Finally, The Next Iron Man Will Be An Iron Woman

If Disney is going to own Marvel and Marvel is going to generate press for a new movie everyday, we might as well start to make it interesting. Jessica Jones has upped our standards for who a superhero should be, but it doesn’t start to get interesting until we allow for more diversity in storylines, in casting and in their characterization. If all goes well, Iron Man creator, Brian Michael Bendis seems to know what to do.

There’s a new Iron Man. Well, Iron Man for now. She’s still working on the name. The events at the end of the comic book event series Civil War II will result in Tony Stark stepping out of the Iron Man suit.

So we’re down an Iron Man and we need a replacement. Step in character, Riri Williams. Bendis continues:

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.

Some fans are upset about a direction steering away from the comics, but in the name of social consciousness, we’re getting a little better at handling our upset. We’re going to move forward regardless of change resistant backlash.

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.

I think we’re starting to do some good things here. We can anticipate a female Thor, Kamala Khan is in the works and Miles Morales is already out there as a newly interesting hero archetype. I’m into it.