Iron Fist: The Living Weapon Appreciation

[taozen]

I know that this book has been controversial. Most post are split in the love/hate polls. I am glad Danny is being used and that we have something to talk about. To me the redemption arc story will be essential in judging this story. I am glad that we fans have something to talk, write and even complain about. I am still waiting to see Danny written as a top tier fighter in the Marvel Universe. He has lost more top matches recently than he has won. I want to read the Danny hold back the storm and move away from the self pitying angsty teenager.

[Of Atlantis]

Agreed. It feels like a while since the Iron Fist Appreciation thread has had something to talk about.

[kacangpool]

kaare posted this and generated an interesting discussion on his page:

"Brought this up on twitter-- but had a kid walk up to me at a convention recently with a sad face and ask, "why are only millionaires superheroes?". And I still kick myself that I didn't have an answer for him. I was still setting up and by the time I turned back to him, he was already gone. I was embarrassed for my medium.

And that is a huge problem right now. The Superman immigrant mythos is dead. Replaced with Tony Stark entitlement. The Heroes Journey has become billionaires realizing they deserve it-- not "every-men" finding a way to earn it. That is a huge problem right now and one I will be dealing with in Iron Fist: The Living Weapon.

What are these books/movies talking about in today's culture?

Maybe it's why I was so drawn to the darkness of Danny's origin. I can relate to the destruction of the family unit and an orphan boy pulled into a strange world, out of his depths and finding a way to survive-- succeed.

I can't relate to a billionaire driving a van around with soup for the homeless. Even if he's kind of funny. I just can't. It'd be like Taylor Swift showing up once a month to serve pie at a soup kitchen."

[Panic]

For starters, there are lots of heroes that aren't millionaires - the majority, in fact. If the millionaire super-heroes are becoming more popular, that would be down to the comic-buying public, I guess.

The next thing is: didn't Danny give away his money in the last IIF arc? Did he get it all back again since then, or has Kaare just been kind of skim-reading the previous series?

[DeShawnstantine]

The next thing is: didn't Danny give away his money in the last IIF arc? Did he get it all back again since then, or has Kaare just been kind of skim-reading the previous series?

He's been rebuilding his company from what I know.

[Moriarty]

Shu-Hu was always a weird part of the first issue. Personally, after IIF, I like to think it was something Orson Randall's dad built and left in K'un Lun.

The Iron Fist mythos have always been... a little confusing or contradictory in some aspects. For example:
- Wendell Rand was, as mentioned in the interview, sometimes referred as a native son of K'un-Lun, sometimes as an adopted one. There was never much clarity about where did he came from.
- By my count, Shou Lao has at least three different tales of its origins, one in an old Masters of Kung Fu Annual in which Shang Chi and Danny visit another city and meet Quan Star, a second in Power Man & Iron Fist during the Chiantang saga, and another one hinted during the Eight City arc, connecting the dragon to Changming.
- And the Chiantang story doesn't really fit well with Immortal Iron Fist.
- The numbers of times the city has been destroyed, and Yu-Ti's status concerning it.
- The relationship between the city and Master Khan.
- The legacy of Iron Fist is really a modern thing, from what I recall there was only one previous mention of other Iron Fists existing, in the two issue mini that also resurrected Davos for the first time.
- That mini also filled K'un Lun with monkeys that were supposed to be reincarnations of monks or something like that.
- Then there is the whole subject of the plant people, and Danny's half-sister.
- Which was brought back during Byrne's Namor run, which resurrected Iron Fist by creating a plant duplicate of Iron Fist. Byrne also cleared a bit of the Iron Fist cast, by killing off Master Khan & Ward Meachum.
- And the plant people reappeared in another Iron Fist miniseries, which also brought back Joy Meachum and some other weird aspects of Danny's past.
- During the Power Man & Iron Fist, we have the whole Red Iron Fist costume, supposedly a color of shame in K'un Lun, but in the Wolverine/IF miniseries, Yu-Ti is dressed in red. Oh, and the dragon kings actually turned into dragons in that story (?).
- And from that mini also, I think everyone decided to forgot about the whole "Little K'un Lun" left in our world (for the better).

i've always felt that the Iron Fist mythos were very inconsistent. it seemed like anytime Danny showed up there was some big event in his life that would contradict things.

[Eduardo]

For starters, there are lots of heroes that aren't millionaires - the majority, in fact. If the millionaire super-heroes are becoming more popular, that would be down to the comic-buying public, I guess.

The next thing is: didn't Danny give away his money in the last IIF arc? Did he get it all back again since then, or has Kaare just been kind of skim-reading the previous series?

It is kind of... nebulous?

