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I don’t know about sorcery, but last I saw she was in possession of the Ten Rings in the comics and using their powers.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
I'm not super familiar with the comic character but what I did run across don't recall her dabbling in sorcery. Is everyone doing Dr. Strange things these days?

I'm not sure if she in particular has, but its not at all an uncommon theme for Iron Man stories. The main reason the Mandarin was traditionally Tony's arch rival was that he challenged his technology with magic and a lot of his stories would result in Tony approaching magic with a scientific approach and win the day by incorporating it into his tech. It's also effectively Dr Doom's motif, so they may be building something there.

The Mandarin's rings aren't magic, they are alien in origin from a crashed space ship.

 Quixote wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:
I'm not super familiar with the comic character but what I did run across don't recall her dabbling in sorcery. Is everyone doing Dr. Strange things these days?

I'm not sure if she in particular has, but its not at all an uncommon theme for Iron Man stories. The main reason the Mandarin was traditionally Tony's arch rival was that he challenged his technology with magic and a lot of his stories would result in Tony approaching magic with a scientific approach and win the day by incorporating it into his tech. It's also effectively Dr Doom's motif, so they may be building something there.

The Mandarin's rings aren't magic, they are alien in origin from a crashed space ship.

Oh right. I always forget they treated them as alien from the beginning unlike Fin Fang Foom who was retconned later.

Still, Man of Science facing Magic is still a pretty common theme in his books in general.

The rings are technology, but they have been treated as and are effectively magic. "Any sufficiently advanced technology..." and such.

I am curious if this is really Riri making a magic armor or if this is her walking into a trap and her armor being corrupted or contaminated.

We know the Hood is the main bad guy in this and that his titular hood isn't Dormamu based, but instead Mephisto based. Corruption and traps are basically his whole deal.

 AduroT wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
So, her version of JARVIS is a jive-talking ratchet hood-rat?

A AI recreation of a friend of hers who was killed.

That sounds like it belongs in a Black Mirror episode more than a super-hero show. Feels weird too with with all the anti-AI art sentiment to gloss over the ethical implications of creating a digital approximation of a deceased loved one.

It's not a new concept for the MCU, though, given that Tony did the same thing with his family's butler...

 insaniak wrote:
It's not a new concept for the MCU, though, given that Tony did the same thing with his family's butler...

And in the regular comics that's what Tony Stark did with himself.

For a while he was just an AI in an Iron Man suit.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 insaniak wrote:
It's not a new concept for the MCU, though, given that Tony did the same thing with his family's butler...

And in the regular comics that's what Tony Stark did with himself.

For a while he was just an AI in an Iron Man suit.

In the Iron Heart comics it was a Tony Stark AI, so even if they went that route here it would still be a deceased person being turned into ChatGPT.

She met Tony just a couple times before his “death” and he decided he liked her so set her up with support, including an AI of himself to help her and run the suits. When she lost that she made her own AI, and I Think it unintentionally took the form of her dead friend. It’s been awhile so I forget the specifics. The scene in the trailer has her hooking wires to her head and then the new AI saying Who Else Would It Be? so I’m guessing it’s a subconscious thing here again and not actively choosing to model it after the dead friend. Incidentally I tend to hate her Natalie AI in the comics. It’s generally kind of an arse.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
P.S. Tony’s current AI in the comics is IronGPT. It’s terrible and calls him Username and tends to get everything wrong.

 Ahtman wrote:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 insaniak wrote:
It's not a new concept for the MCU, though, given that Tony did the same thing with his family's butler...

And in the regular comics that's what Tony Stark did with himself.

For a while he was just an AI in an Iron Man suit.

In the Iron Heart comics it was a Tony Stark AI, so even if they went that route here it would still be a deceased person being turned into ChatGPT.

Tony was dead at that time in the comics as well.

Looks like Thunderbolts was a loss. Not a catastrophic financial bomb, but a loss nonetheless:

Per Variety: https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/thunderbolts-lost-millions-box-office-marvel-next-1236427994/

With $371 million globally, it’s one of the lowest-grossing installments in all of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe

Still, “Thunderbolts*” needed to make $425 million worldwide to break even, a figure that seems unachievable.

Here's another reason to see 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' when it comes out, as if anybody needed another reason to begin with...

