Ironheart review: This superhero series has a hit-and-miss story, but it's one that gives Marvel its heart back

In Marvel Studios’ Ironheart (Disney+, streaming now), teen genius Riri Williams gets kicked out of prestigious US college MIT for allowing her imaginative mind to run away with her.

She’s set on being the new big thing, but she feels held back by her resources – “Do you think Tony Stark would be Tony Stark if he wasn’t a billionaire?” she asks.

Due to her reckless behaviour at college, she’s forced to return to her hometown of Chicago, but not before crashing her, slightly more homespun, version of the flying metal suit worn by Iron Man’s Tony Stark.

To earn money for her larger-than-life dreams she joins a rag-tag group of crooks and does heists with her new crew, but things take a turn when Riri somehow creates an AI of her dead best friend that is now tethered to her suit.

While Riri deals with Natalie (or N.A.T.A.L.I.E), the boss of the new heist operation – Parker – has a mysterious red cloak and we find out in episode two that it has magical abilities, being able to bend bullets for a start.

The first two episodes were really promising, though it has left fans of the Iron Man franchise in furious debate, so let's go through the positives and negatives.

First, the story takes Riri and puts her in an environment we’ve never seen a hero in before, and that is working with the villains of the story. This gives Riri a moral dilemma as she wrestles with the prospects of being the very thing that killed her stepdad and best friend: “Everyone you’re talking about is a criminal, including you.”

Riri struggles to grasp her unethical ways and becomes defensive. I like this route for her, as we see how human she is, which is something missing from many of the shows, and it means we finally have a character that feels like a real person.

Another good thing about the show is the visuals, which again has been lacking from these shows, with a lot of them looking like they were made by children.

However, through all the good there is still some bad.

Riri seems to be forgetting how Stark “built this in a cave, with a box of scraps!” when referring to his iron suit in the first Iron Man movie.

She also takes no responsibility for her actions, and it is really jarring at some times, while some minor characters are brushed to the side with no real development, making it hard to care for anyone.

While this doesn’t make it a necessarily bad show it was enough to ignite controversy online, with people saying that Tony Stark, as played by Robert Downey Jr, was better in the hero’s iron suit.

Personally, I believe that the show is one of the best that Marvel has had in a long time, with Secret Invasion and Echo being massive flops that a lot of people didn’t watch.

This show gives Marvel a great character that some hated after her appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with people saying she was shoehorned in with no real purpose and not pushing the plot at all.

Ultimately, Marvel have finally recreated the success that they had with other shows like Loki or Moon Knight, and if you are a true fan of Marvel and not just watching for the sake of hating it then you will actually enjoy the show,

Although it does have its faults, Ironheart makes up for it with endearing, character-driven stories about what it means to do good and be a true hero.