Riri Williams made her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and fans will next see her show up in her own Disney+ series, Ironheart. While non-comic book readers might have seen the character as a retread of Iron Man, there is an enormous difference between the two characters.
Iron Man first appeared in the early days of Marvel Comics and is one of the most iconic characters in comic book history. On the other hand, Ironheart is a legacy character, one who arrived around the same time as characters like Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, and Kate Bishop. However, she is not a younger version of Iron Man. Ironheart is so much more than that.
Ironheart Doesn’t Have Money
Both Iron Man and Ironheart have a lot in common. Both proved at the start of their careers that they could create workable armor out of what they could find lying around. However, Iron Man did this when held captive in a foreign country. Ironheart did it in her personal lab at home.
That meant that when Iron Man returned to America, he used his immense resources to make himself top-of-the-line armor. Ironheart still had to deal with what life handed her, much of it borrowed from the university she attended. To this day, she still works on her own armor with bits of pieces of equipment.
Ironheart Has A Parental Figure
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams mentioned needing to call her mother to let her know she was okay. That is a big deal in the comics, as well. Ironheart lives at home with her mom. Her mother also knows she is a hero and mostly supports her. With a parental figure, she has stability.
That was always a problem with Tony Stark. Even when his dad was alive, he neglected his son. Tony grew up with Jarvis helping raise him, and he never had the parents to lead him in the right direction. Iron Man had to learn to be a hero. Ironheart had it instilled in her by her mom.
Ironheart Needed Iron Man
When Tony Stark became Iron Man, it was self-preservation that led to his arrogance pushing him to become a hero. Nothing influenced him more than needing to survive and then his own willingness to make up for what his family had done when it comes to selling weapons.
However, Riri Williams never would have become Ironheart if not for Iron Man. She created her first armor by actually reverse-engineering Iron Man’s armor. Without his original suit, she would have had nothing to base her design on. She also didn’t become a hero until after Iron Man seemingly died, and she became a tech-based Marvel hero because she wanted to honor his memory.
Ironheart Became A Hero To Help Others
The reason that Iron Man became a superhero is complicated. Tony Stark was a weapons developer captured by terrorists in another country. He created armor to escape and then set out to right the wrongs of his company. He became a hero to correct the problems that Stark International caused.
Riri Williams’ origin story is more typical for young superheroes in Marvel Comics. She was 13 when a shooting in a park killed her stepfather and best friend. Riri, devastated by the deaths, began secretly working on armor to ensure she could save others in the future. Iron Man was righting his own wrongs while Ironheart became a protector of the innocent.
Ironheart Is A Teenager, With Teenager Problems
Iron Man is a middle-aged man who has fought as a hero for many years. He has a lifetime of experience, has died and returned more than once, and has saved the world and collapsed to his own demons. He is a veteran in every definition of the word.
However, Riri Williams is a teenager. When she graduated from high school, she had time to work on her armor at MIT and became a superhero. However, she is still a young woman and has the conflicts and struggles that Tony Stark never faced in his life in a wealthy family.
Ironheart Is Not A Team Player
Iron Man is arrogant and self-absorbed on his best days. However, he also knows the importance of teamwork. He was a founding member of The Avengers and has worked on other offshoot teams outside of that in the comics. While Ironheart has worked with The Champions, she is not someone who likes it.
Someone like Kamala Khan often has to pull Ironheart into action with the team. She knows she can’t do everything by herself, but that is what she prefers. While Iron Man is a team player, Ironheart prefers to go it alone as much as she can.
Ironheat Is An Introvert
If there is one thing that fans have learned about Iron Man, it is that he loves to hear his name. He loves to be on the news. He loves being the topic of conversation. He is a social butterfly, and that has led to way too many problems in his life.
However, Ironheart had behavioral problems as a child, and a child psychologist confirmed it was because she was a super genius. She never felt like she fit in anywhere and retreated inside her own mind, becoming an introvert. Even in The Champions, Ironheart prefers to remain in the background.
Ironheart Fights For Peace
If there is one thing that tarnished Iron Man’s legacy over the years, it is events like Civil War. In that comic book storyline, Iron Man demanded that all heroes register their identities and work for the government. Anyone who didn’t was an outlaw, and he attacked his own friends and locked them away.
Ironheart has never once stood for totalitarianism in her role as a superhero. A perfect example came in the Invincible Iron Man Vol. 4 series. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent her in to stop a Latverian terrorist, and when she won, she took over the country and brokered peace between the United States and Latveria. Ironheart became an enemy of Doctor Doom because her entire goal was the freedom of the people from his control.
N.A.T.A.L.I.E. Is Based On Riri’s Friend
In the comics, Iron Man created an AI to help him like in the movies. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man named J.A.R.V.I.S. after the butler that worked for his family for years. It ended up as an assistant for him. While it offered suggestions, it mostly followed orders. In the comics, the AI looked a lot like Tony Stark.
However, Ironheart made her own AI and subconsciously did something that surprised her. When the AI formed to talk to her, it looked like her childhood friend Natalie, who died in the shooting incident. N.A.T.A.L.I.E. greatly differs from J.A.R.V.I.S. While both follow their master’s orders, Ironheart’s AI is more of a moral compass, helping lead her on the right path.
Race Issues
Iron Man is a privileged, wealthy white man. He didn't experience much of what Ironheart went through in her life. As a 13-year-old, she experienced a random shooting that killed her best friend. As she got older, she experienced racial profiling and issues based on the color of her skin.
This opened some doors for her as well. Ironheart went to Wakanda to stop an invasion, and while she was there, she met and befriended Shuri. Recently, she rejoined Wakanda to stand by Black Panther to protect the country from invaders from the future. Even at such a young age, what Ironheart experienced in life surpasses anything Iron Man dealt with at her age.