Ironheart - Take Me Home
Originally planned for a 2023 release, Dominique Thorne reprises her role of Riri Williams from Wakanda Forever who, for no real reason, left the comforts of Wakanda at the end of the movie despite it being obviously the perfect place for her to continue her education. As the series needs to break the character down, in terms of the story it wants to tell, that means we're reintroduced to Riri as a struggling college student at MIT who, despite her intelligence and skill, relies on under-the-table deals to fix other students' projects for the money needed to explore her own interest of recreating an Iron Man suit (which, she already accomplished in Wakanda, and also again at MIT).
Expelled for her her money-making scheme and not having produced anything during her years at college (except, you know, the fully functional suit of armor she leaves in), Riri heads home to Chicago to start anew where she promptly crashes her armor and needs parts and financing to rebuild while also struggling with creating a proper AI system for the suit. Enter a stranger (Manny Montana) who offers Riri and opportunity to make real money by joining a group of thieves led by the Hood (Anthony Ramos) in what might be the most lackluster villain reveal in all of Marvel history as just some guy in a cape hanging out in a loft with a group of losers we've already seen fail in their latest heist.
The other aspect of the show's opening episode is to fill in events alluded to in Wakanda Forever involving the death of Riri's stepfather and her best friend which still haunts her to the point that when falling asleep working on her AI her subconscious recreates it as Natalie (Lyric Ross). Riri is a bit of a whiner, having been given quite a lot that she's taken for granted and largely squandered in pursuit of big dreams that need equally big funding to see it through, but the sheer obliviousness of those around her is also problematic. Her armor shows she obviously not the failure MIT believes she is, and its hard to believe someone, somewhere, other than a low level hood and his gang, wouldn't offer the chance to put those skills to work. It's a shaky start, and a bit of a mixed bag, but I'm willing to stick around to see where it goes from here.
- Title: Ironheart - Take Me Home
- wiki: link
