The Keeper isn’t ashamed to admit he is very excited about this particular announcement from Wizard World, received via Newsarama:
Luke Cage has been back forever, man - when’s his old partner, Danny Rand (aka Iron Fist) gonna get the love?
As Daredevil writer Ed Brubaker reported last week when we talked to him about just who’s been the fake Daredevil in the series, given that Matt Murdock is in jail, the Iron Fist love (and yes, we know that in some circles, that sounds very wrong) begins in November with a new, ongoing series starring Marvel’s Kung Fu hero, The Immortal Iron Fist.
As Brubaker explained, Iron Fist was always in his future at Marvel, things just got pushed a little faster than was initially anticipated.
“It was always on the back-burner, but with the huge buzz Iron Fist got from the recent Daredevil arc, suddenly a back-burner plan got pushed to the front, so we can strike while the iron fist is hot, as it were,” Brubaker said. “But from my first months at Marvel, I’ve pretty much tried to claim dibs on Iron Fist. I can clearly remember Joe Q. laughing at me wanting to do Iron Fist when they were offering me Deadly Genesis. He’s just always been a favorite, and I’ve always wanted to give him a shot in a new series.”
Ask Brubaker what the appeal of the character is for him, and his eyes go all glassy and the normally quick-with-a-word writer gets all quiet and zen-y.
“It’s hard to nail it down. Of course, I loved that he was a Kung Fu superhero when I was a kid, but looking deeper at him, I really like that he’s this out of place character. He’s in this violent modern crowded city, and yet he grew up in K’un Lun, the Shiangra-La of Kung Fu. This peaceful magical city in the mountains, lost to time and Earth, where he was the star. He was the one to face down the dragon and become the Iron Fist. But once he leaves and goes down the world, no one realizes exactly how special he is, or how important being an Iron Fist is, what the legacy means.
“He’s a cool character, he just is.”
Of course, as Brubaker himself announced, he won’t be handling The Immortal Iron Fist himself - Matt (Casanova, Five Fists of Science, Punisher War Journal) Fraction will be joining Brubaker as co-writer on the ongoing series.
“This is about me having my cake, basically,” Brubaker said when asked why he opted for a co-writer on the series. “With my workload, between Cap, DD, Uncanny X-Men and Criminal, I just couldn’t find a way to do this book, much as I wanted to. So the idea came up of co-writing it with someone, so it wouldn’t take too much of my time each month, and that way I could make it work, and still oversee it all in an obsessive way. As for Fraction, I’ve known Matt’s work for a few years now, and think he’s one of the more developed and unique voices coming out of the indies, so when he got the Punisher War Journal gig, and I knew he was in with the Marvel Knights office, I pushed to have him as my co-writer. I think Matt is going to be a really big name in not too long, and his ideas are infectious, as anyone who reads Casanova should know.”
Fraction’s version jibes with Brubaker’s.
“Ed asked; I came running,” Fraction said. “He’d wanted to spin the character out of Daredevil and came up with this idea that he ran by me. We started spitballing and there was suddenly an Iron Fist book we were dying to write. He’s such a great character that, so far, we’ve been able to fold in every idea we’ve had, every story we want to tell.
“For me, I love the legacy, and I love Kung Fu style action. I love the character’s kinda-sleazy exploitation roots. I love the strange air of K”un L’un and the Daughters of the Dragon, Luke and everything else about Danny’s character in the modern world.
“And it’s the best tattoo in comics.”
So who is Danny Rand/Iron Fist these days? Perennially, he’s one of the more well-adjusted guys in the Marvel Universe - in a stable relationship, rich, looking to help people, and generally, a nice, good guy. Both Fraction and Brubaker were quick to say they weren’t about angst-ing the character up.
“No, god no, that’s who Danny is, that’s Danny’s soul!” Fraction said. “He’s a billionaire businessman and the scion of a martial arts dynasty that spans the ages and yet, when we open on him… he’s at some kind of crossroads and Danny knows it. After months masquerading as Daredevil and wading through Civil War, he’s re-evaluating what it means to be Iron Fist– so, when we open, Danny’s on a quest to reconnect with the icon and the legacy, to embrace the mantle and fall in love with his life again.”
