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Iron Fist: The Living Weapon (Collected Editions)
Immortal Iron Fists
There's a new Iron Fist: the young kung fu monk, Pei! And Danny Rand is ready to teach her everything she needs to know about harnessing her chi and being a hero. But can he teach the young K'un-Lun native how to fit in at a New York City public school? And what about all the mysterious monsters that keep trying to destroy New York? Trouble is coming, but thank goodness this city is big enough for both Iron Fists, because it's gonna need them! Get ready for an action-packed tale with twice the Iron Fists: crushing demons and crushing on classmates.
Collecting: Iron Fists #1-6
Collecting: Iron Fists #1-6
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2018
About the author
Kaare Andrews
369 books32 followersKaare Kyle Andrews is a comic book writer, artist and filmmaker
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
February 8, 2018
I really enjoyed this one; I just martial arted my way through all six issues in one sitting (OK, I got up after #2 to get myself some lunch but that still counts, right?)
It's a continuation of Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist book from a couple of years ago but the addition of a new art team really gives it its own voice. It felt pretty unique to me; slightly manga-esque but with a US indie comics feel to it, too.
There were only two things I didn't like about it:
1. It seems to have picked up the 'Danny is a doofus' vibe from the recent, short-lived Power Man and Iron Fist run. I'm not a fan of this characterisation, to be honest.
2. The kids in this book are in tenth grade, which (my wife informs me) means they're supposed to be fourteen or fifteen years old. The artist draws them to look like seven-or-eight-year-olds. It's a little jarring.
Other than those quite minor niggles, I had a blast reading this one and I loved the ending. I'd love to see Pei join the Champions at some point.
It's a continuation of Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist book from a couple of years ago but the addition of a new art team really gives it its own voice. It felt pretty unique to me; slightly manga-esque but with a US indie comics feel to it, too.
There were only two things I didn't like about it:
1. It seems to have picked up the 'Danny is a doofus' vibe from the recent, short-lived Power Man and Iron Fist run. I'm not a fan of this characterisation, to be honest.
2. The kids in this book are in tenth grade, which (my wife informs me) means they're supposed to be fourteen or fifteen years old. The artist draws them to look like seven-or-eight-year-olds. It's a little jarring.
Other than those quite minor niggles, I had a blast reading this one and I loved the ending. I'd love to see Pei join the Champions at some point.
October 22, 2021
I was all excited when I saw Kaare Andrews attached to this and the covers he wrote. Unfortunately, He didn't draw the interiors as well. Afu Chan is clearly influenced by anime. He also uses this super deformed style on Pei and all her school mates. They were drawn like little children when they were supposed to be high school sophomores. They all looked like Bratz dolls while the adults looked normal. It looks awful.
The story was so unappealing too. Pei is constantly bullied at school to the point where a boy punches her in the face right in the middle of school. It's completely ridiculous that nothing happens and the boy isn't disciplined. This was just an all-around failure and disappointment.
The story was so unappealing too. Pei is constantly bullied at school to the point where a boy punches her in the face right in the middle of school. It's completely ridiculous that nothing happens and the boy isn't disciplined. This was just an all-around failure and disappointment.
April 26, 2018
An attempt was made and I want to appreciate that attempt but there was really nothing for me to love here aside from the premise. I adore Danny Rand. I adore the legacy of the Iron Fist. Questionable ethics of the origin aside, I think it's great when writers mention that previous, and in this case: future, Iron Fists have been asian. I appreciate that they were telling a story where Danny becomes a guardian/teacher to the new Iron Fist. That being said, the execution was painful to watch.
There were so many problems with this that I stopped midway through the first issue and realized this was going to be this years Elektra: the Skeleton Key. This is this year's worst comic of the year for me and I've read some pretty bad comics. Elektra: the Skeleton Key was the perfect storm of bad comic material:
- Writer that had been assigned to other Marvel properties at the time? Check.
