The Marvel Cinematic Universe will not be usually related to a way of place, except the place in query is a green-screened soundstage in Atlanta or London. (There are exceptions, just like the just lately revived, New York-set “Daredevil,” however they’re not the norm.) The most effective factor “Ironheart,” the MCU’s newest Disney+ present, has going for it’s exactly the spatial specificity so a lot of its predecessors lack. Earlier than the six-episode season will get slowed down late in its run with competing style components and fantastical lore, “Ironheart” is a present about Chicago — particularly, the town’s predominantly Black South Facet, the place protagonist Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns after she’s expelled from MIT.

Riri was first launched in a handful of scenes of “Black Panther: Wakanda Endlessly,” within the movie equal of what TV nerds would name a backdoor pilot — smuggling a trial balloon for a brand new collection between episodes of a longtime one. It was a less-than-ideal solution to arrange the protagonist of a brand new present two and a half years down the road. “Ironheart” creator Chinaka Hodge (“Superb Tales,” “Snowpiercer”) inherits a personality with the technical prowess — and superpowered swimsuit — of Tony Stark, however with out the wealthy dad or attendant assets. To construct Riri up from a useful confederate to a hero (or possibly antihero, extra on that shortly) in her personal proper, Hodge doubles down on this disparity. Riri will get booted from MIT for promoting class initiatives to her friends as means to fundraise for her personal experiments, as a result of not like her oblique namesake Iron Man, she doesn’t have the means or connections to do it herself. It’s an unusually pragmatic downside for a fictional universe that features aliens and wizards, and initially grounds “Ironheart” in private stakes that swimsuit the small display screen.

As soon as again in Chicago and below the watchful, involved eye of her mom Ronnie (Anji White), Riri will get recruited by Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), the chief of a neighborhood heist crew that targets the world’s multimillionaires. Comparisons to Robin Hood are usually not simply invited, however demanded: Parker’s signature look is an old-timey cape, full with head masking, that seems to offer him skills like bending bullets mid-air. However earlier than the magical, doubtlessly sinister origins of Parker’s powers come to mild, we spend extra time with accomplices like tech professional Stuart (comic Eric André) and hacker Slug, performed by “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alumna and Chicagoland native Shea Coulée. 

The casting of Coulée is one among a number of candy nods to Riri’s hometown, the place “Ironheart” shot exterior scenes after principal pictures in Atlanta. (Disney’s willingness to forsake beneficiant tax incentives solely goes up to now.) Riri flies over the river in her swimsuit earlier than crash-landing on the street, and makes use of a Cubs flag to cowl her busted-up creation when she takes it on the CTA en path to some repairs. It’s amusing that “Ironheart” drops inside days of the most recent season of “The Bear,” which affords a complementary however equally affectionate tackle the town.

“Ironheart” will get extra emotional weight from Riri’s backstory: the lack of her stepfather Gary (LaRoyce Hawkins) and greatest good friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) in a drive-by capturing 5 years earlier than to the occasions of the present. Whereas the trauma plot has lengthy since worn out its welcome as expositional shorthand and sepia-toned flashbacks add little, Ross offers a heat and nuanced efficiency as Natalie — or fairly, N.A.T.A.L.I.E., as she’s styled when Riri semi-accidentally resurrects a model of her greatest good friend within the type of a holographic AI.

The ethics of synthetic intelligence as grieving support are simply one among many bites “Ironheart” takes that cumulatively quantity to greater than it could chew. The plot components begin to snowball because the season unfolds, threatening to lose essentially the most worthwhile ones within the flurry. “Ironheart” feels each bodily and thematically separate from the MCU — till Alden Ehrenreich seems as a mild-mannered scientist linked to a marginal presence within the “Iron Man” franchise. Riri is a scientist obsessive about making equipment work — till magic, witchcraft and different types of spirituality out of the blue begin driving the story. Parker appears poised to be the first antagonist — till Sacha Baron Cohen steps in on the eleventh hour.

As a result of “Ironheart” is simply six episodes, there’s not sufficient time for the present to settle into one identification earlier than one other takes over. The primary half, directed by Sam Bailey, shapes right into a heist procedural, albeit one the place the victims are too generic for the scores to be all that satisfying. (One, a automotive tunnel entrepreneur, has shades of Elon Musk, however she’s gone earlier than we will blink.) The second half, directed by Angela Barnes, is a messier melange, culminating in a blatant setup for Riri’s subsequent look, whether or not in a Season 2 or another property. “Ironheart” is a compelling story concerning the limitations of genius, whether or not to beat an absence of cash or bend legal guidelines of the universe like loss of life. It’s additionally numerous different tales on the identical time, none of which is as targeted or affecting.

The primary three episodes of “Ironheart” at the moment are streaming on Disney+, with the second half of the season premiering July 1.