine. As part of the more route of season 2, Julia herself was also shown to be quite resentful of her role in the affair.
** Force Works quits after Tony pulls this on them with faking his own death in the second season premiere.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Tony has these issues with his father, as seen in "Not Far from the Tree."
* WhamEpisode: "The Beast Within" - Fing Fang Foom is written out, the Mandarin's rings are scattered across the world, his LegionOfDoom gets arrested, and Iron Man's {{Jerkass}} scheming costs him half his team.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: In "Distant Boundaries," Iron Man and War Machine head into space to save an alien civilization from Dark Aegis. By the time they arrive, Dark Aegis has already slaughtered them.
-->'''Iron Man:''' You're payin' big time for this crime, Dark Aegis! Bank on it!\\
'''Dark Aegis:''' Crimes? Against who? Humanity? The fools of this planet were grotesquely less than human.\\
'''Iron Man:''' Life is life, pal! Even yours--as twisted as it is--is born with value.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Tony's buddies are rather ticked after learning he faked his death without letting them know it was a ruse to stop Mandarin's scheme in "The Beast Within."
** The "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter is pretty much this non-stop until Tony has a WhatHaveIDone moment after defeating the heroic Stingray only to find that Stingray was not using his technology.
** The first season had an episode where Tony fooled the Mandarin into thinking that Tony Stark and Iron Man were separate people by having Julia (Spider-Woman) marry a robot duplicate with everyone being in on the charade except for Wanda, who was very upset at the deception. And even though she was in on it, [[CerebusRetcon Season 2]] had Julia rightly point out how she was being jerked around.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Rhodey gains a crippling fear of being submerged in water due to watching his friend drown as a young boy, and then getting stuck at the bottom of the ocean in the War Machine armor.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter.
* WolverinePublicity: Netflix listed its streaming of the ''Marvel Action Hour'' under Iron Man's name.
* WomenAreWiser: Hypnotia, compared to the Mandarin's mostly male villain entourage, is a smart and savvy woman who is clearly thinking straight.
* YouKilledMyFather: Firebrand blames Tony for the death of his father, even though his father accidentally killed ''himself'' while trying to blow up a Stark Enterprises building after being fired.
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See also ''Comicbook.IronMan'' and ''Film.IronMan'', other works with this title.
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to:
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[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_iron_man_1994.png]]
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The [[UsefulNotes/TheNineties '90s]] AnimatedAdaptation based on the Franchise/MarvelUniverse {{Superhero}} and his alter ego, Tony Stark. (An earlier Iron Man animated series was shown as part of the ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelSuperHeroes'' lineup that ran in 1966.)
This series ran for two seasons from 1994 to 1996 alongside ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as part of the syndicated ''Marvel Action Hour''. Like ''Fantastic Four'', it had a bland first season and a significantly improved second.
The first season dealt with Iron Man and his team of fellow superheroes, Force Works -- consisting of ComicBook/WarMachine, ComicBook/SpiderWoman (Julia Carpenter), ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}, ComicBook/ScarletWitch, and Century -- battling the forces of the evil Mandarin, such as Whirlwind and Grey Gargoyle. The episodes in this season were mostly one-part stories. Common points of contention for many during this season were the shoddy animation, general outdatedness and that other than the "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter, which modernized his origins, there were no attempts to adapt stories from the comic mythos.
The second season featured much [[AnimationBump better animation]] (due in part by switching to a [[Creator/KokoEnterprises different animation studio]]) and stories more similar to the comic. It was more {{Arc}} based, and the {{Superhero}} team aspect was downplayed with all the teammates besides Spider-Woman and War Machine resigning after Tony [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] without letting them in on the plan. Mandarin was also downplayed, having small cameos in some episodes as he reclaims his powerful Ten Rings, which were scattered during a confrontation with Iron Man in the season premiere.
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!!Provides examples of:
* AbridgedSeries: Got one as part of ''WesternAnimation/MarvelMashUp''; strangely, they chose to use season 2 instead of season 1.
* AchillesInHisTent: Force Works in Season 2 effectively disbands when half the team (Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Century) quits, having become disgusted by Tony faking his death and not letting them in on it. They do come BackForTheFinale.
* AdaptationNameChange:
** Ho Yinsen became ''Wellington'' Yinsen.
** Tony's parents are called Walter and Martha instead of Howard and Maria. That said, season 2 did retcon this as a case of MiddleNameBasis for Walter and that Howard is indeed his first name (it was also RetCanon to the comics in the 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series)
** Tony himself doesn't escape this as his middle initial is "B", suggesting his middle name isn't "Edward" here.
** In keeping with the earlier idea her father was the Whizzer, not ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, the ComicBook/ScarletWitch's last name is "Frank", not "Lehnsherr".
* AdaptationOriginConnection:
** The Mandarin is the one who captures Tony Stark and Yinsen, which results in the creation of the Iron Man armor.
** Yinsen himself is involved in the Mandarin's origin story as well as Iron Man's.
** MODOK's condition wasn't caused by A.I.M. trying to turn a man into a supercomputer (like in the comics); rather, he was mutated by his rival, the Red Ghost (who apparently created Titanium Man)[[note]]in the comics, Red Ghost is typically an enemy of the Fantastic Four, and is/was a Soviet scientist who intentionally exposed himself and his trained apes to cosmic rays to gain superpowers; aside from both having worked for the Soviets, he and Titanium Man have no connection, and he and the comics M.O.D.O.K. have never worked together either[[/note]], over the affections of a woman. This results in MODOK serving the Mandarin as TheIgor, whilst they have never worked together in the comics.
* AdaptationSpeciesChange: Firepower is re-envisioned as a mecha, as opposed to the man in a MiniMecha from the comics.
