Ironheart: Season 1

Cast View all

	Anthony Ramos Martinez	Parker Robbins
	Dominique Thorne	Riri Williams
	Zoe Terakes	Jeri
	Lyric Ross	N.A.T.A.L.I.E.
	Alden Ehrenreich	Joe McGillicuddy
	Manny Montana	Cousin John
	Shakira Barrera	Roz
	Matthew Elam	Xavier
	Sonia Denis	Clown
	Anji White	Ronnie Williams
	Jaren Merrell	Slug
	Eric André	Rampage
	Harper Anthony	Landon
	Paul Calderon	CEO of Artworks
	Laroyce Hawkins	Gary Williams
	Tanya Christiansen	Heather
	Tom Cohan	Art's Security Guard #1
	Alyse Elna Lewis	Young Riri
	Regan Aliyah	Zelma
	Sacha Baron Cohen	Mephisto
	Cree Summer	Madeline
	Sheila Vossough	Sheila Zarate
	Jonathan Cook	Lab Security Guard #1
	Natasha Forouzannia	Young Engineer
	Judy Hsu	Reporter #1

Crew View all

Director	Samantha Bailey
	Angela Barnes Gomes
Writer	Chinaka Hodge, Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato Jr., Jim Starlin, Malarie Howard, Francesca Gailes, Jacqueline Gailes, Amir Sulaiman, Cristian Martinez
Producer	Sev Ohanian, Brad Winderbaum, Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Evans, Louis D'Esposito, Francesca Gailes, Jacqueline Gailes, Amir Sulaiman, Cristian Martinez, Kevin Feige, Sarah Finn, Ethan Smith, Chinaka Hodge, Zoie Nagelhout, Eve L. Ewing, Malarie Howard, Robert Kulzer, Kelsey Lew, Cristian Martinez
Musician	Dara Taylor
Photography	Ante Cheng, Alison Kelly

Edition details

Personal

Notes

My quick rating - 3.6/10. Ironheart is the kind of Marvel show that makes you wish Tony Stark had never bothered to invent a damn suit in the first place. It follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a supposed genius teenage inventor who’s crafted the most advanced armor since Iron Man himself, at least that’s what the characters keep saying. Over and over. Because heaven forbid the show actually show us Riri’s brilliance instead of hammering it into our skulls with constant, breathless praise.

There are so many things wrong with this series that it’s hard to know where to start. Let’s go with the most glaring: Riri is completely unlikable. And not in that interesting anti-hero way where you’re supposed to be conflicted. No, she’s just rude, dismissive, and downright unpleasant to her friends and family, to the point where you start rooting for the villain to put her in her place. This isn’t a knock on Dominique Thorne, who tries her best with the script. It’s purely a writing problem; the series doesn’t give her a single redeeming quality to latch onto. Her genius? Only evident because the show won’t shut up about it.

Then there’s the baffling usage of Natalie (Lyric Ross), Riri’s deceased friend, who gets accidentally resurrected as a holographic A.I. You’d think they’d take the logical approach and have her serve as Riri’s “Jarvis,” tied directly to the suit. But no, Natalie just pops up wherever is most convenient for the scene— wandering around like an actual ghost until the show remembers she’s digital and poof, she evaporates into pixel dust. It’s all clumsy emotion with zero coherent tech logic.

And what happened to Wakanda’s interest in Riri? They brought her into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, treated her like the next world-changing figure, then… promptly forgot she existed. Apparently the most technologically advanced nation on Earth couldn’t be bothered to keep tabs on the super prodigy they once risked everything to protect.

Anthony Ramos gives a perfectly serviceable turn as Parker, the villain, but it’s hard to care whether he succeeds or fails when neither outcome seems to matter much. Honestly, if he’d managed to blast Riri into scrap metal halfway through, I’d have simply shrugged.

Visually, the series looks sharp. The suits, the effects, the slick tech overlays, they’re all top-tier Marvel fare. But that’s where the compliments end. The show’s one intriguing thread shows up in its final moments: the introduction of Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen), a character comic fans like me know from countless devilish storylines. Too bad he crawled out of hell to make his live-action debut in what’s easily Marvel’s most forgettable series to date.

Here’s hoping they quietly let this misfire rust into obscurity. As for me, I’ll just pretend Ironheart never happened until Mephisto pops back up somewhere that’s actually worth watching.

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