The legacy of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man lives on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while Tony Stark kicked the bucket back in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, his ghost looms large as a plucky young upstart tries to one-up the billionaire playboy. Hot off her standout introduction in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne is back in action as Riri Williams. Joining other MCU brain boxes like Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Riri surely has a bright future ahead of her.
As Riri Williams, Bad Girl Genius, Thorne leads Ironheart as an amuse-bouche before we’re catapulted into blockbusters like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Avengers: Doomsday. While there’s lots of talk about Riri being ‘small’ during Ironheart’s three-episode premiere, this is one series with ambitions that are anything but.
The first three episodes of Ironheart have just landed on Disney+, and while it never quite lives up to the Iron Man movies, Thorne’s performance puts the heart back in the MCU.
Episode 1: “Take Me Home”
It seems that Riri has been busy since her ‘internship’ in Wakanda, but without the funds of Tony Stark to back her, her experimentations at MIT are cut short. Following a comedic cameo from Community’s Jim Rash reprising his role as Professor Wilkes, Riri quickly makes off with her botched Ironheart suit and hot tails it home to Chicago.
Episode 1 introduces Ironheart’s various movers and shakers, including potential love interest Xavier (Matthew Elam), the intimidating John (Manny Montana), and even a part for RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Shea Couleé as a Madripoorean hacker called Slug. In terms of villains, Anthony Ramos swoops in with a demonic cape to play Parker Robbins/The Hood. The Hood might typically be associated with Spider-Man and Daredevil, but here he gets a standard MCU-inspired revamp that’s (currently) shrouded in mystery.
Ironheart isn’t all thumping soundtracks and sass from Riri, as there’s a shadow of tragedy hanging over her. We only scratch the surface of the mystery of what happened to her stepdad and BFF Natalie (Lyric Ross). Both were gunned down and led to Riri avoiding a return to Chicago, although Natalie pops up in a different form. After scanning her brain to upgrade her suit’s AI, Riri awakens to find Natalie reborn as Neuro Autonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity (N.A.T.A.L.I.E.). The episode ends with the two destined to work together, and although there’s one more major addition to the cast, he doesn’t pop up until Episode 2.
Episode 2: "Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up?"
Settling into her new role as part of The Hood’s gang, Riri becomes an invaluable part of the team as they start to rob major tech companies. Parker’s endgame is unclear; however, it’s here that we first get a tease of who the show’s real big bad is. Those who’ve been keeping up with the casting rumors will know Sacha Baron Cohen has long been rumored to play Mephisto in the MCU. Even though we don’t get to find out who The Hood is working for, or where he got his mysterious cloak, a disembodied voice asking “What is it that you most desire?” definitely sounds like the kind of Faustian bargain the demonic villain is known for making.
Episode 2 is also where we first meet Alden Ehrenreich’s Joe McGillicuddy. A million miles away from the confident swagger of Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Han Solo, this stuttering tech ethicist is drawn into Riri’s world due to his secret bunker of biometric tech. Although ‘Joe’ gives Riri the parts she needs to get her suit flying in time for the big heist, both she and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. are on the money that the name Joe McGillicuddy sounds fake. Joe might seem like a nervous nerd with a penchant for Alanis Morissette, but a throwaway mention of how his father was also in tech leads to Episode 3’s big reveal in a major throwback to 2008’s Iron Man.
Episode 3: "We in Danger, Girl"
In the run-up to Ironheart’s release, there was plenty of buzz when executive producer Sev Ohanian told SFX Magazine how the series could draw parallels to Breaking Bad, with Riri pitched as the MCU’s own Walter White. While many called the idea absurd, we get a first glimpse of her darker side in Episode 3.
Things go wrong as The Hood’s gang tries to infiltrate a biotech firm called Heirlum, all while Riri’s distrust for Parker leads to her trying to snip a piece off his cloak for testing. Riri runs afoul of Montana’s John. Leaning into the whole Breaking Bad comparison, she lets him perish when he learns about her plan.
The big talking point of the episode is the reveal that ‘Joe’ is actually Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Stane. Rumors that Ehrenreich would be playing the previously unseen son of Jeff Bridges’ Iron Man villain were correct, with Joe being a cover for Obadiah Stane’s heir. The characters of Ironheart are brilliantly complex, with Zeke veering away from his comic book counterpart and claiming he wants nothing to do with his father’s troublesome past. That’s all well and good, but with Riri leaving behind his biomesh tech at the scene of the Heirlum heist, this could be what triggers Zeke’s villain arc.
Heading into the next three episodes, a potential trifecta of villains could give Riri and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. more than a headache. Episode 3 ends with Parker learning Riri was behind John’s death, while her betrayal of Zeke, AND Mephisto potentially lurking in the shadows as the de facto big bad, means she’ll need more than an upgraded suit to get out of this jam. Leaving things on a suitably tense cliffhanger, we just hope Riri can put the pieces together with that big brain of hers.
The final verdict
Ironheart feels like one of the most relevant MCU shows so far, throwing out zippy pop culture references to everything from The Addams Family to Spy Kids, Star Wars to Star Trek. Couple it with an eclectic soundtrack that feels like an extension of Coogler’s work on Black Panther, and Ironheart ticks all the boxes.
Unfortunately, it feels like something is missing that prevents the show from feeling like essential viewing. While the naysayers are already review-bombing Ironheart as a ‘woke’ reinvention of Iron Man with a Black woman, we’d encourage them to pick up a comic book every once in a while.
Ultimately, it feels that Ironheart will be lost to the annals of Disney+ shows like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or the criminally underrated She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. There’s no doubt that Riri will appear further down the line in the long-rumored Young Avengers project, while the presumed Mephisto reveal sounds perfect for the equally hyped whispers of a Midnight Sons outing. Sadly for Ironheart, its lack of marketing and awkward place in the run-up to The Fantastic Four movie could be its downfall. Couple this with the fact that the entire show will play out over just two weeks, and Ironheart feels Doctor Doomed to be little more than a fun take on Iron Man 3.5.
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