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While Ironheart and Iron Man became close allies in the comics, and he helped mentor her, she maintained her distance and proved to be a great hero without his assistance. She has even done several things that prove that she might be a better hero than Iron Man ever was in Marvel Comics.
1) She Made Her Armor With No Money Or Experience
Riri Williams said something in the Ironheart Disney+ series that angered many fans. She claimed that she was better than Iron Man because she built her armor without any money or wealth. While Iron Man built his armor in a cave without the use of his money or wealth, he knew what he was doing because he had the best education and training growing up as a Stark. He had an advantage that people like Riri Williams never had. On the other hand, Riri had to fight for everything she ever got. She couldn’t afford the tech that Tony had access to once he got back home to build all his advanced armor. Riri Williams in the comics had nothing and built everything from scratch. However, she did have to take some shortcuts by “borrowing” equipment to do so from M.I.T. Regardless, she built everything on her own and taught herself without a wealthy education.
2) Ironheart Fights For The People
Iron Man is an Avenger who has saved the world numerous times throughout his life. He fought in both Civil War and Civil War II for his beliefs, whether he was on the side of good or not. There is no discounting that he is a hero. However, Tony mostly fights for personal reasons, and most of the decisions he makes are thanks to his immense ego. Ironheart also has a major ego, but hers is very different than Tony’s. While both of them always believe they are right and will fight to prove it, the reasons they are heroes differ. Tony fights because he feels the world needs him as a hero. Riri fights because she wants to save people like her friend Natalie, who was killed in a drive-by shooting. Ironheart fights for the little people on the streets, while Tony has his eyes on bigger threats.
3) Ironheart Wants To Create Technology To Help Others
Tony Stark comes from a family of weapons developers. He was kidnapped, injured, and forced to become a superhero because he is obsessed with making weapons for a profit. Even now, as he wants to put that behind him and no longer be involved in that business, it was still how he lived his life for many years. Iron Man, at its core, was a living weapon, and that is all Tony wanted to create. Riri Williams has a much purer heart. She is Ironheart because she wants to help people. However, she wants to use her intellect and brilliance to create things to make the world a better place. She even wanted to use the Ten Rings to find a way they could be used to help humankind, rather than use them as the weapons they always were.
4) Ironheart Withstood The Temptation Of The Ten Rings
The Ten Rings in comics were Mandarin’s weapons. For many years, the rivalry between Iron Man and Mandarin was a battle between science and magic, with the Ten Rings equipped with magical powers. In Iron Man (Vol. 6) #24, Ironheart convinced Tony Stark to let her keep the Ten Rings because she wanted to figure out how they worked and use them for the good of humankind. Stark agreed because he trusted her, but he also knew that the Rings could corrupt, as they had corrupted him before. However, Ironheart has one up on Iron Man because she was able to withstand the ghostly force of the Ten Rings as it tried to control her. She also knew when it was time to get rid of them, and she did so in Invincible Iron Man (Vol. 5) #14 with the assistance of the X-Men’s Forge.
