A CGI animated show that began in 2009,lasting 2 seasons and 52 episodes.
Always liked it,flaws and all.


♫ beep beep ♪...adorable.

"Iron Forged in Fire,part 1"
We meet a teenaged Tony Stark and his teenaged pal James "Rhodey" Rhodes as Tony puts the finishing touches on his latest invention,a mechanized suit of armor. The precocious inventor has a friendly rivalry with his inventor father Howard,head of Stark International.Later,Tony's visit with his dad in his office is interrupted by Obadiah Stane,angry that Howard has rejected his proposal for the company to make weapons for the military.
Afterwards,Tony and Howard are in a jet flying to the company testing site.On the way,Howard tells his son about his theory that the Chinese were exploring the American mainland long before the Europeans came across it and that they brought with them ancient pieces of jewelry known as the Makulan Rings. Howard believes that these rings are actually ancient technology of unknown origin. He has one of them and is having it examined.
Tony plans to surprise Howard with a demonstration of his armored suit.Those plans are interrupted when the plane explodes.Tony survives.Howard is presumed dead even though his body is never found.
Six months later,Tony is living at the home of Rhodey and his parents.He's wearing a device that keeps his injured heart beating. Stark International is now being run by Obadiah Stane,who now has the company making weapons for the miltary,against Howard Stark's orders.In a confrontation with Tony,Stane reminds him that Tony has no say in company policy until Tony comes of age.
With his father gone,Tony is required to attend the high school Rhodey goes to. Between classes,Tony has a flashback to the plane crash.He survived because he was wearing one of the suit's gauntlets,which generates a force-field.He donned the rest of the suit and used it to get back home and (presumably) get medical treatment for his injured heart,all without revealing to anybody the existence of the iron suit.The flashback is interrupted by another classmate of Tony's,one Pepper Potts. She knows all about Tony because her father is with the FBI,who is investigating Stane.
The crome-domed Stane is a dead ringer for Lex Luthor,even down to the green ring he wears,which is actually the Makulan ring that Howard Stark once wore.Angered,Tony impulsively dons his suit and makes an awkward maiden flight amidst Manhattan's skyscrapers in order to confront Stane and do something to make Stane see the error of his ways. That gets interrupted when Tony has to stop an elevated train from crashing into Stark Tower.
The grateful New Yorkers dub their new hero Iron Man.Back at his secret HQ,Tony tells Rhodey his mission going forward:to find evidence that will remove Stane from Stark International and find out who bombed the plane.
Postscript:in a shadowy lair,a cowering henchman is being threatened with death by his boss for failing in his mission involving the runaway train.His boss is a towering armored figure who wears another Makulan ring.He calls himself...the Mandarin.

Rating:*** out of 4 rivets

"Iron Forged in Fire,part 2"

In his secret guise as Iron Man,Tony is trying to stop Stane from weaponizing Stark tech.Their first confrontation is cut short when Shellhead is chased off by newscopters. Having weapons on the brain,Stane is obsessed with getting his mitts on that armor suit.
In the Mandarin's mancave,he is disciplining his teenage stepson Gene Khan and and vowing vengeance on Iron Man.Gene's mother is dead...maybe at the hands of the Mandarin?
Playing hooky from school,Iron Man flies off to the Stark testing grounds,where Stane is giving a demonstration of giant walking lasers to prospective buyers. Stane doesn't hesitate in turning the lasers on Iron Man. Improperly constructed,the laser tanks are fixing to explode, potentally taking out all of upper New York state.
Back at his secret lair,one of Mandy's minions tells Gene of the news (obtained from a spy inside Stark Intl.) of Stane's trip to the test site and that he is wearing one of the Makulan rings.Gene dismisses the minion,saying he will tell the Mandarin this news.
Tony's having a hard time,what with trying to shut down the laser cannons without getting killed by them.He's getting back-up (via radio) from Rhodey,which is interrupted when Pepper burst into his house.She is extremely nosy and has no sense of personal boundaries. Rhodey kicks her out of the house,so Tony's secret ID is safe--for now.
Back at the test site,the battle with Iron Man still rages.In the control room,Stane and his clients are interrupted by the arrival,out of thin air (teleportation being one of his abilities) of the armored,masked,voice-modulated figure of the Mandarin. He demands the ring that Stane is wearing.Stane quickly gives it to him,and the Mandarin leaves as he came.
Outside,Tony has finally shut down the lasers when he is attacked by the Mandarin,in retaliation for Iron Man's unwitting foiling of his runaway train plot in Part 1. They exchange zaps,then Mandy teleports away. Stane confronts Shellhead,they exchange words,then Shellhead bootjets away.
Back at his lair,the Mandarin removes his helmet,and it's Gene who's wearing the suit now. He's deposed his stepfather and put him in a cage. A boastful Gene tells the old man that he will hunt down and possess the rest of the Makulan rings.
And if all that wasn't enough,we get to meet Happy Hogan,remade for this show as a lunkheaded jock who's always wearing gym clothes.

