When she learned that the black market weapons dealership known as Source Control had them, Riri infiltrated their hub under the disguise of Cobalt Man to buy them. Unbeknownst to her, Iron Man and War Machine had the exact same plan.. Ironheart's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever debut came after Iron Man's death in Avengers: Endgame, despite Riri being mentored by Stark in Marvel Comics, with the established hero providing both technological help and superhero life coaching. However, the fact that Stark is dead in the MCU allows Riri Williams the chance to avoid the negative implications of being known simply as a female Iron.
Creator and Marvel's Iron Man writer Brian Michael Bendis created Riri Williams '20, a black female character who takes over for MIT alum Tony Stark. Riri is a science genius who enrolls in MIT at the age of 15. She comes to the attention of Tony Stark after stealing campus equipment to build her own reverse-engineered prototype of his Iron Man Armor design in her dorm. After coming under.. At the same time, she's also trying to make a name for herself, which is what Thorne hopes to do with the character who has drawn heavy comparisons to another iron-clad Marvel figure — billionaire inventor Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the superhero who helped birth the MCU over a decade ago.