Marvel Comics is in the midst of a broad upheaval that hopes to bring fresh new stories and diverse characters to the pages of the most popular superhero series. With the fallout from Civil War II, we can expect to see some major changes in almost every single comic. On the film side, the Marvel Cinematic universe has always been praised for sticking close to the source material as far as characterization and storylines go, starting with The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man in 2008, and with the original Civil War series adapted for the screen in this year's Captain America: Civil War, it's possible that the latest comic book development will influence the future of the movies.

A major announcement came yesterday when we learned that Tony Stark will be passing his Iron Man throne down to a 15-year-old black teenager named Riri Williams. The titular character shift will happen in the Invincible Iron Man relaunch series as part of Marvel NOW! (written by Brian Michael Bendis) immediately after the events of Civil War II.

So far, we don’t know much about Riri, other than the fact that she's a science wiz enrolled at MIT. Riri (first introduced in the original Invincible Iron Man #7) ended up building a prototype flight suit for herself out of old, discarded Iron Man scraps – all from scratch. Of course, she takes the suit out for a test drive and a few rescue missions before instantly grabbing the attention of War Machine and Tony Stark.

Today, via CBR, we got an exclusive first look at Riri Williams’ new Iron Man armor as illustrated and designed by series artist Stefano Caselli. The design of her suit is definitely sleeker, smoother, and more fitting than clunky Iron Man suits of the past, clearly bringing the feminine element into play. Notice there is one definitive part of the suit that is missing - the Arc Reactor.

Unless it's hiding underneath the chest plate, we can safely assume that Riri doesn't have pieces of shrapnel desperately trying to enter her heart. While the Arc Reactor was essential to keep Tony Stark alive, it was also the main power source for his suit due to its ability to create great magnitudes of energy. This leaves us with one burning question - how exactly is Riri's new suit powered? Maybe the addition of the glowing inverted triangle on her helmet has something to do with the answer.

It's rather refreshing to see a new superheroine who isn't donning over-sexualized and stylized battle armor. While the suit looks like it's made to fit a woman's body, it definitely doesn't bare all like most (not all) lady superheroes we see today, and also doesn't feature the common design trap of "boob armor". Riri is still a teenager, which might have played into the overall unisex design of her suit, but it still focuses on functionality and general safety rather than showing off skin. In other words, anyone could be inside there.

A release date for the Invincible Iron Man relaunch series has yet to be announced

Source: Comic Book Resources