Marvel messes up Iron Man’s successor – despite huge potential

Tony Stark’s death has left a huge void in the MCU. Other superheroes like Doctor Strange are always traded as substitutes – or at least as a similar central character. Yes one new Iron Man was not in sight in the Marvel Universe. Until now.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever leads brilliant student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) aka Ironheart as a casual Iron Man successor a. Even with a similar suit! Unfortunately, the MCU blockbuster doesn’t really know what to do with the new character apart from its introduction, and that’s disappointing on several levels.

Watch another clip from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever here:

Ironheart is the perfect mix of Tony Stark and Peter Parker – actually

Dominique Thorne’s first appearance as Riri Williams brings the Marvel character straight with him lots of energy and cool charisma into the MCU. As an extremely talented MIT student secretly crafting her own superhero suit, she comes across as a direct blend of the megalomaniacal charm of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and the youthful exuberance of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.

Riri is clever and sells papers and exam solutions to her fellow students for money. For a school project she invents a device that can be used to locate vibranium, unwittingly putting a powerful tool in the hands of the United States. This is where Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) come into play, who visit Riri in her student dorm and bring her to Wakanda.

Here she not only supports Shuri and Co. in the fight against Namor (Tenoch Huerta), but also builds her first really professional suit, her equivalent to Iron Man’s Mark. Of course, Riri always has a funny saying on his lips or works in view of the scope of the upcoming fight authentically overwhelmed – like Spider-Man.

Unfortunately, after their great introduction, Ironheart recedes into the background and almost works like an extra who happens to be a genius and flies around in a pretty powerful suit.

Black Panther 2 repeats a major problem that Marvel currently has with the Iron Man successor

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had a similar problem earlier this year. America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) was also presented here as a really cool new superheroine, who quickly degraded to a secondary character and pale cue giver became. And these are supposed to be the characters on which the future of the MCU rests?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever makes the same mistake as the Doctor Strange sequel. Ironheart has huge potential as a young Iron Man sequel thanks to Dominique Thorne’s charisma, but the MCU blockbuster either doesn’t have enough space or interest in the character to make her shine as part of the ensemble. Actually only one overlay is missing in the film: “There will be more about Riri Williams in the upcoming Ironheart series. Coming to Disney+ soon!”

It is scheduled to start in 2023 and will be about the battle between technology and spin magic. For marketing reasons, it is understandable that Ironheart is only teased in Wakanda Forever to get the fans excited about their series. But if Riri Williams is really in the giant footsteps of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man step, she should have been allowed to make a more lasting impression. After all, there’s one thing Tony Stark would never have allowed himself to do: let himself be sidelined.

More Black Panther 2 in the podcast: Is Wakanda Forever worth going to the cinema?

In the latest edition of the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen, moderator Sebastian, Yves von Moviepilot and FILMSTARTS editor Pascal talk about the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther 2. You can find out whether Chadwick Boseman is offered a worthy conclusion and whether the film also works in the podcast.

The screen love is the weekly cinema and film podcast of our colleagues from FILMSTARTS.

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What did you think of Ironheart in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?