- Male writer writing for a female character? Check.
- Art style that flatters no one? Check.
- Awful dialogue? Check
- And finally, gives off the appearance that no one bothered to edit it? Check.
I get the sense Marvel approved this concept and then didn't check back to see if it was done well.
The Bad: (and there is so much bad)
- There's a point where it seemed as though the social worker implied that they were worried Danny was a child molester? I'm not sure exactly how Pei landed in his care but the social worker comes by for a check up and Danny's like "We're all good here, thanks" and the social workers says "She's an undocumented minor from a foreign country living in filth with a grown man."
- There's a point where one of the female bullies says "Don't mind Lynne, she's a diabetic." What the fuck?
- Danny Rand talks in fortune cookies.
- Listen, I zoned out during some of this but you know how I know no one bothered to edit this? There's a point where Danny says "Come out, the suspence is killing me." No one had spell check?
- I have 5o0 million questions about why this girl comes home with a very visible black eye after being beaten up at school and Danny and the new nanny he hired literally make no mention of it. Like none whatsoever? I get that he was trying to teach her not to fight all Mr. Miyagi style but she has clearly been physically harmed and no one intervened? Danny didn't teach her to call a teacher? No one sent someone to the house to talk to Danny because she's being regularly hurt? The police were not called? What the fuck is this story?
- Gotta love that Mean Girls plot where the bullies are nice to the new girl for approximately 2 seconds and she forgets they were assholes to her and joins their group. Original.
- I face palmed several times reading this and actually had to put it down because WHAT IS THIS?
- They do the oh so original thing male writers have taken to doing which is when they take the alternative/goth girls and make them parodies of themselves. The goth girls just pretend to hate heteronormativity but deep down, they're desperate to engage in these traditions but they've been jilted by their crushes. There's a pining story here that kinda came out of nowhere to me because honestly, I felt like these girls were in two scenes with Pei, tops.
- The dialogue is painfully bad. Stop having grown men write dialogue for teenage girls. "Your dad is a super hottie superhero"? We stopped saying hunky and dreamy in 1996 I think.
- There's scene where the "hot" guy at school talks to these girls and they all get tongue tied and instead of doing it in a smart way like they do in Ms. Marvel where Kamala blushes and it just shows her visibly struggling to speak, the writer wrote them tongue tied with speech bubbles like "bu-ssuh hi Tuh-tuh" and "muh-mouth stoppered w-working" like they were malfunctioning Sims. I had to stop reading for a moment because I got secondhand embarrassment for the writer and anyone that read this.
- The artist chose to draw vertical lines at the bottom of Danny's chin to represent his five o'clock shadow. For some reason the colorist chose to color Danny as slightly violet in hue. The end result: Danny!Thanos and I could not stop laughing.
**spoilers **
- There's a point when Danny is cursed to forget who Pei is and there's literally a line of "Not pee, Pei!" I screamed.
- Who is this book for? I had to ask myself that a lot because it follows Pei very closely as she goes to high school (? I thought she might have been 13? Not entirely sure) and "navigates the waters of popular bullies, crushes and trying to fit in) so was it for teenagers? Because there's a subplot going on with Danny and his cop friend that seemed geared towards your typical comic bro. Plus the dialogue for the teenagers was so godawful that I can't imagine a teenage girl picking this up. A large part of this seems like a sitcom where poor, well intentioned new father Danny is struggling to connect to his new daughter. So was this for young adults (who'd take one look at this dialogue and run away) or for dudebros (who'd spend half the time complaining about SJW bullshit and crying about it on the internet) or for grown men who love the Iron Fist and have kids now? Maybe the latter because they're the only ones that would take this dialogue seriously.
So, you guessed it, this is most definitely not a recommend from me. Listen, this premise is wonderful. This is the kind of story I dreamed about reading. I wish Marvel had chosen a different creator to make sure it was executed well. I honestly think, in the hands of a writer that knows how to write teenage girls, this could have been truly wonderful. Someone like Marjorie Liu or maybe even Kieron Gillen could have done a wonderful job.
