Iron Man: Armored Adventures - A Pimping Post
So I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now, (RL being pretty distracting for a change) but now that I haz yay news! (that is the new season 2 of Iron Man: Armored Adventures is finally going to start airing in the US come next week) and I finally have some free(-ish) time, I thought it was a good time to get this done.
( A non-spoilery pimp post aka Why This Particular teen!Tony Is Really Quite Awesome! )
( A non-spoilery pimp post aka Why This Particular teen!Tony Is Really Quite Awesome! )
So I Netflix'd the crap out of this series just yesterday because of unexpected!day off and I really liked it!
When I first started watching this series, my reservations were basically twofold:
Pepper. She's not really Pepper, and though I could see almost everyone else growing up to basically become the characters I recognize as adults, I don't think IM:AA!Pepper will ever EVER be the Pepper I know and love so much, and that made me sad until I got over it. Not to say I don't <3 this adorable redhead with Pepper's name, but she seriously isn't Pepper. I think I would've believed her easier as Jan.
This Pepper is not going to grow up to be the badass lady who steadily runs Tony's life. My own personal head cannon is that she's going to be the next director of SHIELD--which is totally cool! But still a little difficult to wrap my head around.
(On a side note: Happy kinda jarred me, too, because I never really thought of him as that stupid.)
I think my largest problem with this new Pepper is that the Tony-and-Pepper relationship was always about Tony being the crazy one and Pepper being the responsibly awesome. But now Tony's the responsible one and Pepper is crazy.
I think IM:AA!Pepper is awesome, but it took me almost half the season for her to settle into my brain as a character, and I only mention this because the first time I tried to watch this series I started with a very Pepper-heavy episode and it convinced me that the series wasn't something I wanted to see. Since she was so out of character, I was worried that the others would be worse.
Secondly: the quality of the animation. It is very obviously CG, in such a way that my roommate thought I was playing The Sims while I was watching it (a very loud version of The Sims where things blow up, apparently?). Clothing sits on character frames like it's made of plastic. Characters don't quite mesh with their environments so that it looks like 3D cutouts superimposed on 2D backgrounds. The environments themselves look like a video game played on the lowest setting, all the details hazy or non-existent and a lot of it washed out in browns.
On the other hand, the fight scenes are really well-choreographed! I didn't skip past most of them, the way I do with Avengers: EMH. Animated fight scenes can be really tricky, and I'm used to watching Anime, a medium that's sort of perfected the art of The Fight Scene (when they aren't staring at eachother across the battlefield THINKING for two episodes or respresented in still shots with lines swooshing by in the background). I think the last Western-animated show I watched that had good fight scenes was Avatar: TLAB. While I don't think IM:AA is quite up to that level, they're still very well done.
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Anyway, I completely agree about Tony and relationships and this series, which was a good thing for me, because well, it fits into my head-canon pretty well, heh. I also agree about the Gene thing, but I personally think the crush/squish thing is more-or-less evenly divided between all four of the group. Gene being the other MC, just means we get to see it a little bit more prominently (also for added ANGST! lol)
Happy was honestly the character which bugged me the most, tbh, because like you said I see him more as definitely book-dumb and not very bright when it comes to planning and science etc, but over the years in the comics he's evolved to be one of the more emotionally mature people in IM cast (yes, *more* than Pepper or Rhodey.) He is an important person to Tony, which is why his death in CW was a big deal to the Iron Man part of MU and I frankly can't see this Happy ever becoming that person.
But Pepper... I took me a while to get past the rather obnoxious chatter-box nature because like you said, That's not Pepper! But I think, one of the things fandom tends to overlook as a whole regarding Pepper is that just like movie!Tony /= comics!Tony, movie!Pepper /= comics!Pepper (though you wouldn't know it from the on-going Fraction stuff :/)
And the thing about comics!Pepper is that she could easily be this girl. Granted, with the complete dedication IMAA!Pepper has to being SHIELD, I can't quite see her settling down in business (maybe she becomes Iron Man's SHIELD liaison instead!) But comics!Pepper was until recently very much a (very intelligent and capable) girl-next-door. She helped run Tony's many endeavors but she also spent long periods of time not working for Tony, and Tony managed to keep his business going pretty well. (Pepper and Happy on the other hand didn't fare so well - idk if you know but Pepper and Happy were married for a loooong time in the comics, another reason to be sad about stupid!Happy. But maybe he's obfuscating, huh? *hopes*)
As for animation quality, lol, I think I tend to get blind to most visual anomalies if I like the story and the characters... For a long time I kept giving One Piece a miss, because wow, fugly art. and now, I can't even see how weird they look until someone points it out be piece by piece. I also liked the apparently-headache inducing visuals in the Gankutsuoh anime, so... ._.
