Meet INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, Set to Blast Off This Fall!
Get ready, Marvel fans, because there’s a new Armored Avenger in town. With the Marvel Universe divided, and its heroes the same, it’s time for some fresh blood to take up the mantle. And this Fall, that call will be answered in a new series: Invincible Iron Man #1. With creator Brian Michael Bendis welcoming new artist Stefano Caselli to this rich world, the question remains: who is this new armored avenger?
[wp_ad_camp_2]
Her name? Riri Williams.
And that will be a name you shan’t forget. Making her debut earlier this year, Riri Williams will fly out of Civil War II and straight into being an armored avenger. You may remember her from a sub-plot in Invincible Iron Man #6. Riri first appeared as a genius 15-year-old MIT student who was well on her way into building a prototype suit. Hastily put together with items “borrowed” from her university campus, it didn’t exactly go down well with her dorm neighbours.
Her purpose? To make the world a better place? Her means? By reverse-engineering her own set of armour to storm the Marvel universe as Iron Man. (She’s working on the name).
So strap yourselves in, Marvel fans, because there’s a new hero waiting in town. And Riri Williams may be a name you’ll want to remember!
What about Tony Stark?
In an exclusive from TIME, Brian Michael Bendis spoke about Tony Stark being fully aware of a student at MIT reverse-engineering “one of his old armors all by herself in her dorm room”. It should be noted that with the Tony Stark hanging up his Iron Man boots, you wouldn’t know the ending to Civil War II just yet! He said further:
We’re in the middle of a very big Tony Stark storyline – actually three storylines converging. His best friend died, his company is collapsing and he’s finding out who his biological parents were all at the same time. How that all shakes out such that Tony is no longer in the armor? You’ll have to wait to find out for the end of Civil War II. But it does create a path for Riri Williams, who Tony will know and will be interacting with very shortly in the comics.
In the exclusive interview, Michael Bendis also spoke about Riri Williams and Tony Stark eventually meeting. It’d be of typical Tony Stark fashion, with Michael Bendis noting that:
Tony is also a master at not paying attention to the thing that’s most important and distracting himself with Avengers stuff.
So it’d be easy to see from the interview that perhaps Tony’s curiosity is spiked a little by news of a woman flying around in a slightly cobbled, modified, old bit of his armor. With their very differing perspectives, the meeting between the original Iron Man and the next would be electrifying to say the least.
Diversifying the Marvel Cast
It’s caused a lot of controversy and debate among the Marvel fandom online. In the same TIME interview as linked above, Michael Bendis noted that the number of racist comments flooding in was discerning. Some commentators, he wondered, if they even knew how racist they sounded. However, with the introduction of a female Thor, Michael Bendis noted that a new audience came flooding in too.
When asked why it took so long to diversify the expansive cast, Michael Bendis said:
Talking to any of the older creators, it’s the thing they said they wish they’d done more of — reflecting the world around them. It just wasn’t where the world was at at that time. Now, when you have a young woman come up to you at a signing and say how happy she is to be represented in his universe, you know you’re moving in the right direction.
But here is what we know. We know that Riri Williams is a fifteen-year-old tech genius. We know she is not even old enough for a beer at the bar. We know Tony Stark is fully aware of her. And we know that she’s ready to take the Marvel universe by storm. Riri’s ready.
Are you?
Movies After Dark: Lead Cast in Detective Pikachu, A First Look of Fantastic Beasts 2 and So Much More!
Legion “Chapter 3” Review
