The rain is falling hard in Iron Fist #1 and Danny Rand is seeking answers to his life. The chi force of K’un-Lun which Rand draws his powers from to be Iron Fist is fading. K’un-Lun has been destroyed, and Marvel’s kung fu fighter is feeling empty. If he can’t be Iron Fist than who is he?
Setting out on a meandering path that takes him from Bulgaria to Vietnam, Rand is constantly fighting nameless thugs, that don’t challenge him in anyway. After settling down to a bottle of whiskey in a nameless Vietnamese bar, a stranger named Choshin from Liu-Shi offers the down on his luck Rand an opportunity that might help him find the answers he is seeking.
Rand accepts, and the start of this new Marvel series has begun.
My Opinion
Another down on his luck super hero that has lost his mojo. Well, Danny Rand hasn’t lost his mojo, he can still beat the crap out of anyone, and barely break a sweat. I knew very little about Iron Fist before reading this comic, and this version of the kung fu fighter by writer Ed Brisson has me curious about what is to come.
I enjoyed the fact that even though this is the beginning of a series, there wasn’t a wide variety of location changes. Rather than showing an epic journey for Rand, we focus more on his emotions, and see what lurks in his mind. We don’t even know the real facts behind the loss of his connection to the chi of K’un-Lun, but we do know that perhaps the greatest enemy to Danny Rand, is his own doubt.
This book proves that he can still fight better than anyone, and even when he is confronted by Choshin in the bar, Choshin admits that Rand will defeat him and ends their battle. So this left me to wonder if Danny has actually lost his connection to the chi of K’un-Lun.
The doubt from Danny’s mind is amplified by artists Mike Perkins and Andy Troy. They bring the grey and murky emotions of the conflicted mind into the panels and surround Rand with a lot of dark grey and black colors. There always seems to be a hint of grey melancholy in the visuals. As Danny’s outlook changes, so does the color scheme. The chance for answers have changed the grey to bright orange. Perhaps there is a light at the end of this tunnel Rand finds himself in.
I have my doubts about the true value that Choshin offers to Danny. How many times has the mysterious stranger who has shown up at the bar you are drinking in, turned out to be a bad guy? Comics are rife with this pedigree.
For a comic that focuses on a kung fu master, there wasn’t much fighting in the book. I hope in future books, Iron Fist can show his true powers, and fight people of an equal caliber. From the first image, you knew that Rand wasn’t going to be beaten up in some abandoned warehouse in Eastern Europe.
So why would Danny Rand, Iron Fist, get on a boat with a stranger to sail to a land he knows nothing about? Simple. He wants answers and when you have nothing to lose, you’re willing to do anything to find them. The boat is a life line out of uncertainty. I want to find the answers too and see what happens to Iron Fist.