Jon Bernthal Joins Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ - The Hollywood Reporter

Jon Bernthal has appeared in several Marvel television series as the stone-cold vigilante known as the Punisher, even headlining his own series.

Now he’s taking his guns to the big screen.

Bernthal has joined Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the latest Spider-Man movie from Sony and Marvel. Destin Daniel Cretton is directing the feature, which will shoot in England this summer and has a July 31, 2026, release date.

Finally got done watching the first three seasons of Daredevil to get myself ready for Daredevil Reborn.

The show has really good actors who can convey the hard hitting drama aptly. The fight scenes looked real and grounded with Matt taking significant damage each time. But sometimes it felt slow paced for no reason. My idea of a well paced show would be Moon Knight.

I'd say Season 2 was the strongest with all the different characters bouncing off of each other, and we got to see the Daredevil suit the most.

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all, instead Bullseye is wearing it. And I did not care for the attempts at making Bullseye "complex and sympathetic". And I didn't care for Matt's imaginary conversations. Still Matt's finaly triumph over Fisk was terrific. And it was satisfying to see Matt, Foggy and Karen back together at the end.

 kyrtuck wrote:

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all,

The apparent aversion of the shows' creators to have their heroes in costume was the biggest issue with all of the Netflix/Marvel shows.

 kyrtuck wrote:
Finally got done watching the first three seasons of Daredevil to get myself ready for Daredevil Reborn.

The show has really good actors who can convey the hard hitting drama aptly. The fight scenes looked real and grounded with Matt taking significant damage each time. But sometimes it felt slow paced for no reason. My idea of a well paced show would be Moon Knight.

I'd say Season 2 was the strongest with all the different characters bouncing off of each other, and we got to see the Daredevil suit the most.

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all, instead Bullseye is wearing it. And I did not care for the attempts at making Bullseye "complex and sympathetic". And I didn't care for Matt's imaginary conversations. Still Matt's finaly triumph over Fisk was terrific. And it was satisfying to see Matt, Foggy and Karen back together at the end.

Now, go and watch Ironfist.

If you liked Daredevil, you’ll love Ironfist. I mean, it’s the second martial arts centred show from people who clearly know how to make a good martial arts show so any and all rough edges are definitely taken care of and so it’s definitely a slick production with jaw droppingly good scenes everywhere.

It’s not all inferior with a lead who refused to take martial arts lessons and a remaining cast who clearly don’t want to be there and it’s definitely really good and not at all a great steaming pile.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 kyrtuck wrote:
Finally got done watching the first three seasons of Daredevil to get myself ready for Daredevil Reborn.

The show has really good actors who can convey the hard hitting drama aptly. The fight scenes looked real and grounded with Matt taking significant damage each time. But sometimes it felt slow paced for no reason. My idea of a well paced show would be Moon Knight.

I'd say Season 2 was the strongest with all the different characters bouncing off of each other, and we got to see the Daredevil suit the most.

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all, instead Bullseye is wearing it. And I did not care for the attempts at making Bullseye "complex and sympathetic". And I didn't care for Matt's imaginary conversations. Still Matt's finaly triumph over Fisk was terrific. And it was satisfying to see Matt, Foggy and Karen back together at the end.

Now, go and watch Ironfist.

If you liked Daredevil, you’ll love Ironfist. I mean, it’s the second martial arts centred show from people who clearly know how to make a good martial arts show so any and all rough edges are definitely taken care of and so it’s definitely a slick production with jaw droppingly good scenes everywhere.

It’s not all inferior with a lead who refused to take martial arts lessons and a remaining cast who clearly don’t want to be there and it’s definitely really good and not at all a great steaming pile.

He was a marginally better character in the Defenders...

You might also argue that The Defenders is a worse show than the ones for the individual heroes (except Luke Cage), so at best it evens out and Iron Fist is still a dud.

 Ghaz wrote:
Here's another reason to see 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' when it comes out, as if anybody needed another reason to begin with...

Jon Bernthal Joins Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ - The Hollywood Reporter

Jon Bernthal has appeared in several Marvel television series as the stone-cold vigilante known as the Punisher, even headlining his own series.

Now he’s taking his guns to the big screen.

Bernthal has joined Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the latest Spider-Man movie from Sony and Marvel. Destin Daniel Cretton is directing the feature, which will shoot in England this summer and has a July 31, 2026, release date.

