Ironheart (Disney +) (2025)

I am frustrated for SO many reasons. It's the first episode, so how big a negative judgment can I actually make? But here is my problem. I didn't dislike that. Not remotely. But there wasn't much about it I LIKED either. And as I was watching this, bored and stony-faced, I wondered WHY it is SUCH a big freaking ask to make a pleasing, different TV series that people will like.

Marvel movies used to be awesome because a bunch of them did their own things and busted different genres wide upon. I think Black Widow was a turning point. That was the point where Marvel decided ALL Marvel movies needed to be exactly the same. Exact same character arcs and "mindblowing", "explosive" climaxes. Black Widow was the first movie I noticed the problem because that specific premise and storyline did not REMOTELY lend itself to that kind of climax, and they did it anyways out of some weird, foolish sense that each movie has to top the previous one in spectacle. And instead of the Marvel movies previously doing their own thing like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Ant-Man did, everything is now as homogenized and repetitive as an episode of Power Rangers. And it didn't used to be.

Ironheart is exactly like every single other Marvel Studios TV show and that's a problem. There is nothing new and no good hook. I do not necessarily subscribe to the often ridiculous notion that a project that nobody asked for has no right to exist. No matter what spoiled fanboys say, that's stupid. But on the flipside, if a project can show nothing new or unique, should they even have bothered making it? This feels like a contractual obligation between Disney+ and Marvel Studios being fulfilled, rather than a piece of art / entertainment. I feel like Disney+ values my eyeballs more than they do the quality of the stuff Marvel is putting out.

The irony? If they started caring about the quality, they'd actually get more eyeballs!

I have two other general complaints about Marvel TV shows. The first one is that there has not been a SINGLE Marvel Disney+ project anywhere NEAR as good as Star Wars: Andor. And considering how much stuff Disney+ has farted out, that's not just inexcusable. To me, that's inexplicable. I'll go even further than that. I'll say there has not been a SINGLE Marvel Disney+ project as good as Obi-Wan Kenobi or Skeleton Crew either. Feige puts absolutely NO effort into this stuff. And considering how heavily he's decided to tie the movies into stuff that happens on the TV shows, he's damaging the entire franchise / continuity.

The second observation is a corollary to that. For the first few Marvel shows, the most consistent thing about them to me is that each tended to have an amazing Pilot, and the season would get worse and worse as it went along until it fell apart in the finale. The one outlier there was the first season of Loki which had a killer finale and cliffhanger. The problem is season 2 sucked as much as the rest of Marvel TV stuff does, so that arc too could not stick the landing. But for about the first half-dozen shows or so we'd get this hugely promising amazing Pilot and things would slowly turn to shit.

I feel like Marvel Television has decided to simply stop giving us those amazing Pilots. Maybe Feige reasons if they are going to ALWAYS fuck up by the finale, they aren't necessary. But I have definitely noticed that this aspect was missing from Echo, Daredevil: Born Again, and now this. Hell, Agatha All Along's Pilot, as well received as it was, doesn't do much for me.

Anything I liked? I thought it was refreshing that when Riri gives the cliched self-empowering speech about the school asking her to be small, the guidance counselor of color's immediate response is to tell her she's full of shit. I HATE shit like that on TV with gifted younger characters, and no, she's actually full of shit.

But I didn't really like anything else. I didn't really DISLIKE anything else. But I don't think liking a TV show should be an unfathomable burden for a long-running franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They ought to be able to do this in their sleep if they wanted to. The fact that quality control is just GONE now is probably why people are so fed up with things. It's not our imaginations. The franchise has actually gotten lazier and worse. Sad to report, but fanboy toxicity being behind the backlash of projects starring women and people of color or not, that specific complaint is actually true. 2 1/2 stars.

It's better than the first episode by far, mostly because the character stuff was better. Riri's stuff with Natalie was equally as fun as her stuff with Joe. Great interplays and dynamics there.

And you realize the worst part of Natalie is Riri's mom asking is she can make one of Gary. That's why it sucks.

I do have to call bullshit on the entire premise of the show. Ironheart is supposedly committing these top-secret burglaries and heists... dressed in her one-of-a-kind Iron suit of which only she really has access to. She doesn't even hide it on the mission. How is this even a show? It's so stupid.

I wish the whole thing was Riri building Joe's self-esteem or Natalie giving her the business. But the show is dumb enough to think THIS specific character lends herself to a heist premise.

Ant-Man she ain't. 3 1/2 stars.

All right. I don't like this series.

Not just because Riri is a murderer, or at least an accessory to murder.

But because this is a goddam superhero show and the title superhero has saved not ONE damn innocent person. Ironheart has done absolutely NOTHING heroic in the first three episodes, and ALL of Riri's actions have been done solely out of self-interest. Rumors were Ironheart was gonna "Break Bad", and no lie, this IS a new angle for a PG-13 Marvel show, and just a couple of reviews ago I was complaining how all Marvel shows are the same. But it's not a GOOD angle. It's not an angle that improves either the show or the MCU. It's annoying.

The whole John being Ezekiel Stane thing landed like a thud because ultimately, the revelation doesn't actually matter. It's a supposed gamechanger that changes absolutely nothing.

I mentioned Marvel shows always derail at the season goes on. Is three episodes a personal best for a Marvel show jumping the shark? It just might be. 1 star.