The Tech-Magic Combo In 'Ironheart' Is Not Just A Gimmick: The MCU Has Always Been Heading This Way

On June 24, 25, six-episode miniseries Ironheart is set to make it's debut on Disney Plus. Reprising her role from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the series follows Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams. Filled with a greater sense of passion and purpose following her adventure in Wakanda, Riri is eager to make her mark on the world, a quest that leads her into a complicated and potentially dangerous friendship with Parker Robbins/The Hood, an ambitious misfit in possession of a hood that grants him access to the Dark Arts.

In the series most recent trailer, Riri seems to have incorporated some form of magic into the newest model of her Ironheart suit. Some MCU detractors have dismissed this development as a gimmick, but that's hardly the case. This is not the first time elements of technology/science and magic have come together in the MCU.

Science and Magic are One and the Same

This potential affinity between science and magic is touched on as early as Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the first Thor film. In what is one of the movie's major romance scenes, Thor returns one of Dr. Jane Foster's personal research notebooks, only for Jane to become discouraged, believing S.H.I.E.L.D will keep her work from ever being released. Thor encourages Jane not to give up, as most of her research is correct, or at least on the way there.

"Your ancestors called it magic, you call it science. Where I come from, they are one and the same thing."

Thor goes on to explain the Nine realms, and the concept of Yggdrasil, the World's Tree. The scene is significant enough to be accompanied by its very own piece of score, fittingly titled 'Science and Magic'.

The seeds of Jane's future studies, and the book she eventually publishes, are sewn in this conversation with Thor.

The very concept of the Infinity Stones

At the core of the MCU's first three phases, later collectively dubbed the Infinity Saga, are the six Infinity Stones. The stones are six singularities formed around the time of the Big Bang, each representing and controlling an aspect of the Universe: Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul, and Time.

Of the six stones, three (Space, Power, and Time) represent aspects that can be measured scientifically, at least to an extent. The other three (Mind, Reality, and Soul) are more abstract concepts, usually depicted as closer to what most would call magic. In this way, the whole Marvel universe can be interpreted as having been born from a combination of the two.

Wanda Maximoff, The Vision, and their romantic relationship

Avengers: Age of Ultron officially introduced both Wanda Maximoff and The Vision, after Wanda's first brief cameo in the credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. While Wanda's powers are awakened via a scientific experiment involving the Mind Stone, the WandaVision series eventually revealed that their true source is Chaos Magic that had remained mostly dormant within her before that point.

The Vision is born from a vibranium and synthetic flesh body crafted by Helen Cho, the intellect of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, a portion of Ultron's base code, the Stark A.I Jarvis, the Mind Stone, and a blast of Thor's lightning.

Vision is Science with a little bit of magic, and Wanda is Magic with a little bit of science. Their eventual romantic relationship makes them a perfect merger of science and magic, or, as they often describe themselves in the comics, order and chaos. Later, Wanda inadvertently combines science with her magic again, when her hex around Westview emits an analogue TV signal. The Vision also becomes a more obvious merger of tech and magic when his original body is revived via a sample of Wanda's chaos.

Spider-Man defeats Doctor Strange with Geometry

After retrieving the visiting Spider-verse villains in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker disagrees with Doctor Strange's plan to immediately return them to their own universes, knowing this will result in their deaths. The disagreement leads to a brief battle between the two.

Strange magically transports Spider-Man to the Mirror Dimension, planning to leave him there until the plan is complete. This would ordinarily result in an instant win for Strange, but after realizing the Mirror Dimension more or less runs on the scientific rules of Geometry, Spidey is able to turn the tables and trap Strange instead, proving that a Science Vs Magic battle need not always be one-sided.

Rocket Raccoon

Officially, there is mothing overtly or explicitly magical about Rocket Raccoon. He is, on the surface, a regular raccoon who has been enhanced by cybernetic implants. However, his backstory in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 reveals he is more than that. To the surprise of the High Evolutionary, Rocket has an ability to create, and improvise.. these are things he was never made to do.

Rocket Raccoon is not special because of the cruel scientific experiments the High Evolutionary conducted on him. The things that make him truly special are entirely his own, and cannot be measured or explained. There's at least a little bit of magic in that.

Loki becomes the God of Stories

The entire MCU concept of science and magic comes full circle in the Loki series finale. When the TVA's various technological attempts to stabilise the now ever-growing Multiverse fail, Loki realizes that he, with the magical abilities he possesses as a God, has the power to make a difference.

Loki, while ascending his new throne as the God of Stories, takes hold of each timeline, fashioning them into a new shape that, for now, seems to have stabilised the Multiverse. The shape he chose strongly resembles Yddrasil, the World's tree, as explained to Jane in Thor. Where technology couldn't manage, Loki's magic filled the gap.

With all this in mind, Ironheart's possible techno-magic suit becomes less of a gimmick, and more the next logical step in a continually evolving theme.

We cant'wait to see what the series has in store.