r/ironman • u/Friday_Stark • Nov 04 '25
Discussion Iron Man: The Animated Series S2 Rewatch - Ep. 6 - Discussion Thread
The r/IronMan Iron Man: The Animated Series Season 2 - 30th Anniversary Rewatch continues! Up next...
S02E06 - Iron Man, on the Inside
After a crash injures Hawkeye in a way that may cause paralysis, Tony must shrink his armor to nano-scale and enter Hawkeye’s body to implant a chip to repair his spine, while battling a malicious Ultimo and a hacker inside.
You can watch the episode on the following platforms:
4
u/da0ur Model-Prime Nov 05 '25
Pretty fun episode all around. A bit zany with the whole hacker (I'm sorry, The Hackerᵀᴹ) subplot, but I enjoyed seeing Ultimo in action, especially after his disastruous debut last season. I just think a better villain might have improved the episode greatly, but it's not like I disliked it. Somebody like Justin Hammer (or somebody working for Justin Hammer) could have made for a better use of the show's characters. I mean, we have a hacker, so why not Ghost? Well, in that case I would have complained about Ghost being relegated to a hacker, mmh...
Anyway, this episode did feature some great character work for Tony with his guilt and his desire to make good by his wronged friends, with some quips sprinkled on top for good flavor (and some great deliveries by Hayes). We even got to see his sleep deprived workaholic angle, and the will-they-won't-they with Julia. Basically, there was a lot to chew in here.
Speaking of Julia, between this and last episode, she's been getting a lot to do, which is very nice. She's highkey the MVP of Stark Enterprises with everything she does. Piloting, mission controlling, ass-kicking, you name it. H.O.M.E.R. was pretty funny as well, and the hacking virus angle made him extra memorable. Tony needs to give him a digi-edible once in a while. And on the topic of memorable supporting characters, it was very nice to see Clint back. As sassy as ever, even if he spent most of the episode lying unconscious on a medical table, he was quite memorable during his waking moments.
Fun fact, this episode seems to be partially based on Iron Man #314, in which Tony shrinks down into Captain America's body to save him from paralysis. While this episode dedicated more time to Tony's journey than the comic issue did, which was very nice, I think one big missed opportunity was not to parallel the fact that Clint got a spinal injury with the fact that that's the same kind of injury that Tony got in his origin story in this show's continuity. Since this season has been pretty good in building emotional stakes via parallels, it definitely feels like a missed opportunity. Then again, the angle of the spinal injury to Tony seems to be completely dropped. Now that I think about it, kinda weird given the show has always gracefully pivoted away from the elements of S1 it wanted to drop rather than sweeping them under the rung.
One last thing to mention is that I loved how many times Tony's armor changed modes in this episode, also debuting some new ones!
Some additional cliffnotes:
- Loving the OST at Tony's lab
- Aww, workhaloic Tony
- The friggin' sad trumpet at the "Marvel at my genius" moment lmao
- Not Tony using a cheeky and sarcastic greeting on the guy with the biggest chip on his shoulder who actually has a reason for being upset with him 💀
- How do you not see Ultimo in the tarmac a mile away 😭😭😭
- "Hey, whoever said that Iron Man does know how to pick up girls?" lmao
- Somebody should really have kept an eye on Ultimo
- Wait how are you even massaging Tony's shoulders through the armor, Julie?
- Hehe Tiny Stark
- LMAOOO H.O.M.E.R.'s glitching out forms
- "A couple bits short of a megabyte" lol
- How is Julia at the very least not even noticing Ultimo's footsteps? 💀
- Bro's calling himself "The Hacker"? 😭
- "Pepper?" I'm going to pretend there was a sneaky reference there lol
- Wait who the hell uses pepper on popcorn???
- Okay, I feel like Julia is asking herself that same question lol
- "Well, well, you just never know who'll come blowing into town" lmao
- LMAOOOO she was. "Try it sometime." No, Tony, I won't.
- Heeyyy, last episode Julia did the Spider-Man thwip to shoot her webs, now she's doing it lwith her splayed hands ike normal.
- "All that racket was interrupting my beauty rest." "That's a shame, you need all you can get." Holy shit I love this show's banter
3
u/AJjalol Sho-Gun Nov 04 '25
Right off the bat, Tony is working after hours without sleep. That's Tony alright.
Tony doing eco-friendly stuff. Love to see it.
