The Bear Season 4 Finally Lets Richie Shine

This article contains spoilers for The Bear season 4. The Bear has so many characters that it sometimes feels like creator Christopher Storer is performing a high-wire circus act, trying to give everyone the proper amount of screentime in each 30-ish minute episode. The series’ lead is Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy Berzatto, but much like […]

The post The Bear Season 4 Finally Lets Richie Shine appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article contains spoilers for the Ironheart finale.

A devilish new arrival has just joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

After fans were fooled one too many times before, Ironheart has finally brought a major addition to the world’s highest-grossing franchise via another Hollywood megastar. While Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams led Ironheart as something of a throwback to the Iron Man movies, the inclusion of Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robbins teased that we’d be delving into the darker magical side of the MCU. Although the rumor mill had gone into overdrive that Sacha Baron Cohen would be playing the maleficent Mephisto, fans would have to wait until the show’s sixth (and final) episode to see him revealed as the one pulling the strings after he was first mentioned 13 years ago (yes, really).

Ironheart was littered with references to Mephisto and deals with the Devil, including an early inclusion of a disembodied voice asking The Hood about his darkest desires. The Ironheart finale then fleshed out the backstory of Robbins, revealing that Mephisto rescued him during a heist and offered to make him more powerful than the father who abandoned him. Those up on their Marvel Comics will know that Mephisto’s Faustian bargains are something of a Monkey’s Paw situation, and although Robbins gets his cloak, he’ll be inflicted with much pain and haunting voices when he’s without it. When strutting around as The Hood, he’s easier to control and is addicted to his power. Mephisto confirms Robbins wasn’t the first to make a deal, name-dropping everyone from William Shakespeare, to Forbes’ Top 100 richest people, to three popes, to even Ringo Starr.

There’s no word on a potential second season of Ironheart, and with it billed as a limited series alongside the likes of Agatha All Along and Secret Invasion, its cliffhanger ending will likely have to be picked up elsewhere. What consequences Riri will face remain unclear, and although she’s got her BFF back, we don’t imagine Aubrey Plaza’s Death will be too happy that Lyric Ross’ Natalie is back in the land of the living. 

Speaking of Death, she was notably introduced in Agatha All Along, which is when Mephisto last got a wink in the MCU. This came after fans relentlessly theorized the demon’s arrival in WandaVision. In reality, Mephisto was first canonized in the MCU way back in 2012’s The Avengers. Although not a direct mention, that film referenced how Mephisto had been aiding S.H.I.E.L.D. while dabbling with the Tesseract. After Mephisto was considered as a potential Deadpool & Wolverine villain before Hugh Jackman suggested Cassandra Nova, the bargaining Beelzebub has been a long time coming.

Introduced in 1968’s Silver