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Huh, I hadn't thought about comics!Pepper. Well, I had, but I got into Iron Man via the movies, so I've been reading mostly the later things. Though, you're right, MA!Pepper is way feistierthan movie!Pepper or later comics!Pepper, now that I think about it (Marvel Adventures being the only continuity I've done extensive reading in, because it's compact and so so cute). Yeah, I kinda heart HappyxPepper myself (especially the movie versions because--ADORABLE. Although in the movie!verse I sort of threesome NatashaxPepperxHappy).
I had that same problem with One Piece! I never did get very far into it, but that's mostly because I had trouble getting the episodes to work on my dying-at-the-time computer and then completely got distracted by something else shiny and wandered off.
I totally ship GenexPepper in this universe (and RhodeyxWhitney is intriguing, though I haven't seen them interact, much). Gene reminds me of Zuko (though so far, not as cool--but then it took Zuko a few seasons and some substantial character arcs to be awesome). Though pretty much EVERYONE (except, maybe, Rhodey?) has equal UST with Gene.
I see Tony being very oblivious to sex in this universe. Like, he logically knows it's out there and on some level responds because he's a teenager, but I think he's way more comfortable in a lab and most flirting goes right over his head.
I sort of want to throw Johnny Storm in this universe because I see him being very smooth and flirty and Tony being all -_-'' which would be hilarious funtimes.
I'm not sure how to reconcile IM:AA!Happy, yet. I missed the episode that was Happy-centric (Don't Worry, Be Happy--I think?) so maybe that redeems him a little?
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LOL, I'm more of a manga reader myself. I don't think I'd have been able to sit through the art long enough to learn to love it, if I'd been watching the anime either.
Huh, I thought they were totally setting up Rhodey/Whitney in canon? With the whole glances in class and the thing where Rhodey is pretending to be Tony thing? I could be totally wrong though...
Lol, I agree with your analysis of Tony. B...but Johnny would be a little kiiiiiid! D: (Lol, ignore... I'm sort of anal about generations and stuff, so in my head-canon Sue is the Tony's age-mate among the FF-person. I also, refuse to accept that Fury's inexplicably Russian accented lieutenant is Maria Hill. That is Black Widow dammit and Maria Hill is still in school, dreaming of being on SHIELD!)
PS: Where the hell is you icon quote from?! And who says this!?
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I'm pretty sure MA came first, because it's been around long enough to start going out of print (I've been trying to collect them), though that's neither hear nor there. I don't actually remember MA!Pepper wearing pink (and I couldn't find my one IM:MA to check), but that would fit her personality. :-D
I mostly read manga, too, though not One Piece.
Having gone back and watched the entire series more closely (I sort of skipped around and spent some of the episode distracted) I'd have to say you're right about the Rhodey/Whitney thing. Which is cool. I think they go well together.
Yeah...giving Maria a Russian accent was a weird move, especially since Natasha is aparently going to be in Season 2. Also, if you're going with a generations thing, isn't Maria closer to Nick Fury's age than Black Widow? (I admit to not actually knowing at all.)
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As for generational thing. It doesn't come up that often, but in the comics Natasha is actually 80+ years old (nick is more than a 100, I think). Not frozen or anything, they've both actually lived through the decades. She is supposed to be the successful result of the Russian counterpart to the Super Soldier Serum, who later defected to the US/SHIELD. She actually debuted as a sexy!villain in Iron Man. She was also trained by / was the lover of amnesiac!Bucky as Winter Soldier while she was with the USSR. Lot of intertwining with hero backstories there.
While Maria is a very new charcter to the canon (she got introduced in the New Avengers) and is plain old human agent of SHIELD. So closer to Tony's age.
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I did not know that about Black Widow! That's interesting. Now she's almost more kickass. Not that she wasn't already.
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Yes, please do friend me! :-D But, fair warning, my actual LJ is mind-numbingly dull and I have the tendency (as you may have noticed) to wander away from it for long stretches at a time. Though you can feel free to strike up a conversation at any time. :-D
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The first time Tony meets Johnny Storm he thinks asshole. Tiny, good-looking asshole who flops himself down on the couch next to Tony, wedging himself between Tony and a duo of girls who had been attempting conversation. Tony is at a party in the house of someone he barely knows-dragged there by Pepper and persuaded by Rhodey, both of whom claim he spends too much time in the lab. But Pepper abandoned him, out back in the pool lecturing some poor, wide-eyed upper classman about FBI inaccuracies in some TV show and Rhodey begged off, siting homework and Biology test and I kinda dated Sue Storm and don't know if she's done wanting to kill me, yet the bastard. Like a little threat of death should stop Rhodey from his duties of wingman, which mostly consist of keeping people away from a socially awkward almost-18-year-old who spent most of his life isolated in a shining tower. Like a fairy tale princess! Pepper's voice chirps brightly in his memory.
