News broke this morning that Marvel will have a new series starring Riri Williams out later this year. Ironheart will be written by Eve Ewing, with art by Kevin Libranda. The cover to the first issue is be Amy Reeder.

Riri Williams made a splash when she took over for Tony Stark as Iron Man back in 2017, and now that Tony’s back in the armor it’s nice to see Marvel keeping Riri in the spotlight. She’s currently featured as a member of the Champions, and got a redesigned set of armor in issue #22 of that series.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, first-time comics writer Ewing spoke about, among other things, her plans for the series and what she wants to bring to the character of Riri Williams.

“It’s really special, because this is a character that has some groundwork laid already but is still very new in terms of her role in the Marvel universe; it’s almost like getting into business on the ground floor. I get to play a role in really shaping who she is and who she’s going to become.”

Ewing, a writer/academic in the Chicago area has long been a bold commentator on the comics scene, and fans have been calling for her to get  some writing gigs at Marvel for a long time. Ewing imediately took to twitter to explain the pre-ordering system:

https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/1031570757384630274

Check out the full interview for more details, and take a look at the cover to the first issue below. Ironheart #1 will be in stores in November.

 

6 COMMENTS

  1. I’m really happy that this character is getting another shot. Riri really gave Iron Man a fresh take that it badly needed. But, geez, what an ugly costume!

  2. Some Thoughts:

    1. Eve has very little experience in writing traditional prose fiction, so I would not be surprised if after three issues she announces she’s leaving due to “scheduling issues” or if Marvel “promoted” her to just coming up with the plots while a more experienced (probably white) comics writer handled the scripts.

    2. Eve Ewing has very little traction or name recognition among post-Millennials, let alone black post-Millennials. She’s big among the white college academic crowd, but if Marvel is hoping that blacks/Hispanics will start reading comics based on Eve’s name recognition, they will be sorely disappointed.

    3. Going on that, I’m assuming that C.B. Cebulski and Joe Quesada just did a Google search for “famous black female writers” and just started contacting each one that came up to see if they wanted to write comics.

    4. I really wish Octavia E. Butler was still alive, she would have been perfect to write Riri’s continuing adventures. I would have loved to see Riri placed in an adaptation of Butler’s novel “Kindred” where Riri is hurled back in time to 1840’s Mississippi and forced to live on a plantation as a slave, and has to confront the fact that her intelligence and tech expertise is of no help to her at all in an era of institutionalized racism and slavery.

    5. It’s 2:04 PM Eastern time and this press release has NOT been picked up by The AV Club or Deadline or Variety or Kotaku or IGN. It’s been picked up by “clickbait” sites like Gizmondo, and Newsweek has picked it up, but it definitely shows how little mainstream interest Riri still has after the initial flurry of press coverage last year.

  3. That is a terrible cover. The perspective on Ironheart makes her look grotesque, and nearly half the cover space is wasted on pretentiously drawn water. And why do the colourists make backgrounds look soft and pastel-coloured?

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