* AdaptedOut:
** The show's version of Force Works replaces U.S. Agent with Hawkeye (apparently due to rights issues as U.S. Agent was tied to Captain America). Strangely, U.S. Agent still received an action figure in the show's toyline, possibly indicating that he ''was'' planned to be part of the team at one point; he and Hawkeye were both on the team in the tie-in comics. (It should be noted that the figure never received a wide release thanks to issues at Toy Biz; the figure later surfaced via semi-illegal means, and the mold was eventually repurposed -- first as Living Laser, but when the ''IM'' line was cancelled along with the show, Toy Biz remolded it once again into [[WesternAnimation/XMen Astral Armor Professor X]].)
** The adaptation of "ComicBook/ArmorWars" is pretty true to the comic that inspired it, but makes a few character changes:
*** Spymaster is replaced by the Ghost as the one who steals the Iron Man plans and sells them to Justin Hammer.
*** The plane hijacking scene has the Raiders replaced by Blizzard and Blacklash.
*** Hawkeye replaces [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica the Captain]] as the Avenger who fights Iron Man at the Vault (presumably due to the aforementioned rights issues).
*** Edwin Cord's role as the backer of the Firepower project is given to Hammer. Since Firepower is changed from an armored suit to a robot, Jack Taggert also doesn't appear.
*** The roles of [[ComicBook/AntMan Scott Lang]] and Abe Zimmer are cut entirely.
*** The Crimson Dynamo effectively serves as a CompositeCharacter for the Gremlin (the second Titanium Man) and Force. He [[spoiler:dies in battle against Iron Man in Russia]] instead of the Gremlin, and it's his armor, rather than Force's, that reveals the stolen Iron Man tech.
* AffirmativeActionGirl: Hypnotia was created to add a female villain to Iron Man's otherwise mostly-male rogues gallery.
* AllThereInTheManual:
** The show generally assumes the audience is familiar with the comics, as many of the characters never really get their backstories explored. This is especially noticeable with Titanium Man, who is introduced with very little explanation, despite Iron Man claiming to have fought him in the past.
** Madame Masque's past relationship with Tony, as well as the incident that led to her disfigurement, are never explored in any real detail. The most we get is her blaming Tony for ruining her face and Tony talking about how he had to break up with her because she wanted his company.
* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub uses a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWP_StfvsGs different opening theme song]].
* AmbiguousSituation: It's unclear if the bandits killed the Mandarin at the end of the Season 2 finale, or if they merely cut off his hands.
%%* AndIMustScream: "And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead."
* AnimeThemeSong: When broadcast in Japan.
* AngerBornOfWorry: Twice in Season 2.
** In "The Beast Within", Iron Man fakes his death by the Mandarin's hands, leading the rest of the team without their leader and to battle with Fing Fang Foom and the other dragons without him. Just as they seem to be losing, Iron Man appears out of the sky, and teams up with the Mandarin to stop the dragons. The scene has War Machine sound overjoyed at his best friend's survival, but in literally the next scene, Rhodey knocks Tony to the ground and chews him out for not having enough trust in the team to let them know he's alive. This is actually what led to Force Works disbanding.
** During the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, after Tony discovers that his designs have been stolen, he goes on a crusade to disable the armored heroes and villains using his technology to keep them falling into the wrong hands. It gets to the point that he "fires" Iron Man as Stark Enterprises can't associate with a CorporateSamurai gone rogue, and acts more rashly - while shutting out his friends and allies, even attacking one of them. Julia goes out her way to call him out on the crap he's pulled over the years - not just recently, and when he fakes his death again but lets Julia and Rhodey know he's alive, the former goes through the emotional ringer - first in grief to Tony's "death", then elation, and later takes Tony to task again for his recklessness and selfish actions, and makes it very clear to him that he hurt both Rhodey and herself in his paranoia over the stolen Stark tech, even if he hadn't set out to do so.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When Tony literally says "WhatHaveIDone" after pointlessly fighting the hero Stingray, War Machine tells him, "Well, let's see: near as I can figure, you've trespassed on federal property, assaulted a naval officer, and taken a dip without waiting an hour after mealtime!"
* AscendedExtra: An odd example. Hypnotia is the first villain actually shown in the first episode, beyond the opening credits, and she's shown successfully completing her mission. She then disappears for the next few episodes and is briefly replaced by another villainess, Elastika, before Hypnotia reappears and starts getting bigger roles. This is only in the first season mind you, as she's mostly absent alongside the other villains for most of season two besides the opening and ending episodes.
** Dreadknight is actually from the comics, but he only had a handful of appearances before the series.
* AvengingTheVillain: Firebrand in "Fire and Rain".
* BackForTheFinale: Scarlet Witch, Century and several of the Mandarin's minions return for the second season finale.
* BackhandedApology: "The Armor Wars" two-parter ends with Iron Man uploading a virus into Hammer Industries' computer systems. It destroys all records of the armor technology, but it also "accidentally" erases everything else. He "apologizes" by noting how "reckless" he was.
* BadBoss: The Mandarin, in the very first episode, almost killed Blizzard as punishment for the villain accidentally ruining the Mandarin's begonias. Hypnotia seems to be the only one of his minions he treats with respect, but that's most likely because she's the only one who is consistently competent.
* BeingGoodSucks: Comicbook/NickFury is certain in "The Armor Wars, Part II" that Justin Hammer is using Firepower to attack Stark Enterprises. Without proof, though, he can't intervene, so he presses Tony to bring back Iron Man.
* BettyAndVeronica: Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch compete for Tony's affections in the first season.
** ThirdOptionLoveInterest: Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist in the first season.
* BigBad: The Mandarin is the main antagonist of the series.
* BittersweetEnding: Several Season 2 episodes.