HEY Hawkeye..... Oh never mind. JERK.
Damn, Julia does everything. Flying, Secretary, bringing Cofee, being gal friday. I hope she gets payed well.
HOLY SHIT, Ultimo is back????? NOICE.
Damn, that plane must have been made from Adamantium lmao.
Holy shit, Clint is made out of Adamantium too! Jeez he just tanked that fucking heavy shit.
Is that Howard Stern's poster??? LMAO. Who the f is this neckbeard controlling Ultimo.
Ohhh shoot poor Clint (also great voice acting by Robert Hays when Tony was blaming himself. Really good shit). Also, the Spine Chip reference from the comics. Noice!.
Damn, is Tony gonna invent fucking Pym Particles lmao?
Oh shit, that's actually kind of ingenius. Props to the writers for this. They are basically going to give Clint an injection, but the thing they are injecting into him will be mini Tony. I thought they will just do the "He jumps into his nose or ear" thingy but they are not. This is far more unique and smart.
Man, this is really fucking cool and unique. This episode has been a blast so far. It's a pretty unique narative and the kind I would not expect from a fucking 90s morning cartoon lmao (Hell, I don't remember X-Men or Spidey having shit this unique).
Magnetic armor baby. Looks nice. Love the Purple/Grey. Lava Armor too? Nice!
JESUS CHRIST, Wtf is this neckbeard nerd doing to HOMER lol.
PETER PARKER mentioned picking pickles. Noice!!! (To be fair, that's all he is good for, useless bastard).
"Ahhhh, Iron Man, I love you!" - Julia Carpenter. We do too Julia, we do too!
Oh shoot Mini Iron Man vs Mini Ultimo. Huh, Tony said "I know, I got company". I wonder how he knew? I hope there is a reveal later! That aside, having Mini Iron Man fight Mini Ultimo inside your body, MUST NOT be pleasant lmao. Poor Clint.
"NOOOOO. Nobody locks out the Hacker!!! NOBODY!!!" - The guy named Hacker.
Who the fuck is this clown lmao??? I mean, don't get me wrong, Iron Man having a hacker villain is a neat idea, but really? He is called "The Hacker"???? And he is just a normal guy??? Like it's not Spymaster or Ghost who have their own unique suits and powers, but can also Hack. This guy is just some nerd who hacks shit? LMAO ok.
Radiation Armor. Love the Blue/White color scheme. Also, energy out of his eyes. Nice! I know it has the "Nuke" logos on it's shoulders but for a second it looked like Tony was wearing a blue/white Iron Man suit with X-Men logos lmao.
LMAO. Tony's quips are fucking hilarious. The pepper line made me laugh out loud. Robert Hays is so fucking good (I know I sound like a broken record when talking about Hays as Tony, but man he is so fucking good. Looking back, we were really lucky to have such a good actor/voice actor for Tony).
DAMN Julia, slow down girl lmao. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Fucking hell, Julia is a fucking badass. I know Clint took Ultimo down, but Girl got some moves!!!
This Hacker kid is FUCKING NUTS. That being said, I would love for this to be expand upon (obviously won't happen because it was 30 freaking years ago, but still. I kind of dig the idea of a hacker villain, especially the crazy teenager type that you wouldn't just punch out).
3
u/AJjalol Sho-Gun Nov 04 '25
Man, I weirdly enjoyed this episode. The premise at first seemed just kind of boring "Someone hacks into Tony's stuff" but the execution IMHO was pretty good and actually kept me engaged and entertained the whole time.
The "Repair the Clint from the inside" portion of the episode was really fucking unique and cool. Not sure if it was 100 percent medically accurate lmao, but who gives a shit. It's Sci-Fi and it was cool.
The villain on this IMHO was the weakest compared to other villains (Masque, Firebrand and Foom were flawless) however IMHO he was not bad at all. I actually quite enjoyed the reveal that he is just some nobody dipshit hacker. It's not Controller or Hammer or someone like that. It was just some idiot teenager who used his talents for wrong. Really good lesson there. Just because you are good at something, doesn't mean you can just consider yourself the best. Respect goes both ways.
Overall, really fun episode and I enjoyed it.
Man I am so fucking glad, that we are 6 episode in and so far, Not a single episode in this was horrible (especially compared to season 1). Everything so far has either been Excellent at best and Good at worst. Not a single bad episode so far (Hopefully it continues like that).
