Ironheart
Riri Williams is a Marvel character who is so new that I have not read any comics that feature her. I did see her guest appearance in Wakanda Forever, but that didn’t tell me much. Ironheart is a 6-episode series that focuses just on Riri, so we get to know her much better.
The basic story is that Riri is a girl genius who can build iron man style suits as well or better than Tony Stark. However, due to being a) a teenager, b) Black, and c) not a neo-baby, she has to finance her work herself. The film opens with her getting expelled from MIT for charging her fellow students to write their essays for them, and she has to go back to Chicago to live with her mom, Ronnie.
The backstory is that, when Riri was a kid, she was caught in a random drive-by shooting. She survived, but her step-father, Gary, and best friend, Natalie, were both killed. All very Batman. When Riri tries to use her own memories to train an AI for her suit, she ends up accidentally creating an AI version of Natalie, which does not go down well with the family.
Having no money, Riri falls for the same trap as many other Black kids in Chicago: she gets involved in a criminal gang. As gangs go, they are pretty ethical. They major in robbing techbro oligarchs. But their leader, Parker, is altogether more sinister. It is clear that he is mixed up I some bad sorcery shit. Before long, Riri is in deep trouble.
Something that I noticed early on in the series is that Ironheart gives off a similar vibe to reading a Nalo Hopkinson novel. That is, it is clearly set in a culture that I have little experience and knowledge of. People are sometimes going to behave in ways that seem odd to me, but it have to take it as read that this is an authentic portrayal of Black Chicago culture. I’m certainly not in a position to notice if it isn’t.
A much more serious issue is that Riri is clearly not well suited to the superhero life. She’s very young, has an inflated view of her own competence, routinely lies to adults because they are adults, and generally gets herself into terrible situations. Frankly she’s lucky to get out of the series without either ending up in goal or getting killed. On the one hand, that’s probably a fair representation of a teenage genius with little life experience. On the other, there’s no way that would have been done to a male character in the same situation. Miles Morales is the closest parallel, and he gets a much softer ride in his movies.
There are two things I really like about the series. The first is Ronnie. As moms of superheroes go, she is absolutely ace. There should be more moms like that in the world. The other is Zelma Stanton.
As I understand it, Zelma is another example of the MCU taking a minor character and doing something great with her. In the comics she has a role as a sometime pupil of Doctor Strange who is based in New Orleans. Ironheart moves her to Chicago and makes her a genius teen sorceress – a magical counterpart to Riri’s technical ability.
The mixture of high tech and sorcery is a bold one, and it is unclear as yet just how well it will work. However, Regan Aliyah as Zelma has undeniable screen presence. I’m pleased that the final episode made it clear that Riri’s story is far from being done, and that Zelma will have a major part in it going forward.
Structurally the series makes some contestable choices. I understand why the script-writers chose to keep Parker’s backstory secret until late on in the series, but he is such an uninteresting character before that. It could have done with more teasing, I think.
The other thing that is kept secret right until the end is the nature of the Big Bad who is using Parker as a tool. That worked much better. And the choice of Sacha Baron Cohen to play the part is another of those genius pieces of casting for which the MCU is deservedly famous.