Iron Fist

The Marvel Premiere issues are an example of the then-dying Marvel style of the 1960s: Lots of action, dynamic characterization, and outlandish plots. However, having been published in the era of Roy Thomas rather than Stan Lee, the whole hangs together a little better, and Fist's lengthy origin story is actually pretty good reading. Gil Kane's art in #15 is superb, but Larry Hama and Arvell Jones on the later issues is pretty mediocre. Tony Isabella writes a few of the later issues.

The comic really takes off when Chris Claremont takes over as writer in #23, and John Byrne joins as penciller in #25, and the duo last for the whole regular series and the two Team-Up issues. Claremont, as he was concurrently in X-Men, is flashing out his character-driven approach to stories, a style which would help revolutionize Marvel in the next six years. He and cop-for-hire Misty Knight (and her bionic arm!) are perhaps the first interracial couple in mainstream comics. Danny's adjustment to American culture - and, specifically, to having a social life - is handled with subtlety (perhaps because it's really just a subplot). The one- and two-part stories generally hang together fairly well, and flow elegantly.

Byrne, of course, was in the process of becoming the premiere artist of his day. Working with Frank Chiariamonte's inks - a much heavier line than Terry Austin presented over on X-Men - Byrne puts less detail into the art here, but instead works with layout, panel design, and a sense of movement and balance. There are some terrific panels with someone's face layered over a much larger scene, and full-page panels with a fast-paced battle taking place over some extended space. It's not something you often see in comics, especially today where full-page panels are usually reserved for "pin-up poses" rather than to convey a lot of information in an interesting manner.

The series was cancelled prematurely, and the main dangling plot thread was tied up in the two Team-Up issues, into which Spider-Man is uncomfortably shoehorned. There are several other threads which are left hanging, and some of those may have been tied up in the later Power Man and Iron Fist series, which I guess I'll have to seek out next.

Anyway, this isn't deathless prose, but it is in the upper tier of superhero comic books, and is well worth seeking out. Be careful, though: Most of these issues go for six bucks apiece and up. (IF #14 goes for over fifty bucks, but it was reprinted in a "Marvel Milestone Edition" a few years ago for only $2.95, and needless to say that's the copy that I bought. Do I look nuts?)

Today was a gaming day; we played EuroRails at Subrata's, and Rollie won. Afterwards, I finally managed to drag Subrata down to my apartment for a few hours, where I turned him loose on my comic book collection. He borrowed a few volumes of Flash comics, and said that he'll have to come back and go through the collection more systematically. He used to be a comic book collector, too, but gave it up a few years back when his store burned down. Since I've also been lending him the top-flight comics of today like Astro City, I may get him to change his mind.

Afterwards, we went to Frankie Johnny and Luigi Too for dinner (it's an Italian restaurant which I've surely mentioned here before) and split a pizza. We spent most of the dinner talking about comic books, and about Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction novels, of which Subrata is also a fan. (I have her new one, A Civil Campaign, on order from Amazon.)

A good day all around.

On this next-to-last day of baseball season, the Red Sox defeated the Orioles 8-0. Why should you care? Well, Ramon Martinez - coming back from arm surgery - pitched his second strong game and is sure to be in the Sox' postseason rotation. He also pitched in the same game as his Cy Young Award shoo-in brother Pedro for the first time since they were both in Los Angeles.

The Sox' rotation will probably be Pedro/Bret Saberhagen/Ramon, with Pat Rapp and Kent Mercker making a righty/lefty #4 starter combo. The bullpen will probably be Tom Gordon (also back from a long stint on the DL), Tim Wakefield, Rod Beck, Derek Lowe, Rheal Cormier, John Wasdin, and Rich Garces. This is a pretty potent line-up.

Meanwhile, Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra is sidelined until the playoffs due to a sore wrist from being hit by a pitch. Hopefully he'll come back and be 100%. We need him.