Ironheart stars Dominique Thorne, who reprises her role as Riri Williams/Ironheart from Wakanda Forever, alongside Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), with Alden Ehrenreich, Lyric Ross, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam, Anji White, Jim Rash, Eric André, Cree Summer, Sonia Denis, Shea Couleé, Zoe Terakes, Shakira Barrera. The series premise has former MIT student Riri Williams returning home to Chicago where she becomes entangled with the mysterious Parker Robbins/The Hood and discovers secrets in a world of technology and magic that leads her on a nefarious journey.
Prior to the release of Ironheart, the series was subjected to being review bombed as critics initially depicted the series as Marvel’s attempt to recapture lost spark it had by recasting a new “Iron Man”. After watching the series itself, I can happily dispel all the misconception because Ironheart brought a unique and entertaining storyline that created a heartfelt background for a character that makes the audience root for their success in this expanding universe.
Let’s talk about the highlight of this series, Dominique Thorne. Her character, Riri Williams, was introduced in Wakanda Forever and when she was first introduced, her role and presence felt very minimal and an afterthought at most due to the film’s antagonist, Namor, stealing every scene he was in. But throughout the series, we begin to discover the complex character of Riri Williams and although this may come off as a run of the mill hero story, it isn’t. Riri Williams’ intentions of being Ironheart is not to save anyone other than herself and that saving others is more of a convenience rather than a goal. We have had so many protagonists whose main goals are filled with pure of heart intentions in the MCU, so when there is a character that exhibits anti-hero tendencies, it is a nice change of scenery and keeps the audience engaged.
Along with Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, is Anthony Ramos’s Parker Robbins/The Hood and as the story progresses, he is almost a mirror image of Riri who also only cares mostly about himself and wants to be a “somebody”, similar to Riri wanting to be “iconic”. Anthony Ramos delivers a stellar performance that makes us sympathize with his character and the development of his personal vendetta towards his father, which ultimately leads him to fall to the side of darkness.
Finally, he has arrived, none other than the demon king that we have been waiting for since WandaVision, Mephisto, played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Not only has he finally arrived but boy did he deliver. I thought this was an amazing way to introduce Mephisto although many people disagree and believe that he should have appeared in WandaVision or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Let’s think about it. Mephisto’s whole schtick is that he loves human souls and creates deals to get them. Even though Mephisto is an all-powerful being, he’d prefer not to tangle with the likes of the Sorcerer Supreme runner up or a Scarlet Witch. He has more fun preying on humans that are desperate and unfortunately in this case, it is Riri. This creates so much more depth and anticipation for what lies ahead for Ironheart.
Now some of the flaws that I felt that this series should have improved on was the pacing. The pacing of the show felt a bit off and especially for a mini-series, I would have liked more character development of the side characters but as an audience member, it was hard for me to remember the names of some characters and maybe that was the vision being set. At times, it just felt that Riri was a bit insufferable because of her lack of empathy towards the people close to her which makes us less empathetic as well.
Overall, the series was able to finally bring the world of magic and technology together in a way that was unexpected and ultimately left me with feelings of satisfaction and anticipation for the next chapter of this character.
