3 out of 5

I’m definitely willing to give most things – music, movies, books, comics – a shot if I feel like the creator presents it with a sense of passion.  Now to a certain extent I’d say that most creations are done with passion, and Andrews’ work on ‘Iron Fist’ isn’t necessarily more impassioned than anything else, but the look behind the curtain via the first issue’s editorial gives you a clearer glimpse of what Kaare was feeling when he set pen to paper.  And it made me want to read the series.  …Along with the fact that the first issue is totally awesome.  But this initial arc does get somewhat wobbly thereafter.

The first issue highlights what keeps the following issues afloat: amazing layouts and art with some well-paced drama and light touches of humor.  It also balances the new story / retelling an old-story setup that #1 books require; often these restarts will just feel like a writer celebrating their shot at writing whoever by going over a story we’ve heard a million times.  Andrews seems to pick things up at a point when Rand is tired of being Iron Fist, flashing back to memories of his father and K’un Lun preceding an insane robot / ninja attack on his rich boy skyrise.  The flashback setup isn’t anything new, of course, but Kaare’s unbelievably expressive paneling and ability to pencil motion across the page gives the story life.  He also infuses the narrative with a realistic voice: Rand’s thoughts sound like thoughts, and not like someone typing out a page to make sure readers understand some Iron Fist history.  Something about this formula stumbles a bit in book two, however, when we transition to K’un Lun to witness a hostile takeover, and then, back in the regular world, Danny jumps down to a handy portal that gives him access back to his homeland.  I haven’t read Iron Fist, so I don’t know if this is a new or old invention, but it somehow demystifies that new / old balance that issue 1 maintained, as though, having given us some info on the past, we’re ready to just barrel ahead.  Perhaps because it felt like in returning to K’un Lun right away we’re taking the reader out of a ‘familiar’ setting of the real world and going further into fantasy, when the first book stakes a clearer divide.  Maybe.  But there’s a nice parallel between the last pages of book 1 and 2 that shows a good backbone to his writing which is mostly sustained.  Issue 3 is backstory, and issue 4 takes a really strange diversion to just before the attack, where Andrews seems to want to retcon a female character he’d written in to be a bigger part of Rand’s life than initially planned.  The fourth book is still impeccably lain out and isn’t poorly written, but it’s frustrating how it feels like a forced rewind.  Thankfully, the concluding two books are paced full steam, and I appreciate that, as Andrews ramps up to Danny facing the K’un Lun attackers, he keeps the threat level constant: Iron Fist seems irreparably injured, but there’s not really a deux ex machina or diversion that suddenly resolves everything.  I mean, there might be in the next arc, but where things land in book 6, I didn’t feel cheated.

While ‘Living Weapon’ sorta comes down to just being another comic book (parents die, people fight), Andrews does prove that the writer / artist combo can be a pretty impressive thing: his art may be more sublime than his narration, but that’s not to say the latter is bad – it’s certainly better than – in my opinion – a Bendis book, for example – but there is an unevenness to how things unfold that seems like some rewrites might’ve been happening as the plot went along.