I'm one of those no doubt odd people for whom Spiderman does nothing. I saw the latest ones pretty much only because I watched all the other MCU movies. Strange featuring in a bigger role in one of them was a nice surprise.

Frank actually gives me something to look forward to.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 kyrtuck wrote:
Finally got done watching the first three seasons of Daredevil to get myself ready for Daredevil Reborn.

The show has really good actors who can convey the hard hitting drama aptly. The fight scenes looked real and grounded with Matt taking significant damage each time. But sometimes it felt slow paced for no reason. My idea of a well paced show would be Moon Knight.

I'd say Season 2 was the strongest with all the different characters bouncing off of each other, and we got to see the Daredevil suit the most.

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all, instead Bullseye is wearing it. And I did not care for the attempts at making Bullseye "complex and sympathetic". And I didn't care for Matt's imaginary conversations. Still Matt's finaly triumph over Fisk was terrific. And it was satisfying to see Matt, Foggy and Karen back together at the end.

Now, go and watch Ironfist.

If you liked Daredevil, you’ll love Ironfist. I mean, it’s the second martial arts centred show from people who clearly know how to make a good martial arts show so any and all rough edges are definitely taken care of and so it’s definitely a slick production with jaw droppingly good scenes everywhere.

It’s not all inferior with a lead who refused to take martial arts lessons and a remaining cast who clearly don’t want to be there and it’s definitely really good and not at all a great steaming pile.

It's only made funnier by how publicly desperate the actor for Iron Fist wants to get into the mainline MCU this late into the game.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Now, go and watch Ironfist.

If you liked Daredevil, you’ll love Ironfist. I mean, it’s the second martial arts centred show from people who clearly know how to make a good martial arts show so any and all rough edges are definitely taken care of and so it’s definitely a slick production with jaw droppingly good scenes everywhere.

It’s not all inferior with a lead who refused to take martial arts lessons and a remaining cast who clearly don’t want to be there and it’s definitely really good and not at all a great steaming pile.

I gotta say, you had me going in the first half and I was prepared to talk about all the ways Iron Fist is terrible but you son of a bitch, you got me! I barely noticed the heaping helpings of massive sarcasm you laced in this comment. Poe's Law loses this round lol

 insaniak wrote:

 kyrtuck wrote:

With that said, season 3 kinda ticked me off since Matt doesn't wear the suit at all,

The apparent aversion of the shows' creators to have their heroes in costume was the biggest issue with all of the Netflix/Marvel shows.

To be fair it's not like Jessica Jones or Luke Cage really even have costumes.

Luke Cage does. They made a joke of it in the series, during his prison escape flashback.

Jessica Jones had two different costumes, although neither of them for very long and both before her Alias Investigations days... and admittedly gadding about in spandex doesn't really fit with the Netflix version of the character, although an updated version of the Knightress costume could have looked cool alongside Daredevil...

Watched the first 3 ironhearts last night. Will need a rewatch later because tired from work and whatever.

Overall good! They are doing a good job showing her drive and frustration at her situation. The stuff with Parker (The Hood) has been good so far. You can see the fringes of the bigger bad around the edges of everything happening in the show. Excited for the next batch of episodes.

Also, really interesting surprise reveal of a character in the first 3 episodes. Pretty great!

Really enjoying it too.

Not at all familiar with Ironheart or The Hood, but motivations are definitely there.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Really enjoying it too.

Not at all familiar with Ironheart or The Hood, but motivations are definitely there.

I think we are going to see the divide become Riri drawing lines in the sand and deciding there are things she won't do/cannot do and that her contributions can be more than an invention but what she herself personally stands up for. That it doesn't just matter what you do, but how you do it.

Meanwhile the hood will find there is nothing he won't do. No depth he won't sink to. That the ends always justify the means for his own goals. Everyone and everything is potential kindling for his fire.

It might just be personal experience but I found the base premise of Riri's character to be the most obnoxious tech bro shlock. Yeah. Yeah. You're a genius. It's 'the world' that doesn't understand what a self-entitled dickbag who doesn't actually do anything but expect it all to be handed to you genius you are. I find it preposterous to believe that anyone wouldn't be lining up to fund someone who was recreating Tony Stark's most famous invention and promising to mass produce it. Riri would have 0 issue getting funding if the plot didn't require her to have an issue. There are people with way more half-assed ideas that crashed and burned at 'sell out bro down' than creating Iron Man suits.

