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! )
I like the series--a lot more than I expected to. The voice acting is fantastic (which makes up for the fact that the CG-animated faces can't emote very subtly). I LOVE Rhodey and I really really love Tony. I love this Tony's quiet, steady determination and obvious goodness. I love that Rhodey gets to yell at him about battle tactics and I love that Pepper is so smart and so crazy and so violent, and that all of them can be really intelligent and then really stupid in a believable way, and I LOVE the parents! I love Rhodey's mom and Pepper's dad, and I even love Howard, and I NEVER love Howard.
I loved the Living Laser arc, and I loved the Hulk's appearance. I love the little sparks of humor--a lot of the jokes are actually funny and not in a lame dumbed-down-for-children or deliberately-written-for-adults kind of way, but just actual wit.
(One of my favorite bits was Tony's: "And this time...I'll be dressed for cold weather." To which Rhodey answers: "Oh, that was just bad, man.")
Also, this is just a side question and a SPOILER:
Did I miss something that explained how/why Gene kidnapped Howard instead of killing him? I would've thought it was just something he said to throw Tony in the fight, but then they had that flashback sequence, which makes me think that the creators want us to think he's telling the truth. But...Gene didn't get the first ring until he stole it from his step-father and tossed his step-father into the dungeon. Did he have it before then? If not, how did he appear before Howard as The Mandarin?
Also, if Gene had Howard this whole time, then why did he need to become friends with Tony at all? Why not just...you know...question the guy that he kidnapped for the sole purpose of QUESTIONING HIM ABOUT THE RINGS?
I admit to not always paying the strictest attention to some of the episodes, so it's likely I just missed something.
In conclusion: I so SO want to write/read a story about gathering The Avengers in this universe. SO MUCH. I think Jan would get along really well with Pepper, although I don't know if Pepper would approve, at first.
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Anyway, my verdict is still in the air for Howard (I too have a rather raging hate-on for most versions of Howard) until I see exactly what's up with all the secretly-made-weapons-all-along! thing, but yeah, this is definitely the best-dad Howard has been across the multiverse. I have a theory, that the only thing which can shake Howard out of his asshole ways, is the death of Maria, so poor Tony only gets a decent-ish dad, when his mom is dead. D: (Hence, IMAA and also Ultimates, I think?)
As for the spoiler thing, I'm not too sure about it either, but idk maybe Howard refused to talk? Or maybe, the Mandarin that kidnapped Howard was Zhang and Gene was just trying to screw with Tony and he doesn't actually know where he's been kept? I got nothing, though... Hopefully this season will clarify stuff?
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They sort of talked about that in one of the later episodes, didn't they? "Built For Chaos" or something like that? Tony had a conversation with Rhodey's mom (whose name I've just forgotten) that was very sweet. What I thought was an asshole-ish move was his whole "if you don't keep your grades up in a school system that I've basically taught you to view with contempt for most of your life YOU DON'T GET MY COMPANY SO THERE!!" I mean, I sort of see where he's coming from, and why he thought that was a good idea, but it was still pretty dumb, and a little mean, given the circumstances (since it was in his will, it's basically like, "Son, I know you're reeling with grief and your whole life has likely been thrown into chaos but SKOOL R IMPORTANT and sometimes life sucks. So, like, deal with it or whatever. Okay, peace out! I'm going to go get some heavenly nookie from your mom.")
Also--I know she's probably dead, but I don't think they've explicitly said she's dead (most likely because it's a kid's show, but still...) which makes the little angst-engine in my brain go--"But what if she's ALIVE. What if she just left Howard or was secret evil or was secretly evil and then LEFT HIM and will at some point return to rain havoc down on Tony's life??" MWAHAHAHA!!
Yeah, the Big Reveal at the end, though cool, felt a little Tacked On For Angst and Drama to me, which I think I wouldn't have noticed as much if the writing hadn't been so good up until that point. There were a lot of places they could have hinted at it earlier in the series, or even should've hinted at it, and they didn't. But! Like you say, I have hope that they'll be able to smooth that out in the second season.
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