** "The Beast Within": The Mandarin's team is arrested and the dragons' plan is foiled, but Tony's actions cause half of Force Works and the remaining members to still give him grief. Also, viewers learn that the Mandarin is NotQuiteDead.
** "Fire and Rain": Firebrand is arrested, but Rhodey is left shaken and gives up being War Machine.
** "Cell of Iron": Arthur Dearborn sacrifices his life and dream to save millions of people.
** "Not Far From the Tree": AIM's plot to take over Stark Enterprises fails, but the clone of Walter Stark escapes and intends to revisit his "son" when he's feeling most vulnerable.
** "Beauty Knows No Pain": Madame Masque is stopped, but Tony and Julia are left feeling sorry for her, as well as reflecting on Tony's own lonely life.
* BraggingThemeTune: Distilled into four words in the second season's theme song- "[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. AM. IRON MAN!]]"
* BroadStrokes: The second season sometimes had callbacks to events from the first season, like Tony and Julia's fake wedding, and a flashback scene with Tony in his season 1 armor (with mouthslit), but most of these were few and far between (likely because the new episodes were nothing like the earlier ones).
* TheBusCameBack: Even before the finale, Blacklash and Blizzard appeared in the ComicBook/ArmorWars two-parter hijacking a plane. Also, Titanium Man, who only appeared in the first episode of season 1 until his return in the season 2 episode "Distant Boundaries".
* CanonForeigner: Hypnotia, an {{Expy}} of ''[[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]]'' villainess Enchantress, and Dark Aegis, the main villain of the episode, "Distant Boundaries", were both original characters created for this cartoon.
** Elastika is also one, and she only appears once in the first season.
** The Hacker from "Iron Man on the Inside."
* CerebusRetcon: The Season 1 finale showed that Julia was in on the fake wedding with everyone outside of Wanda. Season 2, however, showed that she was actually quite bitter about being left at the altar, and the tension caused by that lingering resentment was used a recurring plot point.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** While the Mandarin's lackeys were used less frequently in Season 2 in general, Justin Hammer, M.O.D.O.K., Hypnotia, Whirlwind, Blizzard, Blacklash and Titanium Man all made at least one guest appearance each. Grey Gargoyle, Living Laser, Elastika and Dreadknight were far less fortunate, and completely stopped appearing after the first season, save for a few of them having a brief cameo in the Season 2 premiere (and Grey Gargoyle having a cameo in prison in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter). What makes it odd is that the Mandarin eventually frees Hypnotia, Blizzard, Whirlwind and Blacklash from prison, but neglects to recover the rest of their former teammates.
** Veronica, Tony's physical therapist, also vanished after Season 1.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: "Hulkbuster" ends with the Mandarin reclaiming his final two rings and vowing to implement his ultimate plan.
* ClipShow: Both seasons had an episode consisting primarily of footage recycled from older episodes - "The Wedding of Iron Man" and "Empowered," respectively.
* CommutingOnABus: Hawkeye in Season 2. Unlike Scarlet Witch or Century, he appeared in two episodes in between the premiere and finale.
* CompositeCharacter:
** Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman) has a lot of traits of Pepper Potts. It's more evident in the second season. She's also somewhat of an {{Expy}} for Bethany Cabe, Stark's other red-haired associate at the time.
** Sunturion's human form, Arthur Dearborn, had a completely different look in the comics; his appearance in the show appears to be taken from another Roxxon-associated character, Abner Doolittle.
** The Mandroids have the same armor as the Guardsmen from the comics.
** Titanium Man is a composite of both comic versions, having the identity of the first (Boris Bullski) and the armor design of the second (the Gremlin). Coincidentally, Bullski eventually did adopt Gremlin's armor design for a while in the comics.
** Roxxon, while namechecked as owning a refinery, has its' villainous role in the Star Well project transferred to AIM.
* {{Crossover}}:
** Iron Man appears (alongside War Machine) in a few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (with a new design that mixes his season one and two designs with new elements borrowed from the Telepresence unit from the comics; War Machine also got a different appearance, with comics-accurate shoulder cannons).
** He appears too (alongside War Machine once again) in an episode of the then-latest ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleHulk1996'' cartoon. The Hulk himself appears in an episode of this show as he teams up with Iron Man to stop The Leader from going back to the past to take Bruce Banner's place in the gamma bomb explosion that created the Hulk. The episode in question is something of a SequelEpisode to "Hulkbuster", with Tony and Bruce Banner already being friends and being a SecretKeeper for the other.
** He also made a cameo appearance in ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' as a member/leader of the Avengers (although he doesn't speak).
** An alternate future counterpart of IM, in green armor, made a quick cameo in the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' episode "One Man's Worth".
* CurseCutShort: "Ultimo! I thought I pulled the plug on that son of a -"
** From "ComicBook/ArmorWars":
-->'''Tony''': Hello Fury, what bug crawled up your -?
-->'''Nick Fury''': It's about Iron Man.
** And later in the same episode:
-->'''Julia''': You lousy, lying -!
* DarkerAndEdgier:
** The second season had darker colors, a more mature tone, and spent time developing the more self-destructive aspects of Stark as a character.
** Ex-KGB who wants to basically bring back the Cold War and win it decides to launch a nuke at a Russian city and make America look responsible, and when stopped, decides to detonate it there, atomizing himself and anyone else in the immediate area, and causing numerous deaths from radiation poisoning. No, this isn't an episode of ''Series/TwentyFour'', it's an episode of a ''kids' cartoon.'' [[spoiler:It's Crimson Dynamo's swan-song, setting off the animated version of the ComicBook/ArmorWars storyline... which is also one of those episodes that shows Stark's dark side.]]
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Hawkeye.
** And of course there's Hypnotia.
--->'''Dreadknight''': Give me a chance, Hypnotia. I'll make you lose your taste for Tony Stark.
