The Immortal Iron Fist #27 – Review

This is it folks, the final issue or chapter in “Book 1” of the Immortal Iron Fist, a series started by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction almost three years ago, then taken over by Duane Swierczynski.  Some have argued that when Swierczynski took over the two writers at issue 17 he was able to keep the series going at the same level of quality as the prior writers, while others have said he dropped a step back.  Unfortunately, I have to agree with the latter.

This is not to say that the comic was horrible following Issue 16, only that it felt like there was less.  Less humor, less drama, less action, less something…  Swierczynski was more than capable of telling good stories, but they did not seem to have the same urgency that the previous writers seemed to have in each of their issues.  This issue doesn’t feel much different, though I do feel that Swierczynski did as good a job as he could with what feels like a forced ending from editorial. What follows in this issue are a small set of stories, which I believe were storylines that Swierczynski probably wanted to actually deal with over the long term, but, well this is the last issue so…

Story 1 is a sort of call back to the first issue of The Immortal Iron Fist what with Danny fight members of Hydra in what are now the remains of his corporation.  Interspersed with this story is a short series of flashbacks that deal with why exactly Wendell Rand thought it might be a good idea to take his wife and child with him in his search for K’un-Lun as well as the choices he made that got him to his place at the head of an international corporation.

Story 3 is a story of love and moving in together. It works well enough, but I have to say that the person who drew Danny in this story didn’t do a particularly good job.  He looks like a generic, blonde muscle man. Misty on the other hand looks great

Story 4 is a meeting of Danny and Luke Cage. Their dialogue felt spot on.  A conversation between two guys just getting a beer.

The last page is a sort of attempt to tie all the stories together, while still providing an opening for what may be a second Iron Fist series later in the year.  It succeeds in the latter, though the former was sort of half and half.

There are three different artists on this issue, each offering up a different art style for each story.  This sort of thing can be hit or miss depending on the quality of the artists and just how different their styles are.  Timothy Green handled the art and Javier Rodriguez handled the colors on the Wendell Rand story.  The art wasn’t bad, but there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary lines in Green’s work and the colors were a bit surreal the first time I went over the comic.

Travel Foreman did an excellent job with the fight scenes between Danny and the agents of Hydra, though I got lost in the storytelling in some of the later panels.

David Lapham’s portion felt more like an indie comic, assuming he was the one who drew Story 3.  The cityscape was interesting, but didn’t really seem to pop out at you and, as I said earlier, Danny just looked completely non-descript.  He did an excellent job with Misty though.

Overall, I have to say that Duane Swierczynski did an excellent job with this issue, focusing on those relationships and the action that made Iron Fist such a delight to read.  I can’t help but wonder what he might have accomplished if he had been given a longer run.

I give this final issue a grade of 4 out of 5.

Following this issue there will a series of one shots, each focusing on an individual members of the Immortal Weapons, while offering up a short Iron Fist story that will together the six issues.  Jason Aaron will start it off with his take on Fat Cobra’s origins.  Also, Iron Fist and Luke Cage will apparently see an appearance in Thunderbolts later this year.  Whether or not the setup from this issue will continue into the Thunderbolts run remains to be seen.