At its core, Ironheart explores how far individuals will go to make up for his or her previous failings — and the way these efforts can go flawed. Even a noble purpose can lead somebody down a darkish path, the present suggests, as soon as private need begins clouding their plans.
The MCU has persistently explored how the street to hell is paved with good intentions, beginning with Tony Stark’s redemption in 2008’s Iron Man, and persevering with via characters like Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision, Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Means House, and Agatha Harkness in Agatha All Alongside. All of them are well-meaning at one level or one other, however private motives steer them into darker territory. Marvel Studios has had a number of possibilities to introduce an current Marvel Comics character who absolutely embodies this arc, and whereas his debut has been rumored for a lot of of those tales, it appears the corporate has been holding off till he may seem alongside Riri Williams, bringing the theme full circle again to Tony Stark.
Who is that this mysterious character who’s been looming within the minds of Marvel theorists for years? It is a spoiler of epic proportions, so for individuals who don’t wish to know the place the ultimate episode of Ironheart goes, you’ve been warned.
[Ed. note: Major Ironheart character introduction spoiler ahead.]
Picture: Jalen Marlowe/Disney Plus
In Ironheart’s season 1 finale, Sacha Baron Cohen portrays Mephisto because the bodily manifestation of constructing a cope with the satan, presenting Riri with a suggestion she will’t refuse. It’s revealed that he provided an identical deal to Peter Robinson, aka The Hood, by giving him a cape powered by darkish magic. As The Hood is making an attempt to flee seize throughout a heist, the mysterious Mephisto rescues him and affords to make him richer and extra influential than the daddy who ostracized and deserted Peter as a baby. The catch: Peter can by no means be with out the cape, or he’ll undergo bodily ache and listen to voices in his head, attractive him to put on it once more.
Like most needs in fiction, Mephisto’s affords are monkey’s paws, with stipulations that bitter the want’s achievement. For Peter, carrying the cape makes him simpler to control, and he turns into hooked on its energy.
Mephisto’s provide for Riri is equally double-sided. On the finish of the sequence, she loses her AI bestie, who took the form of her murdered greatest pal, Natalie. Mephisto affords a solution to carry her again. Riri takes the satan’s deal, however as an alternative of Natalie returning, Riri finds herself with a brand new look, in what we will assume is a brand new multiverse setting the place Natalie by no means died. However what does that imply for the remainder of Riri’s household?
If her new Afro hairdo and ’60s retro-tech locale imply something, she may very well be in the identical alternate-universe setting as the brand new Improbable 4 in Improbable 4: First Steps. That doesn’t bode effectively for her, contemplating that Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, is approaching. However which will turn out to be Riri’s Iron Man second: Creating a brand new go well with of armor and serving to the Improbable 4 save the world could be the jumping-off level for her redemption arc, similar to Tony Stark, years prior, becoming a member of the Avengers to save lots of the world from an alien invasion.
Picture: Disney Plus
Again in 2021, followers speculated for weeks that WandaVision would introduce Mephisto to the MCU, citing the present’s hexagon motif and the presence of Agatha Harkness, who’s related to Mephisto within the comics. However he by no means appeared. The Mephisto theories reignited with Spider-Man: Far From House, which drew inspiration from One Extra Day, a Marvel Comics arc the place Peter makes a cope with Mephisto to save lots of Aunt Might’s life at the price of his future with MJ.
In Marvel Comics, Mephisto is basically the satan, and it’s simpler to checklist heroes he hasn’t tangled with than those he has. He performed a job within the 1991 comics miniseries Infinity Gauntlet, which Avengers: Infinity Warfare borrows from. He’s a frequent foe of Physician Unusual. A 1989 comedian even revealed that Wanda Maximoff’s twin sons had been created utilizing fragments of his soul.
Now that Mephisto has been launched to the MCU, it isn’t a matter of whether or not he’ll return — there’s simply an excessive amount of story potential in a supernaturally powered villain who affords individuals no matter they need, at unpredictable and horrible prices. He’ll be again. It’s only a query of when and the way a lot of a job he’ll have as Marvel launches Part Six of its cinematic undertaking.
All six episodes of Ironheart are streaming on Disney Plus now.