So that whole deal just rubbed me the wrong way.

But it gets a lot better once you get past that. At the very least it's a better put together show (so far) than the last Disney MCU series I watched. Though to be fair Kamala Khan was solid in its first few episodes. It's on the back half the show started to suffer. We will see.

 LordofHats wrote:
It might just be personal experience but I found the base premise of Riri's character to be the most obnoxious tech bro shlock. Yeah. Yeah. You're a genius. It's 'the world' that doesn't understand what a self-entitled dickbag who doesn't actually do anything but expect it all to be handed to you genius you are. I find it preposterous to believe that anyone wouldn't be lining up to fund someone who was recreating Tony Stark's most famous invention and promising to mass produce it. Riri would have 0 issue getting funding if the plot didn't require her to have an issue. There are people with way more half-assed ideas that crashed and burned at 'sell out bro down' than creating Iron Man suits.

So that whole deal just rubbed me the wrong way.

But it gets a lot better once you get past that. At the very least it's a better put together show (so far) than the last Disney MCU series I watched. Though to be fair Kamala Khan was solid in its first few episodes. It's on the back half the show started to suffer. We will see.

My problem was that her character was just a tired reinvention of terribly tired Iron Man storylines.


The only decent thing that arose from the death of Tony Stark was the Infamous Iron Man aka Dr. Doom as a hero.

Heck, anyone remember the black and white marvel comic line where Rhodey leads a bunch of mass produced Iron Man suits (U.S. Warmachines)?

Nope? How bout when Frank Castle had to put on the War Machine suit and go fight mass produced Iron Man suits in a 3rd world country for Nick Fury, Jr.?

I can think of at least 3 more storylines (Detroit Steel) where Stark suits are sold and mass produced.

Her show might be better, but it was tainted (for me at least) by the terrible tie in to Wakanda Forever: a movie with some questionable choices, that had moments of brilliance mixed with stone stupid adaptations of beloved Marvel characters.

My only beef is the basic premise that she commits crimes because no one will pay her to build Iron Man suits. Which she is demonstratably capable of. It gets even more ironic in episode 2, where she suddenly becomes the only person in the show who apparently has funding problems. It would make sense if they built up the problem, like that she doesn't want anyone else butting in but no one will give her creative control, or she wants the suit to do good but others want to make it a weapon (which she apparently has no issues with in abstract), or that she was shut down by greedy companies who already had an edge on her money wise and are trying to squeeze her. Or if she hadn't already built a suit and couldn't prove she could really do it.

None of that is established.

We're just supposed to believe that she's a misguided genius making questionable decisions because her ability to build Iron Man suits is not sellable to people with billions of dollars. That's only like, the first episode of the show honestly so you get past it fast. I just think really really stupid.

Did they drop the entire series to binge?

First 3 eps.

 LordofHats wrote:
My only beef is the basic premise that she commits crimes because no one will pay her to build Iron Man suits. Which she is demonstratably capable of. It gets even more ironic in episode 2, where she suddenly becomes the only person in the show who apparently has funding problems. It would make sense if they built up the problem, like that she doesn't want anyone else butting in but no one will give her creative control, or she wants the suit to do good but others want to make it a weapon (which she apparently has no issues with in abstract), or that she was shut down by greedy companies who already had an edge on her money wise and are trying to squeeze her. Or if she hadn't already built a suit and couldn't prove she could really do it.

None of that is established.

We're just supposed to believe that she's a misguided genius making questionable decisions because her ability to build Iron Man suits is not sellable to people with billions of dollars. That's only like, the first episode of the show honestly so you get past it fast. I just think really really stupid.

I completely agree. The actual heists, and crew dynamics aren't bad by any means. But the suspension of disbelief and common sense surrounding Riri getting there is painful. 4 years of Harvard, actively selling and completing homework for other students, and a woman of her ability didn't secure at least a few degrees? And being rejected and... didn't somehow have her covered with job offers from other colleges, high schools, and tech industry in the area? Or just programming an AI to play the stock market would have generated plenty of funds.