Iron Man Season 2

In 1995, Marvel switched The Marvel Action Hour to a new animation studio (as previously mentioned, the animation in season 1 was provided by the Rainbow Animation Group, while the animation in season 2 was provided by Koko Enterprises), and with it came new writers (Ron Friedman was replaced by Tom Tataranowicz for season 2) and new music for each sequence, coupled with a new direction for the series. The first season's theme song was replaced in the second season by an intense electric guitar theme (composed by William Kevin Anderson), featuring the repeated refrain of "I am Iron Man!", while showing Tony Stark beating red-hot iron plates into shape with a blacksmith's hammer (possibly to mimic the Black Sabbath song "Iron Man"). Tony Stark's longer hair style in the second season was based upon the artist Mark Bright's depiction of Stark from the late 1980s, which is where most of the episodes from season 2 were based upon. In the first season, the series seemed to follow the look of an early 1990s Marvel comic (specifically, artist Paul Ryan's take on Iron Man). One major change was that, like in the comics, Tony Stark's worsening medical condition (brought upon by a missile striking him in the season premiere causing severe damage to his already ill body) required him to need periodic recharges of his "body battery" (represented as a piece of cybernetic tech over his right pectoral muscle) to keep him alive, akin to how in the comics Tony needed his armor's chest plate to keep him alive (though unlike in the comics he did not need to wear the chest plate at all times). Another major change was that Tony could literally change armors on the fly, represented as vocalizing the name of the specific armor, which would then appear in place of his usual suit in a ring of energy (and would similarly revert to his usual armor as necessary); in addition to the hydro, stealth and space armors, as seen in the comics, several new armors were invented for the second season (and in turn for the toy line), specifically magnetic (able to give off electro-magnetic charges), radiation (used for situations involving contaminated areas), inferno (fire-fighting), subterranean (for drilling underground) and samurai (never actually used in combat). However, prolonged use of his specialized armors would often leave Tony's power levels low and endangering his life. The new story lines spanned multiple episodes and were no longer "open and shut" cases. They formed a linking narrative, featuring themes of duplicity, consequence, and phobias. Also, the stories were no longer centered on the Mandarin, whose rings had been scattered and whose power had been depleted. While the Mandarin did appear in these episodes, his appearances were reduced to cameos in the cliffhangers at the end of the story, as he tried to retrieve each ring. Another change was that Force Works was mostly written out of the series, parting ways with Stark after he deceives them in order to work in secret with the Mandarin when Fin Fang Foom and his fellow Dragons were plotting to eliminate Earth. When Stark's counter plan against Justin Hammer, which includes faking his death without the knowledge of his teammates, leads to a disbanding of Force Works, Julia Carpenter and James Rhodes are the only ones who continue to work with Stark. This split would be revisited with Stark's ensuing conflicts with Hawkeye over the course of several episodes. Also, War Machine develops a phobia of being trapped inside his armor (also based on a then-current comic storyline), but this is resolved before the final episode. While Rhodes was active as War Machine in season 1, he remained out of armor for the majority of season 2 due to reliving a tragic drowning experience while being trapped underwater in the War Machine armor in the season 2 episode "Fire and Rain". Rhodes eventually overcomes his fear and dons the War Machine armor once again in the episode "Distant Boundaries". Prior to finding his last two rings, the Mandarin claims his eighth ring from MODOK in the episode "Empowered". "Empowered" was the clip show of the season, the purpose being that the Mandarin wanted to learn of Iron Man's recent activities. In the finale,[10][11] the Mandarin, having regained all of his rings, unleashes a mist using the Heart of Darkness to render everything technological useless. Iron Man reunites with Force Works in order to stop him. The Mandarin unmasks Iron Man before their final showdown ends in his death. More specifically, Iron Man manages to reflect the power of Mandarin's rings, destroying them, and ultimately leaving the Mandarin with amnesia and helpless before a band of mountain bandits who likely killed him. After the death of the Mandarin, MODOK and the rest of Mandarin's henchmen were sent to jail. After disappointing ratings, the series was canceled.