Broken Frontier

Danny Rand has just learned no Iron Fist has ever lived past their 33rd birthday… and guess which birthday he’s celebrating?

One creative team leaves and another step up to the plate. Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker depart from the scripting duties on this title and Duane Swierczynski comes in. Such changes can sometimes be jarring and involve sudden changes in tone, style and direction. So will fans of the recent Iron Fist team be pleased?

Danny Rand has a lot on his plate. He is transforming his company into a charity foundation, supporting a team of outlaw superheroes, pondering his relationship with his on-again-off-again girlfriend and wondering why every single person who has carried the Iron Fist legacy has died at 33… Happy birthday to him. In between all of this thinking, Danny is doing some thug beating and unwittingly bumping into the man sent to kill him… or is this really a man? Woven throughout is the story of Iron Fist Kwai Jun-Fan in 1878 Texas… when he turned 33.

This has all been a rather pleasant surprise. Swierczynski slides into place without even a ripple. Not only does he pick up where Fraction and Brubaker left off, he seamlessly continues their pulp style mixed with Kung Fu mysticism. It is really nice to see that he also keeps up the tradition of telling stories of past Iron Fists in the course of the main story as well. Aside from all of that, this is a solid outing with a juicy hook of a mystery as readers are left wondering about the person who has come to kill Danny.

Perhaps the weakest link in this new creative chain is Travel Foreman. His style overall is very good and he has a terrific ability with settings and facial expressions but in some of the fight scenes his work becomes muddied and looks as though it has been over inked. The result is something that is hard to follow and loses momentum. Russ Heath, on the other hand, who takes the art duties on the flashback pages to Iron Fist Kwai Jun-Fan, has a wonderfully clean look and his fight scenes flow well from panel to panel with a sense of inexorable momentum.

The bottom line, though, is that fans of this latest series can breathe a sigh of relief. Swierczynski continues the tradition of balancing interpersonal drama with Kung Fu butt-kicking while throwing in some good, old fashioned, pulp mystical mumbo-jumbo. If this keeps up there should be smooth sailing ahead for The Immortal Iron Fist.