Ironheart has finished airing on Disney+ and there is one relationship that really works for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s Riri Williams and her connection to Joe McGillicuddy AKA Ezekiel Stane.
Riri (Dominique Thorne) needs to get tech to help her in creating her AI operating system and her suit after she gets kicked out of MIT. In order to do that, she found out that Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich) has a lot of connections to the Black Market. Riri goes to him, uses him to get her tech, and she even gets to meet his father…sort of.
It is revealed that Joe is Zeke Stane, the son of Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane from Iron Man. While Riri and Zeke’s relationship is more based around their love of tech and working together, there are similarities between Riri’s Ironheart and Zeke that is reminiscent of Obadiah’s relationship with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).
Zeke is kinder than Obadiah and maybe that is because of his father’s death and seeing what happened to him but it is nice to watch his relationship with Riri grow throughout the series. He could have easily turned into a super villain but there is a mutual respect between the two of them that allows them to rely on each other.
Even when Riri messes up and loses tech that Zeke told her not to lose (because it was tied to him), there is still a level of respect that stayed in their relationship throughout the show. When he ended up becoming something of a “super villain” himself, he still allowed Riri to live and be a hero herself because he’s not his father.
A new kind of bond
Tony Stark build his suit in a cave with a box of scraps but Riri Williams built her suit out if the scrapes of a car and that’s just as impressive. Zeke didn’t have the resources that Obadiah did or the connections and yet he found his own path. That allows these two to build a new kind of dynamic with each other that maybe wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for what happened with Obadiah and Tony.
This take on Ironheart doesn’t have a connection to Tony Stark outside of getting his scholarship to go to MIT. So the connection to that world really relies on her relationship with Zeke and the show did a great job of not only making it unique but allowing these two characters to grow outside of the Marvel archetypes they’re instantly put into.
I do hope we get to see both Riri and Zeke again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There is comic backing to have the two show up elsewhere but I hope we get more of Ironheart because I think they would do some great things in the Marvel tech world moving forward.
But for now, I love that these two characters got to be that Tony/Obadiah dynamic from the film that started it all while still being their own kind of characters.
(featured image: Disney+)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
