Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1, Daredevil 1.50

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon 1
K. Andrews

Danny Rand meets with a journalism student as she interviews him about his past and his powers. The night devolves quickly as she becomes attracted to him and, while the drinks flow, eventually goes home with him. The whole time, Danny is distant, thinking about his father's determination to get his family and business partner to K'un Lun. Of course, this event drove Danny's life as his parents would both die that day and Danny would barely escape death to make it to the mystical city, where he would become the immortal Iron Fist and choose to leave K'un Lun, forsaking his immortality to avenge his murdered family. As he mulls over his past (before, after, and probably during his, erm, relations with the girl Brenda), he realizes that someone is coming for him. He dives out the window of his penthouse apartment which overlooks the ruined Rand building and meets a flock of ninjas descending from a helicopter. He defeats them handily (that's very nearly a pun about his iron fist, you guys) and returns to the girl only to find that there's an undead but very powerful ninja waiting for him there. His iron fist blinks out at the wrong time but he's more than just his power and he still defeats the ninja. With the last combatant dispatched, a different girl appears, arrows in her back, and whispers that he needs to return to K'un Lun.

Stellar first issue by Kaare Andrews. There's a ton happening here and it's ever so slightly twisting the story of Iron Fist. Iron Fist is rather my go-to for "which superhero has the darkest origin?" That question comes up more than you'd think (mostly I pose it so I can answer "Iron Fist." I never said I didn't play to win). As a child, Danny Rand was walked through a harsh, winter, mountainous climate because his dad was driven to show them all K'un Lun. His dad's business partner, Harold Meachum, watched as Wendell Rand fell off the cliff to his death and offered help to Danny's mother if she would marry him. She refuses and she and Danny are left to their own devices, which here means "promptly attacked and chased by wolves." She falls behind to let Danny gain some distance and tells Danny to just keep going. As the wolves get to her, Danny finds the entrance to K'un Lun. PRETTY DARK, YOU GUYS. This twists the origin very slightly but not in any way that is unbelievable. Instead, Andrews casts Wendell Rand as someone who had long since gone mad, desperate to return to K'un Lun. It's not a stretch in any way, just a slightly different way to look at it. There's an amount of apathy to Danny as this series opens and a fear that he'll go the way of his father. There are so many emotions here and so much depth already to this Danny Rand, not even getting into the story that's happening and the phenomenal art Andrews brings to the book. Really great first issue. Everyone should check this one out.

Daredevil 1.50
The King in Red: Waid (w) and J. Rodriguez and A. Lopez (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)
The Last Will and Testament of Stana Morgan: Bendis (w) and Maleev (a) and Hollingsworth (c)
The Last Will and Testament of Mike Murdock: Kesel (w and a) and Palmer (a) and Allison (c)

Daredevil's 50th anniversary is celebrated with a double length issue telling three tales from Matt Murdock's past and future. The first is a story from Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez that finds Matt on his fiftieth birthday. He's more or less retired from the superhero game though his senses have all increased with age. He still lives in San Francisco with his son Jack and near a slimmed down and healthy Foggy. He's had a career in politics and, though it seems he and Jack's mother are separated, gained the love of the city in the process. His fiftieth birthday brings horror to the city, though, as Jubula Pride, deranged daughter of the Owl, blinds the majority of the city with the help of cyber optic eye treatment (like Google Glass but with eye drops) in Matt's honor. He tracks her down and fights her, though he's slowed by her toxins and by his age. He eventually finds the source of the blinding, a machine just bursting with radioactivity, and he destroys it, subjecting himself to the radioactivity and fully blinding him, taking away his radar senses. Sad as it is, he's reunited with his son (who had gone blind in the epidemic) and the two are left to lead a more normal life. It's a pretty neat story with plenty of seeds for stories that may or may not be coming. Javier Rodriguez's art continues to stand out whenever it's called upon and makes the book feel like it's just continued right on up through the next decade of comics. Considering how good this DAREDEVIL book and team are, that's not a bad way to feel.

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev return to the world of DAREDEVIL as Bendis tells a story in the form of the world's longest letter (probably) from Stana Morgan, purported love interest of Daredevil, to her unborn child and to her husband (they would even go so far as to be MARRIED, you guys). She left the letter because she had a suspicion, thanks to her one-time best friend, that she would die as a result of Daredevil's work, somewhere in the crossfire. I'll be honest, I have no idea the point of this story. It's really, really long-winded and it's about a character it's almost impossible to care about, even if this is presented in a first person letter to make it more sympathetic. It's hard to see her as anything but a woman who fell in love with Daredevil under the weirdest circumstances and quit her job and dedicated herself entirely to him within about five minutes. Then apparently she dies at the hands of Bullseye because that's the only thing Bullseye cares about: killing Daredevil's girlfriends/wives. It's an incredibly lengthy story for five pages and I don't think it really adds much. Add this to my long list of Bendis bias, I suppose.

Story three is a tale from Daredevil's past. As present day Matt and Foggy pack up the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Reed Richards sends along an old video that was left with him during the days of Mike Murdock, the twin that Matt Murdock invented to convince Foggy and Karen Page that he wasn't Daredevil. Present day Foggy and Matt talk about how unbelievable and crazy the whole situation was and how stupid they were for believing it and for perpetrating it respectively. The video is a sweet little thing where "Mike" dons his Daredevil suit and, followed around by some of Reed's flying cameras, performs stunts and narrates his little video, dedicating bits and pieces to the three (yes, including himself) to whom the video was dedicated. There's not a ton to this little story but it's sweet and it's certainly fun enough with just a pang of regret as Mike says that he's sure they'll be the top law firm in the city by the time they see the video where, in fact, they're packing up their law firm having just been disbarred. Fun little issue overall and definitely worth a look for Daredevil fans. There's a preview of ELEKTRA at the end as well as a nice little letter page that highlights fans who sent in letters about their experience with Daredevil (including a nice shout-out to manwithoutfear.com's Kuljit Mithra) as well as creators who have worked on the series. Always nice to see and looking forward to more DAREDEVIL as the years go on.