Plot: Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart pits technology against magic when Riri Williams — a young, genius inventor determined to make her mark on the world—returns to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins aka “The Hood”.
Review: Announced in December 2020, Marvel Studios’ Ironheart is finally debuting on Disney+ almost three years after Dominique Thorne appeared as Riri Williams in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Since that film, the MCU has hit its lowest point both creatively and at the box office, leading Kevin Feige and the leadership at Marvel Studios to approach their small screen projects differently than they used to. Ironheart was developed with the aim of a multi-season approach despite being billed as a limited series. With six episodes, three released June 24th and the remaining three on July 1st, the Chinaka Hodge-created Ironheart spends more time setting up stories to come rather than feeling like a self-contained narrative. Nevertheless, Ironheart is a fun, contained story with some intriguing introductions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more for Dominique Thorne to do compared to her limited role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Set after Shuri took T’Challa’s place as Black Panther, Ironheart finds Riri Williams still struggling to fit in at M.I.T., where she tries to perfect her armor while selling her work to other students for cash. Expelled, Riri returns to her hometown of Chicago, where the death of her best friend Natalie and her stepfather still haunt her. Riri is recruited by Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), a criminal gang leader who wears a magical hood, to join his crew. Alongside Parker’s cousin John (Manny Montana), hacker Slug (Shea Coulee), sibling fighters Ros (Shakira Barerra) and Jerry Blood (Zoe Terakes), bomb expert Clown (Sonia Denis), and tech specialist Stuart Clarke (Eric Andre), Riri begrudgingly helps the crew perform heists on Chicago’s tech elite so that she can finance the rebuilding of her armor. Riri knows what she is doing goes against what she and her family stand for, but she still does it and witnesses Parker becoming more and more controlled by The Hood. At the same time, Riri befriends Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich), who has access to other technology she needs for her armor.
The six episodes that comprise Ironheart all make good use of the hour-long format and dig into the motivations behind Riri’s obsession with her suit, which is embodied by her creation of an A.I. that looks and acts exactly like her best friend Natalie. While we have seen A.I. personified in Paul Bettany’s J.A.R.V.I.S./Vision, Natalie is a much different intelligence and one that Lyric Ross gives a unique personality. The interaction between Domique Thorne and Lyric Ross is a highlight of the series and the strongest relationship in the entire show. There are hints at a romance between Riri and Natalie’s brother, Xavier (Matthew Elam), but that never gets the same attention or chemistry as we get from the best friends. The relationship between Riri and her mother, Ronnie (Anji White), is another missed opportunity, despite Ronnie’s presence facilitating the introduction of some key characters played by Cree Summer and Regan Aliyah.
On the villain side of the story, Anthony Ramos is quite good as Parker Robbins, another in a long line of MCU bad guys who succumb to a power they do not understand. Parker’s goal is not world domination or supremacy, and Anthony Ramos humanizes his character in a way that makes him sympathetic but also very dangerous. The Hood is a minor character compared to those we usually see in MCU projects, but a very cool one that pits elements of the Marvel Universe’s world of magic against technology, something that Tony Stark did not need to contend with in his lifetime. The Hood’s crew are all interesting personalities with roots in the pages of Marvel Comics, but also minor names only die-hard fans will recognize. The transition for many of these characters from New York City to Chicago offers an engaging and fresh geography to play in. As someone who lives in the Chicagoland area, I find it cool to see some local places get screen time after countless years of New York being displayed.
While Ryan Coogler is heavily credited as a producer on Ironheart, the series is the brainchild of Chinaka Hodge. The playwright and author has previously worked on the series Snowpiercer and with Mike Flanagan on The Midnight Club, but Hodge brings her strongest work to date to this series. As Coogler did with Black Panther, Hodge imbues cultural identity into Ironheart without making it an overt and blatant call for diversity. Riri’s Black roots and Parker Robbins’ Puerto Rican heritage offer another point of view for these characters, but race is never a driving plot device. These are characters of color, but that does not define their narrative or decision-making. Hodge enlisted Malarie Howard, Francesca Gailes & Jacqueline J. Gailes, Amir Sulaiman, and Cristian Martinez to script episodes, with half of the season directed by Sam Bailey and the other half by Angela Barnes. The series was developed and written before Marvel Studios decided to pivot to more standalone series, with the sixth episode leaving the series feeling like more story is needed to wrap up Riri’s arc.
Ironheart has a lot of potential, and I enjoyed these episodes, but it feels like the first part of an ongoing series despite being billed as a limited series. I cannot divulge any spoilers, but I think some significant reveals in Ironheart will impact the MCU. Some are connections to earlier films, and others are introductions of new, long-awaited characters, all of which work nicely within the series. By dropping three episodes this week and the other three next week, I cannot help but feel like Marvel is dumping this series rather than giving it the space it needs. I like these characters, and the blending of magic and machine integrates two facets of the current MCU. Still, after years of hearing about this series, I was expecting more out of these episodes than we got. Ironheart is a fresh and well-made foray into a new locale and younger characters, but it is just good and not great, a descriptor that Marvel Studios and Disney really need right now.
Ironheart premieres with three episodes on June 24th on Disney+, followed by the remaining three on July 1st.
Source:
JoBlo.com
