Marvel Television has been on quite a heater when it comes to shows lately. Daredevil: Born Again, Agatha All Along, and Echo all ranged from absolutely excellent to quite good. Their latest effort Ironheart looks to shine the spotlight on another unsung hero, Riri Williams. If you don’t recognize the name, go back and rewatch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She made her first appearance there and now she’s got her own series going on Disney+ starting on June 24th.

This review will only be specifc for the first three episodes of the series, as that’s what the premiere is. The rest of the series, episodes 4, 5, and 6 are QUITE spoilerific, so we didn’t want to spoil anything that people wouldn’t see on the first night. We’ll have more discussion of those episodes as they air, but there will be an overall discussion in this review, without any spoilers, that’s mainly about the structure of the series, so be wary of that.

As for the first three episodes, they start off with a bang, and continue with some nice character development all around. The series follows Riri (played by Dominique Thorne) who is a genius inventor that gets into some trouble with a group that is experts in theft and other crimes. Riri has already created the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man, but now she’s getting involved with black market schemes. That brings her to Parker Robbins (played by Anthony Ramos) and his crew, including performances from Zoe Kerakes, Manny Montana, Eric Andre, Shakira Barrera, and others. This isn’t your happy-go-lucky band of bandits though, they’re hardened criminals who don’t mess around.

Along the way, Riri is introduced to Joe (played by Alden Ehrenreich) who has a problem with self-esteem and standing up for himself, but he also has black market weapons and products to help her with her suit. That comes up against Riri’s family life, where her new AI takes on the form of her recently deceased best friend, Natalie. It all adds a layer of weirdness to the proceedings that you get over as you watch, but it’s kind of striking for Marvel to take on a subject matter like that.

The Good Of Ironheart

There’s a lot to like here with Ironheart. Riri Williams is a tremendously personable and relatable leading character. Dominique Thorne embues her with a youthful energy that’s also incredibly deep and wounded emotionally. Her best friend has died, her step-father died, so she’s been through a lot in her young life. She’s also seen magnificent things in Wakanda and around the world, which gives her a unique perspective.

The series follows a traditional format (good and bad), but the first three episodes breeze by as you’re trying to figure out what the totality of the plots by Parker have to do with. Parker is played fantastically by Anthony Ramos, who demands attention any time he’s on screen. His performance here, and the layers to it with what he’s dealing with, are amazing. Alden Ehrenreich also gets a gold star for his performance as Joe, who there’s definitely more to, but you don’t find out until later in the series.

The action and fights in the series are also top-notch with some nice action choreography for the hand-to-hand fighting and then some slick-looking setpieces with Riri and her suit. It also connects to the more magical side of Marvel, which was unexpected, but I enjoyed a lot.

The Bad Of Ironheart

The action of Ironheart and the story are highlights, but they also end up getting jumbled with too much happening all at once. The pace of the series is pushed to the max, and you don’t really get a lot of time to breathe or reflect as an audience member. For a series about a young woman with the equivalent of an Iron Man suit, it also isn’t that lighthearted; it’s very dark. There are some funny moments, but they’re few and far between.

The series also does what it seems like Marvel TV can’t help itself from and gives a character powers, but then sidelines that character and doesn’t really resolve their character. We get it, not everyone can have as much character development, but it’s a pretty important character to the overall series arc.

The Ugly Of Ironheart

The greatest sin of Ironheart is the six-episode structure. For whatever reason, we all saw with Daredevil: Born Again that Marvel was doing something new with structure. It let the series feel bigger, more filled out, and just overall allowed the plotlines to get developed before they had to be paid off. Here, you get the first three episodes, and then there’s three episodes after that that cram a LOT into them. It might be because Ironheart was filming far before Marvel’s current plan in 2022. Yeah, the series has been in production and post-production for that long. So it makes sense that it’s from that dreaded era of Marvel TV where everything had to be six episodes.

That six episode format places SO MUCH pressure on the finale to get it right, where in some of these series, it has, but it just makes the entire sixth episode feel like a lightning pace where everything is happening all at once. That’s really where Ironheart falters, is that format. If this show was given more time, it could have been something really special, whereas now, it just feels like Marvel is dumping it out.

A Nice Surprise For Those Who Wait

However, that wait for an entire sixth episode is met with one of the most interesting introductions in recent Marvel history. I’m going to be as general as possible here, because I really don’t want to spoil it, but there are teases throughout the first five episodes to who I’m talking about, and the performance and revelation of who it is, makes for some incredibly interesting decisions going forward. The series ends on a choice that is completely unexpected and sure to raise a few eyebrows.

For all the faults with the format and some incredibly dark tones, Ironheart should be much more than just a dump on Disney+ for Marvel, it’s a series that could have been so much more, but still ends up as plenty entertaining.

Ironheart premieres on Disney+ with three new episodes and then has the final three on July 1st.

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