Marvel Comics character Riri Williams is taking on the mantle of Iron Man in the upcoming Marvel NOW! and making it her own with the name Ironheart.
Riri Williams will be the main character of the next iteration of the Invincible Iron Man comics. The 15-year-old genius girl will take her Iron Man suit and be Ironheart under the tutelage of Tony Stark.
After the announcement earlier this summer of her as the new Iron Man, fans did not take well the idea of a girl calling herself as Iron Man, but the new name solves that issue.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed that Ironheart was not the first name they came up with. They played with the idea of calling her Iron Woman, but in the end it some people thought it was old fashioned. They also thought of calling her Iron Maiden, but all they could think of was of legal issues.
Bendis explained that the Ironheart name suits perfectly for the character as it speaks for the whole franchise. Tony Stark created the armor to save his heart. And Riri created it and used it for different reasons, but in the end, it is still heart-related.
Riri’s story
Riri Williams is presented as a prodigy girl studying in the MIT. There she managed to build her Iron Man suit in her room using any parts she could scavenge.
In the latest Invincible Iron Man comic book, Riri’s test flight of the suit caught the attention of Tony Stark, who wants to become her mentor in becoming the new version of Iron Man.
Stark will help Riri build a new suit but with some changes on the original armor. Riri’s suit A.I. is going to be based on Tony’s personality. This explains the promo art of the Invincible Iron Man #1 on the Marvel NOW! Previews Magazine where it shows Tony as a red hologram, similar to Tony’s Friday A.I.
Riri is not the first character to take on the mantle of an original Avenger
Riri Williams is just the latest in a couple of characters taking on the mantle of previous iconic heroes. Some of them even keep the original superhero name.
These new heroes are, in the majority, women and minority characters such as Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, who is Marvel’s first Muslim character to headline her comic book and is a girl, and Miles Morales as Spider-Man, who is a black Hispanic boy.
Other characters that are the new generation of iconic heroes are Amadeus Cho as Hulk, Laura Kinney as Wolverine, Jane Foster as Thor and Sam Wilson as Captain America.
Source: ComicBook