***

Why the decision was made to remake Tony Stark and his friends into teenagers is an odd one.One theory is that since Harry Potter was so huge at the time,a show starring a teenage Iron Man would attract the same teenage fans of the Harry Potter books and movies.
Watching this show is like taking a walk through the uncanny valley. No apparent attempt is made to make people here seem realistic. They all seem to be wearing the kind of mouth guards that hockey players use. Like the teenaged Tony,you just have go along with it if you want to enjoy the show.It's like complaining that Bugs Bunny barely resembles an actual rabbit.
The colors of the show are almost of a pastel shade;they could've used bolder colors to made the visuals more zing.What does give the show zing are the action scenes that show off our flying hero to his best advantage.

"Secrets & Lies"

The new Mandarin is not having an easy time filling his stepfather's boots. He can't get the two Makulan rings in his possession to work for him (though he can make his armor appear and disappear on command;no explanation given on how that works). Also,the Maggia is attacking the secret Tong army he now leads.
Gene Khan's stepfather,Shin Zhang,poses as a Chinese importer. In Zhang's shop,Gene receives a visitor---Tony Stark,who's looking for Zhang's help in his own investigation into the Makulan rings. Ingratiating himself with Tony,Gene tells him he's just enrolled at the school Tony attends,the Tomorrow Academy.
Gene's first day at school doesn't end too well---he's kidnapped by the Maggia,along with Tony and Pepper. With the other kidnappers are supervillains Killer Shrike and the Unicorn. They want Zhang in exchange for Gene.Gene of course can't tell them that he has Zhang locked up,so he tells them Zhang's out of the country. Not believing him,the head of the Maggia,Count Nefaria,gives orders to have Tony and Pepper killed to show they mean business.
Rushing home,Rhodey activates the Iron Man suit via remote control and sends it to Tony by following the homing signal in Tony's MP3 player. Tony manages to don the suit,rescue his friends,and beat the bad guys and still keep his other identity secret. In the epilogue,we see Gene,as the Mandarin,has somehow gotten custody of Killer Shrike and the Unicorn,and is about to be unpleasant to them.
The Maggia are snappy dressers;they all sport snap-brim hats and '60s style suits.And masks.
The FBI have their suspicions about Zhang,as he had been under investigation from them.We also learn that Tony has been kidnapped at least once before.
The relationship growing between Tony and Gene is starting to remind one of the relationship that used to exist between Reed Richards and Doctor Doom in their school days.

***

"Cold War"

Investigating a break-in,Iron Man finds Stark Tower covered in ice. It's the work of another armored guy who can create Arctic-level piles of ice. Calling himself Blizzard,he also has a grudge with Obadiah Stane, claiming he ruined his life. Having a common goal in bringing down Stane,Tony offers his assistance to Blizzard,despite Rhodey's misgivings.However,Pepper gets into her father's FBI file,and what the brat finds on Blizzard show his story to be a tissue of lies;the guy was bad news all along. The two armored adversaries wage battle all over Stark Tower,and Iron Man puts Blizzard on ice
Blizzard looks like a walking refrigerator.It's his armor that creates the ice,so it's a slightly more plausible look than just strapping a pair of tanks on one's back.
Tony's secret HQ is called the Armory. It's located on land that's next to the house Rhodey and his parents live in.Tony is an inveterate inventor;he put a mechanical door on his school locker. He is 16 years old.
Great action scenes,as usual.

