Ironheart’s New Villain Has Huge Repercussions For The MCU
What’s under the hood?
For years, Riri Williams — the hero otherwise known as Ironheart — has been synonymous with science and tech. Her genius-level intellect puts her on the same level as Marvel’s other technocrats, like Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. But in making the jump into Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Ironheart is getting a crash course in dark magic.
This week, Dominique Thorne reprises her role as Riri Williams in Ironheart. Her first solo adventure in the MCU won’t be without its challenges: as she strives to build an iron suit better than any even Stark could make, she’ll have to turn to the shady broker known as Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos). Parker brings Riri into his crew to assist in a series of heists across Chicago. Each member of his team has a particular skillset — Riri’s their eye in the sky, Clown (Sonia Denis) handles explosives, and Slug (Shea Couleé) is their expert hacker. But Parker’s also got a kind of superpower. Armed with a mystical, mysterious hood, he can turn invisible at will and shoot curved bullets like guided missiles.
The Hood may be a lesser-known villain to casual comic book fans, but his presence in Ironheart easily pitches him into the big leagues. Not only is he an ideal match for the left-brained Riri; he’s poised to bring a new brand of magic — and a familiar threat — to the MCU.
The Hood’s powers, explained
The Hood attacks in New Avengers #37.
In the comics, Parker Robbins won his mystical hood in a brawl with the demon Nisanti. After defeating him, Parker stole his hood and boots, and it didn’t take him long to unlock the powers inherent in Nisanti’s garb. The boots allowed him to walk on air, while the cloak turned him invisible so long as he held his breath. These new gifts gave the small-time criminal the inspiration to strike bigger and more powerful targets in his heists — but Parker soon got more than he bargained for when he learned of the true origins of the hood’s power.
Parker’s demon gear draws its power from the Dark Dimension. That’s the domain of Dormammu, a nigh-immortal demon sorcerer nearly as old as time itself. He was the kinda-sorta villain of Doctor Strange, though the 2016 film didn’t do justice to the character or the threat he truly posed to the world. In the comics, he’s considered more powerful than the most famous demons like Lucifer or Mephisto.
The cloak that Parker eventually makes his own also creates a bond between him and Dormammu, which the latter uses to claim Parker’s soul little by little. Dormammu allows Parker to draw on his powers and conquer the criminal underworld — but the more he does, the less control he has. With the help of Brother Voodoo, Parker’s able to purge Dormammu from the cloak eventually, forcing the demon to set out in search of a new host.
Is Parker in league with Dormammu, or someone even worse?
How Parker’s origins will play out in Ironheart remains to be seen, but it’s clear this version of the Hood is in league with some kind of evil entity. The longer he wears the hood, Parker’s back and shoulders are increasingly covered by black veins, which he covers up with tattoos. He’s also seen “speaking” to something in the shadows at the end of Ironheart’s third episode. Whoever he’s taking advice from its definitely bad for our heroine. (Dormammu certainly makes sense, but fan theories suggest that Ironheart is teasing out a much bigger and more powerful villain in Mephisto.) Parker’s growing power will eventually lead Riri to embrace a kind of magic similar to that of Doctor Strange, so we could be gearing up for a more comic-accurate depiction of Dormammu down the line.
