You might have lost track of Riri Williams (portrayed by Dominique Thorne), the brilliant MIT student integral to 2022’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” (And if so, Looper’s recap video is a great way to jog your memory.) Introduced as a potential heir to tech icons like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Riri’s journey was intended to continue, which it finally has with “Ironheart.”

“Ironheart,” created by Chinaka Hodge, a writer and rapper known for her work on “Snowpiercer” and “The Midnight Club,” is not only a reintroduction of Riri into the MCU but also a reflection of her character, aspirations, and journey now that she’s part of a world filled with gods, alien tech, and superpowers. With just six episodes to tell the tale, “Ironheart” sometimes feels the pressure of bearing a significant load within the MCU’s storyline. Nonetheless, at its peak, it is one of the finest streaming offerings from the MCU, delivering a solid, engaging series with a standout lead performance and occasional moments of excellence.

When we catch up with Riri in “Ironheart,” she’s facing tough times. Her MIT projects exceed the funds available from her fellowship (courtesy of Tony Stark’s foundation), prompting the determined engineer to overreach and consequently get expelled. So, Riri, along with her incomplete new iron suit, returns home to Chicago, where further challenges await.

Though her mother Ronnie (Anji White) would like to see her relax and rethink things a little bit, Riri’s obsessed with getting her suit right and finishing her other projects, a desire fueled by the death of her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) in a shooting some time earlier. Still reeling with grief she never quite wants to confront, Riri’s knack for tech leads her to Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), the leader of a crew of thieves who’s nicknamed “Hood” because of the mysterious red cloak he seems to always wear.

Parker and his crew offer Riri a chance (or so they say) to realize her true potential, work outside the boundaries of traditional society, and, most importantly, earn funding for her projects while helping Parker topple a few tech startups around Chicago. Thus begins a dark, unpredictable journey for the young engineer, as she’s forced to reckon with the ethical questions over what she’s doing, how far she’s willing to go, and what kind of dark influences might really be driving Parker.

Right away, Chinaka Hodge and her writing team open the show up to a lot of potential, pitting Riri’s tech brilliance against the seemingly magical influence of the hood that Parker wears, while also delving into Riri’s relationship with her mother and her community, her grief over Natalie, and her rejection of any linear sense of MCU legacy. There are no Avengers to be found here, no Stark Industries lackeys to set Riri straight, no journeys outside of Chicago. This is a story about an extraordinary person in an extraordinary world, pushing to do things her way while often uncertain which way that actually is, and at a time when the MCU can feel too cluttered, that’s both refreshing and powerful in the context of this show.

The plot as described above is, of course, far from the only source of drama and story in “Ironheart,” and the show’s greatest weakness is its need to push forward several pieces of the MCU agenda at once, weaving subplots into the six-episode run that aren’t bad exactly, but definitely drag the emotional beats of Riri’s journey down a bit from time to time. There are bits of connective tissue in this show — some of which fans have been waiting to see for a long time — that all serve the wider MCU tapestry, but they don’t serve Riri, so even when the big reveals and cameos are unfolding, you sometimes can’t wait to get back to the main event.

Dominique Thorne is, of course, a key part of that desire. She rises to the challenge of carrying this series — even bearing in mind great work by a supporting cast led by Anthony Ramos and Lyric Ross — and, more importantly, portraying Riri in all her complex glory. There are very few clear moral lines in “Ironheart,” and the show often flirts with placing its lead character in antihero territory. It’s not interested in Riri making the “right” choices from an objective place. Instead, it wants to see what happens when this brilliant but inexperienced young potential hero is pushed — by her family, by her grief, by her newfound partners in crime. Thorne is able to play all of that tension, as well as Riri’s inner confidence and sense of joy, all at once, delivering a fascinating and powerful performance.

And that power extends to the rest of the series. “Ironheart” does not always work. Sometimes it’s a bit scattered, and it pulls at story threads without resolution for a little too long before finally bringing them to a conclusion, but there’s something in the scrappy, thorny parts of this narrative that just feel true to who Riri is. By the time “Ironheart” is over, it sticks the landing, bringing all those threads together into something that’s surprising, fun, and feels genuinely new in an MCU landscape that always threatens to grow too homogeneous. You won’t want to stop hanging out with Riri Williams, and that makes “Ironheart” one of the must-watch new series of the summer.

“Ironheart” premieres June 24 on Disney+.