On Monday I saw the sad news that The Immortal Iron Fist is having its entire creative team gutted. You can check out Comic Book Resources article about the creative team switch right here. I have not been shy about my praise for the excellent work that Brubaker, Fraction and Aja have delivered on The Immortal Iron Fist. This title is a hidden gem.
The creative team have done a stunning job taking a somewhat dated and cheesy 1970’s character and giving him a full treatment in an effort to re-fashion him into a character that is relevant to the modern era of the 616 Universe. Brubaker and Fraction were able to see the hidden potential in Danny’s character and bring it to fruition. Brubaker and Fraction also managed to weave a delightfully complex and intriguing mythos with their re-imagining of the history of the Iron Fist.
The depressing news is that Brubaker, Fraction and Aja are all leaving the title together. This is a crushing blow to The Immortal Iron Fist and one that the title may not be able to recover from. I would much rather have Brubaker stay on Iron Fist and drop writing Uncanny X-Men. Brubaker’s Uncanny X-Men is by far the weakest read out of all of the comic books that Brubaker pens. Captain America, Daredevil, The Immortal Iron Fist and Criminal all suite Brubaker’s style and writing talent much more than Uncanny X-Men.
Hell, even if Brubaker has to leave, I’d rather Marvel keep Fraction on this title than place him on an unnecessary second Iron Man title that appears poised to give us a rather unoriginal story. Again, The Immortal Iron Fist is a title that suites Fraction’s style much more than Iron Man does.
Unfortunately, Marvel is filleting Iron Fist like a fried fish dinner. Duane Swierczynski will be the new writer and Travel Foreman will be the new artist. I am familiar with Swierczynski only from his work on Cable. Swierczynski is a talented writer and by no means should my displeasure with this creative team change be taken as a condemnation of Swierczynski’s abilities. However, I will admit that I haven’t been overly impressed with the writing on Cable over the first two issues.
Foreman being tapped as the new artists also does little for me. I simply do not like Foreman’s style of artwork. I find Foreman’s work to be a serious downgrade from Aja’s wonderful artwork.
I am undecided if I am going to keep The Immortal Iron Fist on The Revolution’s permanent pull list. I don’t even know if I’m going to give this new creative team an issue or two to win me over. The reason for that is because I didn’t start reading The Immortal Iron Fist because I love the character. I have never had any connection or fondness for Iron Fist. I simply started reading The Immortal Iron Fist because Brubaker was on the title and I generally enjoy his work.
You may also like
4 thoughts on “Iron Fist”
Comments are closed.
Was very disappointed to learn about the creative change, if only for fear of the implications this means for the future of the title.
Mixed feelings about the art.
It’s looking a little sloppy in the previews, and I generally fund the whole punkish Samurai Champloo style treatment utterly obnoxious… But it feels like it’s got a lot of potential.
I just hope they can keep the Iron Fist character afloat, because there’s a real spice about what he offers…
Brubaker said in an interview over on Newsarama that he’s the person who picked Duane Swierczynski to be the successor to himself and Fraction.
While I share your generally mild opinion of him, given that Brubaker thinks this is the best solution means I’ll at least give the guy a chance. A lot of people wanted to write off Fraction(and given his work on Punisher War Journal, I can see why), but it was this title that really showed that it was a case of him just not having found the right type of work yet. I’m going to hope that this is the same with Duane.
Losing Aja wasn’t a big loss. He’s only done a handful of pages in the last few issues. I think it was 2 or 3 in the last one. He’s great, but just can’t keep up with the pace of the book, even with the “filler” flashback stories that he didn’t work on.
Losing Brubaker wouldn’t have been a big loss either, as Fraction is responsible for the bulk of the stories. It was a pretty fair collaboration in the beginning, but these days, Fraction does the lions share. He pens the entire last issue with the exception of maybe one panel that Brubaker helped with. He’s done all the flashback one-shots with the Prince of Orphans, etc.
So, I could have handled losing Bru and Aja, but to lose all three at once was almost too much to handle. Can’t see the book lasting much longer after they leave. Might make it to 25 or so before cancellation unless the new team can do something magical. With Danny returning to his old costume, I’m having my doubts.
Sad day for good comics.
i agree i really dont like foreman’s style of art n the direction of the story now is really bad..i just hope marvel bring back brubaker and his team