Essential Iron Fist Volume 1 TPB [Paperback]

While the Marvel Essentials have been moving into the `70s for some time now, the choices have been somewhat questionable. Aside from Essential Howard the Duck, the storylines have been either too sporadic (the Punisher), or horribly repetitive (Tomb of Dracula). Not so with ESSENTIAL IRON FIST. This book is a winner - a prime example of what made Marvel THE comic company of the 1970s.

At that time, Marvel was embracing any fad that came along. Monsters, Sword and Sorcery, Toys... nothing was safe, including Martial Arts. Shang-Chi, Master of Kung-Fu, was their first contribution, followed by the debut of Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere #15 (1974). Produced by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Iron Fist incorporated elements of the TV series "Kung Fu", plus a bit of James Hilton's "Lost Horizon", plus a cool superhero outfit and excellent supporting characters. The result was a story that took a couple of issues to get its feet on the ground, but soon made headway. With the addition of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne several months later (before they were the X-Men "dream team"), Iron Fist really took off and moved into his own series: 15 issues of spectacular work, featuring the return of Boomerang, the debut of Sabretooth, and appearances by Iron Man and the X-Men. Claremont and Byrne stick with him as he joins Spider-Man in a few issues of Marvel Team-Up, then some guest appearances in Power Man, before finally finding a home in the newly-christened Power Man/Iron Fist.

Amazingly, through all of these different titles, the main story is continuous. Furthermore, every issue is a fresh addition to the storyline. The bulk of this volume is by Claremont and Byrne, and their work is spectacular. The reproduction gets a bit fuzzy in the later Power Man issues, as it appears to have been scanned from colored pages instead of line art. But that's a minor problem. For a so-called "second stringer" in the Marvel Universe, Iron Fist proves to be a fascinating character and a worthwhile read.

"You were born Daniel Rand. At the age of 9, your life was shattered by the murder of your father. At 20 you emerged from the mystic city of K'un-Lun--reborn in the fires of a dragon's heart. Yours are the most finely-honed Martial Arts skills in the world. You were BORN Daniel Rand. You have since CHANGED."

As you can guess from the title, "Marvel Premiere" was a comic book that Marvel put out starting in 1972 that allowed the company to float new characters. If the response was favorable enough, the character could move on to their own comic book and join the rest of the Marvel Universe. After all, it worked for Spider-Man in "Amazing Fantasy" #15. Appearing first in "Marvel Premier" was Warlock for two issues, and then Dr. Strange took over for the next dozen issues (drawn by Barry Winsdor-Smith and then Frank Brunner, it was actually one of Marvel's very best titles). Then we got to issue #15 and the introduction of a new character, the Iron Fist.

Marvel had already cashed in on the Kung-Fu craze with Shang-Chi, who was not only a Master of Kung-Fun, but the son of Fu Manchu. With Iron Fist, the pop cultural illusions were to the classic film "Lost Horizon" and the television series "Kung-Fu." Wendell Rand went to the top of the world to search for his own mad version of Shagri-La, dragging along with wife and young son Danny. Unfortunately he takes along his business partner Randy Meachum, who takes an opportune moment to let Wendell fall to his death so that Rand & Meachum can be just Meachum. He leaves mother and son to die on the frozen top of a mountain, but they find a bridge to K'un-lun. She sacrifices herself to a pack of wolves to save her son, who is then raised by the monks and trained to be a living weapon. You see, not only is Daniel Rand a master of the martial arts, but he can summon the Iron Fist: this means he concentrates, his hand glows, and becomes like unto a thing of iron. Then he does some serious damage.

Of course Iron Fist completes his training and leaves K'un-lun for the real world, where he gets to go after the man who killed his father and stole his company. There are a few complications and the next thing we know it is Iron Fist that is being sought in Meachum's murder, which involves a nice little plot reversal and avoids dragging out the quest for vengeance too long. Fortunately, for a guy raised in the Himalayas Danny Rand is able to avoid sticking out in civilized society, except, of course, for when he is wearing his costume and everybody can see the flying dragon shaped scar burned into his chest. The costume always struck me as being a bit impractical given the way the collar comes up in the back, which would restrict line of vision on rear attacks, but the green and yellow was a nice color combination. The artists on the book took the martial arts seriously, so that attention was paid to such details as naming the moves and showing them correctly. The result is not a great title, but certainly a solid one, especially once a stable and top-notch writer-artist team was put on "Iron Fist."

The origin issue is written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane, bu then the revolving door begins, with Lein Wein and Larry Hama doing the second issue, the next three are done by Doug Moench and Larry Hama, with the three after that by Tony Isabella dn Arvell Jones. Chris Claremont takes over as writer on "Marvel Premier" #23 with Pat Brokerick doing the art for two issues before John Byrne takes over for the final "Marvel Premier" appearance (the next character was the first in a series of bombs, with Hercules, Prince of Power, followed by Satana, the Devil's Daughter, Woodgod, Monark Starstalker, and other long forgotten one shots). Then Iron Fist gets his own title for fifteen issues, at which point there is a two-issue interlude as Iron Fist and Spider-Man appear in "Marvel Team-Up," followed by the point where things get really interesting as Iron Man teams up for good with Luke Cage in "Power Man." Now, admit it. The idea of merging Marvel's answers to not only the Kung-Fu craze but all those blaxplotation films is just the sort of madness you have to enjoy. Plus Danny had a neat girl friend in Misty Knight, which ended up with Rand and Cage double-dating the Daughters of the Dragon. Still, "Iron Fist" was a notch below "Shang-Chi" (so where is the Essential Volume 1 of that character?).

Consequently, for me this "The Essential Iron Fist, Volume 1" pretty much stops right when it is getting interesting. This is not the best of Marvel's merry mergers (that would be the Black Widow co-starring in Daredevil, but only when Gene Colan was doing the art), but it would be the oddest (Howard the Duck and the Man-Thing do not count because there names never appeared together in the title). But my guess is that it might be a long time before we ever seen "The Essential Power Man & Iron Fist, Volume 1" because issue #50 of "Power Man" was Byrne's last issue as artist. Certainly the character of Iron Fist fared a lot better once Claremont and Byrne take over. Since these were the two doing the "X-Men" at that time they were pretty much the hottest writer-artist team on the planet, which explains why it says Chris Claremont, John Byrne & Friends on the front cover.

If you want to see John Byrne's art before his run on X-Men; this is the book to see. You get to see a lot of Kung Fu moves and poses that show Byrne's versatility with the genre. I wonder if he studied the moves in any Bruce Lee movies? You don't even have to like Kung Fu to appreciate the book. It's super hero action with all the stars from the 70's. If you like seventies Marvel comics, this is the collection to purchase!

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