The Immortal Iron Fist # 1By: Ken
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 [Almost Perfect]
Writer: Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Artist: David Aja
Artists on pp 1 to 3: Travel Foreman & Derek Fridolfs
Publisher: Marvel Comics
First off, there are 48 pages total to this comic book. For a cover price of $ 2.99 that is a pretty good price for a comic book. Unfortunately, 24 pages are commercials and dispersed throughout, which cuts in to the reading experience of the audience, as sometimes the commercial pages distract the reader. It's like watching a quality movie on the television network, and because of a higher number of viewing audience is anticipated, there will be more commercials than usual. It gets annoying. It would help if the commercials were just bundled up together and placed together as 24 pages at the second half of the comic book.
The first three pages shows the legacy of The Iron Fist. In the K'un-Lun Mountain Range of 1227 AD, Bei Ming-Tan, The Iron Fist walks past several rice planters through a rice paddy. His right hand moving back-and-forth so fast like the wings of a bee. As far as the eyes can see, a horde of the Khan's horsemen are approaching with swords drawn. As he reached the dry grounds surrounded by short grass, he raises his arms in a stance. He is The Iron Fist. He stands before the unstoppable hordes and holds them back. That is what he does. It is what he has always done.
The art on the first three pages gets the legacy down just right. As the upper half of the face of the Iron Fist is covered, the bottom half is seen. You can see Bei Ming-Tan serious with no smile, perhaps understanding the gravity of the situation. But the last panel, he is smiling as his fist glows and his chest is shown with the Dragon Tatoo. This last panel on page 3 shows that The Iron Fist is very confident as if he knows he cannot be defeated.
There is a good transition brought by page 4 and 5 showing a Splash Page that brings the reader to the current timeline showing the story as it is unfolding. Daniel Rand, the modern day Iron Fist is attacking a group of Hydra agents in what looks like on rooftops. The art goes from a sunset to dark night. The dark mood is prevalent from here until the last page. David Aja captures the darker feeling of the story. You can tell the gravity of the situation on the Splash pages as it is raining and the automatic weapons of the Hydra agents are shooting off. The Hydra agents blending with the night and their eyes are an apparent night vision goggles attached to their masks bring a menacing presence in them. The Iron Fist attacks the danger. He holds back the storm, when nothing else can.
There are two simultaneous stories happening in the next two pages (6 & 7). The first is the continued assault of Danny Rand against the Hydra agents in the 8 panels above in horizontal order. Then in larger panels below those 8 small panels above is an unfloding origin story. A family hike turns tragic as Daniel Rand's father slips and falls from a cliff off the side of the K'un-Lun Mountains. Then a wolfpack hunted him along with his mother. The wolves' hunger are satisfied by his mother. Daniel Rand saved by his mother ends up in the footsteps of the mystical City of K'un-Lun. After fighting for the honor of facing certain death, Daniel Rand, standing in the caves of Shou-Lao the Undying was the champion of K'un-Lun. He plunged his hands in the molten heart of the dragon. Thus securing The Iron Fist Legacy.
Back in the story The Iron Fist disposes of this group of Hydra agents. However, he is unaware of another group of Hydra agents approaching from behind. In many ways, he is still the same careless and impatient boy that his parents left behind. The next thing you know is that other group of Hydra agents are falling off the roof top on a rainy night. And in the background you can see Rand Industries, the building owned by Daniel Rand, The Iron Fist of 2006.
The story then moves on to a conference meeting at Rand Industries. This was earlier in the day before the battle with the Hydra agents. Jeryn Hogarth runs the company owned by Daniel Rand. They are in a meeting with a corporate executive from Wai-Go Industries from the People's Republic of China, who is offering 10.6 billion U.S. Dollars for a 2,500 kilometers of Rand Track type II halbach array lines stretching from Beijing to Hong Kong and back, along with 10 Randrapid Trains which are capable of speeds over 580 kilometers per hour. Rand Industries will be handing over this technology to the People's Republic of China's national Maglev Transportation Technology research center. All it will need to make it official is Daniel Rand's autograph on the appropriate line. All men are jovial and in a good mood, as if a bird just had finished eating the juciest worm. All but one. Daniel Rand, who throughout the meeting had one hand in his chin covering his mouth, as if in deep thought through the whole meeting.
