2018 attitude, 1965 characterization. I grew up on Silver Age stories like this, where Stan Lee had to write everyone as hair-trigger aggros in order to work in a fight scene, and that was ok because no one was particularly devloped as a character. I guess that’s what Aaron is going for here, what with Namor acting like Silver Age Namor again and all. Just feels kind of shallow today.

On the level of 'What Happened', I kinda get it but I don't like it -- another silly alternate universe with more pointless alternate character versions, a vague new direction for Loki that's bound to be ignored by the overabundance of writers who'll be using him in the future, and something about the stones getting souls. On the level of 'Why These Things Happened', I'm sure it all makes sense in Duggan's mind, but for me, nearly every page contained things happening without any sense of cause and effect or story logic. I can't really say this event was bad, but just... baffling. more

RiRi Williams is one of the most divisive characters in comics. She's cited as a diversity hire and one of the key targets when discussion comes up regarding identity politics at marvel comics or comicsgate.

What do I think about Riri? She's okay, in fact I think the whole identity politics debate happened more as a reaction to all of the changes at marvel circa 2016 than Riri Williams herself. 

What do I think about IronHeart #1? It's okay. The comics manages to be functional and does everything right but still didn't really resonate enough to keep me interested in the character or series. 

Eve Ewing was lambasted in certain circles for being a meritless hire. Coming off of the street and given a series of prominence. The truth is that the writing for IronHeart is solid and right in line with everything else at Marvel in 2018.

Riri is an introvert. She works better alone. She has a lot of trauma in her past and has a really hard time relating to people around her because of her extreme intelligence. Being a superhero and inventor is her outlet. 

We get a new villain and a reference to an old one that will be fun to see Riri deal with if Marvel plays their cards right. 

The art from Kevin Libranda and Luciano Vecchio make Ironheart and her world look distinct but nothing really stands out. Riri does looks great outside of the suit. I'm not a fan of the suit design as it looks more like an article of clothing than a suit of armor. There's even a panel where he costume transitions and underneath you can clearly see she's wearing a pair of converse. 

I guess the suit is in line with Tony Starks bleeding edge armor but I'm not really a fan of that either so, shrugs. My other complaint is that I'm really tired of the teen hero super genius trope. Marvel currently has Iron Heart, Moongirl and Shuri and they are essentially permutations of the same character. I'll never say that Riri doesn't deserve to exist. There are people  just like Riri in the real world but when you see the same concept over and over again it feels lazy.  

Overall if you're already a fan of the character you'll probably get more out of this issue than I did. For me the comic was bland. The issue looks good but overall the comic lacked any tension, danger or any "oh Shit" moments. 

It's a solid first issue and sets the foundation for the character. I may revisit the series when the first arc is collected into a trade. It's not a bad start you can do a lot worse. 

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