Ironheart, on Disney+
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Caution: spoilers.

This review could go under "science fiction" or "supernatural", though I'm more inclined to just call it a "drama". But instead I'm listing it in my "superheroes" section, despite the main character, Riri Williams, not actually being a superhero at this point. (Nor is she ever referred to as "Ironheart" in the series.) Maybe I should just rebrand my superhero category to be for anything related to comic books, I dunno. Also, despite some sites calling it a miniseries, I'm disinclined to do so, because it ends on a couple of cliffhangers that make it seem like the show really should get a second season. (Then again, those plot points could just be continued in an MCU movie, or something.) Anyway, I thought the series was pretty good, even if it's not quite one of my favorite MCU shows. It's got good characters, good concepts, good story, good drama, etc. And I don't really know what else to say, so I might as well just get on with explaining the plot.

It takes place sometime after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which introduced audiences to Riri Williams, a brilliant MIT student, who built an Iron Man-like suit of her own. At the start of this series, she gets expelled, and returns home to her mother, Ronnie, in Chicago. She also reunites with her old friend, Xavier Washington, who is the brother of Riri's late best friend, Natalie. Sometime earlier, Natalie had been killed in a drive-by shooting, along with Riri's stepfather, Gary. Riri's suit was controlled by an AI that was the intellectual property of MIT, so she loses that and has to program a new one herself. She does so by uploading her own memories to her computer, and falls asleep while the process is ongoing. When she wakes up, she finds that the AI she created unintentionally looks, thinks, and talks like Natalie. This freaks her out at first, but she eventually gets used to it.

Meanwhile, to pay for her efforts at building a new suit, she reluctantly accepts the invitation of a guy named John (Manny Montana, whom I knew from Good Girls), to join a high-tech gang run by John's cousin, Parker Robbins. Parker has a magical hooded cloak, which allows him to turn invisible, among other abilities. There are several other members of Parker's crew, who I don't feel the need to talk about. Riri also gets some help building her suit from a guy named Joe, who is eventually revealed to actually be Zeke Stane, the son of the late Obadiah Stane (from Iron Man). During one job with Parker's crew, John tries to kill Riri, for reasons I've already kind of forgotten. But she ends up allowing him to die, when he gets trapped in a room that fills up with deadly gas. Because of this, Parker and the gang later turn against Riri. She also makes a mistake that leads Zeke being arrested, and he is later bailed out by Parker, who gets him to turn against Riri. When Riri realizes she can't stand up to Parker's magic, she goes to get some magic of her own, from a shop run by Ronnie's friend, Madeline Standon (Cree Summer), and Madeline's daughter, Zelma. Zelma helps incorporate magic into a new suit constructed by Riri, so she can take on Parker and try to get his hood away from him. In the final episode, we see a flashback to how Parker obtained the hood, and who had provided it to him. I won't spoil who that is, but it's someone I think a lot of comic book fans have long awaited being introduced into the MCU. (He's played by Sacha Baron Cohen.)

I won't spoil how it all ends, but I will say I was disappointed. Not from a storytelling perspective, that was actually pretty good. It's just sad and disturbing, in a way. But it also makes me eager to see what happens next with Riri. And Natalie. Other than that, I'll say that one thing I found a bit unrealistic about the show is how Parker's gang just gets away with forcing various people to sign away control of their businesses (and other things) to Parker. Like, it seems as if that wouldn't hold up in court, considering the signatures were given under duress. But I suppose the people who signed had reason to be afraid of what would happen to them if they tried to take back control. So I let it slide. That was probably the only thing I didn't entirely like about the series, and it's a minor complaint.

Anyway, I think I've said a lot of things out of order, throughout my review. And I have left out a ton of details. But I think I've outlined the most important bits, more or less. It really is a rather compelling and interesting story, and if it ever does get a second season, I could easily see myself raising my rating of the show. And I should also mention that there's a mid-credits scene with Parker that I'm also eager to see followed up on.