Ironheart: As Frustrating as It is Entertaining

When Ironheart was announced in 2020, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was at its peak. Just coming off Avengers: Endgame, everybody expected another 10 years of great comic book stories.

5 years later, the MCU is in its worst state yet (in terms of cultural relevance and profitability). The past few years have seen the once-great studio churn out flops, slop, and everything in between. Even fantastic projects such as Thunderbolts* and Loki have had to suffer the consequences created by recent Disney decisions.

It is in this current landscape that Ironheart was released, with very little fanfare. Interest in the Ryan Coogler-produced show was so low that even I, an MCU shill who has watched almost every single project, wasn’t too enthused to check out the show.

But I did. On the one hand, I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw. On the other hand, I felt great frustration. Let’s talk about it.

What is Ironheart?

Following the events of the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Riri Williams returns home to Chicago (after getting expelled from MIT), where she becomes entangled with the enigmatic Parker Robbins/The Hood, discovering secrets that pit technology against magic and setting her on a path of danger and adventure.

She’s More Like Tony Stark Than You’d Admit

For the most part, Ironheart is a character study of Riri Williams, a girl genius who so desperately wants to prove herself to the world and is willing to do almost anything to make that happen. She decides to do this by “continuing” Tony Stark’s legacy of building technologically advanced suits of armour.

At the start of the show, she’s impatiently trying to develop her armour suit project, even resorting to less-than-ethical means to raise cash. She does this under the assumption of “Tony Stark used his billions to create his suits, thus I need money to create mine”. Unfortunately, this reckless behaviour gets her expelled from MIT.

Beyond her assumption, the motivation behind her obsession with iron suits (I’ll get to that later), and her comic book history, the show does not go out of its way to create a relationship between Riri and Tony, but if you look at both characters, it’s crazy how similar they both are.

Most MCU fans are already sharpening their digital pitchforks, but hear me out: Through Tony’s time, one character trait shines through: the sheer ability to do whatever he chooses. Tony was so reckless that almost every single villain he faced was a consequence of his actions: Whiplash in Iron Man 2, Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3, Ultron in Age of Ultron, and others. Riri is also very reckless and, just like Tony, most of the problems she faces are consequences of her actions.

Throughout the show, different characters ask Riri why, with all her brilliance, she decided to build an Iron Man-type suit, and she always says, “Because I could”. If this isn’t a Tony Stark response, I don’t know what is.

I have also seen people complain about how Riri is a disgrace to the legacy of the character of Tony Stark. However, they don’t recognise that Tony went through 10+ years of character development before he became the universe-saving hero in Endgame. They also forget that part of what made Tony so compelling was that he was a bit of an asshole (the man-made weapons for a living) who decided to become hero. It’s really indicative of today’s lack of media literacy that people now find it difficult to accept the idea of a flawed protagonist.

For Tony and Riri, there’s also a lot of complexity beneath their brilliance and bravado. They both carry deep grief from the loss of loved ones, and they carry the heavy weight of the world on their shoulders. In many ways, Riri carries forward the legacy of Tony Stark and not Iron Man (there’s a difference).

Just like Robert Downey Jr. gave a singular performance as Tony Stark, Dominque Thorne turns in a stellar leading lady performance as Riri. Throughout the show, Riri makes very questionable choices, but thanks to Dominique’s charisma, you may see her as the asshole that she very well is but you never fully despise her.

Riri is a fairly complex character with different layers: the overconfident genius, the grieving daughter, the rebellious adult, the girl with the awkward crush, the scared child. Dominque does well playing these sides, sometimes at the same time.

A Less-than-stellar Supporting Cast

As much as Ironheart is about Riri, much of her journey revolves around other people. Unfortunately, most of those people are two-dimensional characters or, worse, one-note caricatures.

This hinders the thematic and emotional heft of Riri’s development. I couldn’t honestly care less about the characters she was meant to protect or the ones she was meant to go up against.

This is fully exemplified by the show’s primary antagonist: Parker Robbins AKA The Hood. On paper, this character should work; a charismatic gang leader who slowly loses everyone around him thanks to a deal made with the devil. Think Dominic Torreto, but if he eventually got possessed by a demonic force. Somehow, Anthony Ramos (Twisters) takes this concept and gives a bland, unmenacing, and uninteresting performance.

I can’t even say “Maybe he just had bad material”. The script created opportunities for the character to shine, but Ramos just does nothing noteworthy with it.

Other characters don’t get much good material at all. You have:

• Riri’s mother, who has nothing going on except worrying about her daughter (she does like pseudo-magic stuff, though).

• A very uninteresting love interest for Riri. To be fair, how many supporting male love interests for female main characters are interesting?

