You may remember hearing about a 15-year-old girl taking over as Iron Man in the the the Marvel Comics Universe a couple of years ago. Well, if you want to be technical, Riri Williams goes by Ironheart even though her stories appeared in the pages of Invincible Iron Man.
With San Diego Comic Con happening this past weekend, every major publisher ran nice sales on parts of their digital comics backlist through Comixology, so it was a good time to catch up with titles that you had wanted to check out. (The Marvel Best-Selling Collections sale is still running through Thursday, July 26, 2018 and there are plenty of amazing books priced around the same level as an individual issue.)
Anyway, I picked up Invincible Iron Man Vol. 1: Riri Williams and Vol. 2: Choices and I read them this weekend. Brian Michael Bendis and Stefano Caselli are doing some nice work with a character created by Bendis and Mike Deodato.
Williams is a super-genius who came to Tony Stark’s attention by being able to build her own suit of armor. With Stark in a coma as a result of the Civil War II storyline, Williams is left to take his role as Iron Man with the assistance of an A.I. program Stark sent to her based on his personality.
The two collections focus on Ironheart’s first adventures and the events that made Williams decide that she wanted to be a superhero. And they are a lot of fun. Bendis writes some great scenes with Williams interacting with the Stark A.I. and with Pepper Potts, who she looks up to as a hero. Ironheart wants to make the world a better place, and she hasn’t gotten caught up in worrying about what she “can” and “can’t” do yet. I love how her biggest fear in these stories isn’t whether some supervillain can beat her… it’s making the wrong choice when she has to decide whether to set up shop with MIT, Stark Industries or join a team of young superheroes.
I do wonder how Ironheart’s story might have been different if it were written by a woman or a person of color. Bendis is a skilled storyteller, but it would have been cool to see a different perspective.
What comics have you been reading lately? Do you have any recommendations for me?
PaulHadsall.com 