Fists Like Iron!

Iron Fist Epic Collection: The Fury of Iron Fist (Marvel, 2015)

This is grindhouse comics at their best!

Straight out of the 70s it’s Danny Rand, master of the “Iron Fist”, in NYC, looking for revenge and later trying to be a hero. Crazy action with nepharious billionaires, gimmicky fighters, ninjas, & more!  

Several things jumped out at me: first, you have to acknowledge the problematic nature of the white explorer finding the mystical Asian city trope.  And of course, this white kid is the best at what they do.  That’s a problem.  (I’m interested in seeing what the new TV series does with this.) But hey, there’s a very diverse assortment of characters.  We meet Colleen Wing & her dad, Professor Wing.  Colleen is Japanese, so she’s got ninja skills, not to mention that she mind melds with Danny fairly early on in the series.  So she’s more or less his best friend. We also get to spend time with Misty Knight, former cop turned private detective with a robot arm.  Yeah, it’s that kind of a series.

Keep in mind that this is a mainstream comic from the 70s, so the storytelling is much more episodic that you might expect.  But it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Marta Acosta "The She-Hulk Diaries" (Hyperion, 2013)

I’ve only a passing familiarity with the She-Hulk, but the concept of a tie-in novel was simply too good to pass up.  I’ve always found the idea of a Hulk/attorney to be fairly hilarious, so why wouldn’t I want to read about her?

Just like what it says on the tin, The She-Hulk Diaries take the form of Jennifer Walters’ (Shulkie’s alter-ego) diary.  As the novel opens, she has been kicked out of Avengers Mansion, lost her job, and is basically broke.  She creates a series of resolutions, and her efforts to complete these become the driving forces of the story.  This is really Jennifer’s story.  She-Hulk is a peripheral character, not the focus of the story.

That being said, Jennifer is a wonderful protagonist.  She’s smart, funny, capable – yet just enough down on her luck to avoid being a Mary Sue.  Acosta has set her up with personal issues that make her relatable, but she never falls into the trap of being whiny or self-absorbed.

I was a bit surprised at how much Jennifer’s love life, or lack of one, dominates portions of the book.  There’s a resurfaced old flame, as well as a mysterious new man who pursues Jennifer.  While this plotline was well handled, I found that I really didn’t care.  (And here I realize that I’m not the target audience for this novel.  So YMMV may vary.)  

All in all, The She-Hulk Diaries was a light, fun, hilarious read.  Absolutely great summer reading.  My enjoyment was diminished by the romantic subplots, but they didn’t detract from Shulkie as a feminist superhero.  And for many readers, these same plots may be a strong selling point.

Sean Howe "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story" (Harper, 2012)

When I was a kid I read both comics from both Marvel and DC, but my heart was always with Marvel.  DC seemed like Mr. Rogers—grandfatherly and in a cardigan.  Marvel was more like Sesame Street—weird looking young people on a street that I knew was supposed to be New York, even if it looked totally alien to my eyes.  Marvel was dynamic in a way that DC couldn’t hope to be.  At their best, DC came off like someone’s dad trying to be cool.

So of course I was excited to hear about Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. Here was my opportunity to find out what really went on in the Bullpen, and learn the truth behind all those crazy nicknames.

Sean Howe does a fantastic job of telling the story behind the stories.  After a brief overview of Marvel’s WWII era legacy heroes, he begins the story with the dawn of the modern Marvel – in the 1960s with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  From there he goes through the story of the company, ending only around the millennium.  All the big name writers and artists seem to be here, as well as many that would otherwise be forgotten.

Readers looking for storyline rehashes will be disappointed.  While some major characters and storylines are discussed, it is always from the perspective of business or creative decisions, not from any sort of in-universe perspective.   But the real story is intriguing all on its own.

It’s fascinating how many problematic issues surrounding comics were already issues 40 years ago.  Intellectual property, creator compensation, gender and race issues, boom and bust sales cycles, exploitative sales and marketing strategies were all being argued many years ago.  Howe spotlights many of these issues without bringing his own perspective to the fight.  He uses interviews to allow various voices to be heard.

Mark Waid “Daredevil, Vol 1” (Marvel, 2012)

“It has been a miserable last few years and every time I thought I’d finally hit bottom, God somehow found me a bigger shovel.  All this pain and all this loss and…and I just can’t bear the weight of it anymore and stay sane.  I know that.  So this is the way I’ve decided to be.”

Matt Murdock’s speech to Foggy is perhaps Mark Waid’s statement of intent with his run on Daredevil.  Acknowledge the grimdark past of the comic, while offering a dramatic change of pace and tone.  It’s perhaps a soft reboot more than anything, with past events staying in continuity, even while there’s a change of focus away from that type of storytelling.

Waid’s fresh approach to the title is in some ways a return to its silver age roots.  Forgoing many trends of contemporary comics, Waid’s Daredevil is a swashbuckling hero.  His concerns are at a more human level, protecting the poor and disenfranchised, than with slugging it out with supervillains.  The stories are shorter, punchier, and more self-contained.  A reader doesn’t need to know 50 years of Marvel continuity to understand the storyline.  It feels fresh exciting and fun.

The art duties are split between Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin.  Their simple clean lines reflect this reversion to silver age aesthetics visually.  The colorists, Javier Rodriguez and Muntsa Vicente, only add to the throwback effect.  Bold color choices, often themed in red and yellow (DD’s colors, don’t ya know).  The overall effect is evocative of the pop art of the 1960s, the era of Daredevil’s birth.

I couldn’t be more impressed with a contemporary comic.  It has both the fun and energy of a silver age comics, but with the stylistic sophistication of a 21^st century piece.  Highly recommended for all ages.