Ironheart Review: Dominique Thorne Shines In A Refreshing Marvel Series

You would be forgiven for losing track of Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne), the supergenius MIT student who played a key role in 2022's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." (And if you did, check out Looper's recap video to refresh your memory.) Introduced as a potential successor to tech geniuses like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Riri's story was always meant to continue, and now that continuation has finally arrived in the form of "Ironheart."

Created by Chinaka Hodge, a writer and rapper who's worked on shows like "Snowpiercer" and "The Midnight Club," Disney+'s "Ironheart" is meant to be not just a reintroduction to Riri in the MCU, but a summation of who the character is, what she wants, and what trajectory she's on now that she's been embedded in this strange world of gods, alien technologies, and superpowers. It's a lot to ask for out of six episodes, and at times "Ironheart" shows the strain of having to carry a lot of weight in the MCU continuity. At its best, though, this is one of the finest streaming offerings the MCU has ever produced, a very solid and entertaining show with a great lead performance and, when it's really cooking, flashes of brilliance.

When we first encounter Riri again in "Ironheart," she's having a rough go of things. Her projects at MIT are costing more than her fellowship money (from Tony Stark's foundation, naturally) can cover, leading the single-minded young engineer to push things too far and get kicked out of the school. So, Riri and her work-in-progress new iron suit fly back home to Chicago, where more drama awaits.

Though her mother Ronnie (Anji White) would like to see her relax and rethink things a little bit, Riri's obsessed with getting her suit right and finishing her other projects, a desire fueled by the death of her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) in a shooting some time earlier. Still reeling with grief she never quite wants to confront, Riri's knack for tech leads her to Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), the leader of a crew of thieves who's nicknamed "Hood" because of the mysterious red cloak he seems to always wear.

Parker and his crew offer Riri a chance (or so they say) to realize her true potential, work outside the boundaries of traditional society, and, most importantly, earn funding for her projects while helping Parker topple a few tech startups around Chicago. Thus begins a dark, unpredictable journey for the young engineer, as she's forced to reckon with the ethical questions over what she's doing, how far she's willing to go, and what kind of dark influences might really be driving Parker.

Right away, Chinaka Hodge and her writing team open the show up to a lot of potential, pitting Riri's tech brilliance against the seemingly magical influence of the hood that Parker wears, while also delving into Riri's relationship with her mother and her community, her grief over Natalie, and her rejection of any linear sense of MCU legacy. There are no Avengers to be found here, no Stark Industries lackeys to set Riri straight, no journeys outside of Chicago. This is a story about an extraordinary person in an extraordinary world, pushing to do things her way while often uncertain which way that actually is, and at a time when the MCU can feel too cluttered, that's both refreshing and powerful in the context of this show.

The plot as described above is, of course, far from the only source of drama and story in "Ironheart," and the show's greatest weakness is its need to push forward several pieces of the MCU agenda at once, weaving subplots into the six-episode run that aren't bad exactly, but definitely drag the emotional beats of Riri's journey down a bit from time to time. There are bits of connective tissue in this show — some of which fans have been waiting to see for a long time — that all serve the wider MCU tapestry, but they don't serve Riri, so even when the big reveals and cameos are unfolding, you sometimes can't wait to get back to the main event.

Dominique Thorne is, of course, a key part of that desire. She rises to the challenge of carrying this series — even bearing in mind great work by a supporting cast led by Anthony Ramos and Lyric Ross — and, more importantly, portraying Riri in all her complex glory. There are very few clear moral lines in "Ironheart," and the show often flirts with placing its lead character in antihero territory. It's not interested in Riri making the "right" choices from an objective place. Instead, it wants to see what happens when this brilliant but inexperienced young potential hero is pushed — by her family, by her grief, by her newfound partners in crime. Thorne is able to play all of that tension, as well as Riri's inner confidence and sense of joy, all at once, delivering a fascinating and powerful performance.

And that power extends to the rest of the series. "Ironheart" does not always work. Sometimes it's a bit scattered, and it pulls at story threads without resolution for a little too long before finally bringing them to a conclusion, but there's something in the scrappy, thorny parts of this narrative that just feel true to who Riri is. By the time "Ironheart" is over, it sticks the landing, bringing all those threads together into something that's surprising, fun, and feels genuinely new in an MCU landscape that always threatens to grow too homogeneous. You won't want to stop hanging out with Riri Williams, and that makes "Ironheart" one of the must-watch new series of the summer.

"Ironheart" premieres June 24 on Disney+.