Marvel’s New Iron Man Is a Teen Genius from MIT

Introducing Riri Williams.

Iron Man

Photo by Marvel via Twitter

Move over Tony Stark, there’s a new Iron Man in town, and she’s pretty awesome.

On Wednesday, Marvel unveiled Riri Williams, its newest comic book character to don the high tech suit of the armored Avenger. The latest addition to the company’s superhero roster was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who revealed some interesting facts about Williams in an interview with Time magazine.

The next person to take up the mantle of Iron Man (or should we say Iron Woman?) is a teen genius who becomes a student at MIT at just 15 years old. Bendis said that Williams flies onto Stark’s radar in the comics after reverse-engineering his armored suits.

“In the latest issue of Iron Man, Tony is in a lab talking to himself, and he’s already aware that there’s some student at MIT that’s reverse-engineered one of his old armors all by herself in her dorm room,” the writer told Time.

MIT seems pretty excited about the news, as the Massachusetts university tweeted out a photo of its new, fictional student.

Giving an African American girl a chance to be Iron Man is just the latest move by Marvel to add more diversity to its cast of characters.

The company has made a slew of major decisions as a part of this recent initiative, from giving a woman a chance to be Thor to adding Miles Morales, a Black Hispanic teenager who becomes Spider-Man.

Fans can check out Williams in issue No. 1 of Invincible Iron Man, which is due out this fall.