Hold on. Hold on. I’m not done being excited about the headline I just typed. Give me a minute. Hold on. Gonna need you to hold up for just a bit there. Hold… keep holding… keeeeep holding…. OK.
Announced at Hero Complex, it appears that Marvel is going to continue its trend of having us throw money at it furiously with an all new Iron Fist ongoing series. Written and illustrated by Kaare Andrews, the book is titled “Iron Fist: the Living Weapon,” and will find Rand’s past catching up with him as he returns to K’un L’un and his origin story is called into question.
Citing Steranko’s “Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD” as an influence as well as Enter the Dragon and Duel to the Death, Andrews describes Danny Rand as “the guy who traded life for death” and notes that the original Bruce Lee-inspired character created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane is a big focal point of where this series comes from.
What excites me about it, though, is that when the Netflix Iron Fist series is brought up, Andrews responds by noting that his book could not be done on a television budget, instead comparing it to a feature film. This is Andrews’ big return to comics after leaving to make a Cabin Fever sequel (seriously), so he makes note that he’s bringing some of his filmmaking sensibilities back with him to the page, which should be an interesting evolution to Andrews’ already impressive art.
And if you’re not convinced about why you need to be excited about this book, take a look at some art:
Yeah. I know. I know.
Most fans will fondly remember the Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker and Dave Aja run of “Iron Fist” that defined Danny Rand for a brand new generation and became one of Marvel’s most popular books, something that is constantly rediscovered by new waves of comic readers. While it sounds like Andrews will explore some of what Fraction, Brubaker and Aja already did (in terms of the origin of the Iron Fist), seeing the preview pages is enough to convince me that this character and series are in great hands.
The book is set to debut in April. Between March’s launch of “Moon Knight” and this, I don’t know which month is better.