Daniel uttered no deal to the representative of Wai-Go Industries, citing he cannot just hand over this technology to the People's Republic of China who has a long record of commiting atrocities. Daniel Rand said it perfectly, "I'm not so poor tht I don't care about China's human rights record." The CEO of Rand Industries was utterly surprised and aghast. The representative of Wai-Go Industries comments on the lovely office and leaves accompanied by his bodyguards all in dark suits and dark tinted glasses. Danny loosens his tie, and was immediately smacked in the back of his head by Jeryn, the CEO. Jeryn mouths off that he spent three and a half years of his life on this deal, only for Danny to throw it away because Danny thinks their business associates were bad guys. Either he lets Jeryn fix things with Wai-Go Industries or he is gone. Jeryn Hogarth who everseas Rand Corporation's day-to-day business thinks Danny is throwing away his company's future.
Later that evening, The Iron Fist breaks through Wai-Go's security, looking for evidence inside their office to prove they are bad guys indeed. What he finds are rows upon rows of desks and chairs perfectly manicured. Productivity. Perhaps. But it all fels false to The Iron Fist who is dripping wet from the rain outside. Upon closer inspection The Iron Fist realizes all the desks are new. There are no paperwork or any semblance that anyone has been working in the office. The desk cabinets are empty and the purchase tags are still attached inside the file cabinets. He sees Wai-Go Industries painted on the side of a wall. What does that mean ? The Iron Fist realizes the answer. He is surrounded by hordes of Hydra agents in full uniform and arms. He wasn't expecting that. You suddenly have weapons blazing and the bullets smash the windows and The Iron Fist curled like a ball smashes out through the window. The legions of Hydra agents chasing The Iron Fist from rooftop to rooftop.
The Mechagorgon is summoned by one of the Hydra agents. It is a metallic ruby-eyed bug with six legs ending in a razor sharp scythe. And you see the images of The Iron Fist's friends, Luke Cage, Colleen Wing, and Misty Knight. Misty of course is his one time lover. One of the scythes slash The Iron Fist's thighs and blood spurts out. One strike from The Iron Fist's right hand obliterates the leg that inflicted the wound. Anotehr scythe slashes his side. Then two more simultaneous slashes in the back and The Iron Fist is down with blood all over mixing with the rain. The monstrous Mechagorgon looming menacingly a few feet in front of him sensing the kill. Sensing death is imminent The Iron Fist gets slashed one more time and falls over the side of the building to his apparent demise.
The story shifts to another part of the world. We see a man in Bangkok, Thailand. A man leaves a sort of opium den in a slum area a few hours before dawn. A woman asks the caretaker of the opium den if it's him. And the caretaker confirmed yes. The woman goes back to the alley and talks to the man waiting for her that it is the man they were looking for. The man grabs her face and doesn't take the word from drug peddlers. The woman advised him that she will confirm herself. After she leaves, the man agonizes in pain and holds his head with both hands. He hears voices along with the pain. The voices come from far away using a medium to talk and send pain to the man in pain, who is called Davos. Meanwhile at a hall of an apartment two women knock on the door. It is the woman talking to the drug peddler earlier along with another acquaintance. And the man still high from all the drugs earlier stumbles drunkenly towards the door to open. He opens the door and was met with a slash from a sword which cut through his shirt but not far enough to reach his flesh. The woman takes another swipe with her sword which meets the man's fist. Her sword shatters. He hits the sword of the other woman. It breaks in half as well. Both women simultaneously say, "It is he." They found who they were looking for. He asks them who sent them. Their dresses fall to the floor. The two women suddenly disappeared and turned to swans. They both fly out the window into the incoming dawn.
The man in a look of total disbelief has his hands on his side with a Dragon Tatoo on his chest similar to that of the Iron Fist. He says, "This isn't supposed to be my life anymore, it was supposed to be over. He is Orson Randall. The Iron Fist of 1915. He was last seen in 1933. … to be continued.
David Aja's art puts you in a dark mood. You can sense from his art that there is something bad is going to happen. It conveys a foreboding doom. At the same time he captures the little funny moments of Daniel Rand's look on his face when he realizes there is something wrong. He captures the quirky look just riht. It adds a little comedy to cut through the seriousness of the story. It's that little comedy relief that gives the reader a little mixture to add to dark experience. It makes it interesting like a surprise gift.
Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction captures the essence of The Iron Fist. There's overwhelming sense of doom but the character holds his ground. At the same time, they are exploring the Iron Fist legacy, which dates back to the middle ages in ancient China. And they leave your mouths watering with the ending that there is another Iron Fist alive in modern times. They capture the scenery nicely. And their transition is almost flawless. The interior monologue of Daniel Rand is great. It shows that here is a man with billions of dollars and at the same time can still grasp the concept of justice. And even if he is a superhero, he has flaws. And in some ways, he almost wishes that this Iron Fist legacy was not passed on to him. And that perhaps, his father should have inherited it. I am looking forward to reading Issue number 2 of this outstanding story.
