She is Iron Man.
A tech-savvy, black teenage girl is about to take over the role of the armour-clad Avenger, in a move by Marvel Comics that has some fans thrilled, and others up in arms.
Writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed on Wednesday that Tony Stark will be replaced by a new character, named Riri Williams, in the upcoming "Invincible Iron Man" comic series.
Bendis told that Riri is a 15-year-old MIT student who builds her own Iron Man suit, after her life is "marred by tragedy" in an incident of "random street violence." Tony Stark is expected to surrender the title of Iron Man to the younger hero, after the events of the current "Civil War II" event at Marvel.
Bendis told Time that he's excited about the character, although he also acknowledged early backlash to her introduction. "You're always going to have people getting paranoid about us ruining their childhood," he said.
Some fans said they were thrilled to see a black female character take over as a member of the Avengers – a team that primarily consists of white men, especially on film.
I get ppl don't want tony to step down or whatever but having a black woman as ironman is incredible & amazing representation.
— superhero dad (@yngjstice)
haha curious how the nerds are not handling the news the new IRON MAN is a black woman.. grow-up, change is good and so is diverse stories
— Christopher M (@_ChristopherM)
A black women iron man what a time to be alive
— ️ (@poisonivysus)
Others were highly critical of the move, with some suggesting it's a half-measure with a white writer giving voice to a black character.
Marvel Comics: "Iron Man as a black woman would be dope."
— Ira Madison III (@ira)
Black Woman: "I would love to write —"
Marvel: "We have white people for that."
thumbs up for new Iron Man being a 15-year-old black girl! thumbs down for her being written by a white guy!
— pilot (@pilotbacon)
No Black women, as far as I know, have written or drawn for . Making their new Iron Man a woman of color feels hollow to me.
— Justin Martin (@jmartinwrites)
Some pointed out that the character will be introduced by Bendis, a white male and veteran Marvel writer, while other characters of colour, such as Black Panther and Ms. Marvel, have minority creators telling their stories. The current "Black Panther" comic is written by award-winning journalist Ta-Nehensi Coates, while Muslim-American writer G. Willow Wilson handles "Ms. Marvel," a comic about a teen Muslim in New Jersey.
The change to Iron Man is just the latest tweak Marvel has made to its lineup of superheroes, as part of its Marvel NOW initiative to appeal to a broader audience.
Over the last few years, Marvel has introduced comics with female versions of Thor, Wolverine and Captain Marvel. The company has also changed up existing characters to be more inclusive, with an Asian-American as the Hulk, an African-American as Captain America, and a Muslim teen girl as Ms. Marvel.
One of Marvel's current Spider-Man comics also stars a half-black, half-Hispanic version of the hero, named Miles Morales. Bendis actually introduced the character and wrote most of his early stories in the pages of "Ultimate Spider-Man." The character debuted in 2011 and soon became a fan-favourite, prompting Marvel to feature him in several comics and a cartoon since then.
"Once Miles hit, and Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) and female Thor hit – there was a part of an audience crawling through the desert looking for an oasis when it came to representation," Bendis told Time. "And now that it's here, you'll go online and be greeted by this wave of love."
He added that Marvel "never had a meeting saying, 'we need to create this character.' It's inspired by the world around me and not seeing that represented enough in popular culture."
Like most long-running comic book characters, the name "Iron Man" hasn't always belonged to Tony Stark. James Rhodes, a.k.a. the black hero War Machine, has also worn the Iron Man armour in the past, as have a few other minor characters.