Why Immortal Iron Fist is the best monthly title without the words “atomic” or “robo” in it.
Immortal Iron Fist has been my favorite Marvel title since its first issue. I love it because it relies entirely on its own mythos and only borrows what it needs from the larger Marvel universe. The closest it’s come to doing the usual “HEY THIS IS IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE HERE’S A CAMEO” is that it made a couple narratively logical nods to Civil War‘s fallout.
I mean, there’s more to the title’s success than just that, but its ability to create and then rely upon its own mythic momentum is pretty much never brought up, which is odd, because I tend to think that’s its greatest strength. You don’t need to know a damn thing about Iron Fist, because the character’s history is recreated in the issues we’re reading. And it doesn’t matter what ridiculous horseshit is going on in the rest of Marvel’s line, Iron Fist is left alone to do his own thing. This makes for a very fun and accessible title.
Unfortunately, the current creative team is moving on to other ventures. It is almost inevitable that the folks coming into it will completely miss that Immortal Iron Fist has more than enough self-sustaining mythos to cherry pick its involvement in the rest of the Marvel Universe. And if they don’t, then the people in charge will miss it. I could see a sales slump or increase being used to justify a ton of cameos and crossovers that can only choke the series — “Sales are down, do camoes to boost ‘em!” or “Iron Fist is popular now, do cameos to reflect is greater involvement!”
Oh, well. It was a fun ride while it lasted.
