You dare to dent the suit?!
In this episode, we learned that the Marvel Anime Universe is a mix between the Marvel Movie Universe and its comic book materials... aaaand, we saw how Tony became Iron Man. Oh, with Wolvie appearing in later parts of the episode!
For starters, the episode was a flashback episode, taking place five years before the events of the anime. If you have watched the movie… there are many differences with this one. To make this long explanation short, no previous Iron Man knowledge needed… same case for Wolverine.
The only thing similar from its original sources is the fact that terrorist abducted Tony, forced to work with them, and escaped them with a bunch of scrap metals fashioned into a suit powered by Tony’s miniaturized arc reactor.
One thing that I liked about this episode is the reintroduction of Yinsen. I love how they gave Yinsen a very different persona. In this series, he is not friendly to Tony and hates him because he is a merchant of death. I love the fact that he is playing hard on Tony with his science project that they must do a toss coin so that if Tony wins, Yinsen cooperates. Sure Yinsen is kinda like a jerk to Tony, but this jerk changed Tony into a man that eh is today.
Since this is a flashback episode, this episode also has a plot for the present. There is racer who can’t race anymore but because of an offer by Zodiac, he was turned into a cyborg but for one condition, kill Tony Stark. Is it me, or it screams like Kamen Rider THE FIRST?
One of the bits that I want to talk about once his anime will be released but since he made an early bird cameo, I will say my thoughts on Bishieverine/Gayverine/whatever you will like to call anime Wolverine. When I first saw the trailer of Marvel Anime: Wolverine, I was stunned, literally for a few good reasons. HE IS NOT A GRUFF LOOKING CANADIAN FOR PETE’S SAKE! HE IS NOT THIN! HE IS MASCULAR! HE IS A BISHIE! A BISHIE! AND IT IS SOOOO NOT LOGAN! There.
But when he made his appearance on this episode, he made quite an entrance… ripping off that F1 with his claws. Aside from that, one thing I noticed with this Wolvie is that they made some changes with his appearance. In the original trailer, he has this white streak in his hair, in this episode, it is gone; in here, his hair is shorter and his trademark sideburns and his trademark hairdo is given quite a good anime spike. Still, he is still slim. What could be the reason? My theory for those changes? Much like Tony before in which when his first promo picture was seen without a beard, fans complained, might be the case for Wolverine. Is it me, or this better (I repeat, better. I am still not into Wolvie being a bishie) looking Wolvie was inspired by Hugh Jackman? Since accordingly this series will air in the US next year, just let the guy who does most of Wolvie’s voice acting do the job… and let’s hope and pray that they will place Wolvie’s infamous “bubs.”
Iron Man vs. Dio, finally, a decent Iron Man vs. Iron Man fight! One of the things that I am anticipating in Iron Man 2 was the fight between Mark IV suit in the Mark II suit… and I was disappointed with it. Sure, we saw Rhodey fight a drunk Tony, but their fight scenes felt like a bar fight except that they are wearing Iron Man suits. Too bad, it is short but hey, I love the plot twist at the near end of the episode. One thing that bothers me is how he survived back then…
Overall, from the four episodes of Iron Man that I watched, this one stands out. Aside that this is an Iron Man origin story; we are proven that Wolverine being a bishie is not that bad and the questions left in the first episode was given a rather decent explanation. Why decent? Because never got a proper resolution with the one wearing the Dio suit on how the hell he survived. A spare lucky coin I guess?
Note: I already left clues on who is the wearer of the Dio suit.
To end this up, here's an indirect reference to Iron Man 2.
Suitcase armor anyone?