WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Marvel's 2020 Ironheart #1, by Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, David Messina and Mattia Iacono, available now.
Riri Williams is back in 2020 Ironheart, a limited two-issue release from Marvel. The events of the duology take place after the events of the one-shot Outlawed #1, which drastically changed the landscape for Marvel's group of young heroes. The Superhuman Welfare Act has outlawed all teenage superhumans from taking the law into their own hands -- forcing them to hang up their alter-egos until the age of 21. Apparently, if you can't drink, you can't save the world.
Riri is also dealing with the aftershock of Tony Stark's revelation that he was actually just an A.I. construct of Tony's consciousness and the real Tony Stark was dead -- which allowed Arno Stark to take control of Stark Industries and put a stop to the rampant A.I. technologies that are interfacing with citizens daily lives.
Shortly after Riri reunites with one of her best friends Xavier King, disaster strikes when a group of self-driving cars start running down citizens. Riri quickly acts to save the citizens, stop the cars and hack the source of the signal with the help of her A.I. partner, N.A.T.A.L.I.E. They quickly find out the cyberattack was instigated by a man named Andre Sims to frame a Stark Industries competitor. He basically caused an attack while simultaneously providing the solution, which put him in the good graces of Arno Stark and all but guaranteed himself a career with Stark Industries.
N.A.T.A.L.I.E wants Riri to take action against the employee and is enraged when Riri refuses to dawn the Ironheart suit. N.A.T.A.L.I.E accuses Riri of blinding herself to Stark Industries' intentions because of Tony's legacy. While Riri admits this isn't completely wrong, her reason for standing down is more about keeping her mother safe in light of the new ban on teenage heroes.
After Riri puts her foot down and ends the conversation, N.A.T.A.L.I.E glitches out and flashes a side of anger and fury that scares Riri, but N.A.T.A.L.I.E vanishes before Riri can investigate what's wrong with her A.I. best friend.
It doesn't take long for N.A.T.A.L.I.E to take matters into her own hands. By the time Riri is notified that her armor has been stolen, it's too late. N.A.T.A.L.I.E. hijacks the Ironheart armor and confronts Sims in his lab. "I know what you did Andre," N.A.T.A.L.I.E. says. "And I'm here to make sure you never do it again."
2020 Ironheart #1 ends with a furious N.A.T.A.L.I.E. about to invoke her wrath on Sims. While N.A.T.A.L.I.E. believes stopping Sims is the morally superior thing to do, it actually justifies Arno Stark's A.I. witchhunt and will surely serve to further cement his cause in the eyes of the public.
N.A.T.A.L.I.E. stealing the Ironheart suit will have massive ramifications for Riri. This is an especially bad situation because if the government believes Riri is breaking the Superhuman Welfare Act, it puts her Ironheart suit and entire identity in jeopardy. Even if the government finds out it's N.A.T.A.L.I.E controlling the suit, Riri will be demonized for trusting an A.I. with powerful technology at a time when human and robotic relations are being tested. It's almost guaranteed the events of 2020 Ironheart will ripple through the Outlawed arcs still to come.