We’ve been reporting on Riri Williams aka the new Iron Man for awhile now, and although it was great to see the role of one of Marvel’s most well known superheroes go to a black girl, we couldn’t help but wonder if she would keep the iconic name.
Now we’ve been given an answer: Williams will now be referred to as Ironheart.
In an interview with Wired, Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis explained that Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada came up with the moniker.
“Iron Woman seemed old fashioned to some. Iron Maiden looked like a legal nightmare. And Ironheart, coined by Joe Quesada, after I told him my planned story for Riri, speaks not only to the soul of the character but to the Iron Man franchise as a whole.”
Those same names were being around throughout the Internet when Williams was first announced, and it’s nice to see that Marvel came up with a name that celebrates Iron Man while building a story arc that is entirely for Williams.
All we know about Williams so far is that she’s a 15-year-old science genius attending MIT, who gets the attention of Tony Stark when she builds her own Iron Man suit in her dorm. Bendis said the inspiration for the character originally came from his time living in Chicago.
“…this story of this brilliant, young woman whose life was marred by tragedy that could have easily ended her life —just random street violence — and went off to college was very inspiring to me. I thought that was the most modern version of a superhero or superheroine story I had ever heard. And I sat with it for awhile until I had the right character and the right place.”
Williams won’t officially be taking over as Ironheart until November’s Invincible Iron Man #1, so you have plenty of time to prepare for her arrival.
The post Marvel’s New Iron Man Successor, Riri Williams, Is Now Ironheart appeared first on Okayplayer.
