"Since the real world contains kickass Black women, the Marvel universe should certainly reflect that." Image: comicbookmovie.com
If you haven't heard of Riri Williams yet, don’t worry. Iron Man has, and she’s his heiress apparent.
Yes, I said “she.” There's going to be a shake-up in the Avengers universe — and the new Iron Man is going to be an Iron Woman. Also? She’s Black.
Riri’s creator and Iron Man writer Brian Michael Bendis says the new character is a student at MIT who’s reverse engineered an Iron Man suit in her dorm room. Tony Stark catches wind of her in the next comic installment and is interested in learning about this young woman who’s probably smarter than he is.
The backstory for Riri is that she comes from an urban past with a lot of street violence in it. She lifts herself out of it by studying and ends up at MIT. Bendis says, “I thought that was the most modern version of a superhero or superheroine story I had ever heard.”
Bendis goes on to explain a lot of stuff about what’s happening in the Iron Man comics and what will happen at the end of Civil War II, the upcoming Avengers film. Something is going to go down with Tony Stark and he’s going to hang up his Iron Man suit and hand the responsibility to Riri — or whatever her superhero name will eventually be. (Bendis swears this is not a spoiler to either the film or the comic series.)
As for putting a young Black woman in the Avenger’s universe, well… why the hell not?
Bendis says that the older comic creators say they regret not making the old comic universes more diverse. The comic creators of today are building imaginary worlds that look like the real world around them.
Since the real world contains kickass Black women, the Marvel universe should certainly reflect that.
So, bring it on Riri! We can’t wait to meet you!
