Who Is Marvel's Zelma Stanton? The Ironheart Character Explained

Contains spoilers for "Ironheart" Episode 4 — "Bad Magic"

Even with a full "Ironheart" recap, the Disney+ series still throws a few surprises the audience's way. Once Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) realizes The Hood's (Anthony Ramos) abilities defy scientific explanations, she needs to go into the supernatural. Her mother, Ronnie (Anji White), takes her to a friend, Madeleine Stanton (Cree Summer), who's pretty spiritual, but it soon becomes clear Ronnie doesn't know the half of it. Madeleine's daughter Zelma (Regan Aliyah) is fairly advanced in the mystical arts and transports them to another realm, namely the Western Cortex of Neverish. She's a sorcerer, and she's a relatively new addition to Marvel Comics canon who nonetheless now has a live-action adaptation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Zelma Stanton first appeared in 2015's "Doctor Strange" Vol 4 #1 from Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, and Mark Irwin. The two end up spending quite a bit of time together during this storyline, including fending off an attack from the Empirikul cult and surviving on Weirdworld, where Zelma helps nurse Doctor Strange back to health after he gets poisoned. Even though he offers her a chance to go back to a normal life at the end of everything, she decides to become his apprentice and eventually oversees the Strange Academy, a school that helps young children refine their magical prowess. Probably best not to expect this Doctor Strange story ever to make it to the big screen.

It doesn't seem like the MCU's Zelma has met Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) yet, as evidenced by how she refers to Kamar-Taj, where Strange and Wong (Benedict Wong) train new sorcerers, as her "reach school." However, it does set the stage for her meeting Strange down the road.

The Zelma in "Ironheart" may not have had formal magic training yet, but it's clear she's still learned a thing or two. She's even gotten her hands on some brain maggots, as Ronnie opens a jar of them, which Zelma promptly takes away from her. Madeleine scolds Zelma for even having them in the first place, and that's some sound advice. 

The entire reason Zelma meets Doctor Strange in the first place in Marvel Comics is due to such creatures, although they're referred to as "mind maggots" there. Zelma comes down with the affliction, culminating in writhing teeth and eyes protruding from her skull, and it defies traditional medical intervention. She figures Strange is the only one who can help her, and despite the fact Strange has never encountered such parasites before, he is able to cure her. It's unclear if the MCU's Zelma had a similar problem although it's worth noting that in the comics, Zelma's introduced wearing a hat to cover up the maggots. The live-action Zelma also has a hat, but it may be more of a fashion piece than covering up demonic entities. 

Zelma still has much to learn. While she knows the piece of the cape Riri brought in comes from a dark source, she can't really say for sure where it stems from, only that it's dark magic. In Episode 5, Zelma tells Riri that it likely originated from Dormammu (Benedict Cumberbatch), one of Doctor Strange's most powerful villains who appeared in the first Strange movie. But if you've seen the "Ironheart" finale, then you know Zelma's guess was incorrect, so maybe she could benefit from some teachings at Kamar-Taj after all.