**

"Whiplash"

Pepper's pop,the FBI agent,is on the trail of Mr. Fix,superweapons dealer and master hacker. Mr. Fix's goon Whiplash roughs up Pepper's papa and puts him in the hospital. Pepper takes up the hunt,so Mr. Fix sends other goons after her.They come armed and ready to kill,which is rather startling for a kids show.It's a good thing for her they're incredibly bad shots.She's rescued by Iron Man, and they set off for the Rhodes home (along the way, Pepper figures out that Tony is Iron Man).
Fix is (maybe) a cyborg able to access any computer system.Using these skills,he's able to uncover the Pepper/ Rhodey connection (but not the Tony/Iron Man one) and sends Whiplash to the Rhodes home. Whiplash wins the first round,but while he sets out after Pepper,Tony slips out of the suit and dons a new upgraded suit and save Pepper and win the day (but not nail Whiplash,who escapes).
Pepper is apparently being raised in a single parent household,as there's no sign of her mother.For that matter,it's not clear what happened to Tony's mother.
Tony's school locker now has a drink dispenser.
This show's Whiplash looks nothing like the movie version.This is what he looks like---



Say what you will about this show,at least it did better by Whiplash (and the Mandarin) that the movies did.

**

Looks a lot creepier than the comics version of Whiplash.

"Iron Man vs. the Crimson Dynamo"

2 years ago,a spacecraft in orbit around the sun was hit by a solar flare.The crew escaped in a shuttle,leaving behind Russian solarnaut Ivan Vanko. He survived,thanks to his Crimson Dynamo spacesuit which not only can withstand intense solar radiation,but also has life support enabling Vanko to live in space for a long time.
2 years later,Iron Man is flying home to help Rhodey and Pepper with their science class project when a meteor crashes to earth.It's Vanko,looking for the commander of the solar expedition (also Russian) who he holds responsible for stranding him in space. As luck would have it,that guy is now in New York City,working at Project Pegasus. That's some coinkydink.
Tony has his gauntlets full with Vanko,whose Crimson Dynamo armor is much larger and more powerful than his own armor. Much real estate is converted to rubble before Vanko finds his old boss.The squishing of said boss is only averted by the sudden arrival of Vanko's wife and son,who also just happened to be living in New York City.Coincidence has very long arms in the Marvel Universe,
doesn't it?
Vanko's family was tracked down by Pepper,who is now a member of Team Iron Man. Yay.

**

I remember how years ago, before the Iron Man blockbuster came out, there was talk about how as far as the general public was concerned Iron Man was not even B-list. And now he's been appearing in all sorts of media for years now. A hero for the 21st century. Maybe it's because he was a Western comic book character with a lineup of foes and allies that fit in with the explosion of interest in mecha stories.

"Meltdown"

During a heist,a Maggia mook (Arthur Parks) gets hold of a prototype for a Star Trek-type teleporter. Knowing nothing about it,the mook turns it on.The bugs never got worked out of it,so Parks ends up becoming a being able to transform into and move faster than light. A Living Laser,if you will. He soon runs into Iron Man and makes a new enemy.
Tony is especially angry because that prototype was invented by his father.It was kept in what was supposed to be a secure vault.The theft of it is more proof than Stane is destroying Stark Intl. from the inside.If that wasn't bad enough,Tony is also failing English class. Tony should've compared notes with Peter Parker about students trying to lead double lives as superheroes.
Rhodey's mother Roberta is the Stark family lawyer. Confronting Tony about his failing grades,she plays a holographic recording of Howard Stark that was intended as a last will and testament. In it,he basically tells Tony to live his own life,but stay in school.Tony resolves to buckle down and pass English class,which hinges on his recital of a passage from "Hamlet" and isn't that appropriate for the occasion.
There's also the Living Laser to deal with when he reappears,in Times Square on a giant TV screen---right before Tony's recital of course. After a pyrotechnic-filled battle,Iron Man defeats Living Laser by using his repulsors to blast the Laser into so much sparkly dust.
Tony has but seconds to make that recital and pass that class,which he does with the help of Rhodey who feeds him lines via an earbud. Our hero--a big cheater.

