Riri Williams has made her mark as the highflying Ironheart, fighting alongside of some of the greatest superheroes of the world. As a student and teen, her life is a little more complicated. How complicated? Ironheart #1 is on shelves now, and your Major Spoilers review is here right now.

IRONHEART #1

Writer: Eve Ewing
Artist: Kevin Libranda, Luciano Vecchio
Cover: Amy Reeder
Publisher:  Marvel Comics
Release Date: November 28th, 2018
Cover Price: $4.99

Previously in IRONHEART: Riri Williams is now trying to have a “normal” life as… scratch that, nothing about RiRi Williams is normal! Can she juggle being a student, genius, superhero and a young lady all at the same time? Well, she might, if she can survive her own first issue!

I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WOULD BE A TEST!

Flying, up in the air, surrounded by clouds. It must be a great way to clear your head and reflect on your situation. That is exactly what Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, does one morning as she jets to her lab at M.I.T. But when she arrives, she isn’t prepared for what comes next! The Dean of the school has thought it would be a good idea for Riri to show a group of foreign dignitaries around her lab and show off some of her latest projects. As she composes herself and tries to be accommodating to the group, she finds out quickly that the quality of the work being showed can sometimes take a back seat to the whiz-bang factor it possesses. Besides, everyone loves glow-in-the-dark tech! But, as often happens when a group of lay-people enter an experimental, super high-tech, lab there are some misfires. A somewhat uncomfortable question and answer session, followed by tech misfire and the hasty retreat of all visitors, Riri is left to find out what happened. But even a genius can miss when people are trying to be sociable, and she is left alone to work out her problems, not realizing that she might not have to do it all alone.

Her problems, and those of a broken glow-in-the-dark, 3-d printing arm cannon are interrupted when she receives an alert of unusually high police activity in the area, and she dons her Ironheart armor in response. It seems that Harvard University is having an issue with tech-powered villain named Clash, and Ironheart is just the hero face him. But when she does, will find answers about why Clash did what he did, or will she have more questions? How does it all connect to The Ten Rings? These questions, as well as modern dating practices and the unexpected appearance of an old friend may be keeping our hero in her toes for quite some time.

ALL THE UPGRADES WITH THAT OLD SCHOOL FEEL

I’ve been on the outskirts of Ironheart and the progress of the character, so as usual, I come in with very little knowledge of her history or current status. Good thing is, I don’t need any. There are some basics you know if you ever heard of the character: reverse-engineered Stark tech, used to roll with a Tony Stark A.I. in her suit, super smart, etc. The great thing about this book is the expert way Eve Ewing (Ghosts in the Schoolyard, Electric Arches) fills in the blanks and you don’t even know it. Some writers give info dumps and throw everything at you at once, but not Ewing. She expertly works basic information in the dialogue and story, and before you know it you get what you need without feeling like it was forced down your throat. She does it so well, so smooth, I was thinking that this was expert, veteran comic scripting from an old pro, but it wasn’t. This is Dr. Eve L. Ewing’s first published comic script. I always look up authors I am not familiar with after reading the book and I could find nothing else in this medium she has done. Not to say she is not a prolific and gifted writer by any means. She’s a published poet, an artist, a playwright, educator and more. Without knowing, based only on reading this first issue, I felt as if I was reading something from a writer with tons of comic scripts under her belt. That said, it still reads as fresh as anything I have read this year and I am placing it in my personal top five of books I’ve enjoyed. If this is how she starts off her comic writing career, I cannot wait to see what she is doing five years from now. Honestly, great work.

The art by Kevin Libranda (Royals, Uncanny Avengers) and Luciano Vecchio (Ultimate Spider-Man Infinite Comic, Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite Comic) is equally as stunning. Creative and dynamic panel construction, excellent use of depth and design, and characters that convey their emotions, this is great stuff. I really can’t pick out a favorite panel or page, but their art coupled with the writing took me back reading Iron Man comics when I was a kid. This whole creative team deserves a big thumbs up.

BOTTOM LINE: A CLASSIC IN THE MAKING

Yes, I enjoyed this book. It hit all the marks starting with a great script and wonderful pacing to a visually stunning style that drew me in. It was great seeing an armored hero take on another tech-based hero again, and the implications of the last have of this book are amazing. I can’t wait to see what comes next and will be adding this to my pull list.

IRONHEART #1 has the well thought out story and amazing visuals that you want un your comics. Probably one of my favorite first issues of the year.