The Liberator

In the sixth adventure about Daniel Rand from Marvel's winning team of David Aja and Ed Brubaker, also working on the current Daredevil, we see the six part story arc that started off this series come to a close with always great artwork and coloring, along with a continued unraveling of the Iron Fist legend that makes you want more as more is given to you.

The beginning of the ish has a Raider's of the Lost Arc opening that shows how Orson is connected to the Rand family and suggests that Daniel's late father Wendell might not biologically be a Rand. An epic struggle between HYDRA and the Iron Fist Crew (Danny, Orson, Power Man, Coleen Wing, and Misty Knight) comes to a high action conclusion in the upper floors of the Rand Corporation building. Refershing humor is mixed in with the well drawn action; with some of it coming from Danny as we've seen in this series.

If I had only one complaint about this series it's how Danny has changed in his personality and now has a Spidey type wit and sometimes a sense of carelessness about him. In regards to his company he was always this way as there are no economics courses in the K'un L'un academy for Iron Fists, but in some senses you'll notice a general irresponsiblity about Danny in the series; like when he recklessly smashes two expensive Wing Chun Wooden Dummy posts with iron fist powered attacks in issue 2. This type of behavior ticked me off slightly since in the 70's(our time, not Marvel time), if anything, he was too humorless; soldier like in his tactiturn countenance and martial discipline. In the old comics he was naieve to the modern world (the comedy then came at his expense) and thought with more of an East Asian philosophy instead of looking at a room full of HYDRA squad members and saying "We're dooooomed" in, once again, a Peter Parker-ish/Deadpool way. It could be argued that Danny's personality has changed since what would be the mid-80's (on Marvel's sliding timescale) since he has adjusted to being a wealthy American, but all of these complaints are irrelevant anyway because towards the end, a dying Orson offers his portion of the power of Shou-Lao (which gives Iron Fists their power) which sobers Danny up and brings back the old attitude (the scene I described was my favorite BTW, very emotional and conceptually awesome).

The only other thing that's a bit frustrating but not necessarilly bad with this ish is how the confrontation between Danny and Davos (Grudge Match, son!) is stunted. After receiving the power of Orson, Danny squares off with a somewhat shocked Davos. After a neat panel showing the two doing flying sidekicks en route with one another and an energy blast that subsequently destroys the top floor of RandCorp, Davos cryptically says that Danny "cheated" (perhaps reffering to the boost from Orson?) and that he will rematch him in a tournament that relates to K'un L'un, the Crane Mother, and several other mystical elements well inserted into this series. Anyways, I was hoping for more of a Steel Serpent on Iron Fist showdown, but it looks like we'll have to wait until the tourney, which, at this point, this reader is more than prepared to do!

The Immortal Iron Fist #6: The Last Iron Fist Story-Part 6 of 6 gets

4 sonic shurikens out of 5.

I've been reading Daredevil and Iron Fist for the past few months, and I have to say that both books have been very well done by many of the same artists and authors, as well as other crew members. This particular Daredevil felt like one of the classic stories about the Hell's Kitchen lawyer and that's definetly a good thing for me; I don't think that every single superhero title should have to deal with the aftermath of the Civil War now, especially with the onset of World War Hulk. I've liked the inclusion of the old character Gladiator, and it was fun to see side characters Ox and Turk (again from DD days past) be worked in again. Adding the angle of a villain reformed into one of Matt's friends who was then turned against him by some mind altering drug mentioned in the issue was a good angle, and makes the battle between the two more meaningful and emotional considering that it's not just a typical "You're a bad guy and I'm gonn getcha, Gladiator!" situation. The best moments in this issue are the fights between DD and Gladiator, and the moments leading up to it when Gladiator kidnaps Matt's wife. There's some great suspense as Matt remembers all the other women that have died due to his career, and it all culminates in a battle that involves Daredevil bashing Gladiator with a bucket at a construction site (my favorite part). This all had a very satisfying feel to it, and there's even some great edgeiness when Daredevil unwilling faces off against the cops who want to detain him due to the godforsaken registration act. The only thing that is off is the ending, which I found odd. After this great climactic battle and the showdown with whoever's behind this all looming on the horizon, we are shown the next horrible turn in this crime spree in Hell's Kitchen a...conveinence store robbery? Not a glimpse at who was pulling the Gladiator's strings or anything? Why end on such a small scale after such a great book? It hardly matters though, this a comic worth your time and money; if want good 'ol fashioned superheroing with some great art to boot, it's hard to beat Daredevil these days.

Daredevil #98: To the Devil His Due-Part 4 of 5 gets 3 and a 1/2 sonic shurikens out of 5.

The God of Thunder makes his re-debut in the most recent title about the Asgardian warrior God written by J. Micheal Stracynski, who since his run on Spidey has me suspecting that he's fond of the whole mystical element. Involving magic in Spider-Man might have been a bad idea, but it would seem that Stracynski has found his niche as the story spinner for everyone's favorite hammer weilding Norwegian. I don't personally know how Thor's tale ended, and never followed his story with extreme scrutiny in the past, but I was always a fan and wasn't lost in this issue at all. Which is why I'm so impressed. I imagine that he had quite a backstory and reason for leaving the mortal plane, but even though I didn't know any of that stuff, I still enjoyed this story all the same. The writing is simple yet effective, and Oliver Coipel's artwork is excellent. I really like Thor's new costume, and am glad that Donald Blake is Thor once more. There are a few things I was a bit lost on, such as a part where The Hammer of Thor lands in the Western U.S. and a bunch of countryfolk try to lift it and a suited hand finally picks up the mighty weapon, but we don't see who it belongs to. Are we to assume it's Blake? He's in the same void as Thor, so I thought he was dead, but it might be explained later, and if not, no big deal, because I have a feeling the revival of Thor is something we'll all want to be there for.

Thor #1 gets 5 sonic shurikens out of 5.