The Immortal Iron Fist: 27 Issues of Awesome

Introduced in 1974, Danny Rand, or Iron Fist as he is more commonly known, is a product of the kung-fu boom of the 1970's, and similar to most practitioners of the deadly arts, Iron Fist made a name for himself with his fists and feet, and little else. A few flashes of originality aside, due mostly to the failure to recognize the potential of the character and a series of mediocre reboots and team-ups, mostly with Luke Cage, Iron Fist was relegated to Marvel's C-List along with characters such as Moon Knight and Doctor Strange, who, I might add, have recently enjoyed some critical success.

Fast forward to 2006.

Now, I must admit, while I am a huge Ed Brubaker fan and, at the time, was impressed with this Matt Fraction guy, who is presently kicking all kinds of ass on The Invincible Iron Man (buy this book now) and will kick even more ass when he picks up Thor, I scoffed at the idea of resurrecting Iron Fist. To date, the Iron Fist canon was as paper thin as the character himself. How could these two scribes, as awesome as they are, hope to breath life into Danny Rand and get me to spend my hard earned four bucks? Really, why should I care?

Shame on me.

From the get go, the Immortal Iron Fist rocked me like a cross-kick to the nuts, but in a really good way. Brubaker and Fraction leapt out of the gate with fourteen rock-solid issues that delved deep into Iron Fist lore (more on that later) and breathed new life into the character. Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman handled the rest of the series, starting at issue #17 and concluding with #27, and, to me, did an admirable job of picking up where Brubaker and Fraction left off. The cancellation of Iron Fist, which is a fucking tragedy, is what motivated me to write the fairly straight forward piece that follows. Although I am more than happy to plunk down a chunk of my hard earned cash on multiple regular Marvel titles, Iron Fist was a breath of fresh air as it deviated ever so slightly from the regular trappings of the Marvel U., while remaining faithful to the source material and the publisher's established tone. This post is a chance for me to provide my reader with a retrospective of one of my favorite books that just so happened to bite the dust. Without further ado, below is a reader-friendly conspectus of everything that made The Immortal Iron Fist great.

Art

When it comes to discussing comic book art, I really can't offer much in terms of thorough criticism. Simply put, I like comic art or I don't. Sometimes, just sometimes, I think some comic art is ok and can stomach it for as long as I need to. That's really all I have to say about art.

That said, comics are a visual medium, so art needs to be addressed in some capacity, so I will speak briefly of Iron Fist's primary pencilers before moving on to the more essential nuts and bolts of the series.

While The Immortal Iron Fist has played host to more than a few collaborating artists, David Aja and Travel Foreman handled the bulk of the penciling chores for the series and presented readers with two very unique styles. A relative new comer to the comic book business, David Aja took the scene by storm with his simple, expressive style that worked well with the Iron Fist character, who vacillates between kung fu posturing and kung fu kicking ass. Personally, I found Aja's work to be pretty good. While his work does not exactly pop of the page, Aja's pencils are functional and unobtrusive, and remained faithful to Brubaker and Fraction's vision. I never like to conclude with a side note, but it's worth mentioning that Aja's cover work on the series is especially stunning.





Travel Foreman's art, on the other hand, is much harder to get used to, but, in my humble opinion, awesome and perfectly suited for Iron Fist. I'm no critic, but, to me, Foreman's art and panel layout, which I can only describe as abstract and oddly kinetic, resonated more with me as a reader as it successfully conveyed the sometimes frantic pace and weird elements, of which there are plenty, of the series.



Story

Ok. Here's where the book starts getting really cool, for, although Iron Fist is most certainly a superhero, The Immortal Iron Fist is not exactly a superhero book, in the traditional sense, at least. If Bruce Lee and John Carpenter had a bastard love-child that was breast fed from a boob filled with steroids, it would be The Immortal Iron Fist. To explain, The Immortal Iron Fist is a crazy amalgamation of the best parts of the Kung Fu genre and traditional Marvel superhero books. Throw in a dash of horror and the supernatural, and you got yourself a hell of a book that is not bound to any one genre.

Without spoiling anything, below is a breakdown and synopisis of the essential arcs that make up the twenty-seven issues. I recommend purchasing The Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus, a four pound beast of a book that collects issues #1-16 and some additional supplementary pieces, and The Immortal Iron Fist volumes 4 and 5, which, unfortunately, will probably never be collected in a single volume, but I will get to that at the end of this post.

The Last Iron Fist Story (#1-6): Danny Rand meets Orson Randall, his opium addicted predecessor. Danny and Orson find themselves in a race against HYDRA and the Steel Serpent for the the Book of the Iron Fist, a tome that will provide Danny with the martial arts skills he needs to compete in and win the Tournament of the Seven Champions. Somebody actually gets his head punched off in this arc. He does not survive.

The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven (#8-14): Danny Rand is summoned to compete in the Tournament of the Seven Champion, a kung fu tournament that takes place on a mystical plane of existence, but finds himself torn between his duties to K'un Lun and his master Lei Kung (aka Thunderer), and foiling a HYDRA plot to destroy K'un Lun with the biggest missile ever.

The Mortal Iron Fist (#17-20): On the eve of his 33rd birthday, Danny Rand learns that all previous Iron Fists, with the exception of Orson Randall, whose chi was made undetectable by his opium addiction, have died at the age of 33. Danny must battle a seemingly invincible foe and Iron Fist assassin, Zhou Cheng, or die a horrible death. Story-wise, this is the weakest story arc of the series; it's still pretty good, though.

