Danny Rand has seen better days.
Is it any surprise that Marvel has a new Iron Fist comic ready to go mere days after the character made his Netflix debut? Clearly, the new Iron Fist comic is meant to appeal to fans of the Netflix series as much as any other target audience. Unfortunately, that show consistently struggled to do justice to the source material, so there's not much to be gained from the transition to a darker, moodier Danny Rand in the comics.
Building on developments from Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, this new series sees Danny mourning the destruction of K'un L'un and his general failure as Iron Fist. He;'s now reduced to travelling the globe, participating in underground fight clubs and drowning his sorrows in alcohol. But as usually the case when martial artist heroes go walkabout, an opportunity for Danny to regain his lost honor eventually presents itself.
That's pretty much the whole plot of this first issue, which reads more like a prologue to the real Iron Fist comic to come. Writer Ed Brisson executes his story well enough. The dialogue and narration flow easily, and the issue has no trouble welcoming readers into Danny's increasingly murky world. But there's a strong sense of familiarity clinging to this issue, and not enough story to really give the series a strong hook yet.
Iron Fist's worst flaw is that it feels flavorless. There's little to distinguish the new book, especially with so many traditional Iron Fist elements toned down. Danny doesn't wear the costume. He barely even has access to his powers any longer. His familiar supporting cast is gone. At some point, there's precious little left to even justify the Iron Fist name. A few tweaks here and there, and this could just as easily be a comic about a completely new, down-in-his-luck martial artist hero. Compared to David F. Walker's Power Man and Iron Fist, which treats Danny like Luke's hyperactive kid brother, this is a complete 180 in tone. And the book suffers as a result.
Whether a grittier approach is really justified, it can't be said that Mike Perkins' art style doesn't mesh with it. Perkins brings a shadowy, brutal feel to this issue. While there's a surprising lack of color for an Iron Fist comic (clearly an intentional choice on the part of colorist Andy Troy), Perkins is very much at home in the world of dank, seedy bars and underground fight clubs. The reader can feel the weight of every punch and the crack of every broken bone.
Admittedly, color does creep back into the book in the final page, suggesting that Perkins, Troy and Brisson are plenty capable of weaving a more traditional Iron Fist tale. The only question is whether that's their goal. If this series is going to succeed, it needs to quickly shift away from the grounded, gritty approach and back towards those elements that make Danny Rand special in the first place.
The Verdict
Danny Rand can't seem to catch a break lately. This first issue is competently executed, but it pushes Iron Fist in a very generic and uninteresting direction. The lack of humor and the decision to downplay so many of the traditional trappings of the franchise only serve to dull the appeal of Iron Fist in the first place. Hopefully this issue isn't a sign of what to expect from the series as a whole.
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