It is not uncommon for changes to be made in adapting a superhero from the comic page to the streaming screen. In the case of Ironheart, however, Disney had to make some radical changes due to the absence of Iron Man. The end result was Riri Williams becoming an antihero without the influence of Tony Stark in the MCU.
The first half of Ironheart Season 1 reestablishes Riri Williams as a brilliant inventor who is socially awkward and morally ambiguous. The need to fund her imitation Iron Man leads to her joining forces with self-styled Robin Hood Parker Robbins. However, Riri soon finds her ethics challenged when she realizes just how bad The Hood truly is. This is a radically different backstory for Riri Williams than she had in the original Marvel Comics.
(Image Source: Marvel / Stefano Caselli)
Ironheart first appeared in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man #7. Riri was a child prodigy who was accepted to MIT at the age of 11. She was a brilliant engineer, but she dreamed of being a superhero like her idol, Tony Stark. To that end, she began building a replica of Stark’s Mark-41 armor using materials she stole from various labs at MIT. She completed the armor just as campus security came to question her about the thefts.
During her first cross-country test-flight, Riri captured two convicts escaping from a prison in New Mexico. When she returned home to her mother to explain why she left MIT, she found Iron Man waiting for her. Stark was impressed with what she had accomplished, given her limited resources, if not how she went about doing it.
(Image Source: Marvel / Mike Deodato)
Tony took Riri under his wing and began to mentor the young inventor. This put her in the perfect position to take up his mantle when Iron Man was put into a coma during the events of Civil War II. Assisted by an artificial intelligence based on Tony’s mind, Riri adopted the name Ironheart, and a hero was born.
Unfortunately, given the history of the MCU, it was impossible to perfectly adapt Riri Williams’ backstory from the comics for the Ironheart show. Riri Williams was first introduced to the MCU in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This was several years after Tony Stark sacrificed himself to defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
While it might have been possible to have the MCU Ironheart trained by an Iron Man AI, this was impractical for several reasons. Chief among them were the logistics of bringing Robert Downey Jr. back to the MCU. Even if he were willing to play a supporting role, he would be too expensive for a streaming series budget to support. The larger issue, however, is that Riri Williams’ story had already been adapted for the MCU by another, more famous character.
(Image Source: Marvel Studios)
The story of the MCU Peter Parker strongly resembles that of the comics’ version of Ironheart. Both are teenage inventors who are discovered by Tony Stark. Both of them managed impressive things given their limited resources. The only real difference was Riri Williams stealing from MIT early in her career to get her armor built. The worst thing Peter Parker did was go dumpster-diving for old electronics.
Ironically, the MCU Ironheart is more like the Spider-Man of the comics than the MCU Peter Parker. Both are working-class characters who are brilliant scientists, but short on cash. This is why Disney changed Riri Williams’ background to make her more morally ambiguous. It makes her seem less of a Spider-Man ripoff, even though his MCU backstory came after her introduction in the comics. Additionally, it also highlights what a positive role model Tony Stark was to the original Ironheart.