Look out, Tony Stark: there’s a new Iron Man in town.
Riri Williams, a black woman, will be taking over the role of Iron Man at the end of Marvel’s comic book series Civil War II, according to TIME.
A 15 year old genius scientist at MIT, Riri catches Tony Stark’s attention when she reverse-engineers one of his old armors and builds her own Iron Man suit in her dorm.
At the end of the Civil War II series, Tony Stark will reach a place where he feels he must step out of his suit, as “three storylines [about him are] converging,” explains creator and writer Brian Michael Bendis. “His best friend died, his company is collapsing and he’s finding out who his biological parents were all at the same time. That’s stressful for a character who is wired the way Tony is wired and has dependency issues the way Tony does.”
Tony meets Riri when he goes out to “try to find out what her deal is,” which will soon lead to Riri taking over for Iron Man.
Her superhero name is yet to be decided.
Riri represents yet another push by Marvel to introduce more diverse representation in their characters.
We can’t wait to see Riri dominate as the powerful black woman superhero we know she will be.
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