Meet the new Iron Man - a black female teenager.

Marvel Comics veteran writer Brian Michael Bendis said in an interview with Time that Tony Stark will step away from his superhero alter-ego and a new character named Riri Williams will assume the laser-blasting role.

Mr Bendis described Williams as a science genius who enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 15. She comes to Stark's attention when she builds her own Iron Man suit in her room.

Marvel has bestowed several diverse characters in recent years with long-running superhero mantles, including a biracial Spider-Man, Muslim Ms Marvel, female Thor, African-American Captain America and Asian-American Hulk. However, those characters have yet to appear in Marvel film or TV adaptations.

Williams will make her debut in Marvel's Invincible Iron Man comic book this autumn.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.