Ironheart
Riri Williams
Riri Williams, also known by her codename Ironheart, is a Marvel Comics character created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato, first appearing in Invincible Iron Man #7 (dated March 2016).
Born shortly after the death of her father, Riri Williams grew up in Chicago with her mother and stepfather, soon discovering a pretty surprising truth about herself: she was a genius intellect with special aptitude for engineering. By the age of fifteen, Riri was already attending M.I.T. on a free scholarship offered to her because of it.
It was during this time that Riri reverse-engineered the Iron Man Mark 41 suit in her dorm room, using (stolen) materials from the M.I.T. campus. After testing out her suit's capabilities a few times, Riri had her first taste of crimefighting by stopping a truck carrying a group of prison escapees in New Mexico, which came at the cost of her suit's armor integrity.
While rebuilding her suit from the ground up, Tony Stark learned of her accomplishment, fully endorsing her potential as a hero by offering to take her under his wing.
Later as part of Marvel: A Fresh Start, Riri returned in a new ongoing solo, written by Eve Ewing and illustrated by Kevin Libranda. It lasted for twelve issues. She also joined the teenage superhero team the Champions.
A live action Disney+ series based on the character was announced for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in December 2020, with Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk) cast in the title role. The character is set to make her debut beforehand in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Ironheart appears in:
Notable Comic Books- Invincible Iron Man (various runs):
- vol. 2 (2016)
- vol. 3 (2016 — 2018)
- Champions (various runs):
- Riri Williams: Ironheart (2018 — 2019)
Live-Action
- Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Dominique Thorne
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
- Ironheart (2023)
Video Games
- Marvel Future Fight (added in 2017)
- Marvel Puzzle Quest (added in 2017)
- LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 (2017)
Animation
- Marvel Rising, voiced by Sofia Wylie
Ironheart provides examples of the following tropes:
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: She's an African-American girl who ends up replacing Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man, albeit with a different codename.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When she makes it clear she doesn't care to join SHIELD Sharon sardonically asks her if she's a fan of Hydra. Riri responds with a succinct breakdown of how SHIELD abuses power and asks her if she really thinks people who don't like their methods are really With Us or Against Us.
- Break the Badass: She confronts Thanos in Infinity Countdown: Champions #2, expecting an easy victory. Thanos, not impressed, disintegrates her armor and leaves her a sobbing wreck. This is followed up in her own series, Riri Williams: Ironheart, where she has a clear case of PTSD.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: See above.
- Child Prodigy: Riri was diagnosed as a genius when she was five years old.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Modeled after Skai Jackson
. - Dead Guy Junior: Riri is named for her late father, who died shortly before her birth. And her name is "Riri" which isn't a nickname of any sort.
- Determinator: Tony recognizing this quality in her is part of the reason he offers to take her in.
- Ditzy Genius: Despite being a genius engineer, Riri still has her airheaded moments, like taking over Latervia on a whim.
- Divergent Character Evolution: After she joins the Champions and is handily taken down by Thanos, who destroys her armor, Riri builds a new suit that replaces the red in her original Stark-esque design with black and pink. This represents her first major step away from being simply "black female Iron Man".
- Dump Stat: According to a Marvel ad for an issue of Champions portraying the team as RPG characters, Riri's is Charisma.
- Faking the Dead: Riri thinks that her father, Riri Williams Sr, died before she was born. In Ironheart #10, she's investigating the Wellspring of Power with Shuri, Okoye, and Silhouette... and Sil spots a man who looks a lot like Ironheart... her father is alive after all.
- Friendless Background: She's only had one close friend who unfortunately died as the result of a drive-by shooting.
- Fusion Dance: During the events of Infinity Wars, when Gamora forcibly fused everyone in the universe together, Riri got merged with Shuri.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Was able to reverse engineer one of Tony's old Iron Man armors to make her own suit.
- Generation Xerox: While not related to Tony, she shows many of the traits associated with him. It's part of the reason he decided to take her under his wing.
- Good Parents: After learning of her incredible intellect, her mother and stepfather made a deliberate effort to raise her as altruistically as possible, fearing any social disconnect that would make her a Mad Scientist. She's fully aware of why they're doing it but has accepted it.
- It Amused Me: Inverted. She quit M.I.T. because she found it boring.
- Incompatible Orientation: In Champions (2016), Viv Vision comes out as a lesbian by abruptly kissing Riri, who turns her down asserting that she's straight. However, Viv's unrequited feelings for Riri continue to cause tensions between the two.
- Ineffectual Loner: Despite being on a team, Riri would rather still work alone, sometimes to the detriment of the mission.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Although she later quits, her being an MIT student is a quick way to establish her as an engineering genius.
- Legacy Character: Played With. She's more of a diminutive character branching off from an established one with a similar name (example: Batman and Batwoman, Batgirl, etc.), but she's effectively one of these, as Tony is grooming her as his successor.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Averted. Riri's first suit of armor was somewhat crude due to her having limited resources and her inexperience at armor design. Like Tony, she continually refined and upgraded her armor due to having better materials to work with and more design practice.
- No Social Skills: As part of her intellect and also trauma from dealing with tragedies in the past, she usually holes her herself away from everyone, tinkering with her armour. She did it with MIT and also in her own garage.
- Red Is Heroic: Her initial armors were, like most of Tony's, primarily bright red. Later armors have her go more for purple.
- Shout-Out: Riri's armor has some design elements that are reminiscent of Optimus Prime.
- Spirit Advisor: A Virtual Ghost of Tony Stark (who was in a coma) serves as onboard AI and mentor of her next armor model.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: A Champions issue actually sees Riri attempt to challenge Thanos of all people to a fight. It's a miracle the Mad Titan was feeling merciful and only disintegrated her armor.
- Superhero Speciation: Played with during the Search for Tony Stark arc, where Riri teams up with number of other heroes with powered armor that are all unique and visually distinct from each other for contrast.
- Too Much Alike: The reason why Riri keeps clashing with Shuri - they both have strong, independent personalities and don't like being bossed around, which means they get on each other's nerves very fast.
- Virtual Sidekick: The armor Riri builds contains an AI replica of Tony Stark's personality, which acts as both assistant and mentor to her.
Friends
Neuro-Autonomous Technical Assistant & Laboratory Intelligence Entity
Xavier King
Daija Hamilton
Allies
Silhouette Chord
A former member of the New Warriors, Silhouette is determined to stop her brother, Aaron, also known as Midnight's Fire.
See: New Warriors
Enemies
Aaron Chord
Alderman Thomas Birch
Eclipse
Demetrious "Riri" Williams Sr.
