Tiger Style
October 18, 2007Marvel Comics is a solid company. They’ve got their assets in a lot of different markets, and love to push their big name products; the X-men (and by extension, Wolverine), Spider-Man, and now they’re moving on to the Avengers.
What Marvel fails to do sometimes is give their lesser-known characters the spotlight that they deserve. I’ve been reading what I think is one of their best series lately, The Immortal Iron Fist, and have been impressed with its amazing art, storyline, and refreshment of a character that is easily lost to the kung-fu stereotype: Danny Rand, the Iron Fist.
I’m not going to go into the history of the character, but in case you don’t know who I’m talking about, I’ll give you a picture.
Basically the Iron Fist possesses all the powers of a martial arts badass. His glowing hands are based on his “chi”, which allow him enormous striking power. He also has the whole Bruce Wayne thing going on, with the vast fortune of Danny Rand, his alter ego.
But that’s not what makes the series so awesome. It’s things like the art style, the animation during fight scenes (multiple afterimages and such), as well as the expansion of the Iron Fist mythos. The latter lets us delve into the legions of asskickers that came before Danny, and how the influenced their time. It’s good stuff.
Really, Iron Fist is probably the only Marvel series I’m going out of my way to read at this time, and if you’re looking for a departure from the standard superhero fare, this book’s for you.
