The last post basically outlined the introductory episode/issue to my version of Iron Fist. In it, Wu met Danny Rand, a martial arts practioner but not the Iron Fist – think of him as Wu’s Colleen Wing from the Netflix Iron Fist – and his teacher, Ji-eun, the master of Sinanju martial arts (and hopefully played by someone iconic like Michelle Yeoh).
At the end of the first story, ninjas come crashing through the windows of Ji-eun’s martial arts academy (as ninjas are wont to do). The second issue/episode would start with the big fight, again showing that Ji-eun and Iron Fist are in a class all of their own, while among the students, Danny is as far above them as Iron Fist is above him.
At the end of the fight, Iron Fist finds the same tattoos that she found on the ninjas attacking Danny Rand in the first episode. She shows them to Ji-eun, who says that they are the mark of Master Khan. She reveals that Randall worked for Khan all those years ago, and it can’t just be coincidence that his assassins appear at the same time as the Iron Fist.
The rest of the story is Iron Fist, Ji-eun, and Danny Rand hunting down Master Khan. In the process of which, Iron Fist learns from Ji-eun and teaches Danny until Danny learns to channel his qi through Randall’s old guns. Iron Fist learns that the Steel Serpent – Davos – is an adherent of Master Khan and that this is all part of a plan involving K’un L’un’s next intersection with Earth.
Six issues/episodes seems appropriate, and in the third issue the team would venture to the last location of the K’un L’un intersection, when Wu left the city. This would have a lot of flashbacks through which we see how Wu became Iron Fist and her relationship with Davos. They would find a huge construction project at the location – be it in the mountains of Tibet, on a deserted Pacific island, or in Central Africa. They would identify Khan’s people at the site, and near the end, Wu would see Davos.
If this were a 13 episode series, like the Netflix Iron Fist, each section would be broken into two, with a minor reveal linking the two. In this section, we would meet Colleen Wing, the Daughter of the Dragon. The one thing the TV series got right was in its choice of Colleen, if only the role had been better written. In this story, Wing is a kind of archaeologist-adventurer and she wields a legendary katana, unbreakable and able to cut anything. Maybe it’s adamantium, who knows. With a 13 issue/episode structure, there would be time to build more characters. With six or seven issues, we would focus on Ji-eun training Wu and Wu training Danny. Danny’s qi is powerful, and Ji-eun has never been able to teach him how to really harness it. Iron Fist knows all about that.
The fourth section would start with Wu facing Davos, who refuses to fight her. He flees, and the team is able to disrupt and destroy the construction. They uncover information that will lead them to the next locale – Southeast Asia. This is where Ji-eun faced Randall, and it is also the location of the intersection through which Randall returned to the Earth after becoming Iron Fist. The minor reveal of a larger story would be Misty Knight, bionic superspy who is also best buds with Colleen. She’s been tracking Davos, and the section ends with the team finding an ancient temple/academy where Khan trains his ninjas. Of course the climax is a big fight, in which Davos kills Ji-eun. Iron Fist beat Davos rather handily – he’s exhausted from his fight with Ji-eun – but can’t bring herself to finish him. She turns her back on him, and Davos is about to stab her when Danny channels his qi through Randall’s .45s, which Danny has been carrying, killing Davos.
The next section takes the team to the very first intersection with Earth, and this should be in Tibet, in keeping with the Iron Fist story from the comics. We’re going to have problems selling this in China considering they are the authoritarian regime, corrupted by Khan. Wu and Danny have to undertake a bunch of secret agent-y stuff to avoid capture (or, in a longer story, Wu, Danny, Colleen, and Misty). The minor reveal of a longer story would be finding the Book of the Iron Fist, a text of techniques lost for hundreds of years. In a shorter story, this can show up at Khan’s academy in Southeast Asia. The techniques in the book will allow Wu to harness her qi in ways now legend in K’un L’un, assuring its supremacy in coming tournaments.
The final face-off is the final section. Wu and Danny reach the monastery at the spot of the first intersection and don’t find construction but instead find a massive sci-fi-esque portal. There are huge generators and lots of guards and technicians. Iron Fist expects to find Master Khan there, but the hooded figure is actually the Iron Fist that had gone missing – clues to this would have been scattered through the preceding story. He reveals that the portal will allow them access to the Cities of Heaven during the next intersection. Master Khan intends to take the heart of Shou-Lao the Undying, thereby becoming immortal. He will destroy the Immortal Weapons and become the tyrant of the Cities of Heaven. With the powers held in those arcane places, will not Earth follow? Just as Randall before, Khan has bent this last Iron Fist to his will.
Wu fights the last Iron Fist as Danny takes on the minions, using both his martial arts and his qi-spitting .45s (aided by the rest of the team in a longer story). Wu uses the techniques that Ji-eun taught her – specifically The Water’s Mist in Morning, which Ji-eun used to dodge Randall’s bullets – to beat the last Iron Fist and triumph. They destroy the portal and escape with lots of cuts and bruises.
The denouement would be in New York, at Rand Enterprises. Danny has used his business contacts to find how wide a web Master Khan has built, and it is vast. Iron Fist decides that she must stop Master Khan and discover his connection to the Cities of Heaven. The last scene would be her and Danny (with Misty and Colleen in a longer story) in an isolated locale, tearing through more of Khan’s ninjas.
This leaves room for a sequel in which Wu meets Luke Cage – probably through Misty Knight. Master Khan is still out there, and Iron Fist has to stop him. She must also face the fact that so many of her predecessors became corrupt. Is it inherent to the power of an Immortal Weapon?
During the sequel, Wu would return to the Cities of Heaven to fight in the tournament, and that means we get a chance to meet the other Immortal Weapons, including the Prince of Orphans. While Wu is in K’un L’un, Danny Rand – now a noir version of Iron Fist, like Orson Randall in the Immortal Iron Fist series – discovers Master Khan’s plan is to breach the barrier between the Cities of Heaven and Earth during the intersection, when the barrier is weakest. He is building an even larger version of the portal Wu and Danny destroyed. This is big, and so Danny enlists the help of the Colleen and Misty, along with Luke Cage one hopes. Depending on the length of this story, the revolution in K’un L’un from the Immortal Iron Fist could be included as well. Perhaps Master Khan was the original Personage in Jade, the leader of K’un L’un, exiled due to his tyranny and evil.
So that’s how I would do it. Probably lots of problems with it, but that’s why you have a writers’ room, or at least some friends who can go over what you write and point out all the weaknesses and errors. That doesn’t need to happen with this because this story won’t be getting told.
Except for here.
You can find out more about Iron Fist here.
The images are of the Iron Fist Wu Ao-Shi, whom you can learn about here.
The Immortal Iron Fist is rivalled only by Walt Simonson’s run on Thor as my favourite comic series.