How Marvel’s ’90s Iron Man cartoon paved the way for the MCU’s Tony Stark

Instead, the new intro opened in pitch-black, revealing a shirtless Tony Stark covered in shadow, deep in his laboratory. A machine hands him a blacksmith’s hammer, then Tony pounds away on an anvil as images of his many Iron Man armors flash onto the walls. He grabs a giant chain and pours molten metal into a mold to form his new armor and then refines his work with a bit of welding before the finished pieces fly onto him as he suits up. Finally, Tony bursts out of the laboratory and into the night sky. A new, industrial-sounding theme song accompanies the dark visuals as a singer chants four words: “I am Iron Man.”