Episode #11 - The Origin Of Iron Man, Part One
Original Airdate 3rd December 1994

With his armour badly damaged, Iron Man must wait several hours for it to recharge whilst Fin Fang Foom hunts him down! Activating his memory module, he reminisces over how he became Iron Man!

Credits
Screenplay By: Ron Friedman
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, Linda Holdahl as Hypnotia, Neil Ross as Fin Fang Foom and Tony Steedman as Justin Hammer

Review: This episode stands as one of the best of Iron Man’s first season. Sure, there’s the usual amount of crappy dialogue and awful characterisation but the plot here wasn’t actually too bad. Like the other 2 part story in this season, one actually feels as if The Mandarin was actually trying to succeed with his plan this time, rather than looking like an utter fool like he usually does.

Forgot about Mandarin and his fools though, the definitive highlight of this episode is Iron Man’s origin sequence, and how Tony Stark acted before he became Iron Man. Whilst in the comics Iron Man was injured in Vietnam and developed his suit to save his own frail heart, here, he was ordered to make the suit by The Mandarin, and eventually used it himself to escape and later decided to fight crime… for some reason or other. Eventually season two would use the whole ‘suit keeps Iron Man alive’ story when he injures his heart after taking a direct missile to the chest, courtesy of Justin Hammer.

One of the main disappointments of the episode is Fin Fang Foom. He’s wasted here, much as he was in the premiere episode. The fight at the beginning isn’t too bad by this season’s standards, but the ‘hunt’ between them was pretty ridiculous. He also just seems to appear, for no apparent reason. It’s also worth saying his lip sync is atrocious. Anime atrocious.

One of the first season’s better episodes, with a few little niggles keeping it from truly shining.

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