Brubaker: “He’s just spent months dressed up as Daredevil and fighting in the Civil War, so he’s sort of at this crossroads. He’s back to being Iron Fist, and facing what that really means to him. He’s been doing this superhero work for a long time, but there’s more to being Iron Fist, and he knows it, so he’s stepping up to the plate. And what he doesn’t know, though, is that the legacy of the Iron Fist is crawling from history toward him. We never hear about the men who were Iron Fist before Danny, but in this new series, we’re going to explore that a bit, as to how it reflects on Danny in his modern fight in the New York streets. There’s a lot more to this book than anyone will be expecting.”
As self-confessed hopeless fans of the character, both Fraction and Brubaker are keenly aware of Iron Fist’s recent history - ever since his “resurrection” in Namor, The Sub-Mariner #22-#23 in 1991 takes on Iron Fist at Marvel have been a mixed bag…there’s the ever-present temptation, as mentioned above, to angst the character up, the possibility of focusing on the mystical, or just…well, writing the character and his cast like a bad - really bad 1970s Kung Fu movie as envisioned by say, an accountant.
So what’s crucial to including in The Immortal Iron Fist if this series is to survive and thrive?
“Danny Rand as a character,” Brubaker said. “I mean, yes, we’re going to have the best Kung Fu this side of a good Jet Li film, and we’re going to have mysteries and conspiracies and the odd mystical conspiracy mystery with ninjas and stuff, but at the heart, what needs to come through is who Danny Rand is, what he cares about, and how he’s carrying the weight of the Iron Fist legacy. What Matt and I are trying to find, and I hope succeeding at, is the balance between the mystical history elements, and the modern streets of NYC stuff. You can’t have every Iron Fist story be about K’un Lun, because it makes K’un Lun less special, less removed. You have to make it about Danny, and about what matters to him, not just his chi.”
Fraction: “I think the Awesome was missing, honestly. He’s one of those characters that, to me, has it all going for him: killer back story, awesome powers, cool milieu and great alter-ego… the genetic makeup of the character is all there, I think. I mean– rich single billionaire playboy infused with the power of ancient mystical kung fu ass-kickery and a street-level POV? What’s not to like? He’s the perfect comic book character.
“Also, I’ll tell you what else has been missing– David Aja. Ed and I are over the moon, working with this guy. The art is going to kick your face off.”
Going back for a second to K’un L’un, don’t expect a “Return (Yet Again, True Believers!) to K’un L’un” story form this team anytime soon. “K’un Lun is his history, his past,” Brubaker said. “It’s shown, and it’s reflected, but we’re not planning a vacation there anytime soon. Like I said, the more often K’un Lun is shown, the less special it is — I like its sort of Lost Horizon quality, and I’d like to keep it like that, this mysterious place you can’t get to.”
So what does get the ball rolling in the first arc?
“A lot,” Brubaker said. “Hydra, for one. Rand Corp. fighting off a hostile takeover. Iron Fist coming face to face with his own legend. And enemies from the past crawling out of the woodwork with plans of their own for our hero. This is going to be an action-packed epic, with tons of mystery and suspense holding it all together. And at the heart of it, some truly evil bad guys who want to use the Iron Fist for their own purposes.”
And if you need some Iron Fist goodness between now and issue #1? Both Brubaker and Fraction recommend you go out and pick up Essential Iron Fist. “That has the origin story, the story of his half-sister rebelling against the masters of K’un Lun, and the Steel Serpent storyline,” Brubaker said. “I dug Power Man and Iron Fist, but I always felt it was a very different book than Iron Fist was, so when I think about my favorite Iron Fist arcs, it’s those ones.”
“Yeah - Ed said it best Essential Iron Fist was one of the only books that was actually essential, and I’d have to agree,” Fraction said. “From there, you should dig up the old black and white Marvel Kung Fu mag Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, where Iron Fist popped up starting with #10.”
Fraction summed up both writers’ feelings about how long they’re planning to stick on the series, saying, “Long haul, baby. There’s a lot of fertile ground to cover with Iron Fist, and a lot of dudes that need to get kicked in the face.”
Brubaker and Fraction?
Danny Rand without angst?
Continuity drawn from the original Iron Fist series?
Dudes getting kicked in the face?
Seriously, this could be the greatest comeback ever.
