Becoming The Muse

Ironheart TV Series Review

Ironheart is a television miniseries created by Chinaka Hodge for Disney+. It is based on Marvel Comics featuring a character of the same name. The series premiered on 24 June 2025.

It is the 14th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has continuity with the films of franchise. Set after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams returns home to Chicago and continues her pursuit to develop the perfect suit as inspired by Iron Man… cause she can. Her quest gets her entangled on a path where magic and science converge.

“I’m here because I can be the greatest inventor of my generation.”

Riri Williams

The Good

I was particularly intrigued by the convergence of magic and science, engineering logic versus mystical belief which gave the show a charming edge.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The Chicago Southside setting, gives it a grounded storytelling, with a character driven plot that encompasses community dynamics, their struggles and consequences of their choices. Compared to most Marvel Productionsm, with larger than life characters and over the top set pieces, Ironheart felt a little bit relatable.

The visuals are pretty decent and Riri’s suit designs look much better than the prototypes from Black Panther.

Ironheart has a great soundtrack and naturally I made a playlist.

Marvel finally dropped the M-Word something that fan theories been predicting since WandaVision which I think of as one of the best Marvel TV series.

The Bad

The show, kinda meanders and feels a bit lost with subplot jugglings, that don’t add up to much, except serve an undercooked goulash with too many ingredients and not enough heart.

While the perfomances by Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams and Anthony Ramos as The Hood were gritty, charming and charismatic, their characters were overally underdeveloped without any outstanding story arcs that would compel them to be more than props going through teen angst and growing pains.

I had hoped Riri’s AI would give a JARVIS equivalent but instead gives us a comic relief version with not much going for it, if we take away the emotional blackmail that gets us to care.

The Ugly

The show is morally ambiguous… a fancy way of saying that the protagonist, Riri Williams makes a lot of questionable choices throughout the series, leaning towards self-serving outcomes, that makes one question, why, we should be rooting for her anyway…

Final Thoughts

Ironheart is a potentially brilliant series which could soar if its wings were unclipped and the characters allowed to soar and maybe burn instead of scripted as a coming of age drama to drop one of Marvel’s most anticipated characters…

Have you watched Ironheart, is it something on your radar?