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A review by captwinghead
Invincible Iron Man: Ironheart, Volume 1: Riri Williams by Brian Michael Bendis
4.0
4 ish stars.
So, I've put off reading this series even though it's on my pull list. I own every issue but this is the first time I'm reading them. I've been wary because I heard that Riri has been written the same way most characters tangentially involved with Tony have been written these days: they're completely annoyed at Tony Stark's existence for no reason at all. I was hesitant to read this because of that and because the last 3 books I read from Bendis were terrible (Jessica Jones (2016), International Iron Man, Spider-Man, vol 1 (2016)).
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this.
There were a few bugs:
- the intro reads like the start of Hidden Figures in a bad way. Honestly, I could not figure out for the life of my why Riri's parents looked as if they were being told that their daughter had some kind of disease. Even the teacher was acting as if Riri being extremely intelligent was some kind of curse. It was weird.
- I question why Miles and Riri's origins are steeped in criminal activity in their communities? Let me just say that I don't have any close family members that have been involved in/victimized by gang violence. None of my family members are felons? I don't understand why Bendis makes these decisions?
- Riri's mother is seems like such a non character. Perhaps I feel this way because I've never really understood familial relationships where the daughter takes care of the mother but she seemed so uninvolved. There is a portion where she questions if letting her 15 year old daughter go off to fight crime is a good decision and that's... okay.
- there are a couple of flashbacks that literally serve no purpose. Namely the one about Riri's experience sword fighting. I laughed out loud when it became clear that that page was completely and utterly pointless.
- All of Bendis' books blended together in that he brought in elements from that god awful International Iron Man book and I wasn't sure exactly how to feel about that. It's messy as hell that we got the overly drawn out conclusion of Tony meeting his mother just to have that series come to an end and have Tony put in a coma.
Anyway, those were the tough spots. Let's get into what I liked:
- Riri. I never found her to ungrateful or obnoxious. While I wanted a little more of her history outside of being treated like an automaton, there was enough here to get a feel for her personality. I'm totally onboard for more black, female geniuses in Marvel comics (... I just wish we could get black women to write them). I liked that she had so much in common with Tony such as forgetting to eat, getting super wrapped up in projects and having confidence in their abilities.
- The issues with Pepper were knock outs for me! I adore Rescue and I adored watching Riri and Pepper working together against Tomoe. Give me more of this! Give me a team up book because I love Pepper's chemistry with Riri! I loved Pepper in general. Sorry, but I would marry her in a heartbeat.
- I enjoyed Tony and FRIDAY's interactions with Riri to an extent. There are times where I'm not the biggest fan of Bendis' take on Tony. Not all of the jokes landed for me but I appreciated them overall.
- There were times Bendis actually got genuine laughs out of me which was interesting. Both from bystanders but I laughed all the same
- I liked seeing Team Iron Man come together: MJ, Pepper, FRIDAY and Amanda.
So, overall, this is definitely worth checking out. Even if you just check it out from your local library. I had a good time reading it and it didn't take me long at all. Surprising seeing as Bendis has been on my shit list as of late.
4 stars.
So, I've put off reading this series even though it's on my pull list. I own every issue but this is the first time I'm reading them. I've been wary because I heard that Riri has been written the same way most characters tangentially involved with Tony have been written these days: they're completely annoyed at Tony Stark's existence for no reason at all. I was hesitant to read this because of that and because the last 3 books I read from Bendis were terrible (Jessica Jones (2016), International Iron Man, Spider-Man, vol 1 (2016)).
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this.
There were a few bugs:
- the intro reads like the start of Hidden Figures in a bad way. Honestly, I could not figure out for the life of my why Riri's parents looked as if they were being told that their daughter had some kind of disease. Even the teacher was acting as if Riri being extremely intelligent was some kind of curse. It was weird.
- I question why Miles and Riri's origins are steeped in criminal activity in their communities? Let me just say that I don't have any close family members that have been involved in/victimized by gang violence. None of my family members are felons? I don't understand why Bendis makes these decisions?
- Riri's mother is seems like such a non character. Perhaps I feel this way because I've never really understood familial relationships where the daughter takes care of the mother but she seemed so uninvolved. There is a portion where she questions if letting her 15 year old daughter go off to fight crime is a good decision and that's... okay.
- there are a couple of flashbacks that literally serve no purpose. Namely the one about Riri's experience sword fighting. I laughed out loud when it became clear that that page was completely and utterly pointless.
- All of Bendis' books blended together in that he brought in elements from that god awful International Iron Man book and I wasn't sure exactly how to feel about that. It's messy as hell that we got the overly drawn out conclusion of Tony meeting his mother just to have that series come to an end and have Tony put in a coma.
Anyway, those were the tough spots. Let's get into what I liked:
- Riri. I never found her to ungrateful or obnoxious. While I wanted a little more of her history outside of being treated like an automaton, there was enough here to get a feel for her personality. I'm totally onboard for more black, female geniuses in Marvel comics (... I just wish we could get black women to write them). I liked that she had so much in common with Tony such as forgetting to eat, getting super wrapped up in projects and having confidence in their abilities.
- The issues with Pepper were knock outs for me! I adore Rescue and I adored watching Riri and Pepper working together against Tomoe. Give me more of this! Give me a team up book because I love Pepper's chemistry with Riri! I loved Pepper in general. Sorry, but I would marry her in a heartbeat.
- I enjoyed Tony and FRIDAY's interactions with Riri to an extent. There are times where I'm not the biggest fan of Bendis' take on Tony. Not all of the jokes landed for me but I appreciated them overall.
- There were times Bendis actually got genuine laughs out of me which was interesting. Both from bystanders but I laughed all the same
- I liked seeing Team Iron Man come together: MJ, Pepper, FRIDAY and Amanda.
So, overall, this is definitely worth checking out. Even if you just check it out from your local library. I had a good time reading it and it didn't take me long at all. Surprising seeing as Bendis has been on my shit list as of late.
4 stars.