Thanks, Pepper, and also I hate you.
The girls are leaving, flushed and happy-looking, smiling and waving, though only to the boy sitting next to Tony. He's smaller than Tony--Tony's not that big--wiry body pressed firmly all the way down Tony's side, one leg practically hooked over Tony's knee but face turned toward the girls as he waves them off. Then he turns and flings one arm over the back of the couch in a practiced move that doesn't quite touch Tony's shoulders and Tony realizes he's smaller because he's likely younger, though Tony's not exactly an expert at judging that sort of thing. Also, the other boy's eyes are very very blue, and his hair is a golden blond and his grin practically sparkles.
“You're welcome,” he says.
“What?” Tony says, because he is a brilliant conversationalist. “I thought I was doing all right.”
The boy snorts. “Sure. Did you actually want to talk to them?”
“No.”
It's a relief that they're gone, but this boy isn't much of a replacement. He raises all of Tony's hackles with his smug expression and his long eyelashes and his expectantly raised eyebrow.
Tony grits his teeth. “Thanks.”
“I'm Johnny,” he says, easy and languid and sort of spreading in Tony's direction, leg now hooked over both of Tony's knees, arm drifting down to lay a line of warmth along Tony's shoulders. It should be uncomfortable. It is. Isn't it? Yes. Tony tries to get a little space, putting an elbow in Johnny's ribs and pressing, not a lot of pressure, just enough.
He does return the introductions. “Tony.”
“Tony? Tony Stark?” That's a voice from the other end of the couch, from a long-limbed older boy that Tony hadn't even noticed he was such a quiet, unobtrusive presence. Tony turns and looks at him. Dark hair in an out-of-date cut, wearing a sweater that's too large on his bony frame but too short on the sleeves, cuffs stopping an inch above narrow wrists. He's openly, unflinchingly curious in his appraisal. Not shy, then, but not really part of the party scene, either. Something niggles a memory in the back of Tony's head.
“Yes?”
“I'm Reed Richards. We've met before, briefly. I knew your father. I'm so sorry for what happened.”
It's unexpected. It's a punch in the gut. Tony wasn't expecting that here. He feels the world squeeze, narrow down, but Reed Richard's eyes are steady with compassion-not pity or sterile politeness-and for whatever reason, though that would usually trigger the part of Tony that's still angry and unstable, it helps.
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He takes a breath. “Thanks.” And then he remembers. “Oh, Dr. Richards!” Memories drift to the surface as the pain subsides. “Finding the mass of the Higgs particle. How's that going?”
“Slower, without the use of Stark labs.”
Tony sits up straighter. “Obadiah canceled your project?”
“He seemed to think it was a useless endeavor. I have a different project right now, anyway.”
That sparks Tony's interest. “Really?”
Then there's a huffed breath against the back of his neck the short circuits Tony's brain. “Reed. Kinda in the middle of something.”
Dr. Richards considers Johnny like he's seeing an unexpected but not particularly interesting data aberration, mild curiosity underscoring gentle patience-lab work is often all about precision and long waits--and Tony can't say anything, because Johnny's warm exhale and the vibration of his words has invoked full-body shivers and what the hell, hormones, where did you come from?
“God,” Johnny says after a momentary stare-off. “Nerds.”
Then he's up, extricating himself from Tony and the couch in one graceful move, sauntering off to join a spirited conversation about celebrity gossip (boring) near the punch bowl, holding his own easily with kids at least a few grades above him. And that should hurt. Shouldn't it? Maybe not, because it's not like Tony actually cares what most people think of him.
But it does; nettles Tony, makes him bristle like what does he know?, and the prickling heat of his annoyance lingers long after Tony's lost sight of Johnny in the crowd.
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:D Lol, this tiny!Johnny is quite perfect! Lol, Tony and suddenly!hormones. ;) Also Reed! *EEEE* (Also, I can quite see Pepper lecturing people about FBI procedures!)
Haha, it's a pity there's no IM:AA comm on LJ. You should totally post this somewhere that gets a leetle more traffic than my barren journal. (Maybe marvel_fic? *ponders*)
Anyway, this was unexpectedly awesome, like a sudden rain of diamonds! ~swoons again~
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There's a sad sad lack of IM:AA fic ANYWHERE as far as I can see. I want some! *pouts*
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"I like Tony. Everybody likes Tony. He's a friendly little freak of nature, you know? But someday he's going to pull his weak sister act in the wrong place at the wrong time and he's going to get capped. And we'll be without our double-brained freak of nature. So I keep others on the payroll."
He's talking to Steve and Natasha about a mission they're going on, and he mentions needing scientific know-how and they're both like, "So...Tony?" And he's like, "Uh, no, because he's full of brain cancer and I don't want to risk him unduly." But, you know, in a rougher, more Nick Fury-er way.
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