The reaction to the news that the new Iron Man in the comics will be a 15-year-old African-American woman has been met with the expected response. Some love it, others hate it. But, what does Iron Man himself think? After all, thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe we have an actual Tony Stark we can ask. As it turns out, not only does Robert Downey Jr. like the new Iron Man, he thinks she's going to be a Bad Ass Mother Fucker. What would Cap say about that kind of language?
It's great to see Robert Downey Jr. publicly support the new character, especially because many of the responses to his tweet have been less than friendly. Many fans are very frustrated with this decision, which is to be expected. Comic book fans don't historically care for change, and this is hardly the first change that has occurred recently. The last year or so has seen a new Thor, a new Hulk, and a new Captain America, meaning that all the major Avengers, the characters that even those who don't read comics know, have changed.
While Marvel's comics business is still the cornerstone of the company, it has taken a back seat in recent years thanks to the overwhelming success of Marvel Studios. However, the success of the movies has, in turn, created a lot of new eyes that are paying attention to what is happening on the comics side of things. As Marvel's comics are involved in one of their major crossover events, Civil War II, this is normally the time when major changes take place. Following on the news that Captain America was actually a Hydra sleeper agent came the news that Tony Stark was going to be replaced as Iron Man, and the choice, a 15-year-old black girl, was different to say the least.
Marvel's been accused of only making these changes as a way to gain publicity, and whether or not you believe the change was made for that reason, it is certainly true that the announcement has been made for that reason. Marvel could leave these sorts of events to actually surprise readers, but they don't, mostly because they want people to react to it. They want to boost the sales of that first issue by getting people excited, one way or the other. Some may pick it up just out of morbid curiosity, but at least they bought it.
While there are no short term plans to replace Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in the MCU, this does at least open up a possible avenue for when that time comes. Robert Downey Jr is only believed to be under contract with Marvel through the end of the Avengers: Infinity War films, and while he has made some recent noise about maybe doing Iron Man 4, nothing has been announced. Even if Downey Jr. was willing to make more films, he's a really expensive guy to keep on the payroll, and it's possible Marvel will decide at some point he's too expensive. Whenever the day comes that RDJ is no longer Iron Man, and one way or another the day will come, this potentially gives Marvel a specific direction to go in with the character on screen, as well as on the page.
Do you think the new Iron Man is a Bad Ass Mother Fucker? Let us know in the comments.
