It’s hard to root for Riri Williams.

The titular protagonist of the new Marvel miniseries “Ironheart,” played by a blazingly defiant Dominique Thorne, is undeniably brilliant, ambitious and snarky. She’s also childishly petulant, defensive and myopic, willing to rationalize anything she does and step over anyone in her way in order to achieve … well, the show never really answers that question. In fact, every act of genius, every feat of engineering, every choice of consequence boils down to: “Because I could.” It’s not exactly the stuff of heroes.

The six-episode “Ironheart,” now streaming on Disney+, takes place after the events of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which introduced Riri, a brilliant Massachusetts Institute of Technology student with a penchant for building Iron Man-like armor suits and doing other students’ homework for cash (which then went into buying suit parts; you can see the loop here). Within the first five minutes of the first episode of “Ironheart,” she’s expelled from MIT (it seems she was just using the school for its resources, since she’s told that she’s nowhere near graduating even after four years) and told to go back home to Chicago. She does so — in very Tony Stark-esque style, taking her latest flight-capable suit and blasting off. (Another stylish thing? The creative title cards in each episode.)

It seems, though, the suit could use some work; it crashes before she gets to the Windy City, and it turns out that repairs are pricey. With no job and no university resources, Riri finds herself in desperate need of cash. Her dramatic entrance, and her status as a genius, catch the eyes of a group of criminals led by Parker Robbins, aka the villain known as The Hood (a charming Anthony Ramos). After a pass-or-die practical interview, Riri joins up. What follows is a situation that spirals rapidly out of control as Riri gets in way over her head in a world of danger, magic and inequality.

Not that “Ironheart,” which brings Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close, really dives into the latter. The series wants to be an examination on race, class and opportunity — of the haves and the have-nots in a society increasingly divided between the two — but it mostly just comes off as a surface-level excuse to justify Riri’s less-than-moral choices. You can’t build tomorrow’s tech if you don’t have today’s money, right? And as the series progresses, it becomes less about leveling the playing field and more about personal vendettas.

It’s a shame the big choices Riri makes are always so less than ideal, because when she’s not letting ambition and the giant chip on her shoulder influence her decisions, she’s a blast to be around. The friendship she develops with the adorably pathetic Joe McGillicuddy (a deadpan Alden Ehrenreich) is both sweet and hilarious. The grief that plays across her face as she recalls the death of two people she dearly loved is deeply relatable. The teenaged love-exasperation she has for her caring mother, Ronnie (Anji White), is universal. And the conflict she feels when, in a twist of fate, an old friend long dead gains new life as an artificial intelligence is … well, OK, that’s not quite so universal, but the shock is understandable all the same.

What’s a little less understandable is how most of “Ironheart’s” action sequences are both over the top and lack any real punch, a step back from recent excellently physical Marvel entries like “Daredevil: Born Again” and “Thunderbolts*.” Honestly, the best fights are the ones where Riri outsmarts her opponents rather than just beats them down (though there’s plenty of the latter, too).

At its core, “Ironheart” is about the cost of ambition, and by the time the shocking finale plays out, it’s clear Riri is willing to pay just about anything for hers. “I’m only doing this because I have to, not because I'm a bad person,” Riri claims, without a hint of irony, after reaping the rewards of her latest crime. The thing is, after a certain point, the difference doesn’t matter anymore. For Riri, I’m not sure it ever did.

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'IRONHEART'

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: Disney+

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