Worth A Read? Iron Fist: The Living Weapon

In a few days Marvel Studios will unveil the next step in their expanded cinematic universe; a digitally streamed TV series.  The entire first season of Daredevil will be available on Netflix on Friday and will be the first of several series that will exclusively be on the company that once rented you dvd's via mail.  Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have been cast and are in production, but the final piece of The Defenders is the one I'm looking forward too the most; Iron Fist.  Ed Brubaker and Duane Swierczynski's The Immortal Iron Fist was a phenomenal read for me and I was excited to learn that Daniel Rand was not only going to be getting his own live-action series on Netflix, but also getting a shot at another comic book series.

In this interpretation Danny is a very down and mopey hero who is attacked by zombie robots and has no idea who sent them.  The Iron Fist returns to the land he spent a decade training at only to find the mystical land of K'un L'un in ruins.  Danny must face off against his own demons if he is to make it back to New York before his oldest rival, Davos, reigns terror in the big apple.

The Immortal Iron Fist I feel is a classic because it blew open the mythology of the hero.  In it we met other Iron Fists of past and other weapons from the other seven mystical realms that helped Danny come to grip with his destiny.  This book does no such thing.  Most of the it seems like a psychedelic trip that belongs in an anime horror movie. Writer and artist, Kaar Kyle Andrews, has left us with a book that is no fun to read.  He writes Daniel Rand as Batman-style character who is a sulking billionaire.  Mr. Rand may not be Tony Stark but he definitely is no Bruce Wayne either.  He's a about helping the little guy with a sense of optimism.
This book also leaves out another part that made the previous Iron Fist series so great; his supporting cast.  There is no Luke Cage and Heroes for Hire crew to trade dialogue with and quips off of. Plus, maybe I'm just out of the loop, but wasn't Danny about to become a father last we left him?

The saving grace of this graphic novel is that you get retold Danny's origin story as to how he came to train in K'un L'un.  The parts with Davos giving him a hard time because he is an outsider, while Davos's sister befriends him, is pretty good stuff.  But I'm still not sure where Mr. Andrews is going with his interpretation. Perhaps he is burning down the old house before he builds it anew?  I think him pulling double duty is a mistake. Someone to bounce ideas off of is a good part of the creative process.  I'll continue to read the series because of my love for the character, but I just pray to Shou-Lao it gets better.

Worth A Read:  NO