Cover Story - Top 10 Iron Fist Covers

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So, let’s talk about Iron Fist.  By now you’ve probably heard at least a little about him from his new Netflix show and the stewing Online controversy over it.  I don’t want to get too bogged down in that particular conversation, largely because we’re here today to talk about comic covers.  

However, I am still looking at artwork revolving around a white savior trope with a lot of it steeped in Orientalism.  In that regard let me just say that Iron Fist as the great white hope has always been a bad character concept, even when it was widely considered okay back in the mid-'70s. 

What’s more, I’d dare argue that Iron Fist has always been brought down by the awkwardness of trying to fit an Asian pulp aesthetic into the superhero world, so much so that I was barely able to fill out this list of covers.  However, there are still good Iron Fist covers out there and some of the best ones actually manage to address this pretty well.  So, let’s dive into the 40 years of Iron Fist history to see the best of the middle ground. 

Iron Fist Trailer 2 Breakdown

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One of the interesting things about Marvel’s lead up to Defenders is that each of the lead-up series has focused on a street level social issue that their hero is dealing with.  In Daredevil season 1 the story was about gentrification, Jessica Jones was all about rape culture, Luke Cage touched on race relations within the black community, and Daredevil season 2 was about…ninjas.  That last one, the one that breaks the chain and remains the weakest of Marvel’s Netflix offerings, despite Punisher’s excellent presence, seems to be the one most influential on the upcoming Iron Fist TV show.  

In a way that match up is pretty much perfect.  Daredevil Season 2 is a lot like Iron Man 2 in that it only happened because nobody expected Daredevil season 1 to be such a big hit, so the rush was on to get more of him out there as we pushed towards Defenders.  In that rush, the season ended up without much depth or passion outside Punisher because it was only really produced out of obligation, which is exactly the case with Iron Fist.  All the way from inception up to this latest trailer the message of Iron Fist has been “we’re making it, but don’t think we really care,” and this trailer shouts that loud and clear.

Iron Fist Trailer Analysis

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Edited by Robert Beach 

So far, Marvel has produced three original series on Netflix (Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil); Iron Fist will be the studio’s fourth foray into this particular arena.  Scheduled to premiere in March 2017, Iron Fist will be the last original show before Defenders, which will feature a crossover between all four of the Marvel series along with, presumably, the Punisher. All of the Marvel shows have followed along a somewhat similar track: emphasizing brutal violence, a dark and gritty aesthetic, and a very street-level vision of New York. 

Iron Fist will be the first to break from this aesthetic as the titular Iron Fist, AKA Danny Rand, is both a wealthy CEO and a living weapon, master of the mystic kung-fu technique of the Iron Fist. The whole mythos is full of that kung-fu fantasy weirdness like secret hidden cities, other living weapons, and outright dragons, magic, and chi channeling. It’s a different aesthetic is my point. After months of controversy, campaigns, and disappointing casting announcements, we have a full trailer to give a voice to that tone and boy, is it ever mediocre. 

Is Scott Adkins Our Iron Fist?

As 2015 has dragged on one thing has become abundantly clear: Marvel Studio’s future in phase 3 is far less certain than anybody really expected.  More and more the little studio that could has turned into the big studio that can’t seem to get out of its own way.  Marvel’s phase 2 has had some major financial success certainly but culturally the studio has only gotten more scattershot and less solid at predicting what, among its many properties, will be a legitimate smash with audiences or just make a lot of money.  Sure Iron Man 3 was a major financial success but it’s not like anyone is genuinely interested in diving deeper into the Mandarin, AIM, or Extremis any time soon.  The same way Age of Ultron broke all kinds of records but spent the summer getting stomped on at the box office and in the popular consciousness by Jurassic World. 

Meanwhile, less studio involved projects like Ant-Man, Daredevil, Agent Carter, Jessica Jones, and chief of all Captain America: Winter Soldier have found major traction with audiences.  All of this has made Marvel’s upcoming “phase 3” a much shakier and more uncertain place for the once untouchable kings of pop culture.  That their films will still gross solid returns is without question but the lingering issue of “will people still be talking about Marvel in the year 2020” has only become more and more prevalent.  Turns out you can’t sustain cultural impact through cross genre-continuity alone but damned if they aren’t going to try because it looks like Marvel has decided to add another hero to Dr. Strange in the form of Scott Adkins as Iron Fist.