Marvel Comic’s Iron Man is Now a Black Teen Girl Named RiRi

RiRi Williams will be the new Iron Man

Black girl magic or nah?

Meet RiRi Williams, a deep hued, MIT genius with a huge head of natural hair. She’s beautiful and smart and she’s caught the eye of the one and only Tony Stark. According to Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis, RiRi is a “story of this brilliant, young woman whose life was marred by tragedy that could have easily ended her life.” Bendis, who also was involved of the creation of Jessica Jones and Miles Morales told Time how important having diverse characters in comics are.

Of course I absolutely agree. I believe comics and all forms of media should depict the world we live in both fictionally and realistically. Bendis also acknowledged the white tears he has read online, “Some of the comments online, I don’t think people even realize how racist they sound. I’m not saying if you criticize you’re a racist, but if someone writes, “Why do we need Riri Williams we already have Miles?” that’s a weird thing to say. They’re individuals just like Captain America and Cyclops are individuals. All I can do is state my case for the character, and maybe they’ll realize over time that that’s not the most progressive thinking.”

With that being said, I wonder if Bendis would be open to having women of color help mold and narrate or at the very least influence him with writing storyline where women of color are the focus. It’s one thing to create a diverse character for consumption and it’s another thing to create a character with real-life adaptions and influence.

I guess we will see right?