--->'''Hypnotia''': I'm more likely to lose my lunch.
* DirtyCommunists: Crimson Dynamo, a deranged KGB agent-turned terrorist obsessed with destroying the capitalist system and bringing back the Soviet Union. Titanium Man counts too, as he also wants to bring the Soviet Union back.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The Hacker used Ultimo to attack Stark Enterprises because they turned down his job applications, saying such things as "Please re-apply after college."
* DramaticUnmask: In "Hands of the Mandarin, Part I," [[spoiler:the Mandarin melts off Iron Man's helmet]].
* DrivenToSuicide: "ComicBook/ArmorWars: Part 2" has a scene where Rhodey becomes extremely worried after Tony locks himself in his lab and stops answering when anyone tries to communicate with him. Julia's response implies (but doesn't outright state) that the two of them are worried that Tony may have committed suicide after his latest bout of depression.
-->'''Julia''': You don't think he's gone and -?!
* DueToTheDead: When it looks like Iron Man's been killed in "The Armor Wars, Part II," Nick Fury chastises two soldiers belittling his memory.
-->"There was a good man in that armor, and he deserves your respect. That clear?!"
* EnemyMine:
** In "The Beast Within," Iron Man and the Mandarin are forced to work together to defeat the dragons.
** In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man teams up with Iron Man and War Machine to take Dark Aegis down.
* EnhanceButton: In "The Beast Within," Tony finds Fin Fang Foom's shadow in a satellite snapshot by enlarging, isolating, and enhancing it.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In "Distant Boundaries," Titanium Man is disgusted with Dark Aegis for destroying a planet simply ForTheEvulz.
-->"My hunger is different from that of Dark Aegis. I want power to control; to lead. He wants power to annihilate!"
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: In "The Defection of Hawkeye", the Mandarin sets up evidence that Hawkeye is a traitor, and is completely shocked that Tony and the others trust him regardless.
* EvilKnockoff: The two-part episode "Iron Man to the Second Power" had M.O.D.O.K. create a robotic duplicate of Iron Man.
* {{Expy}}: Elastika is visually similar to Zarana from ''Franchise/GIJoe'', and has the same basic MasterOfDisguise theme.
* FantasticVoyagePlot: "Iron Man, on the Inside," where Tony does this to fix Hawkeye's spinal injury. (This was adapted from a comic book story, but with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica as the patient instead.)
* FanService: Both “And The Sea Shall Give Up Its Dead” and “The Grim Reaper Wears A Teflon Coat” feature Tony having physiotherapy sessions with a bikini-clad Veronica Benning. The latter episode also features Wanda in a bikini. “Enemy Within, Enemy Without” begins with a photo shoot with a bikini-clad model (M.O.D.O.K.’s former wife) that gets interrupted. She stays in the swimsuit the rest of the episode.
* ForgingScene: The second intro sequence has one of these.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In his first appearance, Crimson Dynamo says that he is willing to sacrifice his life to destroy the capitalist system and Tony Stark. [[spoiler: He does indeed sacrifice himself in his very next appearance, detonating a nuke in an attempt to start WorldWarIII.]]
* TheGentlemanOrTheScoundrel: The Dreadknight (Gentleman) and Blacklash (Scoundrel) compete for Hypnotia's affections
* GrandFinale: Season two's "Hands of the Mandarin" two-parter, where Mandarin--having finally collected all of his Ten Rings--launches a scheme to make all of the planet's technology useless, which would make his arch-enemy Iron Man ineffective against him. As Mandarin reforms his team of super villains, Iron Man reforms his superhero team and develops new armor to negate Mandarin's anti-technology spell, and a final confrontation between the two ends in [[spoiler:Mandarin's (possible) death]].
* HeartOfTheMatter: The series finale saw [[BigBad The Mandarin]] hold the world hostage using a gigantic gem called The Heart of Darkness which, by draining the energy of superbeings, could blanket the world in an anti-technology field, grinding the modern world to a halt
* HeroesWantRedheads: Spider-Woman, Wanda (season one), and Veronica Benning, Tony's physical therapist.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Titanium Man in "Distant Boundaries," taking Dark Aegis with him.]]
** [[spoiler:Arthur Dearborn/Sunturion at the end of "Cell of Iron," which saves New York City from utter destruction.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: After all the anti-technology railing, the Mandarin reveals he has exo-armor. Iron Man calls him on it.
* ILied: "The Beast Within" offers a two-fer. Once M.O.D.O.K. fulfills his role in the plan, the Mandarin refuses to let him share in the spoils. However, immediately afterwards, Fin Fang Foom reveals his own treachery.
* IdentityImpersonator: Tony pulls this one on the Mandarin in "The Wedding of Iron Man." Tony himself appears at the wedding in disguise (so he can change into Iron Man later), while a robot represents Tony Stark.
* TheIgor: ComicBook/{{MODOK}} serves as this to the Mandarin.
* IllFatedFlowerbed: In the pilot, Blizzard accidentally freezes the Mandarin's begonias to death while cooling off his drink. The Mandarin is '''not''' happy about it.
* InNameOnly: The Scarlet Witch seen here bears no similarities with the comic book character except having the first name Wanda (in the cartoon she's Wanda ''Frank'' rather than Maximoff), and having a vaguely Eastern European accent. Personality-wise, she's quick to anger, man-crazy, [[CloudCuckooLander more than a little weird]], has the hots for Tony, and sees Jessica as her romantic rival for his affections. In the comics she's level-headed ([[ComicBook/HouseOfM normally]]) and has led the Avengers before, and she counts Tony and Jessica among her closest friends. Power-wise, instead of [[WindsOfDestinyChange probability manipulation]], her abilities are vaguely-defined but seem to be explicitly magical, including tarot-reading, shape-shifting, and altering matter. Even her costume is based on a very brief period in the comics where she experimented with short hair, rather than her more recognizable long hair and tiara. And zero references are made to her [[ComicBook/{{Magneto}} father]] or [[ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} twin brother]].
