The Review #2: The Immortal Iron Fist

The Immortal Iron Fist

I have the good fortune of knowing a lot of people with a lot of comics, and for some reason they give them to me to read. One of them is the man behind Pages N Pages books, Steven Palter, which you can see in the links here on Fireinthedust, and the most recent book was so good I decided to review it: Ed Brubaker’s The Immortal Iron Fist: the last Iron Fist story.

Let me clear one thing up: I really hope this isn’t really the last Iron Fist story. In fact, I highly doubt it will be the last one because of the ending, which I refuse to spoil for you here, or because there is a sequel to this on Brubaker’s site; and I think what they really mean is that it’s a story about the last of the Iron Fists, a number of heroes who have appeared throughout history using their kung fu to fight evil, specifically the most recent and (we expect) Last Iron Fist named Danny Rand. If Marvel promises not to give him a follow-up sidekick, say a spunky teenage daughter he didn’t know about (from, like, that time in Madripore fans never heard about before she showed up), then yes, he will be the last Iron Fist. Clear? Crystal? Okay, good.

This particular story is written by Marvel All-star Ed Brubaker, one of the people who changed Marvel’s tone from a series of four-colors to multiple shades of grey. From back to his work on a run on Catwoman to more recent runs on titles like the Death of Captain America (and the current Rebirth run), Ed Brubaker has a knack for interesting takes on characters who don’t normally take the spotlight and blowing away the expectations of his audience. Example from a different story: Brubaker took Cap’s old sidekick Bucky (who we all thought was dead) and brought him back and made him a good read. If an author can take a character known as Bucky and make him a reasonable modern character, give his other stuff a look.

Iron Fist has been a lower-tier character in the Marvel universe since I showed up decades ago, one who I remembered as having little yellow slippers, a lime green suit and a massive yellow disco collar, and whose only powers were being a white guy with kung fu powers, and having a really hard fist… an “iron” fist. Considering he was one of those heroes who fought drug dealers rather than super aliens, I took a quick step back and enjoyed my X-men. Even since those initial “un-counters”, he would pop up in larger Marvel events, stand near more powerful characters like Wolverine or Spiderman, fail to dodge laser fire from some villain, and be very glad that Wolverine/Spiderman showed up “just in time”. If you’re familiar with Dazzler, yellow shirt Luke Cage, and Power Pack, you have an idea of my original take on Iron Fist.

That said, having this book plopped on my lap and seeing Brubaker on the cover was enough to kick me into intensive reading mode. I’d been pleasantly surprised a number of times by him, and by my friend’s choices, and this book was no different. Stories like this challenge my taste in genres and let me get to know other character types than ones I might gravitate towards. It really makes reading comics exciting, this sort of exploration, so I recommend taking a leap and seeing where you find yourself next time you’re in the trade section of your comic store.

Iron Fist starts off in a personal fight with the forces of Hydra, that secret organization of evil minions whose purpose is total world domination, total world destruction, or preferably a little of both. Think Specter from the Bond films, but a rabid doomsday cult. Hydra minions are attempting to kill the hero, and their front companies are trying to buy out his personal assets in the form of the massive corporation his dead father left to him. (Yes, he’s a crime fighter who uses his fists against criminals and villains, and he’s fabulously rich, which we’ve seen before; which is more viable for a hero who spends little time working a day job and more time training for kung fu crime fighting, than one who doesn’t; which Brubaker didn’t make up, it was in previous stories; so we forgive and allow it to be a good premise for a good story, which it actually does.)

We discover, however, not only that Iron Fist’s power is being tapped into by someone else in New York, draining him, but that this person is another Iron Fist. The book begins with a flashback to an older version of Iron Fist in ancient China, and we see other short examples of different Iron Fists throughout history. So, with Hydra tracking him down, led by an old foe, Iron Fist meets up with his predecessor and discovers more and more about his powers and his past. This leads us through an explosive series of encounters, an exciting climax, and setting up certain events for the next phase of the series.

The whole story has a feeling like Brubaker is setting up an ongoing series. In this case, I think Iron Fist is Marvel’s attempt to create a martial arts title, but in the vein of old Blacksploitation movies. His best friend is Luke Cage, another street-level hero, and his old girlfriend is a straight-talking Foxy Cleopatra-type, complete with afro. Iron Fist (despite being around for years) learns of the full potential of his powers from an old master, fights a whole pile of minions, some weird mystical stork ladies, and a few more kung fu tropes thrown in there for good measure. This then picks up and leaves us not so much at the end of this story, but rather the conclusion with a bridge to the next one. While I would have liked it better if I’d had a copy of the next book handy at the end of this one, for what it is Brubaker does a good job: he gives only what he needs to create a franchise and tell a story without crowding the quality of each page. Somehow I get to enjoy the human moments of the story while still revelling in the ninjas-vs-secret agents-vs-kung fu action.

This in the gritty streetlight of the Brubaker/Bendis-crafted Marvel grime-and-crime genre, which means they took all the tropes and filled them with characters who think and feel like real people. The art is as naturalistic as it’s possible to be with characters who leap across rooftops and have magic kung fu, to emphasize the realism of everything that’s going on. Stories include things like hostile takeovers and lawsuits in modern comics, which is a great challenge to throw at rich characters like Batman, Iron Man or Iron Fist, if only to break the illusion that lots of money makes a person invulnerable. This is great, because when a character runs into something over the top, like a magic book of secrets, it has even more gravitas because of the contrast with the still-exciting-and-believable mundane challenges. It’s the kind of story Marvel has been telling for a few years now, and I’m still a big fan of the style.

I think it’s a success, and I’ll give it a solid 3.9 out of 5 on my scale, which includes classics like Watchmen as a comparison: it made me like a character I normally wouldn’t have gone near; it made me want to get the next in the story; it was entertaining. I genuinely mean that last part, so if you are looking for something new, pick it up. Heck, if you just love martial arts, or spies, or good writing, it’s a good book. It’s a fantastic example of what a regular run comic should be.