In IIF 16, Danny decides to "gutting and shutting down Rand International", but says that dismantling it would take forever and that "multinational conglomerates are almost impossible to kill". Then he says he will turn Rand into the biggest non-profit organization ever, to give away "evey blood-soaked dime". He even says "I'll spend the rest of my life doing my best to die broke".

So Danny uses his fortune to fund non-profits (the soup wagon, the martial arts dojo), Luke Cage's Avengers (around that time) and the Immortal Weapons' research on the Eight City, and buy the old Heroes for Hire office.

And in IIF 17 (the first of Swierczynski's run), we see Rand still functioning, and funding dozens or more of charities.

So Danny is still rich, he just went non-profit and not earning new money for himself.

But in IIF 27, it shows that Rand Inc. went through hard times due to the Skrulls, the economy, and a Hydra cell attack, while Danny was away in the Eight City. So all the funding charities is gone, and Jeryn tells Danny that he still has money, a fraction of his former wealth, and Danny decides to put it into the dojo and sell his penthouse, and move to an apartment in Harlem with Misty.

In I am an Avenger 1, Danny is described as a millionarie, decides to sell the Harlem apartment, and get a place closer to the Avengers' mansion.

In the Shadowland:Power Man and the Power Man & Iron Fist miniseries, a Rand Foundation appears, which employs the new Power Man.

So Danny is rich, but not "mega rich" as before.

Oh, and in Defenders 1 (the series that retconned itself later) Rand has been working on developing a plane for private space flight valued in a billion dollars.

[Of Atlantis]

Cover to New Invaders #12 featuring...

ORSON RANDALL
iron.jpg

[Torpedo]

Cover to New Invaders #12 featuring...

ORSON RANDALL
iron.jpg

Thank you for posting this. I'm a huge First World War buff. This may be the first appearance of Freedom's Five (the First World War era heroes) in nearly 40 years! While the original Union Jack (Lord Montgomery Falsworth), Orson Randall, and the Phantom Eagle have been included in a handful of stories, I don't believe Sir Steel has been seen in anything other than that flashback sequence in Invaders #7 (1976) and an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry.

What a fantastic cover. I'm going to buy this issue. When does it go on sale?

[Of Atlantis]

What a fantastic cover. I'm going to buy this issue. When does it go on sale?

#8 is out today. So assuming they don't start double shipping... November

[Eduardo]

So, the full cover for The Living Weapon 5 (spoilers for issue 4):

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/...13c/detail.jpg

OUCH

[taozen]

So, the full cover for The Living Weapon 5 (spoilers for issue 4):

http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/...13c/detail.jpg

OUCH

Danny is suppose to be able to heal himself but the question is can he since his chi source is disrupted.

[Of Atlantis]

Danny is suppose to be able to heal himself but the question is can he since his chi source is disrupted.

My first thought is that someone else may heal him, but Andrews mentioned this would be mostly an Iron Fist centric story which leads me to believe he will, after much pain and struggle, pull himself together.

[taozen]

Iron Fist #5 preview is up. I find the flashback material about Danny the most interesting part of Andrews story so far. Here it is:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...eview&id=22837

[Eduardo]

Well, I think issue 5 is going gives quite a few things to talk about:

spoilers:

- Someone is fixing Rand Inc. Tower - As suspected, and hinted in issue 4, there is way more about Brenda than being a simple reporter. - For this issue, Andrews really goes back to the first appearence of Iron Fist, bringing back the additional tests shown in Marvel Premiere 15 & 16 (and reprinted and recolored in IIF : The Origin of Danny Rand) - Yes, the Shou-Lao's egg was in Pei's backpack, as I suspected. - We mentioned a couple of pages back Shu-Hu, the weird Lightning robot, who would have guessed... - Is that Harold Meachum along with the Thunderer and Wendell Rand? - Andrews adds a retcon, of a really short lived failed Iron Fist aspirant between Orson and Danny, who never got to pass all the challenges, so basically he never got to be the IRON FIST officially. For reference, Marvel Premiere 15 & 16 shows us the following challenges Danny faced: - During his training with Lei Kung, when he turned 16, he faced the challenge of Fu-Hsi, the King of Vipers, and managed to steal his crown (later we would see that Davos also managed to do this) - After defeating every other contestant, he wins the right to face Shou-Lao the Undying and gain the Iron Fist. - After that, he faces the Challenge of the Many, in which he faces at least 4 other people (in this issue we see quite a few more) - And after that, the Challenge of the One, in which he faces Shu-Hu, the Lightning. - After passing all these tests, he gains the right to eat the fruit of the Tree of Immortality and become immortal, or go back to Earth when the alignment with it happens.

end of spoilers

So I recommend a reading of Immortal Iron Fist: The Origin of Danny Rand to complement this issue.