Alright, kids, buckle up. It’s time for an Ironheart finale review.
If you thought the first three episodes of Ironheart were bad, buckle up. Somehow, Marvel managed to dig even deeper into the well of awful. The final three episodes of Ironheart don’t just continue the disaster—they accelerate it, hurling the show off a cliff of lazy writing, nonsensical tech, virtue signaling, and a complete disregard for logic or consequence.
This is not a show. It’s a slow-motion implosion of Marvel’s creative spirit.
Riri Williams in Ironheart – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
All the same problems from the early episodes are still here. The writing is stale, stuffed with dialogue that sounds like it was pulled from a middle school creative writing intro class. The main character, Riri Williams, is still entirely unlikable. If anything, she’s worse in the back half of the season. There’s no character growth, no reckoning, no redemption. Just more smugness, more entitlement, and more proof that the creative team had no idea how to write a hero or a character with any redeeming qualities of any kind.
Reaping What She Sowed
Riri’s criminal “friends” turn on her—and we’re supposed to feel bad. But this is just karma on a platter. She lied, manipulated, used people, and now the consequences have arrived. Characters tell her flat-out that she’s selfish and wrong, but Riri never truly owns it. She doesn’t evolve. She doesn’t reflect. She simply powers through with the same arrogant attitude, insisting she’s in the right.
Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), Marvel Studios
Then comes a baffling action sequence where these gang members—who previously took down grown men with ease—get beaten by Riri without her armor. Not only does she magically win, but she scores multiple kill shots… and no one dies or even gets hurt. Slug, one of the thugs, literally survives a vehicle crash that should have turned anyone into pavement paste. But Slug just climbs out without a scratch, shrugs it off, and walks away. Real stakes? Real danger? Forget it.
And then, in a moment of pure script laziness, The Hood fires the gang. That’s right. Fires them. They just leave. No revenge arc, no comeback, no purpose. It’s as if the writers hit “delete” mid-season and hoped no one would notice. What was even the point of these characters? Did they ever have a point other than to be there for a beat em up henchmen fight?
Zeke Stane: The Real Victim
Zeke, the nerdy White guy Riri exploited for three episodes, ends up in jail thanks to her blackmail. She offers a lukewarm “my bad” and seems shocked when he’s furious with her. He should be. She ruined his life.
Zeke becomes a villain—sort of. After getting sprung from prison by The Hood, he gets turned into what can only be described as a bootleg Iron Monger with electric powers. It’s all very comic-booky (which is not a negative in a comic book show), but the real joke is the pseudo-science used to control him. Apparently, Slug sets The Hood as the suit’s “admin” during installation, and that gives him telepathic control. You heard right. A guy in a magic cloak becomes a Bluetooth mind-controller because… tech.
The Dislike Ratio for the Ironheart trailer as of June 30, 2025 – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
Zeke beats the brakes off Riri and destroys her armor—but lets her live. And honestly? He’s the only character with a shred of humanity. Of course, the show wants us to see him as the bad guy. But in this twisted universe, he’s the only one acting logically. If anything he’s on a revenge arc. Imagine if Kill Bill decided The Bride was the villain and presented Bill as the misunderstood hero.
Then, in the most ridiculous climax imaginable, Riri defeats Zeke by kicking him below the belt. Yep. After millions of dollars of upgrades, no one thought to give the guy an armored cup. That’s your genius-level battle plan.
Powered by Pure Nonsense
Riri builds her final suit out of… a car. Just any old car. Apparently, she skipped the entire Iron Man arc where Tony needed special alloys and power sources. Her new armor? Runs on magic. Literal Black Girl Magic. Her mom conveniently knows a sorceress from Kamar Taj and her daughter, who wave their hands and zap the suit full of plot juice. The result? The Natalie AI vanishes for some reason. Because magic has a price or something.
Ironheart in the trailer for Ironheart – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
Riri is momentarily upset, then shrugs it off and suits up. She tears the hood off The Hood, makes him cry, and the show doesn’t even bother explaining what happens to him. Because at this point, who cares? We don’t know how the magic integrates with the suit. We don’t know how Riri controls it given that she has no understanding of magic.
Seriously, I put more thought into this Ironheart finale review than the creative team put into this whole show.
Selling Her Soul (Literally)
And then… the grand finale of this Ironheart finale review. Mephisto appears. Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen makes his long-awaited debut as the literal devil. And what does Riri do? Does she fight him? Does she rise up to battle the ultimate evil and finally become a hero?
Nah.
She sells her soul to him. Seriously.
Mephisto in Marvel Comics – YouTube, Variant Comics
No big battle. No showdown. Just a straight-up soul trade to bring back her dead best friend, Natalie.
Some have tried to frame this as a heroic sacrifice akin to Tony Stark flying the nuke through the portal in Avengers or snapping his fingers in Endgame. But let’s be honest: it’s a selfish act. Natalie was gone and had found peace. Her brother had moved on and processed his grief.
Riri resurrected her because she couldn’t let go. It’s not courage—it’s obsession. The only person who benefits from this Faustian bargain is Riri.
And that’s how it ends. No resolution. No meaning. No point.
Marvel’s Lowest Point
There are no redeeming qualities here. The one potentially interesting performance—Sacha Baron Cohen’s Mephisto—is wasted in this dumpster fire. The finale cements Ironheart as not just the worst Marvel show, but quite possibly the worst thing the MCU has ever produced.
Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams in Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2022 MARVEL.
On The Pro Show with WDW Pro, I was asked if this was as bad as the Star Wars flop The Acolyte. At the time, I hesitated. Now? No hesitation. Ironheart is worse. Much worse.
Final Verdict: 1/10 – Unwatchable. Unredeemable. Unforgivable.
What’s your Ironheart finale review? Drop it in the comments below and let us know!
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Ouch. I couldn’t imagine Marvel making a worse show than She-Hulk, but leave it to them to outdo themselves.
And I’ll bet you 100 dollars that somehow they’ll find a way to make something that’s even worse than Ironheart. That’s all they know how to do now.
Wouldn’t it be sweet if her true self came out, and she somehow switched two wires in a boot and and she’s sent, supersonically, fatally, into the side of some stadium, bank, or mountain?