Back in 2005, Marvel wanted a new direction for their long-running "Avengers" series, which resulted in movies and TV screenwriter Allan Heinberg ("Wonder Woman," "Sandman") and prolific Marvel artist Jim Cheung pitching a younger version of the iconic super-team — "Young Avengers." This team would provide new and returning readers a clean entry point into the Marvel Comics universe through fresh legacy characters, most of whom had already been created and developed, but just needed a narrative reason to come together. Enter, Iron Lad.
At some point in the distant future, Kang the Conqueror sought out a younger version of himself in order to save his life and put him on the path to conquest as early as possible. After showing a teenage Kang (aka Nathaniel Richards) the wealth of his violent future, the boy becomes horrified by his destiny and chooses instead to travel back in time to prevent his future self from ever coming to power. Dawning his own Iron Man armor, Nate Richards takes on the name Iron Lad.
Yes, yes, the story is a bit convoluted, but if it wasn't, comics wouldn't be half as fun. Moving on: after failing to make contact with the actual Avengers (they were "Disassembled" at the time), Nathaniel uses their data to recruit Eli Bradley aka Patriot, Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan, and Teddy Altman aka Hulkling (the first Young Avengers team was a bit of a "Dudes Rock" moment). Eventually, the team welcomed Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye and Cassie Lang aka Stature, as well as a resurrected version of the Vision.
If these names are suddenly sounding familiar to MCU fans, that's because all of these players have already been introduced — except Iron Lad. And here's where Riri could come in.
