The creator of Ari Agbayani, Alyssa Wong, is Filipino-American, with Chinese and Spanish ancestry as well. Aside from Ari, she co-wrote along with Greg Pak, Filipino superhero Wave's story in the backup to the Aero series. Sidebar: what I like about Wave is that Pak based her not from Manila, but Cebu City from the the Visayas in the middle of the Philippines (and who speaks the Cebuano or Bisayan language, a dialect of which my late paternal grandfather spoke). So she's from another part of my country (fortunately I haven't seen much of the counter "Manila imperialism" reaction to her) and is trilingual: English, Tagalog (Filipino), and Cebuano (Bisayan).
Writer Alyssa Wong on Welcoming Aero and Wave to the Marvel Universe
On her Twitter account she recounted the reaction to news of Ari Agbayani.
"Good morning! I woke up to a big response to our new Fil Am hero, and I'd like to thank you for sharing your voices with us.
I'd also like to clarify something about her full name, which is Arielle Agbayani. She's named after a few Fil Am friends, with help from my Fil Am fam."