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Ironheart Episodes 4 - 6:
I mean, yes, it's for natural sciences and the like, but surely... Anyway, given that the only comicverse appearance of Marvel's Mephisto I had read was him being used by Joe Quesada to retcon Peter and MJ's marriage out of existence in Brand New Day, I had been less than impressed and wasn't keen on him showing up in the MCU. However, after they namedropped him in Agatha All Along, it was just a matter of time, and early on in this show, Riri was carefully positioned in front of a poster for a production of Gounod's Faust. This said, they had me with the Dommamu red herring, so the entity behind Parker's cloak being not Strange's old foe but Mephisto was a bit of a surprise nonetheless. And Sacha Baron Cohen had a great time as the Prince of Darkness in the finale, plus it was a neat twist to let him show up here rather than in the magic themed Marvel shows like Agatha or WandaVision or in the Strange movies, if there will be any others.
Until the finale, Riri had the usual if well executed heroic learning arc when her bad decisions caught up with her in the second half of the season: her leaving the biomesh from "Joe" at the crime scene outed him as Ezekiel Stane and landed him (temporarily) in prison, wrecking his cover existence for good, the death of John meant Parker now wanted to see her dead as well and so did his crew (btw, I was iimpressed that Riri at no point blamed AI!Natalie for it but took full responsibility both when talking to her AI and to other people later), her attempts to protect her mother and Xavier without telling them why only served to alienate them, and then we got the breakdown and finally the opening up to a loved one (in this case, her mother) with the truth followed by her friends old and new assembling to help her create a new suit and go on the offensive against Parker.(Who in parallel and contrast lost his crew when Riri checked up on Riri's pointing out Parker had Rampage killed. I approve of everyone calling it quits then; intelligent villain minionis are all too rare, and it reminds me of how I liked a similar scene in Iron Man 3 when the minions, not being suicidal, called it quits at a similarpoint.) We also got a demonstration of Riri's talent at improvising and inventiveness in the earlier scene where she had to fight Parker's crew without her suits and just by instrumentalizing what she found in a kitchen . Again, this was all well done but also the predictable pattern, with the most unusual (and very sympathetic) thing being that while Zeke was understandably pissed off at Riri, he did NOT suddenly change personality and went full time supervillain but pointedly did not kill her when he could have and covered for her with Parker later, and conversely, Riri later immediately figured out that a) Parker had him under physical control and b) how to disable it, told him of her intention and followed through. Zeke's final line after Riri asked whether they were friends again, that he had unresolved anger issues and lethal superweapon ware in his body now and had no idea where this would go for him, was another refreshingly realistic summation (for now) - not reconciliation but no muwahahha supervillain stuff, either.
(In fact, Zeke Stane ends this particular season with less a body count and criminal record than Riri.)
....but the true curveball, of course, was the ending and Riri instead of rejecting accepting Mephisto's offer to bring back Natalie. (With Mephisto in true devil fashion already doing a twist - Riri was expecting Natalie the AI, and btw, the fact she made a deal with the devil to bring back an A.I. no one but her and the audience who had seen them bond cared about was oddly poignant despite the insanity-, but got Natalie her stepsister.) I'm still not sure how to feel about that. Given that Riri just via Parker had gotten a graphic illustration of what deals with Mephisto did to a person, and that seemingly her entire learning arc until then had been about not running away anymore from her grief and issues but dealing with them. Otoh, it certainly was a jump out of predictablility and meant we have idea what to expect of her next appearancei n the MCU (if she has one), and the thing with grief and messy emotion in general is that you don't just learn once how to deal and then thereafter have no problem anymore but have to work at it again and again.
Anyway, I liked this season/miniseries, though I will say beings with that kind of power level like Mephisto work best in short appearances like this one where they're fun and don't outstay their welcome, and not as a main antagonist with lengthy screentime.
ETA: Also: Ringo would never!
Until the finale, Riri had the usual if well executed heroic learning arc when her bad decisions caught up with her in the second half of the season: her leaving the biomesh from "Joe" at the crime scene outed him as Ezekiel Stane and landed him (temporarily) in prison, wrecking his cover existence for good, the death of John meant Parker now wanted to see her dead as well and so did his crew (btw, I was iimpressed that Riri at no point blamed AI!Natalie for it but took full responsibility both when talking to her AI and to other people later), her attempts to protect her mother and Xavier without telling them why only served to alienate them, and then we got the breakdown and finally the opening up to a loved one (in this case, her mother) with the truth followed by her friends old and new assembling to help her create a new suit and go on the offensive against Parker.(Who in parallel and contrast lost his crew when Riri checked up on Riri's pointing out Parker had Rampage killed. I approve of everyone calling it quits then; intelligent villain minionis are all too rare, and it reminds me of how I liked a similar scene in Iron Man 3 when the minions, not being suicidal, called it quits at a similarpoint.) We also got a demonstration of Riri's talent at improvising and inventiveness in the earlier scene where she had to fight Parker's crew without her suits and just by instrumentalizing what she found in a kitchen . Again, this was all well done but also the predictable pattern, with the most unusual (and very sympathetic) thing being that while Zeke was understandably pissed off at Riri, he did NOT suddenly change personality and went full time supervillain but pointedly did not kill her when he could have and covered for her with Parker later, and conversely, Riri later immediately figured out that a) Parker had him under physical control and b) how to disable it, told him of her intention and followed through. Zeke's final line after Riri asked whether they were friends again, that he had unresolved anger issues and lethal superweapon ware in his body now and had no idea where this would go for him, was another refreshingly realistic summation (for now) - not reconciliation but no muwahahha supervillain stuff, either.
(In fact, Zeke Stane ends this particular season with less a body count and criminal record than Riri.)
....but the true curveball, of course, was the ending and Riri instead of rejecting accepting Mephisto's offer to bring back Natalie. (With Mephisto in true devil fashion already doing a twist - Riri was expecting Natalie the AI, and btw, the fact she made a deal with the devil to bring back an A.I. no one but her and the audience who had seen them bond cared about was oddly poignant despite the insanity-, but got Natalie her stepsister.) I'm still not sure how to feel about that. Given that Riri just via Parker had gotten a graphic illustration of what deals with Mephisto did to a person, and that seemingly her entire learning arc until then had been about not running away anymore from her grief and issues but dealing with them. Otoh, it certainly was a jump out of predictablility and meant we have idea what to expect of her next appearancei n the MCU (if she has one), and the thing with grief and messy emotion in general is that you don't just learn once how to deal and then thereafter have no problem anymore but have to work at it again and again.
Anyway, I liked this season/miniseries, though I will say beings with that kind of power level like Mephisto work best in short appearances like this one where they're fun and don't outstay their welcome, and not as a main antagonist with lengthy screentime.
ETA: Also: Ringo would never!
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