Performance Review: Ironheart

Ironheart is the twelfth live-action series from Marvel Studios and Marvel Television produced for Disney+. With the first three episodes now available on the streamer, it culminates a five-year journey to the screen for the show, which was first announced in December 2020.

Early the following year, Chinaka Hodge (self-described as primarily a poet recently on The Official Marvel Podcast) was hired to create the show and serve as showrunner. Hodge also wrote the first and last episodes of the series. Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and his production company, Proximity Media, co-produced the show alongside Marvel Studios.

Dominique Thorne was cast in the titular role as Riri Williams/Ironheart when the show was announced in 2020. She had previously tested with Marvel Studios for the role of Shuri in 2018’s Black Panther. Thorne debuted Riri Williams in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Riri’s comics debut came only six years before that, in “Invincible Iron Man Vol. 2 #7” written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Mike Deodato. Hodge praised Bendis’s introduction of the character during her interview on The Official Marvel Podcast, but clarified that the show’s story draws more from Eve Ewing’s 2018 solo “Ironheart” series, which ran for 12 issues. Ewing is a consulting producer on the show.

The show was primarily filmed in 2022, first in Chicago and later in Atlanta. However, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes in 2023, along with an overhaul of Marvel Television, left the show in limbo until a release date was finally announced late last year. I have had the opportunity to see all six episodes of the series for this review.

Mild spoilers may follow.

MIND STONE: When we meet Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she is a 19-year-old college student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. Ironheart begins with Riri being expelled from MIT and returning home to Chicago. We learn about her tragic backstory and the relationships that led to her interest in Tony Stark and her inspiration for building the Ironheart armor. Hodge establishes this in the first episode, and then a host of other writers (Malerie Howard, Francesca & Jacqueline Gailes, Amir Sulaiman, and Christian Martinez) take the ball from there. Riri also meets Parker Robbins, AKA The Hood (Anthony Ramos), in the premiere, and the second and third episodes are built around Robin Hood-esque heists perpetrated by Riri, Parker, and his crew. The back half of the season shifts the focus towards Riri’s quest to figure out the origin and powers behind Parker’s hood. The writing is consistently fine across the series. The scripts, on their own, may not be award-winning, but the performances help elevate everything. Each of the final three episodes features big reveals that I will not spoil here, and the finale will leave audiences hoping for more.

REALITY STONE: I believe that Dominique Thorne was unfairly maligned for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, taking the blame for a script that utilized her as a MacGuffin in the second and third acts, thus souring some fans on her performance in her earlier scenes at MIT. I am happy to report that she is fantastic here. Thorne is Riri Williams in the same way that Iman Vellani is Kamala Khan and Hailee Steinfeld is Kate Bishop. She exudes charisma and shows her range as an actor across these six episodes.

A great lead is only as good as the cast around them, and Ironheart boasts a strong supporting cast. Lyric Ross, who plays Riri’s artificial intelligence N.A.T.A.L.I.E., has an easy chemistry with Thorne, and their scenes together are some of the show’s best. Alden Ehrenreich enters in the second episode as a black market arms dealer named Joe McGillicuddy, infusing what could be a one-note character with a surprising amount of depth.

Anthony Ramos delivers a solid, if unspectacular, turn as Parker Robbins, AKA The Hood. He does his best work in the back half of the season. The Hood’s crew, led by Cousin John (Manny Montana), Slug (Shea Coulee), the Blood Siblings Jeri and Roz (Zoe Terakes and Shakira Barrera, respectively), Clown (Sonia Denis), and Rampage/Stuart (Eric Andre), all have their moments and collectively provide some of the show’s funnier moments. Regan Aliyah arrives in episode four, playing a character I won’t reveal here, and brings a fun, new energy in her interactions with Thorne.

For the most part, this show looks good. There are a few scenes where it becomes clear that this is a show with a Disney+ budget versus a movie with a feature budget. But the show nails the most important element- Riri’s Ironheart suits. Gone are the nanotech suits used primarily by Tony Stark late in the Infinity Saga, replaced by a largely practical suit that calls back to Tony’s original suits in 2008’s Iron Man. The difference is notable. Riri spends most of the series in what I am calling her Mark IV armor, and it is easily my favorite of the three suits she wears during the series.

POWER STONE: Ironheart is not an action-heavy show. The action scenes in the early episodes are largely forgettable, but that changes in the fifth episode. Riri has a confrontation that is staged entirely in a White Castle restaurant. The Ironheart production team constructed the entire White Castle set from the ground up on a vacant lot in Atlanta just for these scenes, and it pays off.

The scene from the trailers where Ironheart flips a truck in the middle of the street looks awesome on-screen. The climactic showdown in the finale, while brief, is one of the stronger action set pieces in the show.

TIME STONE: One of the major criticisms of earlier Disney+ MCU shows was that the pacing of episodes made them feel like a “six-hour movie”, rather than true episodic television. Agatha All Along and Daredevil: Born Again started to reverse that trend, and Ironheart continues down that new path. Episodes are well-paced and given room to breathe. There are several significant reveals spread out across the season.

My only lament is that the final three episodes are debuting together on July 1st, rather than individually over three weeks. Be forewarned- you will want to avoid social media at all costs until you have had the opportunity to finish the final three episodes.

SPACE STONE: Sam Bailey (Dear White People) directs the first block of Ironheart episodes, and Angela Barnes (Atlanta) directs the second block. I was impressed by how both directors captured the city of Chicago, a first-time location within the MCU.

While I enjoyed all six episodes to varying degrees, I give a slight edge to Barnes’ work during the back half of the season. She adds a few nice flourishes- the camera rotating 360 degrees during one jailhouse scene, a clever optical flip in episode four, and a blink-and-you-miss-it reflection in a spoon in the finale (shoutout to the cinematographer of the final three episodes, Alison Kelly, as well). It is easy to see why Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are bringing Barnes in to direct episodes of the second season of Daredevil: Born Again.

SOUL STONE: Marvel Television executive Brad Winderbaum said in a recent featurette that Ironheart is about what happens when you pit magic vs. technology. Riri Williams is a tech genius, but when she encounters The Hood, she is forced to confront something that she can’t explain. This leads the show in some interesting directions and forces Riri into some difficult choices.

The show is about much more than that, though. Like many Multiverse Saga projects, Riri is still dealing with the grief and guilt that stems from the personal tragedy that led her to create the Ironheart suit. Riri is far from perfect, and the ramifications of her decisions early in the season lead her on an unexpected journey culminating in a life-altering decision she must make in the finale.

FINAL VERDICT: Ironheart is such an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. Years after filming, and released with relatively little fanfare, the show delivers on nearly all fronts. Dominique Thorne rises to the occasion, supported by Lyric Ross, Anthony Ramos, and many others to make this show stand out. The series also features a great soundtrack, an eclectic mix that includes everything from Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” to Saweetie’s “Best Friend” (featuring Doja Cat). The creative team takes some big swings here, and enough of them land to make this show stand out from a crowded middle tier of MCU Disney+ shows.

8/10

-Greg