Escape from the Eighth City (#21-27): Danny and the Immortal Weapons embark on a mission to rescue innocent prisoners from the mysterious Eighth City of Heaven, which, for lack of a better description, is hell filled with demons that know kung fu. Danny and the Immortal Weapons are defeated and thrown in prison where Danny meets the first Iron Fist.

Supporting Cast

In spite of all his awesomeness, Iron Fist, like many other characters, is only as good as his supporting cast. While Colleen Wing, Luke Cage and Misty Knight fill in the required, yet quirky, supporting samurai, bad-ass best buddy and cyborg love interest roles, the richness of Iron Fist's supporting cast is in the Immortal Weapons. Like Iron Fist, the Immortal Weapons are both protectors of and champions of their respective City of Heaven. During the Tournament of the Seven Champions, Iron Fist was pitted against the other Weapons in deadly combat but, since then, allied with them, with the exception of Davos, in order to battle HYDRA and a shit ton of demons. Below is a brief description of the Immortal Weapons.



Fat Cobra: A supernaturally agile sumo wrestler. Works hard, plays harder (his wenches lust for him and he happily obliges). Focuses his chi into weather based, namely lightning and wind, attacks. Beats the crap out of Iron Fist without breaking a sweat.

Bride of Nine Spiders: Attacks her opponents with about a million spiders that burst from her chest. Spiders are creepy. Spiders bursting from a woman's chest is fucking rad.

Dog Brother #1: A peerless swordsman who fights with a supernatural dog pack. He is believed to be the protector of the lost, orphaned, and other exiles and unfortunates.

Tiger's Beautiful Daughter: A beautiful and fearless warrior who wields razor sharp fans. Severs Steel Phoenix's hand in the Tournament of the Seven Champions.

Prince of Orphans: The most powerful of the Immortal Weapons. Prince of Orphans has seen many battles and is very wise. More importantly, he can turn into mist and kick your ass.

Steel Phoenix (aka Steel Serpent; aka Davos): Iron Fist's archenemy. Beefs up his chi by drawing power from the evil Crane Mother and her daughters.

Before the cancellation of Iron Fist, the Immortal Weapons were featured in their own mini-series, which, from my understanding, is worth reading.

Legacy

To me, the greatest stroke of genius in the Immortal Iron Fist was perhaps the simplest - backstory. Brubaker and Fraction added near infinite depth to Iron Fist by creating a dynasty of successive heritors of the Iron Fist mantle. Not only did this help flesh out the book with some much needed kung fu mythology, but the Iron Fist history allowed for Brubaker, Fraction and Swierczynski to introduce multiple Iron Fists, most notably Orson Randall, the WWI-era Iron Fist who channels his chi through a pair of Smith & Wesson pistols, and who plays a significant role throughout the series.



Other Iron Fists, though not featured as prominently as Orson Randall, are introduced in the book either in flashbacks or, in some cases, in stand-alone issues. The concept of past and future Iron Fists playing a roll in the series is an interesting one as the Iron Fist mantle passes from person to person, throughout history and leaves writers with a character that has limitless depth and potential. Personally, as much as I like Danny Rand, I was looking forward to seeing more of the past and future Iron Fists.

The winds of change smell like fart

Sadly, for the foreseeable future, there will be no stories featuring Danny Rand or wild west Iron Fist or an Iron Fist who fights robot ninjas as The Immortal Iron Fist wrapped with issue #27 and the Immortal Weapons mini-series. The cancellation of the series coincides with Marvel prepping to usher in a new, universe-changing initiative, The Heroic Age, an age defined by hope and optimism. For me, the jury's still out on Marvel's shift in tone. How can a universe comprised almost entirely of anti-heroes who thrive under adverse conditions flourish in this bright and shiny era? I am cautiously optimistic but, deep down, look forward to the shit hitting the fan again and getting back to the Marvel I love.

The Heroic Age Avengers... Maybe it's just me, but Iron man looks like he's taking a dump; a dump filled with heroic optimism, but, nevertheless, a dump.


In any case, while Luke Cage can lead the Heroic Age Thunderbolts to failure (for the uninitiated, Luke Cage is dumb), and occupies the requisite ethnic roster spot on the New Avengers, there seems to be no room in the Heroic Age for Iron Fist and his sweet kung fu action. Observe the new Avengers line-up:



Ok, so the Avengers can extend a membership offer to Gorilla-Man, who is basically a gun-toting Beast (wait, he's an Avenger too!) but not as strong and supposedly immortal. I love firearm wielding monkeys as much as the next guy but the Avengers, as you see them here, already have plenty of muscle. Ditch the monkey, or even better, Thing, and get Iron Fist on that roster.

Marvel apparently has other plans for Danny Rand.

Presently, internet rumors indicate that Iron Fist will reunite with Luke Cage in a brand spanking new Heroes for Hire book.

Yay...

Heroes for Hire first appeared in 1978 and, over the course of 30 or so years suffered a series of reboots and cancellations that culminated in, well, nothing important. Rebooting a Marvel title that was fairly lame and has a history of failure is, in my opinion, nothing more than a vain attempt to tap into fanboy nostalgia. Despite my previous reticence with regard to the Heroic Age, I feel more than comfortable weighing in on the prospect of seeing a slap-stick, jive-talking, band of merry men re-revival of a character who needs more love - it sucks, and not in a good way.

Will I buy it? Probably. Like any good train wreck, my own morbid curiosity will undoubtedly compel me to purchase this book. Call me a glutton for punishment but my doubt needs some concrete satisfaction.

Should you buy it?

Naw. See how the Heroic Age pans out. Better Iron Fist stories have already been written and await your perusal.