Marvel's new Iron Man is a black woman

08 July 2016 - 08:58 By Staff reporter

Being young, gifted and black has become the stuff of superheroes, with Marvel's new Iron Man now a teenaged African-American girl. According to Time.com, the end of the comic book series Civil War II sees Tony Stark stepping out of the Iron Man suit, making way for a new character - Riri Williams.Williams is a science whizz who enrols at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology aged 15 and gets the attention of the superhero by building her own Iron Man suit.The character, according to Marvel writer Brian Michael Bendis, is based on a real-life woman who overcame tragedy and violence but triumphed and went to college despite her difficult circumstances."[When I heard this woman's story], I thought it was the most modern version of a superhero or superheroine story I had ever heard. I sat with it for a while until I had the right character and the right place," said Bendis."It seemed that violence inspiring a young hero to rise up and act was very exciting," he said.While Williams will suit up in the new role in place of Stark, Bendis assures fans the new character is not a spoiler - he's keeping mum on how Civil War II will end. ..

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