At its core, Ironheart explores how far people will go to make up for their past failings — and how those efforts can go wrong. Even a noble goal can lead someone down a dark path, the show suggests, once personal desire starts clouding their plans.
The MCU has consistently explored how the road to hell is paved with good intentions, starting with Tony Stark’s redemption in 2008’s Iron Man, and continuing through characters like Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision, Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Agatha Harkness in Agatha All Along. All of them are well-meaning at one point or another, but personal motives steer them into darker territory. Marvel Studios has had several chances to introduce an existing Marvel Comics character who fully embodies this arc, and while his debut has been rumored for many of these stories, it seems the company has been holding off until he could appear alongside Riri Williams, bringing the theme full circle back to Tony Stark.
Who is this mysterious character who’s been looming in the minds of Marvel theorists for years? This is a spoiler of epic proportions, so for those who don’t want to know where the final episode of Ironheart goes, you’ve been warned.
[Ed. note: Major Ironheart character introduction spoiler ahead.]
Photo: Jalen Marlowe/Disney Plus
In Ironheart’s season 1 finale, Sacha Baron Cohen portrays Mephisto as the physical manifestation of making a deal with the devil, presenting Riri with an offer she can’t refuse. It’s revealed that he offered a similar deal to Peter Robinson, aka The Hood, by giving him a cape powered by dark magic. As The Hood is attempting to escape capture during a heist, the mysterious Mephisto rescues him and offers to make him richer and more influential than the father who ostracized and abandoned Peter as a child. The catch: Peter can never be without the cape, or he will suffer physical pain and hear voices in his head, enticing him to wear it again.
Like most wishes in fiction, Mephisto’s offers are monkey’s paws, with stipulations that sour the wish’s fulfillment. For Peter, wearing the cape makes him easier to manipulate, and he becomes addicted to its power.
Mephisto’s offer for Riri is similarly double-sided. At the end of the series, she loses her AI bestie, who took the shape of her murdered best friend, Natalie. Mephisto offers a way to bring her back. Riri takes the devil’s deal, but instead of Natalie returning, Riri finds herself with a new look, in what we can assume is a new multiverse setting where Natalie never died. But what does that mean for the rest of Riri’s family?
If her new Afro hairdo and ’60s retro-tech locale mean anything, she could be in the same alternate-universe setting as the new Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four: First Steps. That doesn’t bode well for her, considering that Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, is approaching. But that may become Riri’s Iron Man moment: Creating a new suit of armor and helping the Fantastic Four save the world may be the jumping-off point for her redemption arc, just like Tony Stark, years prior, joining the Avengers to save the world from an alien invasion.
Photo: Disney Plus
Back in 2021, fans speculated for weeks that WandaVision would introduce Mephisto to the MCU, citing the show’s hexagon motif and the presence of Agatha Harkness, who’s associated with Mephisto in the comics. But he never appeared. The Mephisto theories reignited with Spider-Man: Far From Home, which drew inspiration from One More Day, a Marvel Comics arc where Peter makes a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May’s life at the cost of his future with MJ.
In Marvel Comics, Mephisto is essentially the devil, and it’s easier to list heroes he hasn’t tangled with than the ones he has. He played a role in the 1991 comics miniseries Infinity Gauntlet, which Avengers: Infinity War borrows from. He’s a frequent foe of Doctor Strange. A 1989 comic even revealed that Wanda Maximoff’s twin sons were created using fragments of his soul.
Now that Mephisto has been introduced to the MCU, it isn’t a matter of whether he’ll return — there’s just too much story potential in a supernaturally powered villain who offers people whatever they want, at unpredictable and terrible costs. He’ll be back. It’s just a question of when and how much of a role he’ll have as Marvel launches Phase Six of its cinematic project.
All six episodes of Ironheart are streaming on Disney Plus now.