• The very diverse gang of thieves including the Hood’s loyal cousin (he was kind of cool but that could just be because he was played by Manny Montana, who I love), a trans hacker from Madripoor, a very energetic explosive girly, and a pair of bruiser twins who could have been really cool if they had more to do beyond sloppy action scenes.

Luckily, there are a few interesting characters that stand out. You have Joe McGillicuddy, played by Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), a character with a very interesting connection to Tony Stark. Part of his character is to serve as a thread exploring some of the similarities between Riri and Tony. Throughout the show, he goes through some significant changes that are initially very intriguing but kind of fizzle out by the third act.

However, Ehrenreich truly holds an engaging performance from his very first scene to his last. He would have been my favourite character in the whole show, if not for one more character.

An AI With a Soul (And a Dead Best Friend’s Face)

At the end of the first episode, Riri tries to create a new AI for her refurbished suit. Somehow (the show doesn’t explain how), the AI was created with the likeness and personality of Riri’s late best friend, Natalie.

This concept in itself was strong enough to carry a story on its own. It also creates a very unique character within the entire MCU; an AI with human emotions and human relationships. It raised so many questions within the context of the show.

One standout scene was her glitching out due to the trauma of the death of the human being she was created from. It was such a weird and intriguing idea. It was very entertaining to watch different characters react and interact with N.A.T.A.L.I.E. while still considering the tragic loss of the human Natalie. Unfortunately, the show doesn’t do as much with it as I would have hoped.

N.A.T.A.L.I.E.'s relationship with Riri is the emotional core of the whole show, and it was honestly my most enjoyable part. A major reason for this was the energetic performance of Lyric Ross (This Is Us). She was able to somehow play an AI as the most human character in the show.

In many ways, she served as a window for the audience, constantly calling out Riri for many reckless actions and helping to dig deeper into her character and motivations.

It’s all About Loss

N.A.T.A.L.I.E. is also a key part of the show’s primary theme: Loss, grief and what people would do in the face of it, or to even prevent it.

Throughout the show, we see Riri forced to deal with the loss of her stepfather and best friend. It shows how much of Riri’s reckless decision is driven by that grief. We also learn the reason for her obsession with building iron suits; her stepfather was a big Tony Stark fan, and she wants to build the next great suit to honour that fandom, but also to prevent someone else from losing their loved ones.

This idea of loss is also what drives the Hood and his gang; The show presents it as the loss of the life/future they deserve. The show does not do much with that idea until Hood suffers a more personal loss that spirals him into a very dark place.

This idea of loss is further explored through the show’s overarching antagonist; I won’t spoil who it is, but let’s just say he is the ultimate embodiment of gain (for a price).

His final confrontation with Riri was basically the culmination of Riri’s character journey, and she makes a decision that is extremely frustrating but somewhat compelling. The only problem is that the show does not provide a definite conclusion. Too many plot points are left with “see you next time”, making the journey feel underdeveloped and rushed.

Been Too Long Since Iron Looked This Good

Beyond the character work and thematic elements, Ironheart is a good-looking and well-made show. The show may suffer from the usual stilted framing that plauges TV production but one can still tell that some real creative energy was put into its making.

Using a mix of real locations and soundstage shooting, Ironheart was able to recreate Chicago, its street murals and corner shops and weave them all into its story.

Ironheart also has some of the best armour visual effects the MCU has had in almost a decade. To make the armour work within the constraints of a TV show, a full, practical Ironheart suit was created for filming to help as a lighting and visual effects reference, similar to techniques used in earlier MCU movies.

Not Great, Not Terrible, But Surprisingly Human

Ironheart is not perfect. It fumbles a few arcs, underuses some genuinely fascinating ideas, and wastes an otherwise intriguing villain. But at its heart, slight pun intended, it’s trying to do something with a bit more soul than your recent Marvel project.

It’s a story about grief and genius. About building iron to protect yourself from the world, only to realise it can’t keep out your own pain. It’s messy. It can be very uneven. But it has moments of real emotion. Sometimes, that’s enough.

Riri isn’t here to be the next Iron Man. She’s here to be something very different, and if Marvel is smart, they’ll let her become it.

You Should Watch Ironheart if..

• You still believe Marvel has a few good stories left in the tank.

• You love character-driven arcs and complicated (sometimes annoying) protagonists.

• You’re a sucker for unstable AIs and glitchy digital characters.

• You miss the days when superhero stories were weird, small, and personal.

You Should Skip Ironheart if…

• You need clean storytelling, tight plot arcs, and satisfying payoffs. (This ain’t that.)

• You’re allergic to the MCU content engine.

• You think Riri could never hold a candle to Tony Stark (no point arguing, you’ve made up your mind).

• You’re just here for big action and world-ending stakes (go rewatch Infinity War, my friend).