Ironheart review: To talk about Ironheart, one must first talk about Ryan Coogler, the visionary who gave us the cultural phenomenon Black Panther, the director who recently stunned horror fans with Sinners, and one of the most vital Black storytellers working today. His ability to explore themes of identity, grief, legacy, and isolationism is unmatched. So when he introduced Riri Williams (aka Ironheart) in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it felt like the beginning of something special – a confident, promising setup. A young Black girl genius entering the world of high-tech superheroism? The possibilities were thrilling.
Now, four long years after being announced, her solo series Ironheart has finally arrived. But what should have been a landmark moment instead lands with a thud. The show squanders its potential so completely, one wonders if Marvel’s quality control department has also been snapped out of existence. What we get is a drag, a six-episode sludge of uninspired storytelling, barely-there character development, and thematic ambition so shallow it might as well be a TikTok trend.
Despite Coogler being attached as executive producer, this show feels less like a heartfelt superhero story and more like an algorithmically-generated content dump. Marvel seems to be kneeling to the demands of “second-screen culture,” –– except Ironheart isn’t even worthy of being your second screen. You might find yourself scrolling through Instagram and wondering if the characters on screen are doing the same.
Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams in Marvel’s new television series ‘Ironheart’
Written by Chinaka Hodge – with a different writer credited for nearly every episode – the show picks up with Riri post-Wakanda Forever. She’s been expelled from MIT and is now scraping together cash to finish an AI prototype “because she can.” A tragic backstory of her best friend Natalie and stepfather being killed in a drive-by shooting is introduced with such lazy shorthand – a flashback video, one brief confrontation – that any emotional weight evaporates. The show wants your investment but refuses to earn it.
Desperate for cash, Riri does what any teen genius would do (right?) –– joins a morally flexible heist crew led by Parker Robbins aka The Hood (Anthony Ramos, deeply underserved), a villain with secrets tucked under his, well, hood. The crew is, of course, a bland mix of archetypes – tech guy, muscle, wildcard – with no discernible personalities. Their ambitions float somewhere between Ocean’s Eleven and The Sopranos, as Riri herself notes, but without any of the style or substance.
To prepare for their first job, Riri whips up a fully-functional Ironheart suit overnight (because, why not) and an AI which takes the form of her dead best friend Natalie (think Robot Chitti in AI form, just more annoying and less useful). Much of the show operates with the tone of “let’s cosplay as criminals, kids!” The plot moves in aimless directions – Riri working jobs for The Hood, Natalie’s AI consciousness nagging her to stop, Riri refusing because she “needs the money.” At one point, Natalie scolds her: “You don’t care, ‘cause you only seeing money.” Replace Riri with Marvel Studios and Natalie with disillusioned fans, and you have the thesis of the entire series.
Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams and Lyric Ross as Natalie in Ironheart
There’s a frustrating amount of redundancy in the storytelling, which eventually wears you down. And while the finale finally lifts the quality slightly, it’s not enough to redeem five episodes of tedious buildup. Yes, there’s a mysterious puppet-master reveal in the last episode, which might tease something bigger, but at this point, it just feels like Marvel is trying to trick fans into thinking they’re still invested.
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Riri’s circle also includes her mother Ronnie Williams, Natalie’s brother Xavier, and Joe McGillicuddy (a wasted Alden Ehrenreich), who supplies her tech and ends up being more relevant as the show progresses. That said, none of them are fleshed out beyond the bullet points on a writer’s whiteboard. Ehrenreich, who proved himself in Fair Play and even played young Han Solo, deserves better. So does Ramos, who lights up In the Heights and Hamilton, but is stuck here mumbling threats with the menace of a soggy sandwich.
The show tries to touch on grief, community, and Black resilience, but it fumbles all of it. You can feel the intention – the Coogler DNA is faintly present – but the execution is so bland, so hollow, that it ends up feeling like a cheap cosplay of real storytelling. A show that seems written by ChatGPT’s less-talented cousin, with plotlines that feel like they were assembled by a committee that only skimmed the Wikipedia summary of Iron Man and Agatha All Along.
Ironheart trailer:
What’s truly upsetting isn’t just that Ironheart is bad, it’s that it’s being handed to Gen Alpha as a representation of what Marvel is now. This is what they’ll grow up thinking superhero storytelling looks like.
You know what’s bad? Having to tell Ironheart to take notes from Ms. Marvel. That’s how far we’ve fallen.
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You know what’s worse? Realising Marvel believes we deserve this.
Ironheart
Ironheart Cast – Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross, Alden
Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah
Ironheart Director – Sam Bailey, Angela Barnes
Ironheart Rating – 1.5/5
