Riri Williams is an MIT student and a gifted inventor, who created various cutting-edge designs, such as a flying suit of armor, based on Iron Man's suits. As one of her projects was used by the CIA to find vibranium outside Wakanda, Williams found herself threatened by Namor, since her invention put Talokan in danger of being exposed to the surface world. Targeted by both Talokanil and the United States Government, Williams was approached by Shuri and the Wakandans, which later escalated into a war between Wakanda and Talokan. Williams helped the Wakandans in the final battle, using a new armor, made with Wakandan technology, and returned to the U.S. after the conflict.
Riri Williams was a very smart woman who lived in Chicago[2] and started building machines at the age of three.[3] She learned a lot about mechanics from her stepfather who wanted to build airplanes. She would often take his tools and just fidget with his airplanes.[2]
College Career[]
Attending MIT[]
Williams was so smart that she was accepted into and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She settled into her single dorm and soon ran a business. She would do other students' homework for money, which she would get transferred to her. She later became infatuated with creating her own Iron Man style armor. Having worked on it on and off in her own garage. She also set up a very sophisticated computer password that she accidentally locked herself out of, taking her a semester to get back in. Tasked by the United States of America, Williams designed a Vibranium Detector, using scraps of junk.[2]
Williams approached her friend, who did not pay her for the homework she had done for him. She swiftly took his phone and transferred the money herself. She then went back to her dorm where she was approached by Shuri from Wakanda. Instantly recognizing her, Williams asked if she pissed off Wakanda. Shuri mentioned otherwise, but she'd informed her patron that she had earned the ire of others.
Getting worried now, Williams told Shuri she was going to the bathroom before leaving with her. However, Williams' actual intent was to escape through the window. When she entered, however, she found Okoye hiding in her bathroom. Williams backed up and ran to her speaker, intending to use it as a weapon. She threw it as Okoye, who swiftly sliced it in half with her spear. Williams was shocked and surprised that she brought a spear into her dorm.
Okoye threatened Williams before intending to leave, but the latter insulted Okoye by telling her that her makeup was too dark, calling it ash. However, when Okoye said that they would just leave her to fight an angry fish man alone, Williams paused and agreed to come with them.[2]
"I must be dumb as hell. Real dumb thinking that the Princess of Wakanda is gonna show up at my doorstep and then shit about to pop off. I think that I'm actually gonna take my chances with this merman because at least he never brought the FBI to my garage!"
Williams brought Okoye and Shuri to her garage where she told them not to touch anything. She then gathered up her computer, saying it was her life’s work. Shuri saw her Arc Reactor blueprints and pointed it out. Williams reminded her not to touch anything. Suddenly, they heard the FBI outside, asking for Williams to step out.
Williams grew angry that Shuri seemed to have accidentally lured them there. The prodigy took her blueprints and put them into a bin before setting it on fire. She then gathered up some other odds and ends before pushing a button to reveal her secret project. Williams would soon put it on before blasting some invading spooks, and she flew off while Shuri and Okoye used her stepfather's car to escape. As she flew into the air while trailing the Wakandans. Williams got word from Shuri's AI, Griot, there was a drone ahead.
Williams flew up to try to get it but was told how much oxygen she had. She pushed herself to go higher, and at zero oxygen, she shot the drone, sending it crashing down, only to then lose consciousness but she regained it just before hitting the water. As she caught up to the Wakandans, the young engineer told them she had a present for them. The drone then crashed onto the police blockade in front of the two, allowing them to escape.
Suddenly, Williams was pulled out of the air by a spear cable, which then the Talokanil had arrived. Having been knocked out cold by the fall, the Talokanil proceeded to take her and Shuri to Talokan.[2]
Williams woke up in Namor's cenote with Shuri next to her. Williams started panicking, but the Princess tried to calm her down. Williams asked if the Wakandans could just send for the Black Panther, but Shuri said it would not work like that anymore. Namora then walked in and told the latter to come with her.
Williams sat there until Shuri returned. Suddenly, Nakia arrived to rescue them. A Talokanil held Shuri by the throat, so Nakia shot her. Shuri tried to save the Talokanil, but Nakia said they had to go. Williams backed Nakia up before they left. Nakia helped them get to the surface where they were picked up by a Royal Talon Fighter. From there, Williams met Queen Ramonda.[2]
Williams arrived at the Citadel where she was protected by Ramonda. Suddenly, there was an attack by Namor. Ramonda quickly went to the high-tech window and tried to use the controls to help civilians. Williams approached her, saying she could help as well. The two worked together until Namor arrived. Ramonda told Williams to run, but it was too late. Namor blasted them with a Hydrobomb. This caused Williams to drown. When she woke up, spitting out water, she realized that Ramonda had sacrificed herself to save Williams.[2]
Following the funeral, Williams approached Shuri feeling like it was her fault. She then helped Shuri try to figure out how to stop Namor. They brought up his weird mutations and realized that creating heat rays could make it hard for him to breathe. They created this mechanism.
Williams then turned her attention to making a better version of her Ironheart armor. When it was all set and done with red and black painted colors, she cut out a metal heart to use. She then helped Shuri recreate the Heart-Shaped Herb. Shuri prepared to take it, worrying Williams. When Shuri woke up, she believed that she had no strength, but was quickly proven wrong. She then created her own Black Panther armor.[2]
Black Panther led the Wakandans to ambush the Talokanil on the Sea Leopard. Creating another Vibranium Detector, Williams used it to lure the Talokanil. She then flew around the battlefield and took on Namor. She battled him in the air until she asked assistance from Griot, who sent a Royal Talon Fighter to take Namor. She told Black Panther, who jumped in with him.