* IneffectualLoner: Deconstructed in Season 2 with Iron Man. Refusing to let the team in on his plan in "The Beast Within" causes half of them to quit. Rushing off in "The Hands of the Mandarin, Part I" nearly gets him killed.
* {{Irony}}: Discussed throughout "Cell of Iron," as Iron Man finds a given something ironic and H.O.M.E.R. tries to understand the concept. PlayedForLaughs, until the end.
-->'''Iron Man:''' Goodbye, Dearborn. It's ironic that your ultimate gift to mankind wasn't the Star-Well after all, but rather the life you sacrificed to destroy it.\\
'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' You say it is ironic, but I fail to detect the previous element of humor. Is irony not always funny?\\
'''Iron Man:''' No, H.O.M.E.R.. Sometimes, it isn't funny at all.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The episode covering his backstory depicted the Mandarin abandoning his own fiancee to die in order to enhance his own chances of survival, all the while justifying it on the grounds that he had a "great destiny" to live for.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** Hawkeye.
** Iron Man could count, too, given he does jackass things like faking his death and the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" stuff, but he did believe he trying to help people.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: In the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Tony starts out by simply attacking villains using armor--stopping them in the middle of crimes and demonstrating that they were using technology stolen from him. However, he quickly becomes more obsessive and starts going after good guys that wear armor, such as Stingray and even War Machine. All the while, Iron Man is condemned as a menace, while Julia and Rhodey denounce him, Nearly getting killed by Justin Hammer's new weapon, though, knocks some sense into him and causes him to clean up his act.
* KickTheDog: The Mandarin almost kills Blizzard in the first episode for ''freezing his begonias''.
* KickTheMoralityPet: The Mandarin's backstory in this animated series; he and his fiancee were archaeologists on a dig in Mongolia when their expedition was attacked by bandits. The rest of the team sacrificed their lives so the two of them could escape on the last surviving camel, but the Mandarin betrayed his fiancee and abandoned her to die so as to ensure his own survival.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Fin Fang Foom, Titanium Man (taking Dark Aegis with him), Crimson Dynamo]].
* TheLancer: Hawkeye
* LastMinuteHookup: Tony and Julia
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** When Iron Man and the Hulk get sent to the prehistoric past in "Hulk Buster," Tony sarcastically asks if someone just changed the channel.
** Likewise, in "Hands of the Mandarin: Part 1," Tony says "You don't have to be a cartoon writer to figure out the Mandarin is behind [the terrorist attacks in Hong Kong]." [[note]] This was likely a TakeThat at the first season, where the Mandarin was behind ''every single plot'' and it would typically take a while for Tony and the others to catch on. Blame Ron Friedman, a writer who apparently didn't grasp that the 80s were over {he worked on the original ''[[WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon} and people wanted more from their shows.[[/note]]
* LegionOfDoom: The first season exclusively featured the Mandarin as the BigBad with the other villains (Blizzard, Blacklash, Grey Gargoyle, Whirlwind, Hypnotia, Living Laser, M.O.D.O.K., Justin Hammer, and Fin Fang Foom) all working for him and rotating in and out as needed.
* LimitedAnimation: The first season.
* LoveTriangle: Two examples:
** Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch both want Iron Man in the first season.
** Blacklash and Dreadknight both want Hypnotia. Hypnotia, on her end, alternates between slight teasing and being totally fed up with them, and frequently mentions she wants Tony Stark. Though she briefly reciprocates Blacklash's affection when he saves her life.
* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: In "Hulk Buster," the Leader seeks to eliminate Bruce Banner in the past and claim the Hulk's power for himself.
-->"Our destiny is about to be uncrossed, Banner."
* MerchandiseDriven: Likely the reason why the first season featured Iron Man and Force Works vs. the Mandarin's LegionOfDoom (it was a very similar setup to ''{{Transformers}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983''), and ''definitely'' the reason that season 2 gave Iron Man the ability to switch armors on the fly to adapt to any situation. Marvel had looked at the success of the multi-colored Batman toys in the wake of ''Film/BatmanReturns'' and were trying to copy its success with Iron Man by giving him an armor for every occasion (and compared to Batman, IM's different armor variants made sense most of the time). It didn't take off as well as Marvel had hoped.
** This also led to ExecutiveMeddling for comics at the time: ''Comicbook/WestCoastAvengers'' was canceled in favor of the more Iron Man-centric ''Force Works'' in preparation for the hoped-for Iron Man fad.
* MiddleNameBasis: Season 2 retconned that Tony's dad going by "Walter" is a case of this and that, much like the comics, his first name is indeed "Howard".
* MomentKiller: In "Distant Boundaries," H.O.M.E.R. and later Rhodey do this to Tony and Julia.
-->'''H.O.M.E.R.:''' Are we doing facial inspections?\\
'''Tony:''' ''[beat]'' That's right.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: During "Iron Man, on the Inside," Hawkeye suffers a paralyzing, most likely fatal injury while fighting Ultimo. Tony (feeling guilty over their falling out) is particularly hard on himself, but Julia insists that it was an accident.
* MythologyGag:
** Wanda Maximoff being renamed "Wanda Frank" is a reference to the period in the comics (before Magneto was revealed to be her father) where she and her brother were thought to be the children of Robert Frank, the UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|OfComicBooks}} hero known as the Whizzer.
** Julia in a season 2 episode name-checks Captain America.
** In "Fire and Rain" Tony says Jim needs to meet him at the "Roxxon refinery"; in the comics Roxxon is a major oil company and a major foe of Tony's ([[AdaptedOut though their role in the Sunturion plot was transferred to AIM]]).
