REVIEW: Iron Fist #14

Writer: Chris Claremont

Artist: John Byrne

Inker: Dan Green

Color: Janice Cohen

Review: Cody "Madman" Miller

This book is hands down the greatest dirt mall find of my meager existence.

 I was digging through the normal random piles of abandoned misfit comics that one always finds in such a place, your usual 90s X-Men, Superman “Funeral for a Friend”, and Alpha Flight, when suddenly I found the vein and struck dirt mall gold. The price tag mocked me with it’s meager $1.50. My skepticism grew instantly as I assumed it had to be a reprint, half the pages were scribbled on, or worst case, missing. I've never been so happy to be wrong in my life. Oh sure, there’s a few cosmetic issues, like a small quarter inch tear through the upc and the top corner has a small crease, but that’s about best case scenario when you’re pawing through moldy oldies in a re-purposed drive in movie theater. But seriously: yay me.

This book throws you straight into the action that I presume spills over from whence it came via issue #13. Daniel Rand, a.k.a. the Iron Fist, and Colleen Wing are running through the wilds of the Canadian Rockies, west of Calgary, from a band of black spandex clad goons on snowmobiles. Colleen takes a bullet to the head, but thankfully it's non-fatal. She just gets concussed. I’m not going to lie; I’m not very familiar with this Colleen other than she has zero real powers, is really good at martial arts, and her head may or may not be bulletproof. Really, I wasn’t much interested in Colleen or her Wonder Melon.. I just wanted it to happen. The guy reborn in the fires of the dragon's heart carries Wonder Melon to the safety of an abandoned cabin, which they stumble across. No fire . . . Freezing to death . . . No problem! The duo enter a deep Zen trance and survive the night.

As it turns out Colleen has been employed by some guy as a body guard and calls in Iron Fist for back up. After a brief helicopter ride and a conversation about Daniel’s failed love life it finally happens. World, meet Sabertooth! Sabertooth has kidnapped Colleen’s employer and now must face off with the Iron Fist. The main event rages on for half the book and is a pretty epic battle if I must say so myself. For the epic finale, Sabertooth leads Rand into a trap and snow blinds him, forcing Rand to channel his inner chi and put the big bad down Murdock style. In the end that’s exactly how it ends, with Iron Fist standing shirtless and victorious over his fallen opponent just as it should be.