5 Deliberate Parallels Between Ironheart And Iron Man In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever brought us Ironheart and also plenty of visual parallels with Iron Man. Here we count the top 5 ones

By Ishita Chatterjee
November 12,2022
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever brought the tears, the fights, and the parallels! The movie is wrecking havoc at the box office with its emotional story arc between Shuri and Namor. But there’s also a new character who plays a significant role in the movie- Riri Williams/ Ironheart.

Leading up to the release of the movie, one of the major questions on everyone’s mind was- Will we see a connection between Riri and Tony? In an interview with DesiNerd, director Ryan Coogler teased that Riri has a ‘complicated connection’ with Iron Man. While her actual connection to him will be fleshed out in her solo Disney+ series, but it was interesting to witness all the visual parallels between the two characters in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

1) The Act Of Creating Their First Suits

Tony Stark
Tony Stark

In the first Iron Man movie, when Tony is captured by the Ten Rings in Afghanistan, he creates his first suit out of hunks of metal. There is a shot of him in the cave, beating the metal with a hammer in a grey/white tank top to shape it to his liking. In Black Panther 2, there’s a direct parallel to this scene with Riri in a white tank top hammering out her Ironheart suit from a slab of metal.

2) Their Iron Man And Ironheart Mark I Suits Are Similiar 

Iron Man Mark I armor
Iron Man Mark I armor

We see Riri’s Mark I suit in her garage and it looks quite similar to the one Tony made while in Afghanistan. Both are unpainted metal exoskeletons that are incomplete. Also, both the suits have blasters located in their arms and Tony and Riri both use them to fight off the Ten Rings/ The Feds.

However, some development is bound to be seen thanks to Tony Stark continuously inventing in the MCU universe. So where Tony had flame throwers in his Mark I suit, Riri has sleek laser-lookalike blasters installed in hers.

3) The Ice Buildup- Oxygen Level Scene

Iron Man suit
Iron Man suit

One of the major scenes in the first Iron Man movie is of Tony testing his first fully painted and functional suit. He takes it out for a spin and decides to fly as high as he can. But as he goes higher and higher, his AI warns him of the ice buildup on his suit that’s preventing the armor from operating at full capacity.

In Black Panther 2, this scene is directly paralleled. But instead of ice building up on the Ironheart suit, its Riri’s oxygen levels that are dropping as she’s continuing to fly higher. But ultimately she’s able to take out the drone flying at a high altitude, just like how Tony stopped Stane. We assume that ice buildup wasn’t used as a problem for Riri’s suit because Tony would had solved the issue ages ago.

4) Bringing Out The Jets In The Ironheart And Iron Man Suits

Jets on Ironheart Mark II suit
Jets on Ironheart Mark II suit

During the final battle between the Wakandans and the Talokans, Riri offers air support to the former in her Mark II Ironheart suit. In one scene when she fails to reach the required altitude at higher speeds to stop a Talokan fighter, she activates jets on her feet and this give her that boost. This scene is a parallel of the countless times Tony has saved others and himself by activating jets or blasters in his suit.

5) The Same Smartness And Sassiness

Riri Williams in Black Panther 2
Riri Williams in Black Panther 2

Even though this is the first time we are meeting Riri, but it’s clear that she has the same smarts as Tony. In her introduction scene we get to know that she has pretty much created the impossible by making a vibranium detection device that works anywhere in her garage in just a couple of months.

Tony too could develop machines and tech extremely quickly as he was an adept engineer as well. As for the sass and smartass comments, Riri doesn’t dish it out like Tony did with sarcasm, but it’s clear that she knows her strength and doesn’t let anyone belittle her.

Ironheart/ Riri Williams actor Dominique Thorne said in an interview with Variety that we are just seeing one side of Riri in the Black Panther 2 movie. So hopefully we will get to her full personality soon in her own Ironheart show.

Did we miss any parallels? Let us know.