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Mandarin was originally a white man named Arnold Brock.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Defeating the dragons in "The Beast Within" causes a massive explosion. Iron Man assumes the Mandarin was killed, but viewers quickly learn he's wrong. Justified, though, as the blast was powerful enough to [[spoiler:kill all five dragons]].
* NinjaLog: Iron Man pulls this off on Blacklash in "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination" when he disguises a high-voltage transformer using his hologram.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Arthur Dearborn from "Cell of Iron" used high levels of microwave energy to cure a deadly disease, but he was transformed into Sunturion. He gave off lethal radiation and banished himself to the Starwell space station.
-->'''Dearborn:''' And here I remain, my gift to mankind now serving as my prison. Do you have any idea of what loneliness it is to be cut off from all humanity and locked inside a [[TitleDrop cell of iron]]?\\
'''Iron Man:''' Yes, I do.
* OffModel: The first season even [[EpicFail fails in]] [[UpToEleven comparison to both]] ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' or the first season of sister series ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
* OhCrap:
** Hulk in his crossover episode when he realizes the time travel has brought him to just before the gamma bomb test.
** M.O.D.O.K. in "Empowered" when he learns the Mandarin is still alive.
* OnceAnEpisode:
** Season 1 had a CGI TransformationSequence, where Tony would suit up.
** Most Season 2 episodes in-between the premiere and finale ended with a tag scene showing the Mandarin slowly reclaiming his rings. The only exceptions were "The Armor Wars, Part I" (which had a story-related cliffhanger) and "Empowered" (a ClipShow that featured the Mandarin heavily).
* OnlySaneMan: Among the Mandarin's usual lackeys, Hypnotia consistently came across as the only one that wasn't an idiot. She also proved to be quite powerful with her hypnotic abilities in various occasions, from hypnotizing an entire village for 24 hours to using delayed-action hypnotism in a video recording.
* OrganicTechnology: The final episode sees Tony donning a new suit of armor that runs on "bio-energy," meaning it's immune to the effects of the anti-tech fog the Mandarin has unleashed.
* OriginsEpisode:
** "The Origin of the Mandarin" revealed [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the origin of the Mandarin]].
** How Tony Stark became Iron Man was revealed in the two-part episode "The Origin of Iron Man".
* PetTheDog: Blacklash once saved Hypnotia's life in an act of genuine altruism.
* PowerTrio: Iron Man, War Machine, and Spider-Woman in Season 2.
* PromotedToLoveInterest:
** Spider-Woman, almost definitely because she was more {{Toyetic}} than any of Tony's canon love interests.
** The Scarlet Witch, too, though obviously unrequited.
* PutOnABus: Hawkeye, Century, and Scarlet Witch quit the team after Season 2's premiere. Hawkeye returns for "Iron Man, On The Inside", again the part 1 of the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, and both he and the rest of the team return in the finale.
** M.O.D.O.K. scampers off at the end of "The Beast Within" for parts unknown. He returns in "Empowered" and is revealed to have been busy searching for the Mandarin's rings.
* RaceLift: In the 1994 animated series, the Mandarin is actually ''pure British'' by origin, instead of his comic book self's Mongolian; his green-skinned, pointy-eared, claw-fingered, Fu Manchu-mustachioed form is something he was warped into after he gathered the ten alien power crystals that become the Rings of Power.
* RatedMForManly: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBbnT-cIDVM The second US opening theme]].
* RecapEpisode: "Empowered", which features MODOK getting his hands on one of the Mandarin's rings.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: "Go redeem yourself, [[spoiler:Titanium Man]]."
* RememberTheNewGuy:
** Dark Aegis was introduced as a villain Iron Man had supposedly already fought and defeated in the past, even though he'd never been seen or mentioned before his debut episode.
** The final episode introduces a Chinese scientist named Dr. Su-Yin, who has conveniently developed a special suit of armor that runs on bio-energy, and is thus impervious to the Mandarin's anti-technology mist. She and Tony are clearly very close and it's stated that they had been working together on the bio-energy microprocessors for several years, despite neither Su-Yin nor the project ever having been mentioned before this.
* RetCanon:
** The current comics reveal that the Mandarin was involved in the kidnapping of Tony Stark and Yinsen.
** The post-''[[Comicbook/SecretWars2015 Secret Wars]]'' relaunch incorporates the idea of Tony being able to switch armors at will.
** The 2011 ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' series brought in the idea that "Walter" is Howard Stark's middle name.
* {{Retcon}}: In Season 1, the accident that killed Tony's father was caused by Justin Hammer. In Season 2, it was caused by A.I.M. Additionally, it was retconned that "Walter" is a case of MiddleNameBasis and indeed Tony's father's first name is "Howard",
* ReversePolarity: Iron Man uses this to get away from Mandarin's traps.
* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder: See ArsonMurderAndJaywalking above.
* RingOfPower: The Mandarin. Ten of them!
* SayMyName: The season two premiere "The Beast Within" features Rhodey, in response to his best friend Tony supposedly getting blown sky high, belting out a tortured [[ChewingTheScenery "TONYYYYYYYYYY!"]]
* SealedWithAKiss: The series ends with a shot of Tony and Julia locking lips.
* SecretKeeper: The end of "Hulk Buster" for both heroes.
-->'''Bruce:''' You know that I'm the Hulk. What now?\\
'''Iron Man:''' ''[removing his helmet]'' I won't tell if you won't.
* SelfServingMemory: In the season 2 premiere, it's the Mandarin's idea for him and Iron Man to combine their powers to defeat the Makluan dragons. However, this results in a large explosion and him losing his rings, and by the season 2 finale he's convinced himself that Iron Man tricked him into the plan to try and get rid of him.
