With the New Iron Man, Marvel Continues to Move Forward and Diversify Its Superheroes

Marvel turning their Iron Man into a black woman isn't the first time they've switched up their major characters.

Jul 07, 2016
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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

This week, Marvel announced that the mantle of Iron Man, a character made famous both in the printed comics and on the big screen as a mega-rich white dude by the name of Tony Stark, would soon be held by a 15-year-old black girl named Riri Williams, a super smart M.I.T. student who just so happens to make Iron Man suits in her bedroom. While all of the details haven't been divulged yet, Marvel Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso says that this is a part of their Fall 2016 event, Divided We Stand. The series, Invincible Iron Man, will be penned by Brian Michael Bendis, who you might remember as being the same writer who introduced Miles Morales to the world as the new Spider-Man. While some (present company included) wish that these stories featuring people of color would be penned by people of color, this is Bendis' twist, and a series he was already writing; he's got it.

If you were on Twitter when the fit hit the shan, there was indeed outcry (not as much as word of a similar change to Mark Millar's Kick-Ass that was recently announced), with an array of comments from butt hurt comic book fans and fake mad heads the world over. If we took some time to think back, over the last decade—and even more so in the last few years—Marvel has pulled similar shifts, where either the race or gender (or both!) of a huge, mainstay character has been changed. While Marvel still has a ways to go in terms of progress—a) they need to bring more diverse writers into their fold and b) give these non-white male characters their own, awesome original characters—it's hard to turn your nose up at seeing a black boy becoming Spider-Man, or a Muslim girl do the damn thing in her own series. In a post-Obama world, it's important that kids of all colors see larger-than-life heroes who look more like them.

Here's a look at how Marvel Comics has followed through on that so far, by switching up the makeup of their iconic characters.

Miles Morales as Spider-Man

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When?: 2011

Why?: The original (Ultimate) Spider-Man died.

Marvel's wild multiverse problems were rectified with their recent Secret Wars mega event, but back in 2011, the Ultimate Universe's Peter Parker ended up getting merked while battling Norman Osborn. While his death ultimately didn't stick (because comic books), that obviously left a void that allowed the half-black, half-Latino Miles Morales to suit up and become the Ultimate Universe's second Spider-Man.

Marvel Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso says that they started discussing having a black Spider-Man a few months prior to Barack Obama becoming president in 2008, and the idea was strengthened by Ultimate Spider-Man scribe Brian Michael Bendis seeing Donald Glover in Spider-Man pajamas on an episode of Community, which was a further call out to the #Donald4SpiderMan campaign.

No matter how you slice it, Morales was a teen who felt like the original Peter Parker, just with a different racial make-up and background. He was bit by a radioactive spider that gave him amazing powers, and through his trials and tribulations, he learned that he needed to use those powers to be an Avenger with great responsibility.

Jane Foster as Thor

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When?: 2014

Why?: The original Thor was no longer worthy.

Back in 2012, Marvel had already decided to revamp their Thor series, but who knew that Jason Aaron, who wrote the Thor: God of Thunder series that attempted to reinvent the Norse god and Marvel's Original Sin event, planned on making Thor Odinson (the original, male Thor) "unworthy" to wield his hammer Mjolnir, then giving us a new, female Thor?!

After the new Thor series murdered its predecessor in sales, it was revealed (to readers, and recently, to Captain America) that this Thor was actually Jane Foster, the cancer-stricken, long-time love interest of the male Thor. The biggest point of contention in her existence as Thor has been no one really knowing why she was deemed worthy to wield the hammer (better than her male counterpart, I might add), but the deeper conflict is that the more she assumes this powerful mantle, the harder it is on her condition.

Amadeus Cho as the Hulk

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When?: 2015

Why?: Someone had to save Bruce Banner's life.

For the first decade of his existence, the Korean-American Amadeus Cho had been a teenage sidekick with "the mind of a supercomputer" that previously possessed all of the powers of his homey Hercules. In 2015, as a part of Marvel's "All-New, All-Different" initiative, Cho inherited the powers of the Incredible Hulk some time after the Secret Wars in a situation that involved him removing the Hulk from Bruce Banner (who was about to die from absorbing lethal levels of radiation) and putting that part of the superhero into his own body.

As you can see up above, Cho's Hulk has a better hairstyle, and while people don't necessarily agree with his way of handling bad guys as the Hulk, he brings a fresh, younger vibe to the character.

X-23 as Wolverine

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When?: 2015

Why?: Someone had to do it.

For fans of the wide world of Wolverine's sidekicks and side-characters, one had to figure that Laura Kinney, a.k.a. the Wolverine clone known as X-23, would some day rise up to attain the title...right? While she's down one claw on each of her hands, and has a "trigger scent" that turns her into a murder machine, she's spent the last 11 years dealing with a troubled past and how she fits into a hero's skin.

Most characters don't stay dead in the Marvel universe (or in most comic books), but the last incarnation of Wolverine died in 2014 after a virus stripped him of his healing factor. With Logan basically treating X-23 like a daughter—who else would understand her situation better than the man she was cloned from?—it's a perfect fit that, in a world where the only Logan walking around is old af, his clone would step up and realize her full potential as the heir to the Wolverine throne.

Sam Wilson as Captain America

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When?: 2014

Why?: Steve Rogers was too frail to carry the shield.

In a similar situation to Wolverine and Thor, Steve Rogers was just not fit to continue to carry the shield of being Captain America, primarily because he was stripped of his super human strength and vitality, turning him into the senior citizen he truly is. That's no way to protect a country, right?

In comes Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, who's been Rogers' homeboy since the '70s, assuming the title of Captain America the same week that Marvel announced that Thor would become a woman. It's been dope to see Wilson jump into the hot seat and take off without losing his signature wings or the use of his birds. It adds a different element to Captain America, while still allowing Steve Rogers to be around in some capacity as...whatever a "Chief of Civilian Oversight for S.H.I.E.L.D." is.

Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel

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When?: 2014

Why?: Those damn Terrigen mists.

While Ms. Marvel didn't start out as a true A-list character, the Pakastani American Jersey girl Kamala Khan has turned all of that around, becoming an Avenger about a year after being introduced. What's wild is that one of the previous Ms. Marvels, Carol Danvers, is now Captain Marvel, embodying a role that was initially written for a man and has jumped from a number of different characters, back in 2012.

Now Carol's going to make that leap to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Kamala's win has been amazing, not just because she's the little Jersey teen who got big (both figuratively and literally, due to the Terrigen mists that granted her the Inhuman ability of making her body parts super big or super small), but that she's been able to do so as a Muslim character being written by a Muslim woman. Double wins for diversity.

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