The new crop of titles Marvel is launching this month all have one thing in common so far: They remind me of how horrible Marvel was during the '90s, pushing out titles for characters who didn't need them and missing the point of their character library so badly that they made me, a longtime fan of those characters, forget how cool they could be. I'm glad that the new Iron Fist comic has the character in costume, that it's got some action instead of just lots of talky scenes and that it makes use of the classic Iron Fist catchphrase, cheesy as it might be. I'm disappointed, however, that the plot revolves around the hero being a pathetic failure, and very disappointed in the relentlessly bad dialogue and decision to use the clunky second-person narrative that has long been the most singular flaw of Spider-Girl as well.
I have to give credit to the creative team for including some action in the first issue. Although I find it somewhat ridiculous that Iron Fist would be threatened by a bunch of nameless goons, it's nice to see a superhero book that starts off with some action, and Lau and Tam do a solid enough job of the kung fu, even if it's not as wild and impressive as some of Lau's work on books like Xin: Legend of the Monkey King. In addition, Mullaney gets big points from me for using the "unto a thing of iron" catchphrase, which I consider essential if you're doing an Iron Fist book.
Beyond hitting a couple of fanboyish quirks in the right spots, though, the first issue of the Iron Fist comic is kind of bland. Mullaney's story plays around with cliches, from the mysterious threat in a different place to the disillusioned hero, and while it's hard to avoid duplicating plot these days, the least the writer can do is to make the repetition interesting. Sadly, just as the inclusion of action and the Iron Fist catchphrase tickles my fanboy funnybone in the right places, the central aspect of the plot rubs me the wrong way. Iron Fist starts a fight, and because of that, a young mother is killed and her child turned into an orphan. Is it a good motivation for the plot direction? Sure. But it's yet another instance of the hero being made to look ineffective and weak, and that's not the best way to start off a series that will focus on that hero.
Leaving aside that specific complaint, though, my more general complaint is that the book is just kind of boring. We've seen all of this before, and there's nothing that really makes it specific to Iron Fist. This plot could be applied to pretty much any hero, and the only thing making it an Iron Fist story is the inclusion of a supporting character from his cast of characters and his powers, which amount to little more than a special effect. There's also an unfortunate decision on Mullaney's part to use second-person narration, so that we start off with thing like "You were born Daniel Rand. Yours are the most finely honed martial arts skills in the world." It's a clunky style of narration that doesn't add anything notable to the book, other than making me think "Uh, no I'm not" and kicking me out of the story.
Don't get me wrong: Iron Fist is a perfectly unoffensive generic superhero book with a mixture of action, superpowers and a hint of a danger lurking in the hero's future. But it also fails to really make Iron Fist stand out as a cool character or one who needed his own book, and indeed it makes him look like a bit of a loser, even while the creators don't seem to notice that this is the message being sent.
