‘Ironheart’ Ended Strong, It Deserved Better Than This From Disney

While I wasn’t sold on the first three episodes of Ironheart when they aired last week, as reviews said, it really did pick up in the second half, and by the end, it delivered on its potential. But the show and character deserved better than how Disney delivered this series.

The promotion for Ironheart has been all over the place. Despite the fact that it was allegedly ready to air some time ago, Ironheart was released a full three years after Riri Williams had her high-profile debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, when it should have been developed and aired much closer to that release. In addition to that, its late airing and focus on magic feels well outside anything that Marvel is currently doing, either on TV with its street-level punchy-shooty heroes like Daredevil or Punisher, or its larger Fantastic Four/Avengers projects. I would be floored if Riri ended up in either.

I was extremely impressed with Dominique Thorne as the lead here, who didn’t especially catch my eye with her appearance in Wakanda Forever but here, I thought she gave a charismatic, compelling performance in a way I feel like I haven’t seen in one of these series since Iman Velani’s Ms. Marvel.

Ironheart was a grounded tale in the sense that it was focused on both grief and the subsequent anxiety it brings. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a hero actively have believable panic attacks in the Marvel universe before, and none of it felt forced.

Action-wise, it’s clear that this show has a larger budget than its viewership will justify, but its use of non-nanotech, mechanical suits is something that got lost in the MCU over time, and it was great to see it back. It would have been nice to see more than a single real suit fight, but alas, that’s where the budget kicks in, no doubt.

The show struggled the most with its villain, The Hood, though his character got better by the end (his outfit, however, did not). Easily the most MCU-significant moment of the series is finally the introduction of Mephisto after endless theorizing about his appearance in past series like WandaVision or Agatha All Along. Marvel decided to finally show him off here, and in more than just a post-credit tease or something along those lines. Sascha Baron Cohen may have seemed like an odd choice for the part, but he was excellent.

But the way this show has been handled, despite being set up for a second season dealing with the aftermath of Riri’s deal with the devil, it seems almost certain nothing will come of this. There are no places where it feels like Riri or Mephisto would be slotted into the larger MCU from here, given its current focus and its next phase being X-Men-based.

Ironheart was dumped out in three-episode batches with little fanfare, too late after it should have aired, and seemingly with no large plans to plug these great new characters in anywhere else. That’s a shame. Watch it, appreciate it, but I guess now we just move on.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.