The MCU Just Revived A Forgotten Part Of Iron Man’s Legacy

Marvel Studios might have just brought a strange part of Iron Man’s legacy back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe during one emotional moment in Ironheart, “Karma’s a Glitch.” Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) proved herself to be the perfect custodian of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) legacy in the MCU in Ironheart. The series took heavy inspiration from Stark’s history, especially through Williams’ building of several suits of armor and the appearance of Ezekiel Stane (Alden Ehrenreich), the son of Stark’s original villain, the Iron Monger, but Stark’s legacy might have continued in another way, too.

After her violent defeat at the hands of the Hood’s low-level criminal gang in Ironheart episode 5, Riri returns home and seeks help from her mother, Ronnie (Anji White), and the NATALIE artificial intelligence (Lyric Ross). When Ronnie takes Riri to her deceased stepdad’s garage, NATALIE shows them a projected memory of a young Riri dancing with Gary (LaRoyce Hawkins). NATALIE was created when Riri scanned her own brainwaves, which could have recorded her memories, too, but this scene may also hark back to Tony Stark’s use of the BARF technology from 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.

Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing (BARF) was introduced in Civil War during Tony Stark’s presentation at MIT. The illusion-projection technology, originally designed by Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) for Stark Industries, allowed Stark to show a memory of his last time speaking to his parents before their deaths, and gave him the opportunity to say a proper goodbye, which he didn’t have the chance to do in reality. This technology was then integrated into the Stark drones in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, which saw Beck, as Mysterio, cast great illusions to fool the world about the Elemental attacks.

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It hasn’t been confirmed that the projection shown by NATALIE in Ironheart was using BARF, but it would make sense given Riri Williams’ legacy connection to Tony Stark. Riri was a student at MIT, so could have been given access to the BARF technology at school, where she also developed a high-tech and modern Ironheart suit, which ultimately proved useless after her expulsion. NATALIE’s projection, which saw Gary call the young Riri “Ironhead,” could have just been that – a projected memory, but it would be great to see the BARF technology still have a presence in the MCU.

Despite Gary’s lessons and the impact of this memory being projected, Riri Williams still entered into a nefarious and questionable deal with the manipulative supervillain Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen). This choice will surely come back to bite her, which will see Riri walk the same line that Stark did – that between a hero and a villain – as Stark often created his own demons. Downey Jr. is set to debut in 2026 as Doctor Doom, but it’s great to see Iron Man’s MCU legacy continuing in the story of Riri Williams’ Ironheart.

Did you enjoy seeing Riri Williams continue Tony Stark’s legacy in the MCU’s Ironheart series? Let us know in the comments!