Debuting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in ‘Wakanda Forever,’ Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart, was portrayed as a genius on par with Tony Stark, but without any of his privilege. After the events of that film, her streaming series follows the aftermath of her involvement with major MCU characters. She trained and learned under Shuri in Wakanda and earned a scholarship to study at MIT. However, her determination to build an iron suit to protect the people she loves, drawn from a trauma involving her best friend and her father, mirrors the same determination Tony Stark had during ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ and we know how that turned out. Her recklessness and unorthodox, even illegal, methods of funding her research lead to her expulsion from MIT, forcing her to return to Chicago and start over.
The premise is incredible. The MCU has introduced so many people who had strong support system from the get-go. Tony Stark had generational wealth. Black Panther, both T’Challa and Shuri, had the kingdom of Wakanda and all its resources at their disposal. Doctor Strange had access to the vast libraries of Kamar-Taj. Even Steve Rogers had the backing of the U.S. government, while Sam Wilson had the support of Stark Industries at one point. It’s refreshing to see a character who is just as brilliant as these characters but has to hustle and even do less than savory things just to be able to do some good.
It’s a metaphor for how marginalized sectors of America are sometimes forced to go against their nature in order to rise through the ranks and do what they believe is right. It’s an irony, but also a symptom of the systems in place that forces the underprivileged, especially people of color, most notably Black communities, to struggle against seemingly unbeatable odds.
This makes Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) an interesting character to watch. She’s tough and unapologetic. She’s isolated, even from the people who love her, because she’s so used to fighting and is afraid to deal with loss again. While her end goal is that of the righteous and of the good, she’s willing to break the rules to achieve it. This is all punctuated by the fact that she’s still a teenager. Filled with emotions, she hasn’t yet learned to see the bigger picture. At some point in the show, she refuses to be called a hero. She’s selfish and self-possessed, another byproduct of her age, her environment, her history, and her intellect. And that’s exactly what makes her so compelling to watch.
And it’s because of this that the Disney+ series ‘Ironheart’ is so disappointing. A show like this – that talks about her past trauma, her struggles with securing funding and being taken seriously, and her constant battle against a system that keeps beating her down, deserves more than just six episodes. It needs more time to fully explore these themes and to fully develop her character.
At just six episodes, the show rushes through so many narrative beats that it feels incomplete and underdeveloped. ‘Ms. Marvel’ and ‘Hawkeye,’ two other MCU Disney+ shows, managed to keep their narratives cohesive by focusing on personal themes and staying squarely on character development. ‘Ironheart,’ on the other hand, punches big. But without the episodes to fully explore the underground tech world that Riri has to scour through to rebuild her armor or fully realise the fragile dynamic between her and her mother and the other characters in the show who she feels very strongly about, or the mystical nature of the villain and his own take of disrupting the system. It feels unfair for ‘Ironheart’ to not be given the space the story they chose to tell needs to be able to fully flesh out the whole narrative.
But there are a lot of good things in it. As Riri joins The Hood (Anthony Ramos) and his gang to afford rebuilding her suit,she engages in capers that target billionaires. There’s the element of the caper genre that plays nicely to this level of super heroics (though technically, she’s one of the bad guys). Her relationship with her mom (Anji White) could have potentially been a wonderful tender spot for the show if they really gave it more time to develop and grow as well as her relationship with her AI, NATALIE (Lyric Ross), who somehow managed to become the exact persona of her late best friend. And then there’s her engagement with a black-market hoarder of tech, Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich). Riri and Joe’s interactions are the most fully fleshed-out narrative in this show because they are an excellent counterpoint for each other but when Joe gets tangled up in all of Riri’s shenanigans and it affects him squarely, his own individual narrative arc feels rushed and underdeveloped, as well.
There’s a lot of action here, some really good story beats, and some excellent acting from Thorne, White, Ross, and Ehrenreich but the show really needed an extra four episodes or even six to fully embrace this world. Riri, for someone without any funds, seems to manage to quickly rebuild her suit time and time again when that was the central premise from the beginning. I liked ‘Ironheart’ for its promise and its potential, but I know that it could have been better.
There’s a lot of action here, some really good story beats, and some excellent acting from Thorne, White, Ross, and Ehrenreich. But the show really needed an extra four, or even six, episodes to fully embrace this world. Riri, for someone without any resources, somehow manages to rebuild her suit over and over again, even though the lack of funding was the central premise from the beginning. I liked ‘Ironheart‘ for its promise and potential, but I also know it could have been so much better.
My Rating:
Think it deserved more episodes too? Catch Ironheart on Disney+ and decide for yourself if Riri Williams is ready to take flight as the MCU’s next tech hero.
