When I first heard about Ironheart, I thought it might just be another spin-off trying to ride the waves of Black Panther or Iron Man.
I first caught wind of Ironheart through Marvel chatter. After Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, I loved Riri Williams’s raw determination, so when I saw she’d get her own series, I was so curious about this movie. But what truly pulled me in was the trailer showing her back in Chicago, tinkering with armor, and reanimating a lost friend via AI. It felt fresh, emotional, techy—exactly what superhero stories need now.
So I dove in.
And wow... Ironheart was not only above my expectations but gave me a spark of something more. It was not a superhero film. It was an identity, loss, genius, burden of legacy, story before youth has a chance to breathe.
The superhero movies tend to be bigger than life. An explosion, a villain, a billionaire, gods, alien attacks- it is what you are used to. I did not come seeking that though. I needed the reality. I wanted to see somebody who looked like us, somebody who fought like us, loved like us, struggled like us.
And Ironheart provided me with Riri Williams: not only a genius, a Black girl who tries to make her way in a world that either fears her, underestimates her, or attempts to exploit her.
Now, about Riri.
She is just 19.
Ironheart presents us with a genius inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) who managed to create her own version of Iron Man when she was still in MIT. Having been expelled after a reckless side hustle, she goes back home to Chicago, where she mourns the untimely loss of her stepfather Gary and her best friend Natalie, and the pain is what she overcomes by focusing on her job.
Her journey goes into the moral grey when she gets acquainted with Parker Robbins or The Hood (Anthony Ramos), a magical gang of robbers that targets the rich. He lures Riri by promising to pay money to complete her suit and she reluctantly gets involved with it, with ambition in her mind but the darkness of magic starts to haunt her.
Meanwhile, Riri uses her best friend’s essence to build an AI companion, N.A.T.A.L.I.E., blending tech and grief in a way both poignant and unsettling.
Over six tightly-paced episodes, Riri must understand who she is beyond her suit, confront her grief, and define her moral code—while tech clashes with magic and MCU lore propels them into a new realm.
Riri does not work to save the world to be noticed. She doesn't care about fame. She is trying to defend the neighborhood, her people, her origins. She is doing it under the constant underestimation of people who look at her skin color over her brilliance.
What fascinated me most was her rawness. You had to look into the eyes and see the vulnerability that would come every time she asked the question, was she good enough? Nevertheless, she persevered, she continued to fight and continued to appear.
We need a superhero like that.
The way Ironheart integrates tech and emotion is one of the most impressive features of this series. The scenes of engineering are amazing Riri creates an AI, turns scraps into weapons, and alters flight dynamics on a thought level, it is thrilling.
But that is not what sticks in your mind.
It is the silence of moments that remain. Riri on the grave of her father. Riri crying in the lab because something is not going on. Riri going through an old letter by Tony Stark left behind as an inheritance she never sought.
You start to understand: her biggest fight is not with the villain (though the antagonist, Ezekiel Stane, is a very complicated character). It goes against skepticism. Against fear. In opposition to the question that every young individual yells inside his/her head: Am I enough?
And when she does take off in that last skirmish, and drifts over the city in her red and chrome suit, all the doubts seem to be evaporating in the flames of the engine.
She has been referred to as the next Iron Man by people. However, that is not the case with Ironheart.
This is not Tony Stark version 2.0.
Initially I had the thought that Riri was trying to take the position that Iron Man holds but Riri is not out to replace Iron Man. She desires to characterize herself. That is what is beautiful about the movie. It leaves her room to acknowledge the legacy as she cuts her name in it.
It happens in a flick of the moment, too subtle yet strong, when she gazes at her reflection in the visor of the suit. She is not smiling. She does not feel confident. But you can sense the fire in her eyes.
That is when I felt: this is not a coming-of-age film. It is a movie of coming-into-power. Riri is not trying to become a shadow of somebody. She is creating her armour, her suffering, her own vision, her own fire.
And that is revolutionary.
It is not only Riri that makes Ironheart memorable but the world that brought her up.
The movie is not afraid of the reality. It presents to us a colorful violent Chicago. It puts us in the nooks of societies where children are killed by stray bullets, where mothers hope their sons will make it back home at night, where talent like that of Riri is either overlooked or used.
The beauty is in the manner in which the movie pays tribute to her origins. Riri is not detached to her culture, she is informed by her culture. Her mother, her best friend Natalie, the old mechanic who taught her a lesson, they all lend soul to the story.
It is not Wakanda. It is not an imaginary world. It is the world of ours. That is why the victory is even more impressive.
I felt represented after reading Ironheart. I was a young Black viewer and I did not see just a superhero. I witnessed an icon of what it takes to live on fire.
Riri taught me that pain is not a qualifier of greatness, it is usually the energizer. She demonstrated to me that intelligence and emotion are not conflicting, but they are friends. And she told me that underestimation is not a curse. It is a difficult task.
It even features one of the moments when I literally felt chills, where Riri outwits Stane using a decoy AI and dodges a missile before rebooting her system in the air in the final act. Not due to the special effects, but because I saw: she did this. Out of fragments she made her wings.
And we can too.
Ironheart is more than a superhero movie. It’s a declaration.
It says: brilliance doesn’t need permission. Strength doesn’t always roar. And identity, no matter how complex, is something worth protecting.
If you’ve ever felt too young, too overlooked, too lost to matter—watch Ironheart. Let Riri remind you that your story doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. You don’t need to be a billionaire or a god to make a difference. You just need heart.
Because sometimes, the strongest armor… is the one you build yourself.
**Thumbnail is designed by me on pixelLab and other images are screenshot from the movie
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