* ShoutOut:
** The villain Beetle talks like a member of [[Music/TheBeatles a certain rock band]]. Iron Man even tells him he's "In for a hard day's night" when they first meet.
** The reporter in "The Wedding of Iron Man" mentions the time Music/{{Madonna}} married "[[Creator/SeanPenn Whatshisname]]," as well as when Creator/ElizabethTaylor married "everyone else."
** In the same episode, M.O.D.O.K. jokingly says they'll have to get Hypnotia to do a standup routine on Creator/DavidLetterman's show.
** Julia once mentioned ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in a season 2 episode.
* StockFootage:
** Season 1 featured the lengthy clip of Tony suiting up as Iron Man and dubbing in new dialogue for different episodes.
** "Hulk Buster" reuses the climatic explosion from "The Beast Within" and a Hulk transformation from ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
** The fight between Iron Man and Hawkeye in the "Armor Wars: Part 1" uses the same close-up of Hawkeye grinning while preparing an arrow at least twice.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Walter Stark looks like Tony Stark with gray hair. Hell, in season 2, he even has his son's mullet!
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: The series was generally lighter on special guest stars than other Marvel cartoons of the era, especially ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''. This is particularly noticeable in the two-part SeriesFinale, where the Mandarin shuts off all of the technology in New York City. Despite New York being home to the vast majority of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe, no other costumed heroes are seen helping out while the city is devolving into chaos.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: H.O.M.E.R. replaces the female-voiced computer from Season 1.
* SwissArmyHero: Iron Man in Season 2, with the power to switch to different armors for different challenges.
* TeamMemberInTheAdaptation: As noted under AdaptedOut, Hawkeye replaced US Agent as a member of Force Works.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After Force Works dissolves in Season 2, War Machine and Hawkeye don't bother to hide their mutual disdain for each other, as Rhodey is angry at Hawkeye for leaving and Hawkeye at Rhodey for staying. Their mutual anger at each other extends to other members on both sides as well as Clint doesn't bother hiding his contempt at Julia for her staying, either, and while Rhodey doesn't say anything about Century, he does make a snide remark about Tony welcoming Wanda back in the GrandFinale.
* TemptingFate[=/=]ChekhovsGun: In "Silence My Companion, Death My Destination", Rachel Carpenter wonders when she will ever need classical music and her mother later gives her a tape of a Van Cliburn performance. Apparently, the music can be used to recharge Iron Man.
* TenMinuteRetirement:
** Tony has one of these in "ComicBook/ArmorWars."
** Rhodey also takes a step back from heroics after "Fire and Rain." Circumstances force him back into the armor a few more times throughout the season, before Tony destroys the War Machine suit during the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter. He finally becomes War Machine again in the two-part series finale.
* TensionCuttingLaughter:
** While chewing Tony out for his actions in ComicBook/ArmorWars, Julia insists that he can't just ask her and Rhodey for forgiveness; their emotions aren't something he can switch on and off like a computer. H.O.M.E.R asks if [[InsultFriendlyFire he should be offended by that]], and Tony, Julia and Rhodey all crack up. Tony isn't laughing for long, since he's in pretty bad shape.
-->'''Tony:''' Whoever said laughter is the best medicine oughta be shot...
** Happens again while Rhodey and Tony are stranded on an alien world with an unbreathable atmosphere - and Rhodey has an attack of claustrophobia in his suit. Tony tries to calm him down, then finally threatens [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan to slap him if necessary.]]
-->'''Rhodey:''' ''(cracking up)'' Gonna pull my hair, too, boss-man? ''(they both laugh)''
* TitleDrop: The big guy himself word-for-word in "Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer"... ''repeatedly''.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Let's just say in Season 2, some of Tony's less admirable personality traits from the comics made their way onto the show.
* ToylessToylineCharacter: For a show meant to shill toys, several:
** On the heroes' side, Scarlet Witch and Stingray.
** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" subline as a figure for Beast.
** Beetle's case may be justifiable because he was released as part of the ''Spider-Man'' toyline, and Marvel toylines from the same time are similar enough to be put together as a same collection, so a Beetle in the ''Iron Man'' line would have been redundant. What is still strange, is that the Spidey toyline was series-based too, and Beetle didn't appear in the Spider-Man cartoon.
** Strangely subverted with US Agent, who was a member of ''ComicBook/ForceWorks'' in the comics but not the show (due to legal issues), yet had a figure produced for this toy line -- though, in this case, it wasn't legally available. See, the US Agent figure was dropped because the number of slots available in the toyline were cutback (company-wide), and the figure was planned to become a figure of the Living Laser in series 5 of the Toy Biz line, but the line was cancelled. However, the figure, with LL's armor pieces, was retooled as the "Astral Armor Professor Xavier" figure in the "X-Men Mutant Armor" line (the other figures from that series were put into the "Spider-Man Techno Wars" and the aforementioned Mutant Armor lines).
** Justified for Stingray, Controller, Stilt-Man, and Firepower, as they were only in the "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter, Justin Hammer was merely a civilian (albeit one secretly corrupt), while Firebrand was only in one episode.
* TragicKeepsake: Zigzagged (subverted?)for the Mandarin: the rings he uses to mount the alien gems that serve as his Rings of Power are all he has left of his fiancee after she was killed/dragged away by Mongolian bandits. The tragedy is subverted in that he abandoned her to die in order to heighten his own chance of successfully escaping.
* TransformationSequence: The first season had out-of-place CGI OnceAnEpisode. The second season had a ''much'' better one in the opening sequence.
* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The first season featured a completely CG-rendered [[TransformationSequence suit-up sequence]] whenever Tony donned his Iron Man armor. It looked out-of-place and was scrapped in season 2.
