Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #3

By Kaare Andrews

Danny is an emotional creature. In issue one, Danny had flat lined and grown bored with himself. Andrews has brought him full circle and allowed Danny to unleash everything. There are several moments in the book, both past and present, that push Danny to the limits. Andrews, both through the story and his intense art, allows the reader to share in Danny’s anguish and despair. There is a sequence of panels where the reader can visually see the grief wash over Danny’s face.

Andrews has used flashbacks throughout the series to add weight to the sequences in the present day. In issue three, several flashbacks to Danny’s early time in K’un Lun training help build importance and emotion to the events currently unfolding. Brenda was a fun joke in issue one, but has now become someone who is worth devoting page time to. While her story with protecting the girl is in itself interesting, she also acts as an anchor point for story outside of K’un Lun. For fans of Brubaker’s and Fraction’s run on Immortal, Andrews includes a lot of familiar faces as well, making the story feel grand in scope.

Mixed in with a deep character study of Danny is a great amount of action. Issue three has two factions of ninjas going toe to toe in a hospital and Danny unleashing his powers as Iron Fist. Andrews’ action is fluent and brutal. The flashback sequences have a faded style to them and some of the brighter colors of the issue. Andrews’ use of text in the action throughout the series has been impressive and in issue three its cool to see “Death” literally looming in the background.

Issue three of Iron Fist hits heavy but on a higher level than just sick kung fu action. Iron Fist really is a complete look at the man that is Danny Rand. The story is smart and expands on what we thought we knew about Danny. As his world crumbles around him the issue ends on another gut shot. Andrews is delivering a series worthy of The Living Weapon.