Iron Fist started out as a character to cash in on the Martial Arts craze of the 1970s. As that died down so did the popularity of the character. He was then thrown into Power Man's book to create the original Heroes for Hire. Eventually that was canceled too in the 1980s, and attempts to revive the duo in another Heroes for Hire in the 1990s failed. Since then Danny Rand appeared in a few mini series and was reduced to guest appearances every now and then. With a less then stellar history in comic books it is surprising that Iron Fist is now one of the best solo books being put out by Marvel today. Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker were able to create a new Iron Fist mythos in their first story arc while telling an incredibly entertaining story and not negating all the history that came before (not sure anyone would notice however).

This issue is the beginning of a new story arc that, while continues the plot threads from the previous, it takes the book in a very different direction. We're introduced to the 7 Capital Cities of Heaven and learn that each one has a champion of their own, while Iron Fist is the one for K'un-L'un . While the set up for the tournament of champions might remind a lot of people of Mortal Kombat, the movie wished on it's best day that it was half as good as this issue of Iron Fist. The first thing Fraction and Brubaker do is they don't rely on the tournament being the sole purpose of this arc. This is the first time Danny Rand is in K'un-L'un in a very long time, and with everything that he's recently learned about the Iron Fist he know wants to know why his father never took the mantel. Daniel Way should take some notes here as this would be the perfect way of writing Wolverine: Origins. Here we get a compelling story that takes place in the present, while various things from the past are revealed... that is a description of Immortal Iron Fist and NOT Wolverine: Origins.

Again David Aja handles the pencils for the story parts that take place in the present, while another artist handles the flashbacks. This time around it's Roy Allan Martinez that gets to illustrate Wendell Rand in the flashbacks, and his pencils are wonderful. This formula has worked really well thus far on Iron Fist and if it keeps the book coming out on time then I'm all for it continuing. Make no mistake however, no matter who the flashback artist is, David Aja owns this book. His style blends so perfectly with Fraction and Brubaker's script that he is just as important to this title as the writers. If you haven't given Iron Fist a try yet, this is the perfect issue to start off on. The recap page will fill you in on what you need to know, and it looks like it's the beginning of another incredibly entertaining arc.