Iron Man In Animation - A Retrospective
The 5 heroes in question were Captain America, The Hulk, Namor, The Mighty Thor and the hero of the hour, Iron Man
himself. The exec with the heart of steel was voiced by the late John Vernon, whom most of the people reading this
will know from his portrayal of Rupert Thorne in Batman: The Animated Series. I can honestly say I’ve never seen an episode of the show so I really can’t comment on the overall quality of it. I find the Captain America show to be enjoyable in an utterly childish, cheesy way but when I sat down and watched The Hulk cartoon from the same show I literally didn’t make it until the end of it, I thought it was that bad. 
Aside from a small cameo with the rest of The Avengers in the 1981 Spider-Man show, Iron Man wouldn’t return to
animation until Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends in the early 80’s. He was featured in various cameo appearances
throughout the series, the most prominent being his appearance in The Origin Of The Spider-Friends. Tony Stark was
actually a central character in the episode, as The Beetle kept trying to steal his inventions. As the title indicates,
the episode tells the story of how the team came together and where they got all their computers and such because it’s
clear from the majority of the episodes that there’s no way they could’ve afforded to pay for it themselves.
Enter Tony Stark, who gives them the computers as a reward for capturing The Beetle and saving his inventions.
Also, look for a cool cameo of Iron Man fighting asteroids in space! I remember rumours circulating here on these forums that Marvel attempted to get Iron Man and Captain America their own shows in the 1980’s, but I can’t find any proof to present. I do recall the reason they didn’t get their own shows though – the networks weren’t interested. Iron Man wouldn’t return to animation until 1994, when he and The Fantastic Four comprised The Marvel Action Hour.
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