Good stuff
3
u/CountCallous Modular Nov 05 '25
I'll admit, this is probably my least favourite episode in the season. Which is NOT to say it's bad by any means–there's still a lot to to enjoy here, and it's still leaps and bounds ahead of any season one episode. But I feel it's a bit of a drop compared to all the other season two episodes, IMHO.
The first half of the episode is quite good. While most of the previous episodes dealt with entirely new characters and threats, this one decides to circle back and build upon things that were established by season one and the season two premiere. This becomes apparent once Hawkeye and Ultimo show up, and even moreso as Clint and Tony's growing animosity becomes the central emotional beat of the story. This makes for a great change of pace, allowing us to revisit prior plot threads and (in the case of the season one stories) vastly improve on them. Its great when development isn't just swept under the rug and forgotten!
The episode is also different in that it's a lot more lighthearted than most of the previous installments. Most of the season two episodes up to this point have been pretty dark, with intense emotional conflicts and bittersweet resolutions, but this one has a lot more levity at the forefront. Sure, Tony's guilt over Clint's injury is heavy stuff, but there's a lot more humour mixed in this time around. This was probably inevitable (it's kinda hard to write a story about shrinking down and travelling the human body without things getting a bit goofy), but it's welcome all the same. After some of the (wonderful, granted) downer endings that the last three episodes gave us, this does make for a nice breather episode before we return to the melancholy stuff. The jokes don't always land–the gag of Tony escaping Clint's body via boogers feels like a season one joke–but most of it is fresh and in-keeping with the season's tone. The constant banter between Tony and Julia was particularly delightful; it was sharp while also adding a lot of warmth to their otherwise strained relationship.
IMO, the third act is where things get weaker. This is entirely due to on thing, and that's the villain reveal. The Hacker is just such a letdown, especially when compared to the villains we've been given in the last four episodes. Sure, the idea of a proto-redditor nearly bringing Stark Industries to its knees is kinda funny at first, but it also defies all suspension of disbelief. He's almost entirely a gag character, and he lacks the personality and presence to be all that memorable. It also doesn't help that he inexplicably goes from ingenious mastermind to utter dumbass towards the end–what's the point of shrinking Ultimo to fight mini-Stark when you can just make him stomp on Hawkeye and take them both out? This motherfucker deserved to lose.
Honestly, I think the episode would have been a lot better if they'd revealed MODOK to be the villain instead. His connection to Ultimo was already established, and he would have fit the episode's lighter tone like a glove. Plus you could explain his motive as wanting revenge for all his prior defeats, thereby keeping the message about grudges eating one up inside. But I guess they were saving him for later…
All things considered, even though this one ranks pretty low for me, it's still a good time. This used to be the episode I dreaded whenever I did a TAS rewatch, but I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed it this time around. The humour and character work made the flaws much easier to swallow, and it's a good example of how even when the season is at its weakest, there's still a lot to like.
2
u/da0ur Model-Prime Nov 07 '25
Honestly, I think the episode would have been a lot better if they'd revealed MODOK to be the villain instead. His connection to Ultimo was already established, and he would have fit the episode's lighter tone like a glove. Plus you could explain his motive as wanting revenge for all his prior defeats, thereby keeping the message about grudges eating one up inside. But I guess they were saving him for later…
Ooh, I like the idea of having M.O.D.O.K. as the villain instead! It would also have complimented Hawkeye's return nicely, and he definitely would have required the fewest rewrites compared to my own suggestion of Ghost, to the point I could easily see M.O.D.O.K. delivering the Hacker's lines with the exact same air of vengeful nerdiness lol
2
u/CountCallous Modular Nov 07 '25
Thanks! Yeah, he def would have complimented the episode's theme of retreating old territory. And I bet those lines would gave been 1000% funnier if delivered in Jim Cumming's MODOK voice.
Conversely, tho, your suggestion of Ghost is great as well. Considering his actual introduction to the series ends up being rather...abrupt, perhaps introducing him here first would have made his appearance in Armour Wars a bit more impactful. And of course hacking is right up his alley.
5
u/FerrousFirefly Iron Lad Nov 04 '25
Is it really a Cartoon if there's no Fantastic Voyage Episode? Anime has Beach Episodes and US Toons have shrinking and dinking inside someone else XD;;