Ironheart then took her business to the other Talokanil, shooting them off the ship along with the Midnight Angels. Suddenly, Namora hopped onto Ironheart's back. The two fought in the air while Williams tried to get her off. Namora retaliated by trying to choke Williams. Ironheart got Namora to the front of her before blasting her into the water. Later, Black Panther and Namor returned from their battle, announcing a truce.[2]
In the aftermath, Shuri dapped up Williams and sent her on her way back to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked and Shuri said she could not allow Williams to keep the Ironheart armor, which Williams understood. Shuri also told her that she was cleared of her crimes but could not help if she did not stop her side business with homework. Williams then left.[2]
Personality[]
"You need to be conscious of the way that you look. Walking around here with that ash on your head."
Ironheart Armor Capabilities: Williams uses a set of technologically advanced armors which provides her of the ability to flight and grant her superhuman strength, durability, speed, agility, stamina and reflexes. The armors also possess energy repulsors and other offensive weapons.
Superhuman Strength: With her armors, Williams can enhance her strength to superhuman levels, enough to defeat Talokanilsoldiers and Namora.
Superhuman Durability: With her armors, Williams can withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. Her first armor was durable enough to withstand bullets and brute force, and most impressively, a fall from 30,000 feet (over five miles). Her second armor made of vibranium was incredibly durable against Namora's weapons.
Superhuman Speed: With her armors, the thrusters grants Riri to move as super fast distances with supports of the repulsors.
Superhuman Agility: With her armors, despite the heavy metal is incredibly agile to allow Williams to perform evasive movements.
Superhuman Stamina: To be added
Superhuman Reflexes: To be added
Ironheart enables her thrusters
Flight: Riri's armor has the innate ability of flight, capable of soaring through the air and even high altitudes to reach near outer space.
Power Suit: Using designs of Stark blueprints, Williams came up with a sustainable arc reactor to power all her own suit’s operating functions to successfully remain active.
Abilities[]
"This thing can detect the altered frequency of vibranium through water, stones, even heavy metals. Whoever built this is brilliant. Come, look. Some are custom parts and others look like they gathered it from a junkyard."
Genius-Level Intellect: Williams is a child prodigy who attends the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had been "running circles around" all of her professors according to Everett Ross. She was referred to as "brilliant" by Shuri; given that the latter is the smartest person in the world,[4] this is high praise.
Master Engineer: Williams was three years old when she built her first machine, with encouragement from her stepfather. She built the vibranium detector for her metallurgy class in the span of a couple months using custom parts and others gathered from a junkyard. According to Doctor Graham, the machine had less than a one in a billion chance of finding the substance, but it worked. Shuri learned that it could detect the altered frequency of vibranium through water, stones, and even heavy metals. She also corrected the grip algorithm of one of her coed's robotic hands in exchange for payment, and fixed a few trucks for the head of sanitation. She built a functional quantum computer to crack her own encryption.
Master Scientist: Williams' differential equations class allowed her to find Euler angles while flying her suit and take down a federal surveillance drone.
Master Hacker: Williams impressed Shuri with the 2065-byte encryption on her laptop and had to build a functional quantum computer to crack it when she was locked out.
Ironheart Armor: Mark I: Williams uses blueprints from Stark technology to craft her own design of Iron Man armor, where Mark I can shoot repulsors and fly powered through an arc reactor shaped like a heart.
Ironheart Armor: Mark II: With aid of the Wakandan technology Riri designs a second model of Ironheart suit completely of vibranium, heads up display, including better weaponry more advanced than the suit that it can even travel underwater.
Vibranium Detector: As a project for school, Williams crafted a device capable of detecting minerals underwater so powerful that he can even detect vibranium, thus why the CIA used it for operations.
Facilities[]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Williams is a student at MIT known to use her education and dedication to her role of being a gifted inventor.
Riri Williams' Garage: On her private time really owns the garage near campus where she hold all her personal projects, including her own Ironheart armors.
Shuri's Lab: Assigned by Shuri, Williams was provided a work station to help build defenses against Namor while at the same time building her first advanced version Ironheart suit.
Citadel: Under protective custody of Wakanda, Riri was escorted by Queen Ramonda in the Citadel during the attack by the Talokanil.
In the comics, Riri Williams is a young MIT student who managed to reverse-engineer Iron Man technology and create her own suit of armor, becoming known as Ironheart. She was approached by Tony Stark himself who endorsed her desire to be a superhero, so she joined him in the second Civil War against Captain Marvel.
Dominique Thorne was called up by Marvel Studios and asked if she wanted to play Ironheart instead of submitting an audition as usual: "I was at home in Delaware and I got a call asking if I would like to play this role. It was the best phone call I could have ever received. I was so shocked, in fact, that there was a considerable lag in the conversation! I was waiting for them to say, like, ‘Oh, we’ll send you the sides’, or, ‘Get your tape over to us.’ But there was none of that. It was just like, ‘Would you like to do this?’ It was probably the most unique experience I’ve ever had because there was no audition at all".[5]
Thorne originally auditioned to play Shuri in the first Black Panther back when she was still in her sophomore year. While she didn't get the role, Thorne later starred in a film produced by director Ryan Coogler, Judas and the Black Messiah, leading executive producer Nate Moore to call her, asking her if she was familiar with the Ironheart character and then offer it to her when she affirmed that she did know about the character.[6]
Kellina Rutherford was a stunt double for Thorne in the role of Ironheart.
