The Hood Explained: Who Is Anthony Ramos' Ironheart Villain?

The New Avengers whitethorn person capped disconnected Marvel's Phase 5 theatrical slate, but this signifier isn't genuinely finished until Ironheart arrives connected Disney+. This caller streaming bid picks up wherever 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever near off, arsenic Dominque Thorne's Riri Williams comes location to Chicago and builds a marque caller suit of armor. She'll request it, too, due to the fact that she's astir to look disconnected with Anthony Ramos' Parker Robbins, aka The Hood.

Who is The Hood, and wherefore is helium specified atrocious quality for this fledgling heroine? We're present to interruption down everything you request to cognize astir the MCU's newest villain and his ties to a larger-than-life supernatural threat. These are the topics we screen here:

• Who Is Parker Robbins, aka The Hood?
• The Hood's Powers and Abilities
• The Hood's Rise successful the Marvel Universe
• The Hood successful Marvel's Ironheart Series

Who Is Parker Robbins, aka The Hood?

Parker Robbins utilized to beryllium a small-time transgression pulling unusual jobs to enactment his family. But then, 1 fateful day, a occupation gone incorrect ended up granting Parker unthinkable power. After coming into possession of the boots and cloak of a Nisanti demon, helium rebranded himself The Hood and began making much ambitious plays for powerfulness successful the New York underworld.

Since then, The Hood has go a regular thorn successful the broadside of the Avengers and different heroes. His ill-gotten powerfulness has fixed him large ambition, adjacent if helium doesn't afloat recognize that power. He'll halt astatine thing little than claiming his palce arsenic the caller kingpin of Marvel's transgression underworld.

The Hood's Powers and Abilities

Parker Robbins started retired arsenic an mean quality with nary peculiar powers oregon abilities, but that changed aft helium stole a mystical cloak and boots disconnected the assemblage of a Nisanti demon. These tools assistance him utile powers similar levitation, invisibility, and the quality to transmission magical vigor done his duplicate pistols. The Hood has been known to go possessed by his demonic benefactor, transforming him into a feral monster with super-strength.

The Hood besides understands the worth of spot successful numbers. As portion of his bid for power of the transgression udnerworld, helium assembles a radical of loyal followers that includes The Wrecking Crew, Madame Masque, Jigsaw, Chemistro, and The Wizard. It's the benignant of musculus adjacent Wilson Fisk could lone imagination of.

Demonic possession notwithstanding, The Hood's powers are reasonably insignificant successful the expansive strategy of things. But his ambition has often led him to claiming artifacts of greater powerfulness and transforming himself into a existent Avengers-level threat, including the Infinity Gems and the Asgardian Norn Stones.

The Hood's Rise successful the Marvel Universe

The Hood was created by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artists Kyle Hotz and Eric Powell and archetypal appeared successful 2002's The Hood #1. That bid depicts Parker Robbins arsenic a flawed but fundamentally decent man, 1 who turns to a beingness of transgression to enactment his family. But aft a botched occupation results successful Parker claiming the cloak and boots disconnected the assemblage of a slain Nisanti demon, helium finds himself drawn into a larger world.

Art by Kyle Hotz. (Image Credit: Marvel)

In the archetypal The Hood miniseries, Parker manages to successfully navigate a feud with a transgression lord known arsenic The Golem and evade seizure by the FBI. He vows to crook implicit a caller leaf. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be, and successful the years since, Parker has wholeheartedly thrown himself into his quest to go the apical powerfulness successful the transgression underworld.

The Hood resurfaces and plays a large relation successful Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers series. He seeks to instrumentality vantage of the powerfulness vacuum created successful the aftermath of the Superhuman Registration Act and the status of Wilson Fisk. The Hood assembles an service of supervillains and announces his ambitions to go the caller Kingpin. Still engaged staying 1 measurement up of Iron Man's Mighty Avengers team, the New Avengers are hard-pressed to halt him.

It's during this play that the existent root of The Hood's magical gifts is revealed. His existent benefactor is revealed to beryllium nary different than Dormammu, 1 of the astir almighty supernatural villains successful the Marvel Universe.

Art by Leinil Yu. (Image Credit: Marvel)

The Hood enjoys adjacent greater powerfulness and prestige successful the aftermath of 2008's Secret Invasion crossover, arsenic he's recruited into Norman Osborn's Cabal, a radical of supervillain powerfulness players that besides includes Doctor Doom, Namor, Emma Frost, and Loki. That radical is disbanded erstwhile Osborn is defeated and disgraced successful 2010's Siege, but The Hood makes different bid for powerfulness soon after. He astir succeeds successful assembling the Infinity Gauntlet, proving conscionable however acold his ambition has travel since his aboriginal days arsenic a low-level thoroughfare thug.

These days, Dormammu has been exorcised from Parker Robbins, but that hasn't brought an extremity to his villainous ambitions. He'll support scheming and cheating decease successful his bid to go the apical canine successful the transgression underworld.

The Hood successful Marvel's Ironheart Series

The Hood hasn't enjoyed precise galore appearances extracurricular of Marvel's comics truthful far. To date, his appearances person been constricted to a fistful of free-to-play games similar Marvel Heroes and Marvel Puzzle Quest and the anime bid Marvel Future Avengers (voiced by Todd Haberkorn).

But that's each changing with the accomplishment of the live-action Ironheart bid connected Disney+. The Hood serves arsenic the series' main villain, wherever he's played by In the Heights prima Anthony Ramos. But wherefore is The Hood of each characters headling this bid erstwhile helium doesn't person a beardown transportation to Ironheart successful the comics? Let's excavation a small deeper.

The Ironheart bid is an offshoot of 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with Dominique Thorne reprising her relation arsenic teen genius Riri Williams. In the series, Riri is seemingly kicked retired of MIT and is forced to instrumentality location to Chicago. There, she'll plan a caller armored suit (much to the chagrin of her household and friends) and instrumentality connected an aspiring transgression brag known arsenic The Hood.

Essentially, The Hood serves 2 main purposes successful this series. It makes consciousness to absorption connected a villain with ties to the much grounded, thoroughfare crime-centric broadside of the MCU erstwhile you see Riri's ain roots. Growing up successful Chicago, her beingness has been sadly touched by weapon violence, and her puerility experiences play into her tendency to beryllium a superhero. There's a peculiar value to pitting her against a villain who carries enchanted guns arsenic his calling card.

It's besides worthy pointing retired that galore Iron antheral stories woody with the clash betwixt subject and magic. The Mandarin became Iron Man's main arch-enemy precisely due to the fact that helium represents the antithesis of everything the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark stands for. The MCU ne'er truly explored that clash betwixt exertion and the supernatural successful the Iron Man movies, truthful Ironheart is simply a mode of making up for mislaid time. The Hood's magic is the antagonistic to Riri's technological brilliance.

The question is however the bid volition grip the uncover of the root of The Hood's powers. We tin spot Ramos' Parker struggling against the malignant power of his cloak successful the Ironheart trailer. Is Dormammu besides the concealed unit down this quality successful the MCU? Or volition The Hood beryllium reimagined arsenic the merchandise of immoderate different supernatural foe? And volition helium yet turn to go the Avengers-level menace helium is successful the comics?

We'll find retired the answers to these questions erstwhile Ironheart hits Disney+ connected June 24, 2025. Until then, larn much astir Dominque Throne's Ironheart and brushwood up connected each Marvel movie and bid successful development.

Jesse is simply a mild-mannered unit writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intelligence thicket by following @jschedeen connected BlueSky.