Synopsis / Summary / Plot
This issue has an adventure of Riri Williams interspersed with episodes from her earlier life. I've separated everything out into time order.
10 years ago, Riri is 5 in Chicago. Her worried parents have taken her to a child psychologist who says she's bored because she's a super-genius. He recommends sending her to a special school that will cater for her accelerated learning needs. But it will be her parents' job to keep Riri engaged with the normal world.
5 years ago Riri is building something in the garage at home. Her mom tries to get her to eat and go out to play, but she begs for 5 more minutes to finish what she's doing. Mom leaves, but Riri notices a young girl on a bike watching her. The girl enters and asks what she's doing.
Riri explains she's building a device for superheroes to use. When a hero is too busy heroing to do his normal stuff he'll press a button which will alert a bot at home to cover for him. And ask other heroes for help if necessary. But the device she has built so far is too big. She needs to miniaturise it - or even make it a skin tech-tattoo.
The other girl is enthusiastic and says everyone would want 1, not just superheroes. They exchange names - the girl is Natalie. Mom looks in and is glad her little girl is making a friend.
2 years ago in Marquette Park Riri and Natalie are having a barbecue with Riri's parents. The psychiatrist told her stepfather to tell Riri "it's a nice day", and he does it every day even if it isn't nice. She overheard him tell her mom he's worried that she'll grow up to be a supervillain if he doesn't.
Suddenly there's the sound of a drive-by shooting. Pop dives to push the girls to the ground as mom runs over from the barbecue. But when it's over both he and Natalie are dead.
Back in #7 of the previous series we saw 15-yr old Riri already studying at MIT but spending her time building her own 'Iron Man' armour which she completed in #9. A test flight of the clunky grey armour in #10 revealed the need for an AI to control it. In #11 she went public by stopping her 1st crime. In #12 Tony Stark heard about her and came to see her. We understand that he took her under his wing, and she appeared in Civil War II #4-5 as part of his 'army'. But she left with other young heroes in CWII#6.
Now Riri is flying in the armour and mourning the fact that Tony is dead (presumably it happens in CWII#7-8) and has left her only part-trained. She wonders if she's supposed to be the new Iron Man.
She's in Cheyenne, Wyoming where a monster is on the rampage. She traps it in a bubble of zero-point energy but then loads more appear, created by a young supervillain calling herself Animax.
Riri asks the computer she's built in to her armour to look up info on Animax, but it's very slow. She still hasn't got an AI. It reports that Animax is a mutant who can create monsters from her own DNA. She has a short police record ending in being captured by the new Champions, and before that she fought the X-Men in Arizona. Animax complains that she came to Wyoming to avoid superheroes.
A video of the X-fight shows them KO'ing Animax which makes her monsters disappear. Riri tries out a new armour facility. Her gloves detach and she sends them flying towards Animax, knocking her out. And as promised the monsters go away.
Riri recalls her gloves and asks the cops if they need help cleaning up the mess. But 1 of them shoots at her and tries to arrest her. She pulls his gun from him by magnetism and then crushes it. And jets away.
Back home Riri moans to her mother about the AI she can't afford for her armour. But then a courier arrives with a package for her. Inside is a hi-tech device with a 'push me' button. When activated it generates a hologram of Tony Stark. It's an AI version of himself which she can install in her armour.