‘Ironheart’ Ended Strong, It Deserved Better Than This From Disney

InnovationGaming‘Ironheart’ Strong, It Deserved Better Than This From DisneyByPaul Tassi, Senior Contributor

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AuthorJul 03, 2025, 09:11am EDTIronheartMarvel While I wasn’t sold on the first three episodes of Ironheart when they aired last week, as reviews said, it really did pick up in the second half, and by the end, it dered on its potential

But the show and character deserved better than how Disney dered this series

The motion for Ironheart has been all over the place

Despite the fact that it was allegedly ready to air some time ago, Ironheart was released a full three years after Riri Williams had her high-file debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, when it should have been developed and aired much closer to that release

In addition to that, its late airing and focus on magic feels well outside anything that Marvel is currently doing, either on TV with its street-level punchy-shooty heroes Daredevil or Punisher, or its larger Fantastic Four/Avengers jects

I would be floored if Riri up in either

I was extremely impressed with Dominique Thorne as the lead here, who didn’t especially catch my eye with her appearance in Wakanda Forever but here, I thought she gave a charismatic, compelling performance in a way I feel I haven’t seen in one of these series since Iman Velani’s Ms

IronheartMarvel Ironheart was a grounded tale in the sense that it was focused on both grief and the subsequent anxiety it brings

I can’t say I’ve ever seen a hero actively have believable panic attacks in the Marvel universe before, and none of it felt forced

MORE FOR YOU Action-wise, it’s that this show has a larger budget than its viewership will justify, but its use of non-nano, mechanical suits is something that got lost in the MCU over time, and it was great to see it back

It would have been nice to see more than a single real suit fight, but alas, that’s where the budget kicks in, no doubt

The show struggled the most with its villain, The Hood, though his character got better by the end (his outfit, however, did not)

Easily the most MCU-significant moment of the series is finally the introduction of Mephisto after endless theorizing his appearance in past series WandaVision or Agatha All Along

Marvel decided to finally show him off here, and in more than just a post-credit tease or something along those lines

Sascha Baron Cohen may have seemed an odd choice for the part, but he was excellent

MephistoDisney But the way this show has been handled, despite being set up for a second season dealing with the aftermath of Riri’s deal with the devil, it seems almost certain nothing will come of this

There are no places where it feels Riri or Mephisto would be slotted into the larger MCU from here, given its current focus and its next phase being X-Men-based

Ironheart was dumped out in three-episode batches with little fanfare, too late after it should have aired, and seemingly with no large plans to plug these great new characters in anywhere else

Watch it, appreciate it, but I guess now we just move on

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy

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