There were so many problems with this that I stopped midway through the first issue and realized this was going to be this years Elektra: the Skeleton Key. This is this year's worst comic of the year for me and I've read some pretty bad comics. Elektra: the Skeleton Key was the perfect storm of bad comic material:
- Writer that had been assigned to other Marvel properties at the time? Check.
- Male writer writing for a female character? Check.
- Art style that flatters no one? Check.
- Awful dialogue? Check
- And finally, gives off the appearance that no one bothered to edit it? Check.
I get the sense Marvel approved this concept and then didn't check back to see if it was done well.
The Bad: (and there is so much bad)
- There's a point where it seemed as though the social worker implied that they were worried Danny was a child molester? I'm not sure exactly how Pei landed in his care but the social worker comes by for a check up and Danny's like "We're all good here, thanks" and the social workers says "She's an undocumented minor from a foreign country living in filth with a grown man."
- There's a point where one of the female bullies says "Don't mind Lynne, she's a diabetic." What the fuck?
- Danny Rand talks in fortune cookies.
- Listen, I zoned out during some of this but you know how I know no one bothered to edit this? There's a point where Danny says "Come out, the suspence is killing me." No one had spell check?
- I have 5o0 million questions about why this girl comes home with a very visible black eye after being beaten up at school and Danny and the new nanny he hired literally make no mention of it. Like none whatsoever? I get that he was trying to teach her not to fight all Mr. Miyagi style but she has clearly been physically harmed and no one intervened? Danny didn't teach her to call a teacher? No one sent someone to the house to talk to Danny because she's being regularly hurt? The police were not called? What the fuck is this story?
- Gotta love that Mean Girls plot where the bullies are nice to the new girl for approximately 2 seconds and she forgets they were assholes to her and joins their group. Original.
- I face palmed several times reading this and actually had to put it down because WHAT IS THIS?
- They do the oh so original thing male writers have taken to doing which is when they take the alternative/goth girls and make them parodies of themselves. The goth girls just pretend to hate heteronormativity but deep down, they're desperate to engage in these traditions but they've been jilted by their crushes. There's a pining story here that kinda came out of nowhere to me because honestly, I felt like these girls were in two scenes with Pei, tops.
- The dialogue is painfully bad. Stop having grown men write dialogue for teenage girls. "Your dad is a super hottie superhero"? We stopped saying hunky and dreamy in 1996 I think.
- There's scene where the "hot" guy at school talks to these girls and they all get tongue tied and instead of doing it in a smart way like they do in Ms. Marvel where Kamala blushes and it just shows her visibly struggling to speak, the writer wrote them tongue tied with speech bubbles like "bu-ssuh hi Tuh-tuh" and "muh-mouth stoppered w-working" like they were malfunctioning Sims. I had to stop reading for a moment because I got secondhand embarrassment for the writer and anyone that read this.
- The artist chose to draw vertical lines at the bottom of Danny's chin to represent his five o'clock shadow. For some reason the colorist chose to color Danny as slightly violet in hue. The end result: Danny!Thanos and I could not stop laughing.
**spoilers **
- There's a point when Danny is cursed to forget who Pei is and there's literally a line of "Not pee, Pei!" I screamed.
- Who is this book for? I had to ask myself that a lot because it follows Pei very closely as she goes to high school (? I thought she might have been 13? Not entirely sure) and "navigates the waters of popular bullies, crushes and trying to fit in) so was it for teenagers? Because there's a subplot going on with Danny and his cop friend that seemed geared towards your typical comic bro. Plus the dialogue for the teenagers was so godawful that I can't imagine a teenage girl picking this up. A large part of this seems like a sitcom where poor, well intentioned new father Danny is struggling to connect to his new daughter. So was this for young adults (who'd take one look at this dialogue and run away) or for dudebros (who'd spend half the time complaining about SJW bullshit and crying about it on the internet) or for grown men who love the Iron Fist and have kids now? Maybe the latter because they're the only ones that would take this dialogue seriously.
