Advance Review: Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon #5 (of 6)

Larry Hama and Dave Wachter’s Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon miniseries is approaching its climax with this penultimate issue. Last month’s instalment left us with the dragons fallen and the Hierophant in ascension. Usually, this would be the issue that leaves readers crossing off days on their calendar, desperately awaiting the conclusion. Unfortunately, I can’t really say that’s the case for me.

Hama is a comics legend and Iron Fist royalty. He penciled the green-and-gold fighter’s second, third, fourth and fifth ever appearances back in 1974. I can understand why Marvel wouldn’t say no to a pitch from a creator of his caliber. However, his scripting on this series has been decidedly stuck in the Bronze Age. Whether or not that appeals to you as a reader will be a matter of taste. After all, Iron Fist is very much a Bronze Age character, borne from the 1970s American kung fu obsession that also resulted in Shang-Chi, Chuck Norris, and Quentin Tarantino. An Iron Fist fan in the right frame of mind could definitely enjoy this book as cheesy, nostalgic, mindless fun.

Personally, I can appreciate Bronze Age plotting and dialogue in stories from the time; but in a modern book it feels jarring and dated. There’s far too much dialogue that spoon-feeds the events on the page to the reader, and it gets worse in this issue as the action ramps up. Even more dated is a moment where conflict occurs due to one character not listening to another’s explanation.

This is not to say that there hasn’t been enjoyable moments. A certain character’s presence has been very welcome, even though it has all the hallmarks of editorial forcing them in due to the (well-deserved) popularity of the character in the MCU. Danny’s brotherly interactions with Luke Cage are always fun and often sweet. And there have been a few good twists. Some moments may be more impactful to readers who picked up Kaare Andrews’ Iron Fist: The Living Weapon a few years back.

Dave Wachter’s anime-tinged art is a great fit for the book. Some scenes look like they could have come out of Avatar: The Last Airbender, whilst the character Fooh would fit right in to a Miyazaki film. Wachter is also really great at drawing dragons, which is important for a series with the word ‘dragon’ in the title.

I’ll check out the last issue to see how things end up, but I’d probably only recommend this for hardcore Iron Fist fans or Bronze Age nostalgics.

Writing – 2.5 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
Colors – 4 Stars

Overall: 3 Stars

Writer: Larry Hama
Artist: Dave Wachter
Colorist: Neeraj Menon
Publisher: Marvel Worldwide Inc.

Author Profile

Yavi Mohan

Yavi Mohan is a comic writer (and more frequently, comic reader) based in London. He is frequently overwhelmed by the number of comics in his reading list, to the extent that it sometimes delays his reading. This list includes every issue ever published with Spider-Man as the main character.