The first seasons of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four are part of the reason I feel, that the Marvel Action Hour (or Marvel Action Universe as it was known in Season 2, with Biker Mice from Mars being added to the equation) didn't last beyond two seasons. I'm guessing that viewers got burned by the piss-poor quality (especially in comparison to other superhero cartoons at the time like Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and Marvel's own X-Men and Spider-Man: The Animated Series on Fox) and were reluctant to come back. It probably didn't help that both Iron Man and Fantastic Four were syndicated (which naturally resulted in inconsistent time-slots), during a time in which the market for first-run syndicated action cartoons was slowly but surely dying.
If you look at Seasons 1 and 2 of both shows, back to back, they feel like totally different shows (with only the main voice actors such as Robert Hays, Beau Weaver, Lori Alan, and Chuck McCann being the connective tissue). Season 1 of both shows in hindsight, feel like something that was made ten years out of date. Season 2 are essentially mean to be Marvel's way of atoning for the mistakes that they made in Season 1.
reply
share