Fraser’s Iron Fist: Issue/Episode One

So in the last post, I discussed how I would have approached the Netflix Iron Fist. There’s no way this can ever amount to anything, but it was a fun thought experiment, so I thought I’d share it. In the discussion that sparked this, I got into the story I thought could be told, so that’s what I’m going to share here.

The series would open with a fight between Danny Rand – young, rich, white, blonde-haired Danny in my mind, but could be any young rich individual – and five others. They are obviously skillful but Danny does pretty well on his own. When things start turning against him, Iron Fist shows up (she’s in a fighting outfit that’s the iconic green and yellow, but not the costume, and not Wu’s traditional kind of garb from the Immortal Iron Fist) and she plows through the opponents, showing that she is way beyond Danny’s level of competence. She checks the bodies and each has a tattoo on their neck.

Danny thanks her and the two intro each other, though she does not indicate she is the Iron Fist. Danny is on his way to the martial arts academy at which he is studying and Iron Fist admits that’s where she is going as well.

The academy is run by a veteran martial arts practioner, and she almost immediately recognizes Wu as Iron Fist. Wu admits to this, and the teacher says with weary resignation that she knew this day would come. At some point, we should see the twin Colt M1911A1s in a place of honour, maybe in a display case but not really obvious.

The teacher is Ji-eun, and she killed an Iron Fist more than sixty years ago. I’m thinking Michelle Yeoh, but it might be Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, or some other iconic HK martial arts mistress. Ji-eun is over one hundred years old and is the master of Sinanju martial arts (shout out to the Destroyer novels and Chiun).

This is where Iron Fist puts on her mask (maybe a helmet or something else, but the yellow hood is iconic, and would help hide the use of stunt doubles in a live action version) and the two fight. It is epic. These are two perfect weapons. Danny moves to intervene, but Ji-eun orders her students not to interfere.

Finally, we see Wu use it. Iron Fist calls upon her qi, and it is quick and natural for her – not some agonizing focus on her fist and her extensive concentration. This is her thing. This is as natural to her as any other technique. Iron Fist’s Iron Fist ends the fight. Ji-eun is dazed.

Iron Fist wants answers. What happened and where is the body of Orson Randall. Ji-eun tells her story. We see it all in flashback. That Iron Fist was Orson Randall, and he had fallen far from his calling. They met in Southeast Asia where he had created a criminal empire. We see him in the iconic green and yellow, and I would love for it to be Fred Ward (Remo Williams). Randall uses the twin .45s that Ji-eun has on display, and he projects his qi out of them. Still, Randall has been ravaged with drug use and alcohol abuse. Even his power as the Iron Fist isn’t enough. Ji-eun defeats him but in doing so, she kills him. Only after does she note the dragon’s head peaking out from under his tunic, and she opens the tunic to reveal the dragon tattoo. She killed him without realizing what he was but we see the realization dawn on her – there’s hints though no actual statement that certain great masters know about the Cities of Heaven.

Back in the present, she says that she’s been waiting for an Immortal Weapon to come and seek revenge. She does not regret what she did, but she did not mean to kill him.

Iron Fist tells Ji-eun that it wasn’t her who killed Randall. After years of abuse and neglect, he just wasn’t strong enough to withstand the power of his qi amplified by the spirit of Shou-Lao the Undying which each Iron Fist carries.

This scene ends with ninjas crashing through the windows and into the academy! Of course!

Stay Tuned for the rest of the story as I would have envisioned it. Maybe it’ll give you some inspiration, or maybe it’ll make you glad I never got my hands on the property.

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.