Technomagic Girlhood, Community & the Ethics of Creation (Ironheart pt 2)
Ironheart was cooking with fish grease in the back half of the show.1
I especially locked in on episode four, “Bad Magic.” When I say I’m interested in “technomagic girlhood,” I’m going to start sending people this episode.2 In short, I love when Black girls engineer the impossible or the fantastic for themselves—I think it is some of greatest contemporary self-expression. I love when they engineer the conditions for themselves to be able to fly. On one end of the spectrum in “Black Magic,” we get Zelma Stanton (Regan Aliyah), sorceress in training.3 On the other end, we have N.A.T.A.L.I.E., the AI hologram of Riri’s deceased best friend. And Riri is smack in the middle.
This episode takes both magic and science/technology very seriously, both as separate entities and as deeply intertwined. Zelma’s magical workshop is effectively a laboratory, and her process similar to experimentation, reminiscent to how Joe/Ezekiel Stane’s tech bunker is presented. Like Zeke is with technology, Zelma and her mother are deeply invested in the ethics of magic. Zelma’s mother, Maddie (Cree Summer), tells Riri that while we often tell ourselves there is no bad technology, only bad people who use it, there is, in fact, bad magic. The conversation mirrors the discussion Riri has with Zeke about her “hypothetical” AI made with her brainwaves in episode 2. In both cases, what Riri has the most control over is herself—how she is choosing to engage with both technology and magic.
This agency and her string of decisions around technology, impossibility, and its ethics come to a head when she has to confront Xavier about N.A.T.A.L.I.E. As I noted in my first post about the show, Xavier and Natalie's relationship was one change that showrunners made to heighten narrative stakes. Because they are siblings here, it makes Xavier’s emotional response to Natalie’s digital reanimation land like a gut punch. Not only are we unclear about whether this is “ethical,” in respect to Natalie’s agency and will because she cannot consent to this creation, viewers are forced to grapple with the fact that Riri also does not have consent from Natalie’s family to use her likeness in this way.
Xavier’s response to Riri was so well done in “Bad Magic” that I was…honestly a little disappointed that he just seemed to get over it by the finale. Do I want hardship for Riri? Of course I don’t. But I think we need to tussle about ethical technology amongst each other a little more! Riri’s not making cute little science projects out of kitchen scraps and chewing gum. She’s making weaponry and employing the essence of a deceased friend in the process.
Someone has to check her. And stand on it.
Xavier was standing on business.
That’s what love is. You should be able to come to a loved one and tell them how your choices are impacting them. You should be able to figure out a way through together, even if it’s messy.
I don’t know that Riri and Xavier found a way through together. It feels more like Xavier decided he could cut Riri some slack and just let her have that one. I don’t know that this is satisfying enough for me.
What I do appreciate, though, is that Xavier is committed to being a part of Riri’s community, even if most of the conflict resolution around this issue is done off screen. Xavier, Ronnie (Riri’s mother) and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. are important community members in that they do weigh in on Riri’s decisions, trying to help her figure out her way through. Ronnie especially reminds Riri that her decisions extend far beyond herself—when Riri takes a piece of the Hood into Stanton’s, Ronnie is irate that her daughter knowingly endangers a friend. Ronnie feels a responsibility for her friends’ safety—they are each other’s business—and Riri betrays that without her knowledge. And even, N.A.T.A.L.I.E. frequently reminds Riri she can’t just say the first thing that pops into her head.
The community aspect of Riri’s life is some of the most important reparative work that creators in the Ironheart canon are taking up in the wake of her inception in the Bendis run. I’m glad to see that it became a major part of the show.
The core of my interest in Riri’s commitment to community is because it gives viewers a way to understand the “why” of her creation. If you are an artist or writer, something folks may ask you often is: Why do you make art? Why do you write? I tend to be of the opinion you need a reason. Writing is a tool, wielding it well is a responsibility. I write, not because language is pretty and beautiful, though that is certainly some of it, but because there are truths I’m committed to telling. There are people I want to tell a story to/for, even if sometimes that audience is just myself. But often I’m writing for a community of Black girls and women who were told to shrink—and refused. I feel I owe it to myself to create with those people in mind.
Seeing Riri’s community makes me lean far away from the positioning of her as antihero I’ve been seeing fans do in the wake of the show. I’m not convinced that a genius girl with few viable options making choices from what is available to her makes her an antihero. Forgive me for being chronically online, but that is just a girl, your honor.
Riri is a genius bound. She is limited in some big societal and economic ways. Rather than label her as antihero, I’d like to think about how big her creativity is given the constraints. Do I want those constraints gone? Yes. And I’m also endlessly impressed by the way Black people do alchemy with air. We build feasts out of scraps. Make music out of anything. Create movements on social media with nothing but truth and 0’s and 1’s.
We shouldn’t have to and I’m still in awe of our magic, our beautiful imaginations and aesthetics of creation. And we should be beholden to interrogate why and how we create things.
N.A.T.A.L.I.E. was something Riri’s soul needed. As hesitant as I am about the technology, I am appreciative of the way Riri is able to create something impossible that may heal her in some way.
Even in all its limitations, I’m glad we’re tending more to the souls of Black girls.
Fun plug: If you like my Ironheart thoughts, I’m going to be on Pink Riot Comic Show live this Thursday evening at 8 PM ET/5 PM CT with Dr. Christian Hines to talk all things Ironheart! Follow Pink Riot Comic Show on all platforms so you don’t miss some great content!
If you missed my first post on Ironheart, you can find it here.
This is my long essay I wrote on technomagic girlhood for Vault of Culture. This is a blog post I wrote about it here on Substack.
By the way, the casting director who decided to explicitly make Cree Summer a witch needs a raise.