This text accommodates spoilers for “Ironheart” season 1, episode 1, “Take Me Residence.”
Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) is out of Wakanda, out of MIT, and in with a severely dangerous crowd. The lengthy-awaited “Black Panther: Wakanda Ceaselessly” spin-off “Ironheart” takes Riri again to her roots in Chicago, with a burning need to construct one thing really unsurpassed however a persistent lack of funding. To alleviate the latter, she agrees to hitch Parker “The Hood” Robbins’ (Anthony Ramos) gang of criminals for some hopefully straightforward heist cash after being satisfied that they are palatable sufficient to work with within the brief time period.
Parker’s group options the type of misfits you’d count on to see in a heist-themed MCU challenge, from Shea Couleé’s hacker Slug to Sonia Denis’ erratic Clown. Maybe probably the most stunning presence amongst them is famous comic Eric André, who performs the crew’s resident tech man, Stuart Clarke. Stuart spends a lot of his display time radiating obscure ineptitude and attempting and failing to ascertain the sick-becoming code title “Rampage,” and he is completely unaware that Parker and the gang intend to exchange him with Riri.
Stuart is handled as a joke character by means of and thru, however his comedian guide counterpart has considerably extra clout (in addition to powers). He is additionally famous for having a working relationship with an extremely unlikely Marvel crime-fighter: Frank Fort, higher referred to as the Punisher.
The comedian guide model of Rampage is a really totally different beast
Although he is primarily a chew toy, “Ironheart” episode 1 presents one key trace that Stuart may really be greater than meets the attention. After he is repeatedly been disrespected by the remainder of the Hood’s gang, Riri — a confirmed technical genius — instantly acknowledges Stuart from a tech Discord and independently confirms that, in her circles, he is certainly referred to as Rampage.
This small however probably important nod could also be a sneaky reference to the character’s comedian guide iteration, a reasonably succesful tech-based mostly supervillain who rocks a robust tremendous-swimsuit and has been recognized to return from the lifeless in mysterious methods. With the assistance of his exoskeleton swimsuit, this Rampage has your common set of armored hero superpowers — flight and massively enhanced bodily attributes — in addition to the particular skill to emit hypnotic gasoline.
He is additionally notable for being one of many extraordinarily uncommon breed of Marvel characters with a prison previous who’ve interacted with the Punisher and weren’t instantly greeted with a hail of bullets. It’s because Frank Fort wasn’t conscious of Rampage’s prison previous when he began working with the hacker … and when he did discover out, suffice to say that the pair’s relationship deteriorated extraordinarily rapidly.
The Punisher has had sidekicks earlier than
Although greatest recognized for his gonzo antics on “The Eric André Present” (comparable to a really unforgettable interview with Lance Reddick), Eric André can act. The truth is, he as soon as turned down the function that received Kieran Culkin an Oscar when he determined taking part in Benji in “A Actual Ache” wasn’t for him. Even so, it will be fairly tough to image him preventing crime with Jon Bernthal’s growly Punisher — particularly for the reason that latter has his palms full in New York in the meanwhile, courtesy of “Daredevil: Born Once more” and the upcoming “Punisher” particular (alongside along with his function in 2026’s “Spider-Man: Model New Day”).
Granted, it would not be the primary time the MCU Punisher has had backup. In “The Punisher” season 1, Frank Fort groups up with David “Micro” Lieberman (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who additionally performs Ben Grimm in “The Incredible 4: First Steps”), an NSA analyst who was pressured to pretend his dying after studying an excessive amount of and is on the lookout for a strategy to regain his life. After a rocky begin with the Punisher, the 2 discover out they share a goal, and Micro turns into Frank’s mission management and de facto accomplice. Nonetheless, because it stands, all indicators level to the MCU desiring to let the Punisher fly solo for some time … that’s, except Karen Web page (Deborah Ann Woll) wants a favor.
Episodes 1-3 of “Ironheart” are at the moment streaming on Disney+.
