"The 7 Captial Cities of Heaven” (part 3)
Writers: Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction
Artists: David Aja, Kano, Matt Hollingsworth (c)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
This issue, Immortal Iron Fist continues to tell the tale of K'un-Lun's fighting tournament, with a parallel story taking place in flashback which shows Daniel Rand's father competing for the chance to become the next Iron Fist.
Since Danny is the titular hero of this book, I had assumed that (following his initial defeat last issue) Brubaker and Fraction would skip over the rest of the subsequent first-round bouts fairly quickly, concentrating on Iron Fist's own fights rather than showing the rest of the tournament in full. Instead, the book devotes just as much attention to the other competitors, this issue focusing on the clash between Dog Brother #1 and the Bride of Nine Spiders. Despite the cover, Danny doesn't get involved. In fact, he's absent from the entire issue, escaping to France to research the history of Orson Randall (as shown in the Immortal Iron Fist Annual). So, we're treated to a battle between a brutish, armored man with canine tendencies and a beautiful yet disturbing femme fatale with a spider motif, whose freaky appearance and unsettling catchphrase ("Je je je je je je je je") makes her instantly distinctive.
This fight is just as enjoyable as last issue's bout between Danny and Fat Cobra, with Brubaker and Fraction again employing the videogame device of flashing up the names of the fighters' special moves as they are utilised, such as "The Black Milk of Hell" or "Razor Dervish Attach - Ultimate". It's fun stuff, and you get the feeling that the writers are really enjoying themselves coming up with all of these details. The battle finishes fairly quickly, with the combatants crashing through a wall into a completely different landscape of lush green undergrowth, reinforcing the otherwordly nature of K'un-Lun. What should logically be a disappointingly truncated fight actually becomes an intriguing exercise in filling in the gaps with your own imagination, with the writing and art giving you just enough of a taste of the fight to conjure up a sense of how the battle played out without making it explicit.
This retro flavor of martial arts action is combined with more unusual modern concepts (I loved the idea of a Legion of Shaolin Terror Priests), a deepening of Wendell Rand's backstory, a glimpse of the internal politics of K'un-Lun, and even a look in on the activities of the Heroes for Hire, culminating in a climactic assault by the forces of Hydra. This is certainly not a title that you can accuse of being lacking in ideas, and although I'm sure that having two writers collaborating on the book has been a major factor behind the constant stream of new concepts, I've given up trying to guess which parts are invented by Brubaker and which are the work of Fraction (recent experience has taught me that it's impossible to be sure who does what on this book).
David Aja is doing some great work on this book, and I can't believe that he isn't a more high-profile artist in the industry. He's obviously skilled in many different aspects of comic book art, providing a weird and wonderful design for the Bride of Nine Spiders (a perfect pin-up for goth boys the world over), a beautiful background shot of what appears to be a polar aurora in the skies of K'un-Lun, and several inventive touches (such as the design of the panel which shows Dog Brother's familiars, a pack of feral-looking dogs, bemoaning the loss of their master whilst their moans fill up the background space of the panel).
Kano's art for the flashback sections retains the flavor of the previous artists to have worked on this section, and that's important in maintaining continuity with the glimpses of Wendell Rand and Davos that we've seen in previous issues. It's doesn't feel derivative though, with a slightly rougher finish than the previous artists which suits the fairly brutal action well. I also have to give credit to whoever is responsible for the 'ageing' effect on the white sections of the book's covers for this arc (Matt Hollingsworth, perhaps?). The dirt is so authentic and convincing that when I pick up my weekly haul of comics, I go back to the shelf every time to check that I haven't got a damaged copy of the book. I can only guess at what kind of grading problems it will cause for serious collectors in future.
It's no surprise to me that I enjoyed this issue, as Immortal Iron Fist has shown itself to be one of the most consistently entertaining books on the market. However, it is surprising that Brubaker, Fraction and Aja have managed to break so many storytelling rules and still produce such an enjoyable issue. How many other books could get away with only showing the first few seconds of a fight before cutting to an announcement of the result, and still have it feel like a satisfying bout? How many other books could include such a wide variety of concepts and still feel so natural and cohesive? How many other books could get away with neglecting to include their title character for an entire issue, and still turn in a comic as good as this one? The only complaint that I might have is that the core plot doesn't feel like it moves forward in any major way this issue. That's perhaps to be expected (especially with Iron Fist himself AWOL), and there are enough minor advances that it doesn't feel like a completely inconsequential issue either. I've also learned to appreciate these kind of issues as parts of a greater whole (especially where Brubaker's work is concerned), and so I don't find the lack of urgency to be quite as off-putting as a newcomer might.
If you aren't reading this book, I urge you to try it; if you are reading it, expect to enjoy another highly entertaining issue. Immortal Iron Fist is the sleeper hit that deserves a bigger audience, and hopefully it will find one.
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