Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #5

By Kaare Kyle Andrews

Iron Fist: The Living Weapon has been met with mixed reviews since it was recently re-launched. While almost everything is being done by Kaare Andrews (which is very impressive), some readers just don’t like the story being told so far. Hopefully, they will come around to the writing and art of Mr. Andrews.

Kaare Andrews is a very talented guy who writes and draws with everything he’s got. He never phones anything in either. If Andrews is on a book, there is a certain amount of love involved. One of the main flaws of this issue, and series for that matter, is that it jumps around too much. We get several different pieces of areas or different times in a character’s life, so it’s hard to focus on the main storyline. Andrews is giving us a bit of a different take on Danny and it is alienating some fans. Danny is an honorable man, but he also talks and will crack a joke here and there.  In this series, he has barely said ten words. This different take on Iron Fist can work well some times, and we do get the running monologue, but it would be nice to see him interact more. Andrews does show us that there is more to Brenda than we initially thought as she fights with a scary creature ready to attack. Little Pei is also given some good panel time this issue, which is much needed because we really didn’t know much about her. Andrews has some good ideas, but the execution collides as too many stories take up the pages.

The art, also done by Andrews is pretty good as usual. That being said, there are some confusing panels, especially around the flashback of a young Danny watching the Iron Fist fight. Andrews does some cool things this issue, like making the flashback pages seem like they are worn down. He also throws in some neat black and white panels that are a nice change of pace. This was a pretty well-drawn issue, but there are still some panels that lack detail that almost come off cartoony sometimes. This hurts the issue the overall enjoyment of the issue, which is borderline as it stands.

With each passing issue things get more complicated in this series. Kaare Andrews is a good writer and artist, but this issue jumped around too much and fell flat. He can finish the first arc up strong by tying everything together nicely, though. If anybody can do it, it’s Kaare Andrews.