So, you guessed it, this is most definitely not a recommend from me. Listen, this premise is wonderful. This is the kind of story I dreamed about reading. I wish Marvel had chosen a different creator to make sure it was executed well. I honestly think, in the hands of a writer that knows how to write teenage girls, this could have been truly wonderful. Someone like Marjorie Liu or maybe even Kieron Gillen could have done a wonderful job.
January 24, 2018
Fresh new take on Iron Fist.
Read
February 28, 2018While I appreciated what Kaare Andrews brought to the Iron Fist saga, and there were elements I certainly liked, his run was just not for me, ultimately.
But I pkcked this up as an Iron Fist completist, abd really liked what I read here. Unlike Luke Cage, Danny is a hard character to humanize/emapthize with due to his lack of human connections. (That's why he needs a good foil like Luke Cage!)
And this title offers that, in spades. Surprisngly just the right amount of wits, heart, action and connection in this title for me!
But I pkcked this up as an Iron Fist completist, abd really liked what I read here. Unlike Luke Cage, Danny is a hard character to humanize/emapthize with due to his lack of human connections. (That's why he needs a good foil like Luke Cage!)
And this title offers that, in spades. Surprisngly just the right amount of wits, heart, action and connection in this title for me!
January 9, 2022
Oh, this was disappointing.
I liked Andrews' previous Iron Fist title, especially the art. Here he only provides the covers while the interior artwork by Afu Chan is just not to my tastes with its superdeformed anatomy and cartoony style and faces.
At times I found it difficult to follow the action and all the "little kids" drawn throughout this book suddenly get revealed to be in 10th grade.
Also, the pacing and many of the characterizations are off (or even iffy), especially of the "out-crowd girls", who apparently really just want to be like the in-crowd girls, and whose "friendship" with Pei is too sudden and short for any perceived "betrayals" to feel relevant.
And when did Danny Rand, who once was a superfocussed and competent survivor, become an immature man-child who made no sense whatsoever?
A very sad addition to my Iron Fist collection...
I liked Andrews' previous Iron Fist title, especially the art. Here he only provides the covers while the interior artwork by Afu Chan is just not to my tastes with its superdeformed anatomy and cartoony style and faces.
At times I found it difficult to follow the action and all the "little kids" drawn throughout this book suddenly get revealed to be in 10th grade.
Also, the pacing and many of the characterizations are off (or even iffy), especially of the "out-crowd girls", who apparently really just want to be like the in-crowd girls, and whose "friendship" with Pei is too sudden and short for any perceived "betrayals" to feel relevant.
And when did Danny Rand, who once was a superfocussed and competent survivor, become an immature man-child who made no sense whatsoever?
A very sad addition to my Iron Fist collection...
December 2, 2019
Meh this anime style drawing really bugged me. Plus most of the story focussed on the ward from Kun kun or however you spell it. More geared towards teens....didn't care for this.
May 13, 2018
This was quite a disjointed story that just sort of jumped around various scenes without any real connective tissue. And Andrews made the unforgivable sin of calling jiang shi “ninjas”. C’mon, man. At least Afu Chan and Shelly Chen’s art was great.
June 11, 2026
A fun follow-up to Andrews’s previous work on Iron Fist that is delightful but not necessarily going to make people into new fans of the character.
February 9, 2018
Awesome!
