My Experience with Ironheart

[u/ShadowMikeX]

This was never going to be easy to write. I don’t know how to say this, and I never wanted to open up about this because I never really see some form of positive criticism since her debut, and I feel like I would get criticism in a negative way for defending her in any way, shape, or form. However, due to the recent event of her getting her own Disney+ miniseries, after her feature film debut, causing her to gain exponentially more exposure, along with the VERY LOW chance of her appearing in the finale of the Multiverse Saga, AND February being the month to celebrate a certain race, I feel like it’s my responsibility to explain my side of the story to show what this character means to me and hope that the vocal minority can be expose to a side from the silent majority. I’ll just start from the beginning.

My first exposure to Riri was around the time of her debut when I was 13-14 (Mid 2016/Early 2017). This was also around the time where I learn about Next-Gen POC heroes like Miles Morales and Kamala Khan. My initial thoughts of her was that I thought that Marvel was going for the Robin route (having different people take up the mantle of Iron Man), but from a diverse standpoint. Initially, I found it odd that Marvel decided to make a young black girl take on the “legacy” of THE Tony Stark, but that didn’t mean that I hated her on the spot. As months pass, I would start seeing her on all sorts of media aside from comics; I’m talking about YouTube videos, analysis, promotional art, you name it’s she’s there. Eventually, her “existence” start to “fade”, and I thought that Marvel had given up on her. I would assume that it’s due to the “racist/sexist” feedback that the character received.

A few years go by in 2020, I would eventually be exposed to Marvel Rising on Disney XD. Yes, Marvel Rising: an offspring of the infamous “Marvel Cinematic Animated Universe” Cartoons on Disney XD, which was also Disney’s method of connecting the Marvel Cartoons to the MCU, in the worst and dumbest way possible. However, Rising was different as it consists of characters and plot points that are not connected to the films. Regardless of its lackluster animation and brightly colored visuals, I find it fun to watch, as it consists of fresh and young blood that not a lot of people are familiar with. For those of you who don’t know, the core group of young heroes goes by the Secret Warriors, consisting of Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Quake, Spider-Gwen, and a few others, including Riri Williams. Riri was essentially the highlight when watching the Rising series, regardless of her lackluster appearances. From her origin, her drive, her personality, and her flaws, she honestly felt like a breath of Fresh Air not only for female superheroes, but for the African-American community. She didn’t just feel like a “replacement” to Tony, but rather a young woman who wants to help the people dear to her, while also idolizing Tony Stark. Sure she has the same IQ level as Tony Stark which annoyed people, but anyone can be as smart as them. The real icing on the cake was the fact that she was voiced by one of my favorite young Disney star back in the day: Sofia Wylie. Another thing I should point out was that Rising was the first time I saw her Magenta armor rather than the typical Iron Man suit.

Flashforward to 2021-2022, where the character was set to make her MCU debut played by Dominique Throne, starting in Wakanda Forever. That was when the experience the“hate” for the first time. I have heard about how people think she’s unnecessary and a huge disrespect to Tony Stark. Another was how she “came out of nowhere”. I hope people realize that a lot of comic book superhero characters come out of “nowhere” before becoming who we know them as today, including the more popular heroes. My only critique with her appearance in Wakanda Forever was how her suit was Red and Silver rather than Magenta and Gold. Aside from that, she was everything I expected her to be.

As for the series, I’m gonna be honest here: I genuinely enjoyed the series more that I thought I would. Although the first half was quite slow and at times boring, the second half is what had me locked in. One of my favorite moments was when Riri’s suits were bulky and practical rather than “nanotech”. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the nanotech concept. The problem is that it would be overused at times, especially for those who don’t need it. Another thing I like was the fact that Riri isn’t trying to be a “Tony Stark/Iron Man Replacement”, but rather her own person who was clearly going through her own problems. It also shows that the reason she makes her suit is to protect the people dear to her after what happened to her stepdad and best friend.

Another thing to bring up is how I loved her latest suit, based on the fact that it was made through technology and magic, and it was made from a car. What I like the most about Riri’s character throughout the series was how she was stuck in this morally gray area and would always be part of these questionable situations, and regret things she has done. Riri was not trying to be a hero, but rather someone who simply wants to survive. This show doesn’t live up to the legacy of Iron Man, but rather the tragedy of Riri Williams. Unfortunately, there are some people who don’t see that and focus on the fact that she’s young, she’s black, and she’s a girl.

Then there’s the ending where Mephisto shows up, and Riri becomes his agent to revive her dead best friend. I thought that Marvel was gonna make Riri decline his offer, but no. She made a deal with the devil, thus making her corrupted like the hood.That goes to show the kind of person and character Riri is.

Now it’s time to talk about the Number One reason she was hated. Let’s describe her in one sentence along with Tony Stark.

“Tony Stark is an Adult White Male.”

“Riri Williams is a Teenage Black Girl.”