***

"Field Trip"

Iron Man has put a device on his armor that makes him invisible.He uses it to sneak into Stark Tower and get to the vault containing his father's inventions. He finds that the vault has been emptied. Just then,Tony's armor goes dead;the invisibility device was a bigger drain on the armor's power reserves than Tony had anticipated.
Tony hides the armor and tries to sneak out of the building.Caught by security guards,he's brought to Obadiah Stane's office,where Stane is enduring a visit from his attention-needy daughter Whitney. She just happens to be Tony's classmate,so he uses that connection to leave the building with her. A suspicious Stane tells the guards to make a through search of the building to try and uncover what Tony was up to.
Rhodey and Pepper successfully carry out a plot to get the Tomorrow Academy to hold a field trip to Stark Towers.The goal:getting student Tony in the building and retrieving his armor before the security guards find it. With both the witting and unwitting help of his fellow students,Tony gets to his armor before the guards do and smuggles it out of the building,leaving Stane none the wiser.
Fun one.

***

"Ancient History 101"

Gene has been helping an unwitting Tony with his investigation of the Makulan Rings (Gene is secretly the Mandarin,remember). Tony has even loaned Gene his father's journal on his archaeological work.Rhodey and Pepper are not happy with this,as neither of them like or trust Gene.
Howard Stark found one of the rings in an underground temple built centuries ago by Chinese explorers in what is now New Jersey. Give it up for those explorers! Stark found the ring floating in mid-air within a beam of green light.Perhaps this light led to Stark's invention of anti-gravity material that his son Tony now uses to build a new Iron Man suit,which disguises itself as the backpack that Tony is always wearing.
Tony invites Gene to accompany him to the place where Howard found the ring (Rhodey and Pepper also come along). It's situated on Stark company property,hidden from the public. They arrive,expecting heavy security,but find the place deserted.It seems Stane has no interest in archaeology. The area around the site has terrain that looks a lot like Arizona. I don't know too much about New Jersey,but I always thought it was a more woodsy kind of a state.
For those keeping score,Gene has both of the Makulan rings known to exist.They still won't work for him.He keeps them on a necklace hidden under his shirt.He and his new "friends" enter the underground temple. The presence of the rings causes a stone door to slide open,revealing a hidden chamber.There's an altar with a book on one side and a sword on the other.Gene tells the others they are part of a test for wisdom,a test Howard never had to take because he entered the temple thru the back way.Pretty damn wise,I'd say.
Just then,the floor gives way and the four are separated;Tony and Pepper fall into one room,Rhodey and Gene into another room. Both rooms have giant stone statues that come to life with the intention of killing any intruders. Tony dons his armor and does battle with them.After knocking out Rhodey,Gene does the same.
Pepper still has the sword that was on the altar upstairs.Using a translation program in his suit's computer,Tony decodes the writing on the sword's blade,which shuts down the statues.
Along the way,Gene learns of the first Mandarin,who centuries ago scattered his rings throughout the world, waiting to be found by those "worthy" to wear them.
The battles have weaken the temple structure,and it all comes crashing down.Tony and Pepper escape,and after an anxious moment, Rhodey and Gene do too.Being unconscious the whole time,Rhodey doesn't know Gene is the Mandarin,and Gene doesn't know Iron Man had been there. The discovery of a hidden map on the wisdom sword's blade shows where a third Makulan ring is located. Stay tuned.
Pretty farfetched stuff,even for this show.

**

Never was a big Iron Man fan. Thanks to a few scattered issues and the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" I recognize most of the character names. Looks like the series has done a broad-strokes adaptation of the Iron Man mythos. Wonder if any Iron Man fans thought they'd taken too many liberties?

I'm sure that just the idea of a teenaged Iron Man took too much liberty for some fans.

"Ready,A.I.M.,Fire"

