The latest Marvel series Ironheart has landed on Disney+ with a catastrophic thud — and not even the platform’s most ardent defenders seem willing to call this anything other than what it is: a wildly expensive, narratively incoherent disaster. Produced during the ideological fever pitch of 2020 and delayed for years before being dumped unceremoniously in a rapid-fire rollout, Ironheart may be remembered less for what it contributes to the MCU and more for how thoroughly it exposes the cracks in Disney-Marvel’s storytelling pipeline.
From the outset, red flags were everywhere. Written during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, cast with near-total disregard for source material fidelity, and subjected to a reported double-digit number of edits, the series feels more like a corporate liability cleanup than a passion project. It’s telling that Marvel Studios barely promoted the show, released the trailer just weeks before launch, and then rushed all six episodes out in two rapid three-part batches. That isn’t strategy — it’s damage control.
let’s hear it for the wide range of black characters in #Ironheart 🦾❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/EIe8FzxCUn
— k. ♡ (@blkwatcher) July 2, 2025
At a staggering $20 million per episode, the result is a show that feels like it was made in someone’s garage… and ironically, ends that way too. No exaggeration.
The story follows Riri Williams, a teen prodigy attending MIT, who builds a knockoff Iron Man suit using university grant money. Instead of using her genius to change the world or earn a fortune (which she could have done legally and easily), Riri gets expelled for selling intellectual property to other students and decides the natural next step is… crime. Yes, this prodigy joins a gang because it “pays.” A gang that ends up murdering dozens, including a food-tech CEO trying to solve global hunger.
From there, Ironheart spirals into absurdity: Riri hacks Wakanda, turns her dead friend into a sarcastic AI named N.A.T.A.L.I.E. (an acronym that has to be seen to be believed), and battles a magic-wielding villain named Parker — aka The Hood — whose gang includes every woke checkbox imaginable: a flamboyant trans tech wizard, a gender-fluid brute duo, and assorted interchangeable sidekicks whose only qualification seems to be their intersectional identity.
Remember when everyone said to give Ironheart a chance and that Riri wouldn’t be as bad as she was in the comics?
Well, she gets expelled from MIT for selling test answers… then steals her Iron Man suit on the way out because she built it with grant money and thinks that means… pic.twitter.com/OZvvVJMIfG
— MasteroftheTDS (@MasteroftheTDS) June 27, 2025
But the real crime is what they do to Riri herself. Instead of being written with complexity, she’s an unlikeable, impulsive narcissist whose every decision worsens her situation — and whose descent into villainy is treated as empowerment. Her defining trait isn’t heroism, invention, or sacrifice. It’s deflection.
Somehow, Riri loses her high-tech MIT-built suit and crafts a new one from a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda and garage tools, powered by dark magic from a villain’s cape scrap. All this after fighting gang members in a White Castle, a product placement that now rivals the infamous Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones for sheer tonal dissonance.
Then there’s Zeke Stane — yes, Zeke — the son of Obadiah Stane, played by Alden Ehrenreich (of Solo fame). He carries his father’s ashes in a Zip-Loc bag because, in his words, “We weren’t close.” Yes… seriously.
The show wants to say something about grief, trauma, systemic inequality, girlboss resilience, and magical metaphysics — but ends up saying absolutely nothing except: “We checked all the boxes.”
Marvel really just pulled a Wandavision. Gave us a character who is truly evil and selfish but STILL gets praised at every turn and doesn’t have to be responsible for their actions. I can’t believe Ironheart is a real show man and people actually like it pic.twitter.com/CFqRWENDPC
— Kaida 🌊 (@khaliltooshort) July 2, 2025
Reports have surfaced that Marvel head Kevin Feige recently told insiders that watching new MCU content “feels like homework.” Ironheart doesn’t just prove the point — it turns it into syllabus-required suffering.
Even Disney CEO Bob Iger, who claims the company is focusing on “quality over quantity,” must be cringing at this one. Ironheart is not just a poor entry in the MCU — it’s a symbol of what happens when storytelling is replaced by corporate checkbox casting and ideological scripting.
By the finale, Riri is not redeemed. She sells out her principles, her intelligence, and even her morality for an ending that tries to feign complexity but lands with a shrug. The show sets her up not as a misunderstood anti-hero, but as a shallow opportunist. A character who brags about being the smartest of her generation, yet needs an AI ghost-friend to tell her not to trust an obvious villain.
And when your AI quits the show in a dramatic huff? You’ve lost the plot — literally.
