Masters of Kung FuWritten by: Ed Brisson
Art by: Mike Perkins
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 2, 2017
Review by: Aaron Anderson
Danny Rand beat all seven of the Masters to get off the island of Liu-Shi. He now set his sights on returning to K'un-Lun to heal his Chi and repair what was broken. With the name drop of Shang-Chi at the end of last issue I am super excited to get into this issue.
Page one has us landing with Danny Rand at Vancouver International Airport. On a dark and stormy night. I can't help myself but to methodically scan everything in the crowd on the plane. To make sure nobody is wearing a Weird Science shirt. Because I don't want to be a "lazy bastard" and get called out by an artist.
Danny is trying to recall how much time has passed since the start of his journey. I like that Brisson keeps it purposely vague here, "one or two months." I also like how Danny is mentally kicking his own ass for being an idiot and not going back to K'un-Lun when he lost his absolute control of the Iron Fist power in the first place.
As the plane lands Danny notices out the window hooded figures on the Tarmac. They appear to be praying. Praying that the luggage cart they place on the runway in the path of the plane is enough to take out the plane. Their God answers yes. As the cart hits one of the rear landing gear wheels causing a chain reaction. The plane falls to its side due to its lack of support and rips the wing off. Terror grips the crowd as Danny fights back debris to help protect the passengers. The plane comes to a screeching halt. Danny tells the passengers to stay in the plane as he goes to get help. He steps through the gaping wound in the plane and into the shadowed throngs of men in Celtic robes.
Emergency crews are rolling up to the scene to help, as Danny dawns the Iron Fist mask. The cloaked figures send a electric charge through the ground so powerful that it sends the emergency vehicles flipping.
After that this issue turns into a No Holds Barred Royal Rumble. That only pauses at moments to introduce more characters to the foray.
Every hit The Fist lays on the Celtic crowd brings this loud booming voice inside his head. The voice tells him to succumb and give up. The calamitous Celts are of one mind trying to kill Iron Fist.
Just when the sheer numbers and the threats against the passengers left on the plane are about to overwhelm Fist. Shang-Chi shows up to join in on the ass kicking that Fist has been laying down. Shang-Chi tells Fist that these crazy Celts are just regular people under the control of one man named The Seer. Shang-Chi also tells Fist that this horrid hoard of hoods are called The Sight and they have a strong telekinetic power when they are close together. So divide and conquer is the plan.
The last hood standing makes a break for it. The Iron one and Shang-Chi give chase through the subway and across town. They intend on capturing and holding the man as prisoner till The Seer's hold wears off. So they can then interrogate the man and pump him for answers and information about The Seer. Instead they foolishly follow The Sight back to The Seer's lair where he has a room full of people worshiping him.
Round 2 commences and this time Shang-Chi and Iron Fist are overwhelmed and restrained. The evil monologue tells us that a hit has been put out on Iron Fist's head by that bastard Choshin. The Seer tells Shang-Chi he has no quarrel with him and that he is free to go if he leaves peacefully but Shang-Chi refuses to leave his friend. In retaliation The Seer burns Shang-Chi's face off. All the while Fist screams NOooooooooooo!
Que my best Batman '66 announcer voice:
How will our heroes get out of this one? Is Shang-Chi really dead? Who does The Seer's nipple piercings? Tune in next time folks for all this and more in the pages Iron Fist.
Bits and Pieces:
I am still really enjoying this series. Brisson tells really good action packed tight stories. That read really fast but you feel like you get every ounce of information you need to progress the story forward. Perkins' art is outstanding every time but I do prefer his brighter color palette work. It allows for tighter line work it seems. That is really splitting hairs though. Because I love his nighttime art also. I would love to see him on the Daredevil book in the future. I hope Brisson will start taking some more chances with his writing though. It has the possibility of becoming kind of predictable in the future I feel.
8.5/10
I would love to see Brisson and Perkins tackle Daredevil after however long this Iron Fist run is I love every other book Soule does but his Daredevil is hit or miss.
ReplyDelete