Marvel recently revealed that Tony Stark would be retiring as Iron Man in the Marvel comic-verse, and that he would be replaced by a 15-year old MIT student genius named Riri Williams. However, she won’t be holding the name of Iron Man, and instead will have her own identity entirely.
The new Iron Man will in fact be named Ironheart, and there were a few choices before they settled on this:
“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. Tony first put on the armor to save his heart. Riri puts it on for different reasons altogether but still heart-related. When people see her story, you’ll be amazed at how simple and brilliant Joe’s suggestion was.”
Still sounds like the name a Carebear would have, but we suppose it’s a lot better than Iron Woman. Her armor will still pay tribute to Stark however, as the A.I used for the suit will be based on Stark’s personality, so we can expect a fair bit of snark.
Riri will make her debut in Invincible Iron Man #1, which will be penned by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Stefano Castelli. Hopefully this would be a character both fans of the original Iron Man would grow to love, and one for new peeps to follow.
