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 Surfer #3, Mephisto has had run-ins with everyone from Spider-Man to Doctor Strange. He was notably responsible for turning Harry and Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, and even Phil Coulson into villains, also being involved in Wanda Maximoff’s descent into madness when he absorbed the souls of her children before “House of M.” This meant many expected him to pop up in both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Elsewhere in the comics, original Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze got his powers by striking a deal with the horned menace, which is why he appeared in both the Nicolas Cage-led Ghost Rider movies – played by Peter Fonda in the first movie and Ciarán Hinds in 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Finally, his love of bargaining saw him strike a deal with Peter Parker’s Spider-Man to save Aunt May at the cost of his marriage to Mary Jane Watson in the controversial “One More Day” arc.
It seems as though MCU is giving us its own take on Mephisto this with the Ironheart finale, although a more traditional version of the character’s origin could still play out in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Early reports suggested Tom Holland’s fourth Spidey outing would be a street-level affair with Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin as its big bad, until wild rumors claimed it would be a more magical outing with Mephisto and Ghost Rider.
An already stacked cast for Avengers: Doomsday suggests there might not be room for someone like Mephisto as the Multiverse deals with the threat of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, but assuming the MCU isn’t reset, Mephisto could be a solid antagonist for something like the long-rumored Midnight Sons project or cause Riri more headaches in a Young Avengers outing. It just so happens there’s a Champions arc where he strikes a deal with various young heroes, while his son, Blackheart, possesses Riri.
Even though some are worried we won’t see Mephisto again for a while, his potential to be a Thanos-level big bad means he’s more than worth the wait.
