Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man is one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most iconic heroes, if not the number one, but the character saw his biggest struggle get undermined by his MCU replacement. RDJ’s Iron Man was with the MCU right from its inception, with the hero going on to save the entire universe by sacrificing himself to use the Infinity Gauntlet and both snap Thanos and his army out of existence, as well as bring back everyone that had been killed by the Mad Titan during his original snap in Avengers: Infinity War.
Iron Man’s sacrifice was one of the MCU’s biggest events, and the character’s legacy could not have died with him. Tony’s daughter, Morgan, continues to keep the family name alive. Peter Parker, who had Tony as his mentor, saved the multiverse from a mistake of his own in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Apart from those two, there is one character that stands as the MCU’s true replacement for Iron Man: Riri Williams. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever introduced the brilliant young character to the MCU before the upcoming Disney+ Ironheart series, and in doing so, the new character undermined Iron Man’s biggest struggle in her first appearance.
Riri Williams Made Creating An Iron Man Suit Look Easy
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever saw Riri don two Ironheart suits, with her first one being made of rudimentary parts, while the second version of the suit was state of the art. A big part of Tony Stark’s journey in the MCU was seeing the character struggle to come up with new suits and creative abilities for them. Tony went all the way from using a box of scraps to create his first suit to having the nanotechnology suits from his final adventures.
Along the way, suits like the Mark II Iron Man Armor almost killed Tony. While it is understandable why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever did not focus on Riri getting to make her Ironheart suits, given all that was happening in the packed film, it still looked like the young character effortlessly put both of her suits together. As such, there was no real sense of struggle for how Ironheart’s MCU journey began.
Why It’s Good Ironheart Creates Suits Easier Than Iron Man
While it is certainly a major change from how Tony’s journey as Iron Man developed in the MCU, Riri creating her Ironheart suits easier than Iron Man in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever not only makes sense but is good for the character. Riri building her Ironheart armors with relative ease helps establish her as a worthy successor to Tony Stark as one of the MCU’s smartest characters. Similarly, it allows her to be incorporated into the MCU far quicker and easier than if her start had mirrored Iron Man’s in this regard.
Since Riri used Stark technology to create her first Ironheart suit, it makes sense that she was able to do it so easily, as Tony’s tech has developed quite a bit since the start of the MCU. It also shows how Riri’s keeping Iron Man’s legacy alive, even though it was not really directly addressed in the movie. Given Riri will soon get her time to shine on Disney+’s Ironheart series, there is a chance that her next MCU appearance will delve deeper into her connection to Iron Man and how Riri came to possess Stark technology in the first place.
Key Release Dates
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