February 20, 2019
I intensely disliked Kaare Andrews's previous work on Iron Fist, but I do love the character, and am a bit of a completionist, so I decided to check this out. There really isn't a lot to like here. First off, the art is terrible. Colors are screwed up, characters are superdeformed and difficult to figure out (there was a main character that I figured was female for about four issues, until the words seemed to indicate the character was male... but it was never really addressed elsewhere, so I'm not really sure, but it did seem like I was meant to know). I liked that the story tried to incorporate some ideas from Chinese myth, but assumes that Danny has a deep familiarity with it, which isn't anything that's ever been established for him in the past, really. But while we get a Danny Rand who is surprisingly competent in the area of Chinese (specifically Buddhist) mythology, we also get a Danny Rand who is incredibly incompetent as a mentor, despite having previously run a martial arts studio in the inner city, and having extensively mentored Power Man (the younger) for years. Granted, this is for a younger person, who is also a girl, and who lacks experience with the culture, but you would think at least some of the lessons would have carried over, and I think Andrews simply chose to ignore that these things happened, since all of his work on Iron Fist pretty much completely ignores any of his past or connection to the rest of the Marvel universe... like when giant monsters from Chinese mythology are rampaging through New York City, one of the cities with the densest concentrations of super heroes in the world, and nobody tries to stop them except for one Iron Fist, and a plucky police man sidekick. I know it is more interesting to have the main character deal with things on his own, but it just doesn't track. The dialogue is also poorly-written, and doesn't really match the speaker well. Younger characters particularly don't sound very good, but nobody really sounds right, and there are some terrible jokes that fall pretty flat. Honestly, I find it hard to conceive of a comic book that could fail on so many levels without becoming abstract and losing narrative entirely. I guess that's the best I can say about this book. It made sense, it just wasn't a very good read.
April 16, 2018
Never been much of a reader of Iron Fist, but when I saw that this title covered a young girl becoming Iron Fist, I was intrigued. What unfolded was ok... the art wasn't appealing to me, the book focused more on how Pei interacted with people at school and learning to control the social aspects of life and not on fighting (which apparently was covered in previous Iron Fist comics, and as evident in her prowess), and the story was so jumpy and disjointed at times that I felt like some panels might have been missing.
Not horrible, but not amazing, or even anything to brag about. Slightly recommended-ish
Not horrible, but not amazing, or even anything to brag about. Slightly recommended-ish
June 11, 2018
After the pretty disastrous previous Iron Fist Run, this adventure was refreshingly enjoyable. Danny gets to learn how to be a slightly more grown up grown-up. Pei, who I didn't particularly care for in the previous run, is a delight here as she transitions from Ku Lun to the even more daunting perils of junior high school. And a beagle-sized baby Shou-Lao (called Gork here) as the family pet is just priceless.
Reading this one slightly out of order makes me miss Pei's presence in the current Iron Fist run. Now I need to figure out what happened to here between this mini-series and the current ongoing.
Reading this one slightly out of order makes me miss Pei's presence in the current Iron Fist run. Now I need to figure out what happened to here between this mini-series and the current ongoing.
March 19, 2026
A sequel to Kaare Andrews' Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, which I haven't read and focussing on a character not even mentioned in the other Iron Fist books. Iron Fist has a protégé named Pei. She has the powers and training of an Iron Fist, but she was raised in Kun Lun and is a fish out of water in New York public school. While she navigates high school drama, Danny is off hunting demons.
The kids are supposed to be in high school but they're drawn like elementary school age. The plot and characterization is all a little ridiculous. If they repackaged this as a middle grade graphic novel, it would fit the genre better.
The kids are supposed to be in high school but they're drawn like elementary school age. The plot and characterization is all a little ridiculous. If they repackaged this as a middle grade graphic novel, it would fit the genre better.
March 19, 2018
So, I really want to like Iron Fist. I REALLY do, but a lot of times he just doesn't really work for me. The reasons vary from tone to art, dialogue and story line, but this particular Immortal Iron Fist collection was kind of nice and didn't bother me. I really like Kaare's covers, and would like to see him complete an entire book, but Afu Chan's art fits the tone really well.
Story works just fine, but nothing essential here.
Story works just fine, but nothing essential here.