Tony's school is having a jobs fair.One of the groups represented is the Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). Their rep,Basil Sandhurst,is interested in just one student:Tony,whose armored other self had unknowingly met others of that group earlier,in the pre-credits sequence.They were dressed in their traditional "beekeeper" outfits,a joke we would hear more than once in the show.On the run after stealing some biotech booty,they escape Iron Man with weaponry that puts him in orbit and nearly causes his armor to shutdown.
At the jobs fair,Tony meets Obadiah Stane's daughter Whitney,who has just enrolled at the Tomorrow Academy. Contrary to previous posts,she was not a classmate of Tony's until now.We regret the error.
Sandhurst left some "controller discs" for Tony to try.Supposedly they allow the user to control machinery with their minds.Tony takes him at his word.In a schoolroom,after class has let out,he ropes in Rhodey, Pepper, Gene,and Happy to test them out,with negative results.Between Gene and Sandhurst,Tony clearly needs to invent a BS detector.
In their mountain lair,the leader of AIM is angry at Sandhurst for leaving those discs with Tony and neglecting the MODOK project (which we get a glimpse of).He sends Sandhurst and some beekeepers to retrieve the discs.
The discs' true function is soon revealed--the wearer of the disc falls under the control of Sandhurst via the helmet he wears. Calling himself the Controller,he sends the disc-wearing Rhodey,Pepper,Gene,and Happy after Tony and Whitney. The discs cause the wearers to have red noses,giving them a comedic look.Being a kickboxer,Whitney defends herself quite well.Tony manages to sneak off and change into Iron Man and rescue his classmates. The AIM gang escape.
Back at AIM HQ,Sandhurst vows to the Scientist Supreme that he'll follow orders from now on and attend to the MODOK project. From the look on his face,he had his fingers crossed.
Later,Tony asks Whitney why she enrolled at his school.She answers that her father ordered her to spy on him. But she also tells Tony she has other reasons. Stay tuned.
SHIELD also had a booth at the jobs fair. Did they even know AIM was also there?
AIM HQ resembles a honeycomb,which explains the beekeeper outfits.
Unlike the comics,here the Controller looks like someone you would pass by on the street.More liberties taken.

***

"Masquerade"

Obadiah Stane is under a lot of pressure. The theft of Howard Stark's tech is still unsolved,and the company board is losing confidence in his leadership. So it would seem that he relieves his stress by shooting up his own art gallery, with ray guns---in the presence of Tony and his friends.Tony looks into the matter as Iron Man and confronts Stane. Things take a turn when Stane changes his appearance into that of Iron Man and then into a black-haired woman in a metal mask.Armed to the metal teeth,she gives the real Shellhead quite a fight before vanishing.
The mask she wears was yet another of Howard Stark's inventions.It creates a hard-light hologram that alters a person's appearance and even disguises their voice.He put in his vault after losing interest in it.Did this guy suffer from undiagnosed ADHD?
Later,Iron Man resumes his search for the mystery woman,who's been given the name Madame Masque. He's flying thru Manhattan, which may not be the wisest move,as the police are now after him,thinking he's broken bad. The real Stane has given the police weapons to capture Iron Man,but he eludes them with the use of... roller skates,which Tony had built into his suit.I love this show for that.
It all comes to a head in a railroad yard.Masque is wearing a catsuit and not armor,but she somehow has tremendous strength and agility,far beyond a normal woman.She hits Iron Man with enough force to knock over a train car.That's a lot of power from just a mask. In any event,the police arrive,and another attempt to frame Iron Man backfires. Shellhead is cleared.
Madame Masque makes a run for it.Escaping the police,she's nabbed by Iron Man.Her mask falls off,and she's revealed as Stane's daughter Whitney.The confused kid was trying to help her father out,so she says. Owing her a debt for helping out with the Controller in the previous episode,Iron Man doesn't turn her over to the police,with the proviso that she never become Madame Masque again.
We're left with loose ends dangling and questions unanswered,but still...roller skates

***

"Seeing Red"

Obadiah Stane comes to Anton Harkov,head of the struggling Project Pegasus,with a proposition;in exchange for a partnership with Stark Intl.,Stane gets possession of the Crimson Dynamo armor.
Later,Iron Man goes to help out with a reported subway crash,only to fall into an ambush set up with the Crimson Dynamo,now operated by O'Brien,Stane's head of security.Shellhead is overwhelmed by Red Dy's greater size and array of weaponry and suffers a systems failure of his suit.CD takes IM back to Pegasus, where Harkov and Stane are waiting to remove and examine the IM armor.
As always,Rhodey is providing backup via a video link.He sends a signal to the armor to go into lockdown mode.A frustrated Stane tells Harkov to start diagnostic tests,then leaves.Rhodey activates the armor's backup power remotely,and gets Tony out of Pegasus with the help of Pepper,who's wearing the stolen mascot suit of a rival school (don't ask).
Back at the Armory,an angered Tony vows to shut down Project Pegasus and the Crimson Dynamo.He unveils his latest armor suit,a gigantic outfit that resembles the Hulkbuster suit of the Avengers movies.He also has a computer virus named Technovore,which he intends to feed into the Pegasus computer system to erase any data they obtained about his armor.
Back at Pegasus,it's Round 2,and this time Tony prevails.His Hulkbuster trounces the Crimson Dynamo,and the Technovore virus completely erases the Pegasus computer's data. An angered Stane rescinds his offer of a partnership to Harkov.
Afterwards,Tony is gloating over his victory,while Rhodey warns him that he's going down a dark path,leading to a tense moment between the two friends. To underscore that point,back at Project Pegasus,Technovore has escaped the computer and infected some nanobots that were lying about.
The colors are especially weak this episode.They undercut the razzle-dazzle of the action scenes,which are this show's strongest suit.

***

"Hide and Seek"

The temple of the third Makulan ring has been found under a glacier in Greenland.Tony and Gene charter a flight to get the ring.Along the way,they have a brief Indiana Jones-style adventure which brings out a rare laugh from Gene and a moment of bonding between the two explorers that can't help but be poignant, given what's certain to happen later on.
Entering the temple,the two find a single automaton under the Chinese symbol for courage.Gene sets out to commence the test,but is stopped by Tony.He just wants to examine the ring,even though it's the completion of the tests that activate the rings.Tony takes possession of the ring,and they leave for home.
Back at the Armory,Rhodey and Pepper are furious at Tony for leaving them behind.Tony says he did it to protect them,but they aren't having it.
Gene is arguing with his caged stepfather. Goaded by the old man,Gene becomes the Mandarin and transports himself back to the temple.He sets the test in motion by attacking the automaton,which comes to life and walks out of the temple.Not only are Gene's attacks ineffective,it can absorb the energy of those attacks, causing it to grow in size.
The figures in the temples are called Dreadknights,a remaking of the robots of the same name that pop up in Iron Man comics. This particular one is modeled after Ultimo,a giant robot that Shellhead has fought many times in the comics,often as a Mandarin tool.
Back in Manhattan,Team Iron Man are walking to school when they are intercepted by Ultimo,now at least 10 stories high.It senses the presence of the ring in Rhodey's possession (he didn't want to leave it at the Armory). Tony dons his armor.Unable to stop Ultimo by force,Tony gives it the ring,but that still doesn't stop it. Only the completion of the test of courage does so,once Team Iron Man figures out the solution of the test.
Shrinking back to human size,Ultimo kneels and offers Shellhead the now activated ring.Just then,Mandarin pops in and yoinks! the ring out of Ultimo's hand.After a brief battle,Mandy vanishes with the ring.On the forehead of Ultimo,a spinning symbol appears.
Back in his lair,Gene is admiring his 3 glowing,activated rings,scheming on how to find the other 2 rings he believes will complete the set and give him ultimate power.In his cell,Gene's stepfather sits,silently scheming.

***

"Man and Iron Man"

It's been a night for upgrades. Mr. Fix has given Whiplash new tech,including a flying disc to ride on,which is edged with spinning blades. Really cool.
Tony has also been upgrading his armor,specifically a computer program built to be an early warning system for supervillains. When Whiplash is detected,Iron Man jets off for nab him,and they have a rather spectacular fight in the middle of a thunderstorm.Whiplash escapes,but not before his whips do damage to Tony's armor that somehow cause it to gain sentience.
The armor decides that its primary function is to protect Tony,at all costs.Tracking down Mr. Fix and Whiplash,the armor overrides Tony's orders and nearly kills them.Back at the Armory,the armor tries to kill Rhodey,but hits Tony instead.The AI armor jump starts Tony's heart,and then shuts down,for good...maybe.
Rhodey's dad is somewhere in Europe,flying for the Navy.This explains why he's never around.
The AI program that took over the armor has a female voice for some reason.
Tony having a device to keep his injured heart beating is something I don't think the comics have had for a very long time.But then, I've lost touch with them;the last I heard,Tony was going to marry Emma Frost,so I don't know what's going on anymore.
This should be a warning to us all---if Tony Stark can't handle AI,nobody can.

***

"Panther's Prey"

It's guest star time:the Black Panther is in NYC looking for Moses Magnum,the mercenary who killed his father. Magnum smuggled a hunk of vibranium out of Wakanda and is going to sell it to AIM.They want it for their MODOK project (which we get another glimpse of). Iron Man put a bug on an AIM drone some time earlier,which is why he's on the scene,which results in the prerequisite Marvel misunderstanding between our heroes.
T'Challa handles himself pretty well,slashing the Iron Man armor with his claws and moving thru the city like it's his own personal parkour course. But in his second bout with AIM,the Panther is nearly killed. Tony rescues him and brings the unconscious king to the Armory.Not the smartest move,for when T'Challa recovers he learns Tony is Iron Man and threatens him with exposure of his secret ID if he interferes with his vengeance on Magnum. Tony interferes anyway,and ends up saving the Panther again. The vibranium is recovered,Magnum is captured and hauled back to Wakanda.T'Challa keeps Tony's secret,and they part,if not as friends,at least not as enemies.
T'Challa is about the same age as Tony.Wakanda shuns all contact with the rest of the world,but the events of this story have T'Challa reconsidering that stance.
First appearance of the stealth armor. Making Iron Man invisible,he uses it to trail an AIM aircraft that flies thru the city bold as you please.

***

"Fun With Lasers"

The Living Laser is back.He's captured a SHIELD space station,and using his powers,converted it into a death ray depot.He will fry New York unless Iron Man surrenders to him.
Luckily,Tony just completed work on a suit of black and gold space armor. He's about to go into orbit when he's stopped by a SHIELD jet and taken to the Helicarrier for a meeting with Nick Fury.It's not a friendly meeting. They watch as a fleet of SHIELD spacecraft try to board the station,but the Laser makes short work of them. Iron Man does a Magneto in disarming the agents holding him prisoner, and takes off to rescue the two agents who are on the station,and to stop the Laser.
He doesn't have an easy time of it,at one point nearly suffocating from an air leak.Lucky for him that the Laser suffers from issues of self-esteem.Iron Man uses that to somehow trap the Laser inside a telescope by "reconfiguring the optics"(?)
Afterwards,Iron Man and Nick Fury have another unfriendly meeting.Fury makes it very clear that SHIELD will take him down if they deem him a threat.
The two SHIELD agents on the station are named Abigail Brand and Corbeau,which is a deep dive into Marvel continuity.
For the first time,someone calls Iron Man "Shellhead";that would be NIck Fury.
The capture of the Laser was the one weak spot in an otherwise fine story.

***

"Chasing Ghosts"

According to the newscaster that opens this show,"celebutante" Tony Stark hasn't been seen in public since his plane crashed.So who's shooting up a charity event hosted by Obadiah Stane? It looks like Tony---or is it?
Of course it's not. It must be Madame Masque,up to her old tricks---or is she?
Well,yes and no.It is Masque,but she's trying to protect Tony from the Ghost,an assassin who's been hired to kill Tony.Masque (who is secretly Whitney Stane,Obadiah's daughter) believes the man who hired the Ghost was her father---or is it?
This Ghost is nothing like the MCU version--he's a hardened mercenary who's in it for the bucks.He has the same powers of intangibility, but there's nothing sympathetic about him.
Tony tells Rhodey and Pepper Whitney is the Masque.They are both angry,feeling Tony has shut them out yet again. Pepper feels duty-bound to tell her father,the FBI agent,about this.She storms out.
Just then,the Ghost calls Tony on Whitney's phone. He's kidnapped her,and will free her in exchange for Tony.
Rhodey comes up with a plan that not only frees Whitney,but gets the Ghost off Tony's back.Back at the Armory,Tony and Rhodey are joined by Pepper,who's decided not to turn Whitney in. She tells them Stane didn't hire the Ghost;someone else has it in for Tony.
Team Iron Man is reunited,but resentments,and questions,linger.
These last two episodes have had more character depth than usual.

***

"Pepper,Interrupted"

Tensions in Tony's circle boil over.In particular,Pepper's jealousy of his friendship with Gene and especially Whitney causes a classroom fracas that results in a unique punishment:Tony,Rhodey,Whitney,Gene, Pepper, and even Happy all having to work together to turn in a school assignment the next day.
Gene is having his own problems in his role as the Mandarin.His search for the Makulan rings is making him neglect his Tong's war with the Maggia;as a result,the Maggia is taking over Tong territory,and his men are not happy with that,or him.Manadrin's response is to find some Maggia goons.Dropping off Unicorn and Killer Shrike,Mandy tells them he wants to meet with the head of the Maggia, Count Nefaria,to negotiate a truce between the two criminal empires.Of course,it's on a school night,and there's that school project to finish,also. Bet Doctor Doom never had troubles like this.
Tony has Rhodey,Whitney,and Happy over at his place to do the assignment,while Gene and Pepper meet at a diner.Gene leaves to make his (Mandarin's) date with Nefaria.The relentlessly nosy Pepper tries to follow,but loses him.However,the Maggia find her and bring her to the warehouse where Manadrin and Nefaria are having their summit,surrounded by their respective minions.Nefaria is exceedingly well informed,recognizing Pepper as being both Gene's classmate and the daughter of an FBI agent.Looks like curtains for her.
Surprisingly,Gene wants to rescue Pepper.He can't do it as the Mandarin,so his solution is to teleport to the skies and create a lightshow certain to attract Iron Man's attention,hoping he will come there and take Pepper to safety.It does the trick:back at his study group,Tony sneaks away and armors up.He crashes the crook's confab,but is sidelined by battle with Nefaria's new right hand man, the Black Knight.
Mandarin has to take matters in his own hands.Changing to Gene,he saves Pepper from the Maggia.He gets a gun and the drop on Nefaria.It looks like curtains for him,but the moment gets interrupted,first by the battle of Shellhead and the Black Knight,and then by the police,who round up Nefaria and his Maggia.The Tong escape, as they also are able to teleport like their boss.
On the warehouse rooftop,Iron Man,Pepper and Gene watch the police haul the Maggia away.Gene is now Pepper's new best friend. On a different rooftop,some of the Tong come to the realization that the Mandarin they have been following is not the same guy they signed on with.
The Black Knight may dress medival,but his sword and lance are upgraded by 21st.century science.His steed is a flying rocket sled.
We need to talk about Pepper. I once said the Human Torch of Fantastic Four:World's Greatest Heroes was the worst ever adaption of a Marvel character.Well,up until now I would've put the Pepper Potts of this show #2 on that list.Obnoxious,no respecter of personal boundaries,so relentlessly chipper she makes you want to throw her into the nearest woodchipper. Just an awful character. The showmakers may have come to the same conclusion,because in the past two episodes she has been toned down,a bit. Hope that continues.
Gene's characterization surprises as well.He seems a shade friendlier with Tony.No doubt it's a false front,but his desire to save Pepper from Nefaria was the real surprise.Saving her life gained him nothing as the Mandarin.But his near murder of Nefaria shows he's not quite one of the good guys either.
The story's title is a reference to the movie Girl,Interrupted. Never saw it.

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"Technovore"

As they walk towards the Rhodes home,Pepper can't stop gushing about Gene.Opening the door,they find surprise guests:a pair of SHIELD agents. There's a moment of panic as Team Iron Man (TIM) think that Tony's cover is blown,but that's not the case. They want Tony to fix the engines on the Helicarrier,which were designed by Tony's father Howard.As Pepper wants to be a SHIELD agent, she gets to ride along (she's back in full manic mode,unfortunately). Rhodey stays behind.
While on the Helicarrier,Tony catches sight of the Living Laser,still in his cell and obviously unwell.He also meets Nick Fury again, who's as intimidating as ever. Fury tells Tony that Howard Stark also designed the weapons systems on the Helicarrier.This is a shock to Tony,as it goes against what his father said to him about getting involved with making weapons.
Back on the ground,Rhodey learns of trouble at Project Pegasus.He decides to become a superhero,bringing along a pair of Iron Man gloves.He finds Pegsaus deserted,save for the project boss Harkov who tell Rhodey of Technovore,the computer virus Tony fed to the computer back in "Seeing Red". It's found its way to some nanobots,manifesting itself as either a black cloud or as this...

Looks like it's seen some Alien movies.
Technovore's purpose is to learn all about all the technology it can get its mitts on.It's able to break down and absorb anything with its own nanotech.Rhodey tries one of the repulsors on it,but it manages to get and absorb the gauntlet.Doing so,it eventually learns of Tony and call him on his phone,who excuses himself from the Helicarrier and armors up.
Iron Man's armor is catnip to Technovore.Tony sets it to self-destruct----after getting out of it,of course. Rhodey and Tony get out just ahead of the blast,which goes through the entire building,hopefully destroying Tecnovore.
As an epilogue,Harkov steps off a plane that's landed somewhere snowy. A tight zoom on his jacket shows he's brought some pieces of Technovore along with him. It has seen some Alien movies.
The female SHIELD agent who escorts Tony on the Helicarrier agent goes by the name Hill.She speaks with a Russian accent,but isn't a redhead.Might it be the Black Widow in disguise?

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