Thursday, July 28, 2016

The Next 'Iron Man' Is A 15-Year-Old Black Girl



When we think of super intelligent “good guys” in the Marvel Universe, there’s a few names that come to mind. We might think of Tony Stark, who built the Iron Man suit (and Spider-Man’s new threads), or Reed Richards AKA Mister Fantastic, who has basically mastered all aspects of physics, biology, and chemistry.

But according to an announcement made at San Diego Comic-Con, the smartest hero in the Marvel Universe is not Tony Stark or Reed Richards or any of the other superheroes that might have claimed the title in the past. The smartest protagonist in all of Marvel is a little black girl named Lunella Lafayette.

Lunella is the main character in the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comics, which is a remake of Devil Dinosaur, a classic graphic novel that follows a T-Rex that is magically transported to modern day NYC. In the new version, Lunella replaces the original hero, Moon Boy, and she eventually teams up with the monstrous dino. Part of what makes Lunella so smart is the fact that she carries an “inhuman gene,” and she also is a skillful engineer.

BuzzFeed spoke to Marvel senior editor Mark Paniccia about what’s in store for Lunella in the upcoming issues of the series. Mark said that, “In the third arc of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Lunella faces an impossible half-dozen science-challenges that might not only prove her smarts, but also save the world.”

And that is pretty exciting, not just for older fans of comics, but for the young girls who might read them while growing up. Representation matters, and this news, which follows on the heels of the news that Roxane Gay will write a Black Panther book, is a sign that Marvel is moving in the right direction.

Source: Now This Entertainment/ Teen Vogue