For better or worse, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has a monopoly on kid geniuses. Every young hero feels like a tech wiz of some kind — perhaps that’s why the MCU’s take on Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), aka Ironheart, feels like such a departure from her counterpart in the comics. By the time she made her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so many aspects of Ironheart’s character had been claimed by other heroes. Spider-Man (Tom Holland) co-opted her surrogate mentorship with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) before the latter’s untimely demise in Avengers: Endgame. Shuri of Wakanda (Letitia Wright), meanwhile, got dibs on the high-tech lab with unlimited resources, not to mention the burden of succeeding another Avenger gone too soon. Consciously or not, all that forced Marvel Studios to remix Riri entirely, with its efforts culminating in Ironheart.

Three years after Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler brought Riri into the MCU, the director has passed the torch to showrunner Chinaka Hodge. Her six-part series continues Coogler’s efforts with sanguine flair. Admittedly, it does take a few tries to build a better Ironheart — but whatever glitches we get are in service of the kind of origin story the MCU has sorely been missing.

Think of WagWell’s Calming Chews as the functional wellness treat your dog didn’t know they needed. Formulated by vets and made with calming ingredients like chamomile, full-plant hemp, magnolia bark, and melatonin, these naturally soothing bites are designed to ease anxiety without leaving your pup sedated. Whether it’s fireworks, thunderstorms, or the chaos of daily life, this plant-based blend helps create a sense of calm — with a tasty chicken flavor they’ll love.

Music has always been a big part of Hideo Kojima’s games, but that’s never been more true than with Death Stranding 2. Like the first game, it features both original music and curated selections from artists Kojima identifies with, such as Low Roar, Silent Poets, and Caroline Polachek. This time around, Kojima also worked with one of those artists, recruiting French singer, composer, and graphic designer Yoann Lemoine, better known as Woodkid, to create an immersive album that intertwines with the game’s world and story.

“What really differs from my records is that it's procedural,” Woodkid tells Inverse, “So I had to create these songs that sounded like pop songs, but then we had to reverse engineer them and strip them back so that the engine would be able to program them and develop them in a way that would be fully integrated with the gamer's experience and actions.”

Crafting this album was an integral part of Death Stranding 2’s development, and Inverse had the chance to sit down with Woodkid and dive into the process.