It’s looking like Marvel is making another major departure from the source material, this time with The Hood in Ironheart. In interviews, actor Anthony Ramos has revealed significant changes to his character’s origin and backstory, raising concerns about whether Marvel’s decisions will pay off—or alienate fans of the comics even more.
Recall Marvel told the director of Secret Invasion not to read the comics. Well, we know how that turned out: It led to Kevin Feige completely rehauling Marvel’s TV division after the massive $200 million failure.
Marvel’s woke producer who ruined Eternals – that won’t be getting a sequel – even went so far as to admit he wouldn’t hire creatives who read comics. Well, how’d that work out? According to reports, Kevin Feige has fired those woke producers.
Worth a note is that these are COMIC BOOK properties we are talking about here, often of which have decades and decades worth of stories behind them from legendary creators. It’s not hard to get these things right. The source material is already there and can be relied upon.
What’s going on with Ironheart‘s villain?
Ironheart has been in development for some time and was being developed before Feige overhauled Marvel TV. The series is still confirmed for a Disney+ release but it’s unknown if they fixed the series as they did with Daredevil: Born Again.
The villain happens to be The Hood played by Anthony Ramos who reveals they changed everything about The Hood to get the character to fit like a square peg in a round hole.
What does Anthony Ramos say about The Hood in Ironheart?
In a recent interview with Coming Soon, Ramos admitted he’s not playing the character from the comics, he didn’t read the comics, and that his version will be “singular” and “different.” Ramos has also revealed The Hood isn’t a villain from NYC (in the comics, his father knew the Kingpin – more on that below) but an “activist” from Chicago. Yep, you read that right. The Hood also never had anything to do with Ironheart in the comics:
No, I didn’t really dive into the comics. I just really focused on my character, and you just follow the script. But it was also like, yo, how do I make him singular? How do I make him different? Parker Robinson in the comics is from New York. Our guy is from Chicago, our show is set there. So I just wanted to make him super dynamic. Like every character, I just see how I relate to him, and I try to put as much of myself into the character. I think that was how I looked at it. But for sure, I referenced the comics. He has a certain look, but Parker Robinson in the comics looks different than me, you know? So, it was cool being able to almost recreate this guy.
Origin changes
Speaking with EW.com, Ramos even reveals they had to come up with a totally new origin to fit with their direction in the MCU. It’s wondered why they didn’t simply just come up with a new character???
“We created this whole backstory with [Parker Robbins’] mom being from the Young Lords and raising him that way [as a gang member-turned-activist].
Chicago plays a huge part in the identity of all of our characters and the identity of this show, so I’m really excited for people to experience that.”
Tattoos and the scars
Speaking with THR, Ramos talks more about The Hood. While this time he references the comics, he mentions they give the character scars and tattoos (to fit with his gang affiliation most likely). I believe in the comics (correct me if I am wrong), he doesn’t get disfigured but uses the power of the hood to become a demon form which makes him look more monstrous. He’s also not addicted to the power and even gets more powerful:
I get to play this villain, The Hood, and Parker Robbins in the comics, he gets this hood, and it’s too powerful for him. It’s overwhelming, and it starts to damage his body. You can see it on the outside, and you can see how it’s even affecting him on the inside and his personality and how it’s actually, literally, physically and mentally and emotionally breaking him, but it’s giving him so much power that he’s addicted. He’s like, “I can’t let it go.” It becomes this weapon to seek vengeance, and for him, he’s starting off small, and he’s stealing in the comics, and then gradually it grows. It grows and grows and grows, and just like his power, I think, it becomes a little overwhelming for him. But I’m excited. I’m excited for y’all to see what we did with this character and just the art department, and our visual effects team and special effects makeup, too. Jonah [Levy] and his whole team, they were amazing with the tattoos and the scars. They really did a crazy job.
Missed opportunity in the MCU
So in the comics, The Hood has ties to NYC, Kingpin, and Daredevil — but that’s not all. Feige and the MCU could have easily chosen to have The Hood be from NYC and tie everything nicely together (again, this is comics we are talking about here) but instead Feige intentionally made the character – along with Ironheart who joins The Hood’s hang – an activist from Chicago.
In the comics, the origin of the cloak is from Dormammu. Where have we seen Dormammu? Of course in Doctor Strange, who also lives in NYC.
Classic example of being woke
The changes to The Hood in the MCU is a classic example of going woke, just like Marvel has been since Avengers: Endgame. Five years later, the fans have completely rejected it and it’s a big failure.
It’s woke when you make it about the agenda instead of the story.
So what Feige and Marvel did is first come up with the series being set in Chicago (we don’t even need to go there) about a bunch of activists. Then they changed everything about the comic characters to fit with their agenda.
Instead of giving the characters a more organic story where they are connected to each other, all that goes out the door. So The Hood – and even Riri Williams who is already woke in the comics (young teenage girl steals Iron Man tech and somehow is allowed to keep it and be the replacement for Iron Man) – are given a bad backstory (who cares, right?) so they can be activists form Chicago (it’s all about self-validation, lecturing the fans and giving life lessons).
When does Ironheart get released?
Ironheart, an original, live action series from Marvel Television, debuts on June 24, 2025. The series stars Dominque Thorne, Anthony Ramos with Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam, Anji White.
What is Ironheart about?
The official description offers: Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel Television’s Ironheart pits technology against magic when Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne)—a young, genius inventor determined to make her mark on the world—returns to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins aka “The Hood” (Anthony Ramos).
