Invincible Iron Man #3

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Stefano Casseli

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Invincible Iron Man is an amalgam of things I love about Marvel and things I wish Marvel would knock off. Their obsession with teenage heroes is out of control. They want a younger audience so they created younger heroes. That makes some sense. What doesn’t make sense is why all the adults in this universe are suddenly ok with fifteen year olds fighting terrorists.

Tony Stark is mostly dead at the moment and his logical replacement, Rhodie,  is really really dead. So the responsibilities of being Iron Man have naturally fallen to some fifteen year old girl who met Tony a couple of times. In Bendis’s run on Ultimate Spider-Man, the adults of the world had a difficult time protecting young Peter Parker and coming to grips with the constant state of peril in which he existed. That series began a little less than 20 years ago. In the current Marvel climate, Riri Williams’ mother, Tony Stark, Mary Jane Watson, and now Pepper Potts are all fine with Riri’s role as a superhero.

The good news is that Riri Williams has a gripping story. She grew up in an ceaselessly loving household with her mother and stepfather. Her parents were prescribed by a child psychologist to be positive influences on their genius daughter so that her dazzling intellect wouldn’t turn her cynical at a young age. Riri was never appreciative of her stepfather’s overbearing love until he and her childhood friend were killed by stray gunfire in a gang dispute.

Bendis adds a brilliant plot mechanism to Riri’s story that also helps to bridge the gap between Tony Stark and Riri. To help young Riri on her path to becoming an armored superhero, Stark built her an artificial intelligence in his own likeness. He explains things and pesters Riri in ways that only Tony could. Even though Tony’s currently chilling in cryofreeze, we still get to keep him around.

We finally learn what is happening at Stark Industries as well. Tony left his newfound birthmother in charge. She’s a former rockstar and S.H.I.E.L.D. spy--completely unqualified to run the company. She has Tony’s A.I. assistant Friday do all the heavy lifting.

I frequently defend Brian Michael Bendis’s writing style. He has the best ear for the sarcastic tongue of the intelligent youth and the ability to make unnatural conversations sound natural. It makes him an ideal choice to write a comic about a fifteen year old genius (how many teenage geniuses are in the Marvel Universe now? Seems like fifty.). However, a large portion of comic fandom has grown tired of Bendis’s protracted dialogue. This issue is the first time I tend to agree with them. In a couple of scenes, conversations were stretched out over two pages for no apparent reason. The padded length didn’t add tension or improve comedic timing.

Overall, I like Riri and her place in Iron Man’s world. It forces me to wrestle with my personal preferences about Marvel’s editorial edicts, but it’s funny, touching, entertaining and continues Tony Stark’s story even if it doesn’t seem like it at first.