* UnwantedAssistance: While Tony tries to disarm a warhead, H.O.M.E.R provides a countdown.
-->'''Tony:''' H.O.M.E.R? That's not ''helping.''
* UnwittingPawn: The Mandarin is one to the dragons in "The Beast Within."
* WeWillMeetAgain: The Crimson Dynamo promises this to Iron Man in "Not Far From the Tree." They meet again in the first part of "ComicBook/ArmorWars," and it's a complete disaster.
* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut:
** Outside of the Scarlet Witch, everyone knew the wedding between Tony and Julia was fake, but they wanted Wanda's reaction to be genuine. As part of the more route of season 2, Julia herself was also shown to be quite resentful of her role in the affair.
** Force Works quits after Tony pulls this on them with faking his own death in the second season premiere.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Tony has these issues with his father, as seen in "Not Far from the Tree."
* WhamEpisode: "The Beast Within" - Fing Fang Foom is written out, the Mandarin's rings are scattered across the world, his LegionOfDoom gets arrested, and Iron Man's {{Jerkass}} scheming costs him half his team.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: In "Distant Boundaries," Iron Man and War Machine head into space to save an alien civilization from Dark Aegis. By the time they arrive, Dark Aegis has already slaughtered them.
-->'''Iron Man:''' You're payin' big time for this crime, Dark Aegis! Bank on it!\\
'''Dark Aegis:''' Crimes? Against who? Humanity? The fools of this planet were grotesquely less than human.\\
'''Iron Man:''' Life is life, pal! Even yours--as twisted as it is--is born with value.
* WhatTheHellHero:
** Tony's buddies are rather ticked after learning he faked his death without letting them know it was a ruse to stop Mandarin's scheme in "The Beast Within."
** The "ComicBook/ArmorWars" two-parter is pretty much this non-stop until Tony has a WhatHaveIDone moment after defeating the heroic Stingray only to find that Stingray was not using his technology.
** The first season had an episode where Tony fooled the Mandarin into thinking that Tony Stark and Iron Man were separate people by having Julia (Spider-Woman) marry a robot duplicate with everyone being in on the charade except for Wanda, who was very upset at the deception. And even though she was in on it, [[CerebusRetcon Season 2]] had Julia rightly point out how she was being jerked around.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Rhodey gains a crippling fear of being submerged in water due to watching his friend drown as a young boy, and then getting stuck at the bottom of the ocean in the War Machine armor.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The "Origin of Iron Man" two-parter.
* WolverinePublicity: Netflix listed its streaming of the ''Marvel Action Hour'' under Iron Man's name.
* WomenAreWiser: Hypnotia, compared to the Mandarin's mostly male villain entourage, is a smart and savvy woman who is clearly thinking straight.
* YouKilledMyFather: Firebrand blames Tony for the death of his father, even though his father accidentally killed ''himself'' while trying to blow up a Stark Enterprises building after being fired.
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See also ''Comicbook.IronMan'' and ''Film.IronMan'', other works with this title.
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** Hawkeye
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** HawkeyeHawkeye.
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* OffModel: The first season even [[EpicFail fails in]] [[UpToEleven comparison to both]] ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' or the first season of sister series ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
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* OffModel: The first season even [[EpicFail fails in]] [[UpToEleven comparison to both]] ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' or the first season of sister series ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour''.
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** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" sublibe as a figure for Beast.
to:
** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" sublibe subline as a figure for Beast.
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** Strangely subverted with US Agent, who was a member of ''ComicBook/ForceWorks'' in the comics but not the show (due to legal issues), yet had a figure produced for this toy line-- though, in this case, it wasn't legally available. See, the US Agent figure was dropped because the number of slots available in the toyline were cutback (company-wide), and the figure was planned to become a figure of the Living Laser in series 5 of the Toy Biz line, but the line was cancelled. However, the figure, with LL's armor pieces, was retooled as the "Astral Armor Professor Xavier" figure in the "X-Men Mutant Armor" line (the other figures from that series were put into the "Spider-Man Techno Wars" and the aforementioned Mutant Armor lines).
to:
** Strangely subverted with US Agent, who was a member of ''ComicBook/ForceWorks'' in the comics but not the show (due to legal issues), yet had a figure produced for this toy line-- line -- though, in this case, it wasn't legally available. See, the US Agent figure was dropped because the number of slots available in the toyline were cutback (company-wide), and the figure was planned to become a figure of the Living Laser in series 5 of the Toy Biz line, but the line was cancelled. However, the figure, with LL's armor pieces, was retooled as the "Astral Armor Professor Xavier" figure in the "X-Men Mutant Armor" line (the other figures from that series were put into the "Spider-Man Techno Wars" and the aforementioned Mutant Armor lines).
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** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, and Firepower.
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** Amongst the bad guys, Hypnotia, Justin Hammer, Firebrand, Controller, Stilt-Man, Beetle, Dark Aegis, and Firepower.Firepower. In Dark Aegis's case, much like the US Agent/Living Laser figure, his planned toy was reused for the ''X-Men''[='=]s "Mutant Armor" sublibe as a figure for Beast.
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** Wanda Maximoff being renamed "Wanda Frank" is a reference to the period in the comics (before Magneto was revealed to be her father) where she and her brother were thought to be the children of Robert Frank, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] hero known as the Whizzer.
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** Wanda Maximoff being renamed "Wanda Frank" is a reference to the period in the comics (before Magneto was revealed to be her father) where she and her brother were thought to be the children of Robert Frank, the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age]] Age|OfComicBooks}} hero known as the Whizzer.
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* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Fing Fang Foom, Titanium Man (taking Dark Aegis with him), Crimson Dynamo]].
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* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Fing [[spoiler:Fin Fang Foom, Titanium Man (taking Dark Aegis with him), Crimson Dynamo]].
