You read the title right! Tony Stark is hanging up his iron boots and handing the spotlight over to a young girl, Riri Williams. While comic book enthusiasts are up in arms about this, some people welcome the African American girl as a step forward in diversity.
Riri is a science genius who enrolls in MIT at the age of 15. She comes to the attention of Tony when she builds her own Iron Man suit in her dorm. Creator and Iron Man writer Brian Michael Bendis spoke exclusively to TIME about the creation of Riri Williams with comic-book artist Stefano Caselli and Marvel’s increasingly diverse cast of characters.
Recently Marvel has had a lot of character changes happening, this includes Thor also becoming a female, Sam Wilson (Falcon) taking the role of Captain America, and the hulk is now Asian American. Marvel has also gone from 0 female lead characters in 2012 to a whopping 16 this year! I am all for change and diversity but this is a lot to take in all at once. Childhood hero’s are being changed left and right and while some are okay with this, others feel betrayed and may abandon their hero’s. How about you? Will you still follow your Marvel hero’s with all these changes? As long as Riri can live up to the spotlight of the millionaire playboy philanthropist, I see no issues.
Side Note: Marvel now had the chance to name their character “Iron Maiden” – Get on that Marvel!
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