Invincible Iron Man #5 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis / Artist: Stefano Caselli / Marvel Comics I would say Riri is the hero we need, but not necessarily the hero we deserve, but that’s not true. Comic book fans, POC comic book fans specifically, we’ve endured much. We deserve Riri right now. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite heroines in the Marvel universe and it’s her shortcomings as much as her profound strengths that make her so likable. The resourcefulness and humility have really propelled her into a stratosphere worthy of the Iron Man moniker and Bendis deserves a lot of credit for that. If you’ve read our comic book reviews, you know that we have a complicated engagement with some of Bendis’ work of late. Still one of the best comic book writers around, some of the questionable angles he’s taken with Miles Morales in regards to race, the storyline of Rhodey from Civil War and just the general tenor that is White identified writers and Black protagonists has been enough to make us pretty cautious.

Having said that, I haven’t loved every single part of the make-up that is Riri (especially from the first two issues), but I do love an overwhelming majority of it. The latest issue is split between the resolution of dealing with the Techno Golem and Riri’s ascension as a fully-fledged hero and how this affects her mother, the only family she has. We are given more development from her mother and a really effecting panel that shows her reflection and balance as the mother of a special chi…