Ironheart: Riri Williams Deserved Better Than Iron Man’s Shadow

Legacy has become an integral kernel of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s storytelling since the Infinity Saga concluded with Avengers: Endgame in 2019. New heroes have suited up to replace their predecessors and save the franchise from its drawn out identity crisis as the original Avengers – that they’d built a 21-film franchise upon – retired. 

Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) is the latest victim to the burden of succession. It’s been three years since the teenage genius first hustled her way onto the scene in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as an MIT student who built a vibranium detector for a class project and caught the eye of Wakanda’s resident scientist super inventor Shuri (Letitia Wright). 

When she first took flight on the silver screen, Riri had a notable spark and sass as an upcoming leader in her field. Confident in her abilities, Riri offered a young, fresh energy to the film, which many were hoping would translate into her standalone series.  

In Ironheart, Riri’s identity shifts as parallels are made between her and the former iron-suit inventor in the franchise, Tony Stark. Similar to Stark’s early days in the MCU, Riri struggles with her mental health, adopting a single-minded obsession with modifying the suit whatever the cost. 

Yet, Riri isn’t afforded the same charisma, playfulness, or charm that Stark possesses, which strengthen and balance the audience’s investment in a more three-dimensional character. It’s hard to root for a character who shows no signs of remorse for abusing her skills to “lie, cheat, and manipulate” people, as Zeke Stane (Alden Ehrenreich) says, for her own personal gain. 

Even by the end of Iron Man, Stark has a significant redemption arc as he toes the line between good and evil and finally takes a definitive stance as a force for good, imploding his own billion-dollar business in the process. While Riri is billed as a wannabe superhero without billion-dollar backing, she consistently acts only for her own self-interest with little to no signs of hero material, even in the brief CGI battles. 

There’s a constant element of comparison that isn’t as prevalent in other comparable passing-of-the-torch Marvel series such as Hawkeye or Ms. Marvel, to the extent that Stark becomes a looming presence and notable absence to the series that leaves the audience waiting for his arrival – which never comes. 

If the focus had been on Riri’s journey out of the self-destructive elements of her grief, to finding more passion, joy and purpose through her revolutionary suit, she would have made more of an impact in her own right. 

In the comics, Riri has a similar backstory to the miniseries as before she reverse engineers her own spin on Stark’s iron amor. Once the prototype is up and running, she takes flight testing her suits capabilities and stops any criminals that cross her path. Riri becomes a hero in her own right and catches the attention of Stark to team up with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. 

In Ironheart, Riri loses all sense of curiosity in her abilities and the impact they could have, alongside the empathy and heroism she demonstrates in Wakanda Forever. Even in the MCU’s heavier series such as WandaVision, there are moments of light relief and self-reflection to break through the red-rage-hex that Wanda has produced in her grief. 

There’s no sense that Riri ends the series with more clarity on her position in the MCU or as a hero either. Riri deserved better than being positioned as Stark’s successor and being weighed down with the responsibilities and expectations of filling a billionaire philanthropist’s shoes, before the age of 21. 

The MCU arguably already lined up whizz-kid Peter Parker as Stark’s prodigy too (even if his internship was fake) as their relationship and shared interest in science and technology led to close collaborations and Stark even coming out of his off-grid existence to snap the blipped world back to life. 

Riri might fly the suit, but she’s lacking the playfulness and moral compass that heroes need to ground the show in any reality and motivate the audience to invest in them. If Riri returns, it has to be on her own terms, as a genius in her own right who serves as more than a bridge to prop up someone else’s legacy.

All six episodes of Ironheart are available to stream on Disney+ now.