Duane Swierczynski's take on Iron Fist reads a lot better in trade. I lost interest pretty quickly when Matt Fraction left this title, but I'm happy I gave this run another shot, I actually do like seeing Danny Rand put through his paces.Each of the Iron Fists throughout history have died at the age of 33 (and guess who just had a birthday). Now a weird, creepy dragon man is on the prowl, hunting down the current Iron Fist. I love the flashbacks with fantastic art by Russ Heath. The flashbacks show how one of the previous Iron Fists died fighting this dragon-dude, and how an Iron Fist's death means a dragon from the Eigth City gets to try and eat the dragon of K'un L'un. The stakes are high, and the villain actually feels like he has the upper hand for this whole trade. He can anticipate all Rand's moves, and while Rand does even the odds a bit by bringing in Cage, the Daughters of the Dragon, and the Immortal Weapons, I'm not quite sure that the bad guy would lose this one. Iron Fist finds a way to win by channeling his inner rage and fighting as he would have BEFORE he became Iron Fist. It seems like a bit of a stretch, thinking that this style would be beyond the dragon-guy's ability to counter. I really dug the dragon guy's whole attitude. After killing Iron Fists for so long, he never really considers that he could lose, and it takes most of the trade before he even acknowledges that Iron Fist is a competent opponent.
Travel Foreman's art is ok, but it looks a bit like sloppy work by Leinil Francis Yu. Some panels pop nicely, but other times the characters' face are oddly veined or elongated.
The one-shot featuring Orson Randall is quite fun. It's got some cracking dialogue about pistacchio nuts that made me grin. Randall works well as a gumshoe type, so the story is a nice fit. And I always enjoy Guiseppe Camuncoli's square-jawed art.
Fair
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