Episode #5 - The Grim Reaper Wears A Teflon Coat
Original Airdate 22nd October 1994

The Mandarin steals Stark's new weapon, The Grim Reaper, and Stark stands to lose his credibility unless he manages to find out how he managed to get past his security.

Credits
Story By: Ron Friedman, Stan Lee
Screenplay By: Douglas Booth
Music By: Keith Ammerson
Animation By: Rainbow Animation Group
Guest Starring: Robert Hayes as Iron Man, James Avery as War Machine/Jim Rhodes, Casey Defranco as Julia Carpenter/Spider-Woman, John Reilly as Hawkeye/Clint Barton, James Warwick as Century, Katherine Moffat as Scarlet Witch, Ed Gilbert as The Mandarin, Jim Cummings as Modok, Neil Dickson as Dreadknight, Dorian Harewood as Whirlwind, Chuck McCann as Blizzard, Dorian Harewood as Backlash/Army General.

Review: First off, no, I didn’t make that title up. And yes, it probably is the worst episode title you’ve ever heard.

Once again, Stark builds a weapon of mass destruction, Mandarins goons attempt to steal it, and Forceworks stop them. You’d think someone of Starks intelligence would stop building weapons designed to kill people, but no. The writers of this season are clearly clueless when it comes to the Golden Avengers characterisation. Thankfully, he does destroy the weapon at the end of the episode, but it’s far too rushed to have any effect. He mentions losing his companies credibility, but to be honest, he might as well have not bothered, as he’s building another weapon in the next episode. And guess what? Mandarin wants to steal it! I know the same guy wrote most of the episodes, but I still don’t see why he used the same plot for the majority of them!

Also, the voice director must have been out drinking with the writers the previous night, as he couldn’t decide who he wanted to voice War Machine in this episode, James Avery or Jim Cummings. The voice frequently swapped between them and damn it’s distracting. It was worse than Data In, Chaos Out.

The plot of the episode is simple enough to write yourself, as is this review. Full of tired, clichéd dialogue and featuring non-existent characterisation, you’d find it difficult to find anything positive to mention about the episode.

Well, except for the fact that Julia’s daughter isn’t in it…

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