Caped crusaders, shapeshifters, and mutant masterminds come to mind when we think of superheroes. But people rarely think of black girls as superheroes. That’s why the presence of Ironheart matters so much.
You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions—a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels and more.
Losing Tony Stark as Iron Man caught Marvel fans by surprise back in 2016, but the bigger surprise was learning who would replace him in the comics. Enter Riri Williams, better known as Ironheart. The character is the brainchild of renowned comic book creator Brian Michael Bendis.
Riri is a genius, 15-year-old MIT student, who operates her own engineering lab. That she is a black girl and science wiz, who relies on her intelligence and STEM expertise to save the day, is a rare noteworthy superhero representation. Still, Bendis, a white man, primarily portrayed Riri in relation to her white male predecessor in the Invincible Iron Man series. Riri did not yet have a story entirely her own.
In 2018, Eve Ewing, a black woman, took the lead on writing Riri in her solo series, and a dynamic iteration of the character emerged. Riri is astute with witty quips when she’s fighting crime yet awkward and nerdy when she’s not. As a hero, Riri has more responsibility than others her age, but like average teens, she likes eating hot chips, drinking orange soda, and listening to music with a friend.
Ewing’s most striking example of Riri’s crucial representation surfaces through the fusion of Riri’s genius power with her emotional progress. Armed with a brilliant mind, Riri invents and builds gadgets in her lab to help defeat villains.
Likewise, the process of making tech creations allows the teen to cope with her feelings of loss, grief, and loneliness. Riri’s intelligence isn’t only a tool for the world’s benefit; her genius is also a therapeutic outlet for her own wellbeing. The genius is the foundation for Riri Williams’s motion picture debut in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022.
Representations of smart, and emotionally reflective black girls are rare. So are representations of smart and emotionally reflective superheroes. Riri expands the possibilities of who gets to be hero, and how, making Ironheart deserving of a remarkable reception from the comics to the big screen.
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This episode was written by Cindy Reed. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali and Howard Rambsy.
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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a joint project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation. For more information, visit blacklitnetwork.org.