COVER TO 18
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artists: Travel Foreman
Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction’s reinvention of Iron Fist was one of the best character reboots of all time. They’re gone now. Can the book maintain the level of quality and innovation it had during its initial issues?
The opening page gives me doubts right away. Travel Foreman’s art is pretty good but kind of muddy, which isn’t the right look for a martial arts book. But worse, it’s a time jump into the future where we’re told that Iron Fist is dead, leaving behind a child and a widow–Misty Knight.
Fortunately, that’s not what this arc is about. We don’t go back to this version of the future. It’s just there to emphasize the threat of the story, which is that nearly all Iron Fists die at age 33.
We then go into the past to witness the first installment of the tale of Iron Fist Jun-Fan, whose death is told throughout the early issues of this arc. Okay, this is more in line with what Fraction and Brubaker established as the tone and theme of this series.
We then see Iron Fist for the first time, at his birthday party. Hydra is coming after Rand Corporation. Misty and Danny are in a committed relationship but Danny has trouble with the communication aspects of it. It’s really more of a check-in than anything else, because we’re soon back to Jun-Fan meeting the cause of his death…
Zhou Cheng won’t appear again after this story arc, but the creature inside him, Ch’i-Lin will be revealed as a beast who has killed all the Iron Fists across history except for Orson Randall, who gave up his power just before he turned 33 and went into hiding.
The story follows Cheng hunting Fist and ends with the final battle, where Danny is rescued by the Immortal Weapons, Luke Cage and Misty Knight.
The creature’s host body is burned up, but we see its spirit escape.
He’s a green blob that looks vaguely like Slimer from Ghostbusters.
Throughout the telling, we see more of how Hydra is coming after Danny’s business. Danny defends his staff against the attacks, and seems integrated into his life as the leader of a large organization. The action stays centered in New York City, and it’s apparent that writer Duane Swierczynski intends this arc to be a bridge from the almost mystical themes of Brubaker and Fraction’s run to a storyline that is more firmly planted in reality. There’s nothing wrong with that and Swierczynski does a great job of it.
But that art is not helping him. Foreman is at turns good, adequate, and downright messy and confusing.
English (US) · 