Gen-X Silver Age/Bronze Age comic fan, 1930s-40s pulp adventure fan, huge movie fan of the MST3K variety.

This is my attempt at a rational-fic, which means to me "a story where characters do things that are the most intelligent choices they have available that they can think of." No one makes a stupid mistake just because the plot wouldn't work if they didn't make that particular stupid mistake. The protagonist has a plan and follows it. The antagonists have a logic to what they are doing, it's not just "for the evilz."

I thought Riri Williams got off to a good start as a new character. Brian Michael Bendis was doing pretty well at giving representation to one of the rarest minorities; brilliant kids, the ones that are in the top 1% of intelligence. He got the mix of social isolation and awkwardness, the focus on where they feel most in control and the sheer boredom of everyday life close. (I wasn't a prodigy by a long shot. But I have known a few very well.)

Part of Riri's background is growing up with trauma. As a child she saw her best friend and her father die as a result of a drive-by shooting nearby. A 15 year old dealing with the pressures of a genius intelligence and significant trauma and loss had a lot of story potential. I was looking forward to seeing where it was going. A fictional 15 year old African American girl from Chicago could have been this decade's Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne.

Then things started getting stupid after Bendis quit the character. Plots started requiring foolish mistakes from characters that were OUT of character. The dialog started being in social-media speak, the motivations were all over the place. So I'm taking a hard turn around issue INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #11 on the continuity. Wish me luck.