‘Ironheart' Review: Dominique Thorne Soars in Marvel's Solid Wakanda-Inspired Spinoff

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Late in 'Ironheart,' during a bad guy's menacing monologue, our villain doesn't like what he's hearing from one of his henchman. A recent mission was completed a little too quickly, and the ensuing explanation isn't ringing true. 'You know what this story lacks?,' the Big Bad tells his lying goon. 'Drama. And a story with no drama, no emotion, no detail — it lacks believability.'
The Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't exactly thrive on believability, either — nor should it. These are superheroes! They fly through the sky, travel to other dimensions, and battle with gods. But lately, they haven't done well with drama. Portraying personal- and galactic-level crises through spectacle used to be Kevin Feige & Co.'s speciality — sewing so much turmoil that not only did each new movie/mission feel momentous, but it could extend and twist through satisfying sequels and side characters, trilogies and team-ups. Now, the MCU struggles to sustain enough energy for a single outing, let alone whatever comes after Phase Five.
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'Ironheart' isn't going to fix those issues, nor does it reverse a few unfortunate trademarks of MCU's TV offerings. The six-episode limited series feels like a long movie broken into arbitrary episodes, its ending is mired by digital gobbledygook, and Marvel still doesn't know how magic makes sense in a universe ruled by advanced technology and literal gods. But head writer Chinaka Hodge does right by her characters' emotions and the surrounding details, rooting her MCU entry in a dynamically conflicted lead, an affecting lead performance to match, and a strong sense of place, be it the city of Chicago or our hero's home there.
After so many MCU entries biffed the basics, 'Ironheart' is a nice reminder that good drama is still enough to help a Marvel series take flight.
Meet Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne)— OK, wait. Technically, you may have already met her, since she co-starred in 2022's 'Black Panther' sequel, 'Wakanda Forever.' But since 'Ironheart' doesn't feel like homework — aka, it doesn't make you feel bad about forgetting a side character's arc from a movie you haven't watched in over two years — let's take our cue from the series and reintroduce her, sans nagging.
Riri is an exceedingly brilliant MIT student who's nevertheless about to be expelled. She wants to be the 'greatest inventor of her generation,' better even than Tony Stark (whom she calls Mr. Stark out of deference to a fallen hero), but since she's not a billionaire, she needs to work that much harder to bring her ideas to life. On one hand, that means pushing the school's equipment past its limits (which, in the latest trial run, caused an on-campus explosion). On the other hand, it means earning her own money to procure what she needs, make what she wants, and own what she makes — and the quickest way to earn money when you're a hyper-intelligent grinder surrounded by dumb-dumbs with rich parents is to 'help' her fellow students get good grades.
So yes, when 'Ironheart' starts, Riri is kicked out of college for causing numerous accidents and helping kids cheat on their homework. No matter. She's not interested in getting her degree so she can snag a cushy desk job at a nameless corporation or teach classes to youths who don't actually give a shit about science. She's already built another (super-)powered exoskeleton (a la Mr. Stark's) — a prototype of sorts she hopes can 'revolutionize safety' by providing speed and protection to first responders, firefighters, and more do-gooders — and she flies it out of Cambridge all the way to Chicago, her (home) sweet home.
There, her mother Ronnie (Anji White) isn't exactly thrilled to hear what she's been up to — 'That damn suit again. … Why do you insist on building your own death trap?' — but she's still generally supportive, in part, because Riri is still grieving. Before she left for college, her step-dad and best friend were both killed, and our lone-wolf hero hasn't exactly dealt with either loss. Instead, she stays hyper-focused on her science project, which leads her to Parker (Anthony Ramos).
Now, we know Parker is bad news from the jump because he's introduced while his team breaks into a fancy mansion to steal a secret 'asset' — that, and he goes by 'Hood' because he likes to wear a weird hooded cape thing — and Riri should clock his dicey vibes, too. (That hood is… hideous.) But when she's recruited to replace a subpar colleague (Eric Andre, for some reason), Parker promises they don't hurt people, the money is great, and there's a twisted sense of justice to what they're doing.
Ethics asserts itself as a definitive theme when Riri goes hunting for gear to complete her near-functional suit and comes across Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich), a self-described 'tech ethicist' who also happens to horde black market electronics. Just as his dubious surname evokes doubts about his real identity, Joe's outward-facing persona doesn't exactly line up with his dangerous hobby. He is, to put it nicely, a white, millennial, beta suburbanite. He's extremely sensitive (crying just because he needs to cry), casually racist (assuming Riri is an 'under-privileged youth'), and easily intimidated. Joe doesn't build anything with his impressive accumulation of tech goods — he's even wary of touching his own contraptions — which makes him Riri's ideal supplier and, you would think, her moral sentry.
As Riri helps out with Parker's mysterious quest, she's forced to repeatedly reckon with the ramifications of her own brilliance. The suit has a way of turning well-intentioned theories into complicated realities, which challenges her to rethink her approach to saving the world. Much like Tony Stark before her, Riri's ambition can overtake her common sense, and avoiding traumatic memories only further isolates her focus.
At first, the ends justify the means: Just like in college, when the money she made from helping others cheat on assignments went toward a suit meant to save countless lives, Riri believes stealing from a few Chicago fat-cats is fine, so long as she uses the filched funds for the greater good. But as each gig ups the risks along with the rewards, Riri faces increasingly pressing moral quandaries until she can't run away from them any longer.
It's hard to say more without getting into the premiere episode's big twist, but even though 'Ironheart' isn't fully equipped to wrestle with the ethical arguments it introduces, the show's accessible approach still makes room for generalized lessons to sink in. Better yet, since it's focused on a twenty-something who's still coming into her own, her obviously misguided partnership with Parker is easier to forgive: She's still figuring things out, and Thorne embodies Riri's gradual growth with a potent blend of juvenile bullheadedness and aching vulnerability. Her losses sit right under the surface, and even though 'Ironheart' is a lot of fun, it never loses sight of the wayward soul going through a particularly difficult coming-of-age in a particularly difficult world.
Thorne is the main reason to invest in Riri, just as Ramos gives greater dimension to Parker than his trimmed-down arc allows. The rest of the cast creates a convincing family, given and found, around our hero, and there are details aplenty that help the show stick: Jokes are peppered in consistently enough to recognize each character as much more than a vehicle for exposition. The soundtrack (courtesy of music supervisors Dave Jordan and Trygge Toven) avoids the obvious options while shaping a cohesive refrain. Real locations in Chicago help ground Riri's history in a distinct time and place. Each title card gets its own clever little flourish, the MCU tie-ins are kept to a bare minimum, and there are a handful of action set-pieces that come alive because of where the fighting goes down. (Riri often uses her STEM skills to build weapons out of found objects, which makes for a memorable fracas in a White Castle.)
Given that 'Ironheart' is already being billed as a limited series and Marvel seems to be moving away from small-screen superhero stories, what should be a first season that only gets better is more than likely a flawed season that never gets a chance to grow. If that doesn't sum up the MCU's back-asswards approach to TV, nothing will, but this particular ending may actually be better for being cut off at the knees. (Just wait 'til you see it.) For once, instead of watching to make sure you understand what's going on in the movies, 'Ironheart' is worth watching to make sure you don't miss out on the messy little wonder that's right in front of you.
'Ironheart' premieres Tuesday, June 24 at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+ with three episodes. The final three episodes will be released Tuesday, July 1.
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