Bring on the Immortal Weapons.
Danny Rand aka The Iron Fist with help from his predecessor Orson Randall, along with Luke cage, Misty Stone, and Colleen Wing were able to push back a Hydra unit lead by Steel Serpent. However, Hydra was still able to make off with his friend and business right hand man Jeryn Hogarth. Instead of pursuing his kidnappers, he receives a visit from his Master Lei Kung the Thunderer and the lord of K'un-L'un, Yu-ti. They command Iron Fist to forget about his personal agenda and leave to the city of K'un-L'un to compete in The Tournament of the Seven Heavenly Cities. -summary
The Immortal Iron Fist run written by Ed Brubaker was the series that officially put Iron Fist back on the map after a very long hiatus in solo action. In fact, at one point Marvel had even killed him off. The first book in the series The Last Iron Fist Story re-introduced Iron Fist and his world, yet it's not like this is a complete reboot. There really hasn't been any changes, instead there has been more expansion on his background in regards to the legend of the Iron Fist. Danny always believed there were a few Iron Fist before him, but he had no idea there was up to 66 and they were able to use the Iron Fist in different ways. The character Orson Randall introduced last volume did his job very well providing this information as well as assisting Danny in learning new abilities. This story continues to add more back story and at the same time develop its main plot. Iron Fist Volume 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven collects issues 8 - 14 and Immortal Iron Fist Annual # 1.
Now the first thing that must be said is that the first book must be read prior to this. There is far too much story missing and this book will be very confusing to where it won't grab most people's interest. This story doesn't even rely on action all that much in the beginning; it's all about the character's delivery and covering crucial parts of back story.
Brubaker picks up where he left off with Danny Rand in K'un-L'un preparing for the tournament. The Tournament of the Seven Heavenly Cities occurs every 88 years, and it's meant to determine the order of the Heavenly Cities appearances on Earth, in which K'un-Lun itself appears every 10 years. Each city has their own warrior called the Immortal Weapon which is meant to be their counter for K'un-Lun's Iron Fist. Danny has every intention on winning the tournament mainly because it's his duty. However, he soon learns something is amiss and the tournament is actually not even a priority anymore.
Brubaker attempts a lot here and despite it being kind of hard to get through at times he still delivers. The first volume had more of a street oriented setting combined with martial arts action, and a film noir atmosphere that reminded me of an action thriller. The noir influence for the most part is forsaken for Martial Arts fantasy, the essence of Martial Arts, and Eastern Myth. There are traces of this still feeling like a superhero story but it's a lot more grounded than most stories with the mask and capes at a minimum. Brubaker also does a better job this time around transitioning between the flashbacks and present, which at times felt a bit disjointed last volume. The only problem I have with the narrative is that at times Brubaker's storytelling can be kind of boring; this is mainly felt during the Randall flashbacks and this probably had more to do with the varying artwork though. More on that later.
The plot does have plenty going on to maintain interest. Some of Danny's questions are answered concerning his late father and the Iron Fist, plus how he was able to obtain his vast wealth. The tournament portion is fairly good with some brutal action and the characters receive a good amount of face time. The main plot is complicated in a good way with a villain introduced in the last volume planning to destroy K'un-Lun. The guest stars play their roles well enough and I really like the chemistry between Danny, Cage, Misty, and Colleen; Brubaker pays so much respect to their character's and they feel like true friends whom been through a lot together. Besides the cliffhanger ending mentioning an eighth city, the highlight is how Brubaker abandons many superhero cliches on the way. Many people coming into this will be expecting something straight forward and feuds seeing predictable conclusions, yet none of these things happen as expected and I love this in my stories. I want to be wrong on my predictions because it adds to the overall enjoyment.
The artwork is the only glaring flaw that I found hard to ignore. Marvel should have left David Aja on the pencils here. His gritty, faded, and sanded down like artwork was a perfect fit for this style of story. It's still present in many sections with characters well built with no exaggeration, and the rough backgrounds with shady inks compliments the 70's martial arts homages running rampant. Unfortunately the vibrant, oil like inks, and colors feels weird together with Aja's work. It does have a magical personality to it and I'm sure it can be argued there's a place for it in a story like this, but it distracted me in a wrong way. It took me out of the steady visual flow a bit too much from what I got use to. The action panels are really, really cool though with some nice exchanges and the long final battle is action galore, with loads of brutal killings that need to be seen. The action is no joke and so much fun to look at. There's plenty taking place during these segments which will result in slowing down the reading pace to grasp it all.
The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven is a an excellent follow up overall; with the exception of that cliffhanger setting up things for later, this volume wraps up the entire tournament arc. It also introduces the Immortal Weapons whom make a nice debut. I highly recommend this only if you read the first volume; if you're a fan of Brubaker's writing at all then this is another one of his works that you might enjoy.
Pros: Solid story and writing, Aja's artwork
Cons: May be too much going on for some, artwork other than Aja's