BLOG: Iron Fist 50th Anniversary Special

I don’t usually write about comics here, aside from mentioning them in my reviews of action figures or LEGO sets where relevant. In the last few days however I actually read a comic on week of release and I feel the need to write down my thoughts.

Most people who follow me here or on Instagram will probably know that I have a particular affinity for Marvel’s Iron Fist.  

This week Marvel released a special comic to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Iron Fists first appearance (Marvel Premier #15 in 1974). I do not usually buy single issues of comics, I prefer to buy collected editions where I can read a full story (and find out whether a creative team actually got to finish their story!). But since Iron Fist has not had a series for a while and with this being a one shot I decided I would have to pick it up to get my Iron Fist fix. I sat down to read it on my lunch break yesterday with great anticipation, it was not the celebratory experience I was expecting. Let me explain.

 ***SPOILERS FOR IRON FIST 50TH ANNIVERSARY***

This issue is made up of several different stories of different lengths by different creative teams set at different points in the history of Danny Rand’s Iron Fist, that’s a fairly standard approach for an anniversary one shot like this.

For the most part this was quite enjoyable if fairly inconsequential, except for one very big exception and I’m going to talk about that first. ***FINAL SPOILER WARNING*** In the final panel of “Happy Birthday, Danny”, our hero, Danny Rand, is killed at the end of an 8 page story. 8 pages. EIGHT PAGES! Just 8 pages to set up a scene, tell a story, re-introduce a villain and kill the main character.

This section is by Jason Loo, Whilce Portacio, and Alex Sinclair (Writer, Artist Colourist respectively). I was enjoying this tale as it progressed, the art, while not my favourite style, was good quality and the writing of characters Danny, Luke & Jeryn felt right. I enjoyed the idea of the return of a villain from the end of Matt Fraction/Ed Brubaker/David Aja run.  But the brevity of the story robbed it of depth, meaning and emotional resonance.  The impact of the death hit me all wrong, it felt cheap and unearned rather than sad or devastating in a way a good character death might.

Am I partly just annoyed that they killed Danny Rand to (I assume) focus on the other new iron Fists? Maybe that is part of it, but I’ve been reading comics long enough to know nobody stays dead for long (I’ll come back to that shortly), so its not his death that bothers me it’s the lightweight execution of something that should feel much more significant.

But… SURPRISE! There is one more page of the story that doesn’t appear in this comic. Instead of printing that one page in the comic Marvel printed a black page with a QR code on it. This appears to be a new gimmick but it’s the first time I’ve seen it (I only buy collected editions remember), the QR code takes you to an exclusive “bonus scene” on the Marvel website. That’s right, the end of the story, a single epilogue page is hosted on a Marvel website. will that page still be available in 2 years if I go back and read this, who knows!

So, a single printed story page replaced by a single page with a QR code, must be a pretty unimportant, throwaway scene right? No. It’s a glowing hand bursting from the grave of Danny Rand a few months after his death. Told you nobody in comics stays dead forever, this death didn’t even last for 1 page. Maybe.

It’s not clear exactly what is emerging from the grave, the hand appears blue and skeletal, is this some sort of evil/zombie/spirit version of Danny, I don’t know, there is no clue given as to where this will be picked up in future stories.

Cheap death, cheap gimmick, cheap resurrection.

OK, but that’s just 8 (or 9 sigh) pages, what of the rest of the issue?

Four More Stories

It’s nice to see Chris Claremont return to the character with a story set during his original run, (with art from Lan Medina, and colours from Israel Silva) showing Danny training to fight Sabertooth again. The character art is nice but the backgrounds lack detail. These stories by nature, having to slot in between existing 50 year old issues, can feel a bit lacking, but it is a decent read for what it is. It also features Wolverine, because Marvel.

“Iron Fisiticuffs” featuring the current Iron Fist Lin Lie and Danny’s young apprentice Pei was the story I enjoyed the most, surprisingly. Of all the included tales the art in this one is my favourite and its also the best story. Von Randal does a good job of depicting an all out action story and the colours by Aif Prianto really help the scenes pop.

It seems to set the current status quo of these two iron Fists and develops their relationship a little. I wasn’t a big fan of Lin Lie’s debut Iron Fist miniseries and I’ve also not totally bought into the stories that introduced Pei (by Kaare Andrews). However, in this issue I liked the dynamic between Pei & Lie as written by Alyssa Wong. All 8 pages are taken by a fun fight against Spidey villain Shocker and its an entertaining encounter. I would definitely be interested in reading more of these two characters by these creators if that’s where Iron Fist comics are going.

Then we have a fun, lighthearted story written by Justina Ireland & featuring Misty Knight and Colleen Wing assisting Danny with a special mission. Namely helping out with some kids in the local community. The art here, by Elena Casagrande (artist) and Espen Grundetjern (colours) is more cartoonish and maybe a little anime flavoured which suits the vibe of the story. Its only 5 pages but they are enjoyable ones

Finally we get a one page story by Frank Tieri (writer), Ty Templeton (artist) & Dee Cuniffe (colours). This is a very simple scene in the early days of the Heroes for hire, its got a good retro vibe and and is fairly amusing, definitely a nice inclusion.

Final Thoughts

I’m always really happy to get more Iron Fist so I will take what I can get & there was a lot to like in this issue. However, the handling of the death of Danny really left a sour taste in my mouth and the QR code element really added to my annoyance around the whole situation. In fact I almost missed it. The QR code appears between two full page adverts and I just assumed it was just some other ad, It was only after reading about it on Reddit that I went back and scanned the code and found the bonus page.

Maybe if I was more plugged in to the current state of of the Marvel Comics universe then I would better understand what was happening here with the resurrection but as it stands, I am not and have no idea. Is this a teaser for some upcoming event comic, another Iron Fist series, no clue. While I liked the idea of the returning Ch’I-L’in and I understand that Danny is not at the peak of his powers and maybe even a little intoxicated I still think having him defeated so easily felt really cheap and underdeveloped. 

So, for what should have been an issue acting as a celebration of Iron Fist and Danny Rand I was let instead feeling confused and a bit angry by what unfolded here. Hopefully some of these creators get to pick this up and flesh it out more fully in some upcoming series. If not I’ll always have my beloved immortal Iron Fist comics to re-read!