美国国家公共电台 NPR Marvel Recognizes Young Black Women As 'Ironheart' Prepares To Don Tony Stark's Suit

Marvel¹ Recognizes Young Black Women As 'Ironheart' Prepares To Don Tony Stark²'s Suit

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:33repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser³ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

Superheroes tend to have a certain look, and it's usually the look of a tall, strapping⁴ white guy. Marvel Comics has been changing it up. First, there was Black Panther, and next month, the newest occupant of the Iron Man suit will be a 15-year-old black girl named Riri Williams. She's a science phenom who engineers the suit in her dorm room at MIT. Her superhero name is Ironheart, and she's on one of Marvel's covers next month. Alongside her on that cover is Ariell Johnson. She's broken some ground herself as one of the few black women to own a comic book store, and she joins us now on the line.

Ariell, thanks so much for being with us.

ARIELL JOHNSON: Thank you so much for having me, Rachel. I'm happy to be here.

MARTIN: This is so exciting, I imagine. How did this whole thing come about?

JOHNSON: Marvel, you know, reaches out occasionally to stores to ask if they want to do a store variance⁵. And what that means - it's the same story inside the book, but it has an alternate cover. And a store-exclusive variant⁶ means the only place to purchase that cover is at the store that it belongs to.

MARTIN: Oh, yeah.

JOHNSON: Yeah. So it's not going to be a book that can be picked up anywhere. You have to come to Amalgam⁷ to get it.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Your comic store, yeah.

JOHNSON: Yeah, we're - so on the cover, we're just in the shop, like, eating and drinking and chatting. And it was beyond anything that I was thinking when I saw the initial sketch⁸. I was really blown away.

MARTIN: For people who are just hearing about Riri for the first time, tell us about her. Why is she significant? What's her backstory?

JOHNSON: She's a science phenom, a 15-year-old that has been admitted into MIT. And, you know, she's significant in the Marvel Universe because they are actively⁹, you know, diversifying¹⁰ their line of characters. And, you know, there are people who, of course, will say, you know, Iron Man will always be Tony Stark. But what I like about her character is she is donning the suit, but she is not Iron Man. She is Ironheart. So I think that's really cool.

And I think it's cool that she is a young, black girl. You know, she has, you know, brown skin, natural hair. And, you know, she's a science nerd. I just think it'll have such a positive kind of effect...

MARTIN: Yeah.

JOHNSON: ...Just on, you know, the geek community, the black girl community, you know, black girl geek community (laughter), you know, just again, like I said, opening, like, the doors of your mind to what you can achieve, you know, if you want to.

MARTIN: When I think of comic books, I think of a world that is largely male and largely white. Are you still - as a black woman in this space, are you still the exception to the rule?

JOHNSON: There are probably not as many of us as there are young, white males or even old, white males. I mean...

MARTIN: Yeah.

JOHNSON: ...Comics have been around for a while, so a lot of, like, hardcore comic book people are older. But, you know, we are out here. And just even with my research - the research that I did in preparation to open the shop, the assumption is that it's probably 75 percent male and then 25 percent female. But actually, it's about 50-50.

MARTIN: Is it?

JOHNSON: As far as, like, who is buying comic books, it's about a 50-50 split. So women are buying them, and women are reading them and they have been. And then as far as, like, you know, the black geek community and the black girl nerd community kind of thing, it's - we are out here, I guess, in lesser¹¹ numbers but still significant numbers.

MARTIN: Ariell Johnson - she owns Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia. We've been talking about the new Marvel comic hero - heroine Riri Williams. Hey, Ariell, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: I appreciate you having me on the show.

1 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

2 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

3 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

4 strapping   

adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• He's a strapping lad—already bigger than his father. 他是一个魁梧的小伙子——已经比他父亲高了。
• He was a tall strapping boy. 他是一个高大健壮的小伙子。

5 variance   

n.矛盾，不同

参考例句：

• The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance. 妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
• It is unnatural for brothers to be at variance. 兄弟之间不睦是不近人情的。

6 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

7 amalgam   

n.混合物；汞合金

参考例句：

• To counter this myth,we explained that we're really an amalgam of little guys.为了打破这个神话，我们解释说，我们确实是由一群小小的老百姓所组成的混合体。
• American literature is to our eyes a curious amalgam of familiar and strange.我们认为，美国文学把我们所熟悉的和陌生的东西奇妙地结合起来了。

8 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

9 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

10 diversifying   

v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的现在分词 )；进入新的商业领域

参考例句：

• Some publishers are now diversifying into software. 有些出版社目前正兼营软件。 来自辞典例句
• Silverlit is diversifying into new markets, such as Russia and Eastern Europe. Silverlit正在使他们的市场变得多样化，开发新的市场如俄罗斯和东欧国家。 来自互联网

11 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。