I wanted to like Ironheart; I truly did. The idea of a new generation stepping into the world of armored heroes, inspired by the greatest innovator the MCU has ever known, is brimming with potential. Yet, as I watched the series unfold, my initial excitement curdled into a persistent annoyance that lasted until the final credits rolled. For me, the show failed on several fundamental levels, creating a frustrating experience that felt less like an homage and more like a betrayal of the very universe I've been invested in since the beginning. My core issues aren't with a new character taking the spotlight, but with a protagonist I couldn't root for, a shocking disrespect for legacy, and a complete waste of fantastic villains.
My primary struggle was with the main character, Riri Williams. Throughout the entire series, I found myself baffled by her choices. It felt like I was watching a repeating cycle: she would make a reckless, ill-advised decision, and then, when the inevitable negative consequences arrived, the narrative would frame her as the victim. This isn't the complex, flawed heroism I've come to love from Marvel. Think of Peter Parker's constant struggles to balance his life, or Wanda Maximoff's grief-fueled mistakes. Those characters face the weight of their actions and we see them grapple with accountability. With Riri, it felt like the story consistently absolved her, expecting my sympathy without her ever truly earning it through growth. A hero's journey is defined by overcoming their own faults, but I felt Riri's were consistently excused.
However, the moment that turned my annoyance into genuine anger was the show's treatment of Tony Stark's legacy. Have the writers at Marvel forgotten their own story that started it all? The line that essentially dismisses Tony Stark, saying he wouldn't be Iron Man if he wasn't a billionaire, felt like a slap in the face. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the character and the entire point of his arc. We all saw him in a cave with a box of scraps, building his first suit out of desperation and sheer genius. His wealth was a part of his story, but it wasn't the source of his heroism. His intellect, his grit, and his ultimate sacrifice were what made him Iron Man. To reduce his entire journey to his bank account felt like the show was deliberately tearing down a foundational hero just to prop up a new one, and I found it deeply disrespectful.
As if these problems weren't enough, the series completely ruined great villains. I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing a complex antagonist like The Hood brought to life. In the comics, he's a compelling and dangerous figure. In Ironheart, he was rendered almost toothless, a shadow of his potential. But the greatest disappointment for me was Mephisto. After years of fan theories and palpable anticipation for his arrival, his depiction was one of the most anticlimactic events I can recall in the MCU. This powerful, manipulative, and terrifying entity was reduced to a shallow caricature, robbing the story of any real sense of stakes. Great heroes are forged by fighting great villains, and when the antagonists are this poorly handled, the hero's own triumphs feel hollow.
By the end of it all, I was left feeling deflated. My problem isn't change or the introduction of new faces. My problem is watching a show that seems to hold contempt for its own source material. In my eyes, Ironheart took a compelling premise and squandered it by creating an unrelatable protagonist, disrespecting the legacy of a beloved hero, and defanging iconic villains. It's a frustrating watch that, for me, represents a profound misunderstanding of what made so many of us fall in love with this universe in the first place.