August 11, 2019
This was cute. Very cute. I almost hate that it feels like netflix danny is the iron fist in this one but it is a thing the way live action media influences the printed universe. That Pei is the star and that the journey focuses on her is what makes me love this. I just wish they had a longer runway to develop the story because that would have meant more time spent with the character. Well it is done and I am glad we have a story like this. Middle grade Iron Fist. Adorable!
January 16, 2022
Wellll ... it had its moments. I initially wasn't impressed by the artwork, but it grew on me. But the representation of the kids! I thought it was cute that these young kids were having their own ball, only to find out they were supposed to be 10th graders (i.e. 15-16 years old).They looked about 8 or 9! Generally, I got the feeling this was aimed at a YA audience. So, on the whole, fairly disappointing with a couple of nice ideas amongst all the teenage angst and general slush.
March 16, 2020
Perfectly fine. Like another reviewer, I was extremely confused by the ages of the children in this book. They looked like they were 8, but I guess they were in high school?
Also, isn't it weird that Rand never talks to Luke Cage or any of his crew about this? You would think that Danielle would be involved or that Jessica Jones would have childcare recommendations?
Also, isn't it weird that Rand never talks to Luke Cage or any of his crew about this? You would think that Danielle would be involved or that Jessica Jones would have childcare recommendations?
February 27, 2018
The Iron Dad?
I understand what Andrews is doing in bringing a younger vibe to the title and a fresh take on Danny...heck a reverse take on Danny's story. But the art isn't always for me and I'm not a Young Adult who might enjoy this more.
I understand what Andrews is doing in bringing a younger vibe to the title and a fresh take on Danny...heck a reverse take on Danny's story. But the art isn't always for me and I'm not a Young Adult who might enjoy this more.
June 1, 2018
My daughter and I truly enjoyed this one.
The art was fun. The story of Danny Rand as a father. I hope there is more on this relationship but I think this is the first and last we see of Pei . I hope I'm wrong. I hope to see her in more books.
The art was fun. The story of Danny Rand as a father. I hope there is more on this relationship but I think this is the first and last we see of Pei . I hope I'm wrong. I hope to see her in more books.
October 9, 2025
Yet more proof that if you want Marvel at its best these days you look to the kid characters - the writing is fun, the characters even better and the art is stunning. A great bit of mainstream comic storytelling
March 19, 2018
What a fun little gem of a book. I had no idea this came out (a little foggy on how it was released originally) and went in cold. New characters I don't know, a story I've never read. Wonderful.
May 14, 2018
Pei is freakin' awesome!
May 27, 2018
Cute in a Marvel-Does-Scott-Pilgrim kind of way.
June 17, 2018
Not really loving these digital original comics
July 5, 2018
Really enjoyed this! The little girl and her interaction with the other kids was entertaining! Art style is interesting and works really well with it!
January 12, 2019
Took a little while to get into this one. The art itself felt a little jarring and 70's-ish, I guess. But there's enough heart to make it worth the read.
January 31, 2019
Abominable art, horrible concept, terrible dialogue. Loved It Fist in the past, this is embarrassingly bad.
February 27, 2019
Pei is wonderful and I hope to read more!
July 26, 2018
I guess I’m a sucker for Lone Wolf and Cub-type stories (LOGAN is one of the best superhero movies ever, in my opinion), but even with that bias caveat this is just a fantastic comic built on a fantastic premise. There are two Iron Fists now—Danny Rand, the one we know, and Pei, a pre-teen girl from the mystical land of Kun Lun who has been assigned to Danny as a kind of apprentice Fist. The story thankfully eschews the “will they/won’t they develop a family bond?” question and cuts right to a kind of goofy, inventive, fantasy battle quest mixed with complex and realistic school scenes as Pei tries to find her way in the world and Danny tries to stay on top of things somehow (he mostly doesn’t). Afu Chan’s wild art is not what you’re expecting and delivers most of the joy in reading this.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews