Following the reboot of Daredevil’s success this year, hopes rose that Ironheart could deliver a similarly strong performance. In a gestating process, Ironheart has the advantage of a character that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever already introduced, but chooses to lose most of what it already built up about the character to strip Riri back down to her familial roots. But the biggest issue with the series is that upon completion, it mainly feels like a vessel to introduce two Marvel villains. One is a minor Iron Man villain being repurposed for Ironheart, but the other is a noted Marvel villain that fans have been waiting for.

Without spoiling any of the major points, Ironheart starts with the expulsion of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) from M.I.T. and the revocation of her Stark scholarship after being caught selling tech to other students to hand in as their work. It’s a take on the classic homework scam we’ve seen before, just more high-tech. After retreating to Chicago and her mother’s (Anji White) apartment, Riri is quickly recruited by a group of high-tech criminals, misleading themselves into believing they are modern-day Robin Hood-type characters and that only the rich will lose by paying them. The leader of the group, Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), possesses a mysterious cloak that allows him to become ‘The Hood’ and grants him special powers.

Once Riri predictably starts to realize that something more sinister is happening, she befriends and enlists tech-obsessed hermit Joe’s (Alden Ehrenreich) help. But of course, Joe has his demons that he’s trying to hide. Through the course of rebuilding her suit, as her M.I.T.-built suit is made unusable upon her expulsion, Riri attempts to create a new AI based on a new brain scan, but ends up creating a perhaps too realistic version of her deceased former best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross).  Which could prove to be problematic to explain to Natalie’s brother, and potential love interest, Xavier (Matthew Elam).

Most of what was explained in the prior two paragraphs plays out in the first episode of the 6 part series. Through the first 3 episodes, the show engages more with the gang and their exploits, including the muscle in the form of the siblings Ros and Jerry Blood (Shakira Barrera and Zoe Terakes), the hacker Slug (Shea Coulee), demolitions and pyrotechnics expert Clown (Sonia Dennis). And last but not least is Parker’s right-hand man, John (Manny Montana), who does most of the boss’ dirty work. Of course, the group predictably turns on Riri after a death in the crew, in a fun sequence set in a White Castle that becomes a series highlight. And if you are noticing a pattern in my writing, you’ll notice what I did throughout the series, which is a thriving sense of utter predictability. We’ve seen a lot of versions of this story before, and Ironheart hits all those beats hard. Sure, there are some twists and surprises along the way, the arrival of the two unforeseen villains as mentioned before included, but the predictability of the main story just makes other beats feel superfluous. That’s not to say the series is without merit, though.

At the core of the story are Thorne’s Riri and Ross’ AI Natalie, and the duo plays off each other very well. Undeniably, on-screen chemistry is evident between the pair, and they make slogging through some of the most inane parts of the script easier. For the most part, the crew is well cast as well, with the Blood siblings stealing a lot of their scenes, and Montana’s John is more menacing than Parker, and that’s the problem. Ramos doesn’t feel menacing at any point in this; his character feels way too weasley to be a criminal mastermind. He reminded me of his character from Twisters, but not in a good way. Ehrenreich’s Joe feels underserved by the script more than the performance, and once his backstory is revealed, it doesn’t add a lot to the overall story. The ending of the series is also far too anticlimactic to be anything but disappointing.

In the end, sadly, Ironheart will likely be remembered for 2 things: introducing an iconic Marvel villain to the MCU, and after multiple suits that are destroyed, Riri finally steps into her most iconic comic book variation. It will be up to the audience to decide if those contributions are enough to rate the series among the better of Marvel’s efforts, but for me, it’s the relationship at its core, between Riri and Natalie, that manages to raise this predictable unevenness to a recommendable grade.