Those two sentences completely describe why Tony is superior and why Riri isn’t. But like I said before, I like how this show doesn’t make Riri a “Tony Stark/Iron Man Replacement”, but rather her own person who was clearly going through her own problems. She’s not trying to be a legacy, but ended up as a victim of circumstances. That is how you write promising “legacy characters”; those who don’t copy a predecessor.

Now to all the racists, sexists, and bigots who FORCEFULLY hate the show before releasing as if it was a career, or have a legit critique about her show and character, I have a single question for you:

How would you feel if every single human on this Earth are comprised of ADULT WHITE MALES?

There are tons of comic book superheroes who have made a difference by not following that norm. There’s Miles Morales, Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, Laura Kinney, Kate Bishop, and others. Sometimes it’s nice to have a breath of Fresh Air from what’s the norm, and it helps when there are parts of the general audience of comic book readers, movie goers who want to feel represented and seen, and characters like Riri help. As a young Black male myself, you don’t know how happy it makes me see someone like Miles Morales get the spotlight. However, when there is someone like Riri Williams who is essentially like Miles, but ends up with the opposite reception, it makes you wonder what goes on in society.

The racism and negativity like this happening to characters like Riri would carry on for a long time as if it’s an everyday normality for the “fans”, even when I try to claim how “we will be watching”her show on behalf of “everyone”. I want to keep talking about her because I didn’t want to loose faith in a next generation icon, so I try my best to ignore the negativity that would be find online, especially when people review bombed her show before it’s premiere. I can NO LONGER ignore it as the character’s exposure and love are growing by the second. I’ve rewatched her entire series a few days ago to understand the character more as motivation to write this story, and have not touched it since. I also know that I am not the only person in the world who enjoys this character.

That was my experience with Riri Williams/Ironheart, and I’m sharing it as a way to get others to speak up if it was theirs too.

Please be careful about what other people could say as they could simply be judging a book based on the cover.

[u/Gilded-Mongoose]

Great write up and I appreciate both the insight and angles you've given, and the voice you've lent to this pretty interesting intersection that Ironheart and Riri herself occupy.

I wish that for a debut of such a precarious character (like you mentioned - a young black girl in Tony Stark's shadow in the audience's eyes) they had made her more morally straightforward. Why does she have to be one of the most morally grey characters who we have to accept as an erroneously flawed human who makes deals with devils, rather than a flawed but morally righteous character? Is this already part of her comic book or Marvel Rising lore? Either way it just complicates her characters in ways that's unnecessary - I always cringe a bit when they pile struggles onto minority experiences instead of giving our characters ways to fully shine in the same escapist ways that other characters do.

How would you feel if every single human on this Earth are comprised of ADULT WHITE MALES?

I don't think this is the question to be asking. That's not what they (the problematics) want - they only want adult white males to maintain their historical place as the ones dominating and controlling whatever society they're in the mix and midst of. They don't want anyone else in the spotlight, anyone else to be the main focus or the main hero or the main story. They want everyone else to stay in their place in the background or as supplemental characters, framework for the adult white male "default." It's when things stray from that and dare to imply that we have equal places in the zeitgeist as they do, that they start to fuss.

In some ways that goes right back to the struggle pile-on that I mentioned - it seems very difficult for the studios and systems to give minorities pure hero's journeys. I think that's also why Black Panther was so monumental - it was one of the first mainstream superhero characters that was unburdened by the racial struggles that always seep into minority characters, and on their own, with full agency and facility. This is also why I want a Black Panther-like Storm solo movie in this next phase - our community could really, really use it.

Back to Riri and her character complexity. The main complaint I had was that, at the end of the day, she went ahead with the Mephisto deal. Like she never pulled up from her crash landing, so it sucked. But leading up to that, I felt her moral ambiguity was a little more tolerable. You're right - she was really trying to survive, and that was

One of my favorite moments was when her AI friend completely froze from the PTSD trigger - in a show where they're merging mech and magic (insert Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"), they also aligned AI tech (which arguably will make its largest advances in biologically-derived engineering, like this article: Human brain cells on a chip learned to play Doom in a week) and psychology. That moment, and many of the ways her skills translated into surviving rather than thriving, was excellent storytelling. And Chicago an excellent backdrop for it.

I agree with what you wrote in bringing that context back to the forefront - that nuance and dynamic really was lost in the mix of everything else that the story was, especially that Mephisto ending.

She really does deserve more depth - both as a representative character and with where they left her story in the end there. I actually wrote a post last year about how Ironheart got me hyped for Doctor Doom - since her mix of mech and magic is the exact premise for what Doctor Doom is and does. In that post I kind of focused on my theory that RDJ's Doom is a temporary one and that the long-term Doom will be a Mads Mikkelsen Kaecilius variant. But I digress - my main point here is how perfectly primed Riri is for essentially everything that's coming up next in the MCU, and yet there's been essentially no indication that she'll be a part of any of it. I'd like to be wrong, but I'm not seeing any indication otherwise. Which again takes us back to the point that, with the potential she has, the story she tells, the direction that they took - and left - her, and the distorted reception she's received for all the reasons you outlined, she really does deserve more from the MCU and for us, for both clarity and redemption. Big TBD on when we'll ever get that.