Yes, there were only two initial volumes of Ironheart before the count reset here, but I get it. No longer a subheading under the larger Invincible Iron Man title, Riri Williams is doing her own thing now. With a new suit, a new writer, and a reshuffled supporting cast, this is a brand-new Ironheart, and I am pumped for it.
Having lost her previous ties to Stark Industries, Riri is freelance-heroing while (badly) trying to make nice with the MIT folks who are funding her lab. She’s still the most at-ease when she’s on her own tinkering, but even if she’s not the greatest people person, any hero inevitably has compassion for those in need of help, and when Riri hears that an old acquaintance from her neighborhood has gone missing, she steps in. The cops aren’t looking, the disappearance is somehow tied to a strange rash of petty thefts, and there’s a mysterious stranger involved, one who clues Riri into the existence of an even more mysterious organization: the Ten Rings.
Ironheart’s original writer, Brian Michael Bendis, has been swapped out for Eve Ewing, and let’s just say this is not a Jughead situation where I bitterly mourned the exit of Chip Zdarsky. In Ewing’s hands, Ironheart sizzles. Riri and her life are immediately Blacker and more vibrant, and her characterization is explored in richer ways. She’s still the socially-impaired super-genius who lost her dad, stepdad, and best friend to gang violence, but her story is no longer painted as being from “the crime-ridden streets of Chicago.” There’s violence in her neighborhood, and crime, but it’s also her home, and most of the people in it are just folks doing their best to get by. Her background isn’t something to overcome, and Riri looks out for her neighbors when the police won’t.
Even though I enjoyed the dynamic of Riri interacting with the Iron Man characters and other major Marvel faces in the first two volumes, I really like seeing her own corner of the Marvel universe getting cemented here. Her mom gets more fleshed out, I appreciate the introduction of her neighbor Xavier and the ensuing will-they-won’t-they thing that gets started here, and while I won’t go into the specifics for the sake of spoilers, I love the new A.I. Riri gets for her suit now that Tony is no longer filling that role.
There are six issues in this volume, a four-part arc bookended with a less-connected story on either end. The first issue is just kind of an introduction to the new Ironheart ecosystem, issue 2 gives us Daija’s disappearance and kicks off the arc, and then issue 6 is a tie-in with something that’s been going on in Champions (a team-up comic that I really should check out one of these days, since I know its members include Kamala Khan, Amadeus Cho, Miles Morales, and Riri.) The villain of the main arc is compelling, and I like seeing the challenges he presents to Riri and how she deals with that. Also, not for nothing, the Ten Rings stuff clearly isn’t over, and so these comics are going to be a nice primer for me before the Shang Chi movie comes out.
If the first two volumes of Ironheart are about me wanting to love it more than I did, interested to read more but not a major priority, this one has me really excited about the title and eager to see what else is in store for Riri. Major level-up!
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