Doesn’t Target have everything? Where else can you purchase a Frog-Man (or is it Leap Frog?) action figure, tube socks, and motor oil all at the same time? Yes, there are many locations, but if a recent Target advertisement is to be believed, the company also stocks the materials Marvel’s newest tech genius will need to create her own set of armor.
At the beginning of the advertisement, Williams (Dominique Thorne), speaking while we see images of ships flying above the fictional country’s capital, declares, “Wakanda changed things, forever.” The advertisement then shifts to Boston, a less exotic setting, where Williams is working in her workshop.
Images of a little girl engineering something with her friends are intercut throughout the commercial while Williams asks the viewer, “So how will you share your brilliance with the world?”
That girl chooses to go to Target to draw after realizing something is missing, where she just so happens to run across Williams acquiring tools (since while she may have a mind the size of Tony Stark, she lacks the financial resources of Tony Stark).
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Williams looks at the girl’s artwork and gives her some words of support before returning home to activate her armor. Williams argues that it doesn’t matter where you buy, so there’s no use in burning your retinas with Target’s red and white design. “After all, you never know where you’ll discover inspiration,” she says.
Of course, Williams’s use of the Ironheart armor is the most interesting element of the commercial. This is the first time we’ve seen the MCU’s newest armor-based hero in live-action, despite a few toys for Black Panther: WakandaForever and set photographs from the IronheartDisney+ series giving us an indication of what to expect.
The arc reactor turns on with a recognizable high-pitched whirr, and a blue glow casts light on Williams’s grin. The finest part, though, is when Williams tests her gauntlet’s pulse receptor at the very end. The weapon is fired as she leans to the side, and the concussive explosion causes her to fall off the screen. She shouts, “Let’s go!” with excitement.
The epilogue features a reference to one of the best scenes from Iron Man, the first MCU film. Tony Stark records himself using his thruster boots for the first time in the movie, talking to his robot helpers as he goes.
After a three-second countdown, Stark activates the thrusters and throws himself backward, slamming through the concrete ceiling of his lab and plummeting to the ground, where one of his robots douses him in the fire-retardant spray.
Before you start whining in the comments that Marvel is demeaning Tony Stark’s legacy by showing an adolescent passing a test far more easily than a brilliant wealthy adult who likes to wear rock and roll t-shirts, consider the message of the advertisement.
Tony obviously did not purchase his tools from Target, and as a result, his body suffered. The best tools can be found in the same store where I just bought fabric softener and a water bottle this morning, as true geniuses know.
On November 11, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released in theatres. In 2023, Ironheart will debut on Disney+.
