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Iron Fist (1998) #1-3
Iron Fist: The Return of K'un Lun
Presenting a complete collection of Iron Fist's latter-day solo series! It's a cavalcade of kung fu capers that will transform your bookshelf like unto a thing of iron! Danny Rand faces the Steel Serpent...but it's more like Steal Serpent when he takes the power of the Iron Fist! Who is Death Sting, what does she want with the Scorpio Key - and what does she have to do with Danny's sister? COLLECTING: IRON FIST (1996) 1-2, IRON FIST (1998) 1-3, IRON FIST/WOLVERINE 1-4, IRON FIST (2004) 1-6, UNCANNY ORIGINS 14, MATERIAL FROM MARVEL KNIGHTS DOUBLE SHOT 4
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2015
9 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 12, 2025
A real hodge podge, this one. Basically, between the end of the Power Man/Iron Fist book and the beginning of Matt Fraction’s Iron Fist series, various writers tried to figure out just what to do with the character. “Floundering For Direction” seemed a touch negative, so Marvel titled this “The Return of K’un Lun” instead.
This book collects all of the non-team appearances of the character between Heroes For Hire and the Fraction IF run--mostly various miniseries. The best of them is probably the one by Dan Jurgens and Jackson Guice. It's action packed with fun characters and doesn't overstay its welcome. That said, both men have done better work, but this isn't a bad little story.
And there's an Iron Fist/Wolverine miniseries, because of course there is. Just about every Marvel character costars with Wolvie at some point. I’m just waiting for the Wolverine/Fin Fang Foom one-shot--sounds like something either Ryan North or Chip Zdarsky would write.
Arguably the worst of the lot is the 1996 two issue series by James Felder and Robert Brown which is just so very much a product of the 90's as to be laughable. The artwork is over the top with pointless scratchy detail. Hair, fur, and torn clothing stick out in all directions. Everyone smiles like a Rob Liefeld character with, like, a million teeth, and there is frequent use of Frank Miller style silhouettes as well. The writing is insanely over the top. At one point, Iron Fist is attacked by wolves and the captions describe his tendons ripping and “his blood fountaining with their saliva.” Apparently it's all more superficial than it sounds, though, because he's up and functioning just fine minutes later after being rescued. The wolves only ripped nonessential tendons, evidently. And whatever wound the blood was fountaining from has completely healed. Nice trick.
While I enjoyed this book, more or less, I don't think I can recommend it. It serves mostly as an illustration of how hard it is to get a handle on the character and make his adventures interesting.
This book collects all of the non-team appearances of the character between Heroes For Hire and the Fraction IF run--mostly various miniseries. The best of them is probably the one by Dan Jurgens and Jackson Guice. It's action packed with fun characters and doesn't overstay its welcome. That said, both men have done better work, but this isn't a bad little story.
And there's an Iron Fist/Wolverine miniseries, because of course there is. Just about every Marvel character costars with Wolvie at some point. I’m just waiting for the Wolverine/Fin Fang Foom one-shot--sounds like something either Ryan North or Chip Zdarsky would write.
Arguably the worst of the lot is the 1996 two issue series by James Felder and Robert Brown which is just so very much a product of the 90's as to be laughable. The artwork is over the top with pointless scratchy detail. Hair, fur, and torn clothing stick out in all directions. Everyone smiles like a Rob Liefeld character with, like, a million teeth, and there is frequent use of Frank Miller style silhouettes as well. The writing is insanely over the top. At one point, Iron Fist is attacked by wolves and the captions describe his tendons ripping and “his blood fountaining with their saliva.” Apparently it's all more superficial than it sounds, though, because he's up and functioning just fine minutes later after being rescued. The wolves only ripped nonessential tendons, evidently. And whatever wound the blood was fountaining from has completely healed. Nice trick.
While I enjoyed this book, more or less, I don't think I can recommend it. It serves mostly as an illustration of how hard it is to get a handle on the character and make his adventures interesting.
May 28, 2017
Nice compilation of adventures and origin
June 11, 2025
As a collection for a character, is it eclectic? Yes. But, that actually serves to represent a character that, like many reviewers have pointed out, hasn't always had a clear vision. Because the stories and artists and writers vary, you can't review this as a whole other than "if this is your introduction to Iron Fist, do you walk away with enough cliff notes about some of his highlights?" And I think, yes. The art is shaky for most of the stories--the old silver age style is nostalgic, then it gets crazy and somehow the quality only goes downhill as it became more modern--the anime influence for the last "Breathless' series was off putting because the comic paneling and art was so uninspiring aside from pretty eyes... The story lines are pretty basic; if you've read any number of comics, you've seen these same plotlines done better. Danny isn't a very fun character--early on he especially lacks quips and character, so the best thing about him I suppose was his art design and the ludicrousness of his origin story but by the modern story I still didn't feel I had a good sense of who Danny Rand is which is a shame because I bought Iron Fist comics on a whim after being one of the very few fans who actually liked the Netflix show.
November 26, 2017
Lackluster adventures from a usually cool character.
July 4, 2019
Raccoglie una serie di mini dedicate al personaggio.
Nel complesso nulla di che, sia prima che dopo sul personaggio hanno scritto e disegnato di meglio.
1 stella e mezza.
Nel complesso nulla di che, sia prima che dopo sul personaggio hanno scritto e disegnato di meglio.
1 stella e mezza.
March 6, 2020
This is a mixed bag of some really boring and some slightly entertaining, but forgettable, Iron Fist stories.
October 29, 2016
Sometimes it's nice to go back and read comics for nostalgia's sake, but sometimes said comics aren't really that good. The Return of K'un Lun not only collects stories about the Iron Fist from the 90s and early 00s, but is also an interesting look at comics from that time period.
The first story from 1996 reminded me about everything terrible about comics from that time... The story is passable, but the artist wished terribly to look like Todd McFarlane (and drew the most neanderthalic Danny Rand). Early computer graphics were rampant, with super gradient 3D logos, to really shocking "effects" (and not in a good way). Thankfully this is the shortest storyline in the graphic novel.
The second story is from 1998, called "In The Fold". This is, honestly, the only story in this graphic novel that is worth the read. The artwork is amazing and you can tell that the artist studied up on how to depict martial arts on the page. Storywise, it's a typical comic story which touches on Danny Rand's origin a bit, but offers little in the way of resolution. Usually mini-series like this are "pilots" for a full series, which obviously didn't pan out.
Iron Fist/Wolverine features surprisingly little of the secondary billed character. It should really read "Iron Fist Makes Some Dumb Decisions And The Avengers Show Up For Some Reason... In Japan!" Well, I guess the original title fits better on that page... This story is really bad and features some plot holes, but just seemed like it tried to do too much with too little. Whats worse is the art... Wow. Depictions of the characters were a little TOO 2000s, but the backgrounds and scenes were laughable at times. If you read this, pay attention to how they draw "downtown" Tokyo... Which is apparently surrounded by green grass hills and not the rest of the city. Also, I can read Japanese... Which made me wonder what kind of gibberish was written on the billboards in Tokyo. One of them was Hebrew. Not kidding. Oh yeah, the story! Um, don't read this one.
The longest story in the book was "Breathless", which was done by longtime Street Fighter artists from Udon Comics. I remember reading this one and being excited... Now I can't remember why I was so excited! The artwork is okay at times, but all I see is Blonde Ryu or Cody from the Street Fighter comics. The artist also abruptly changes for issue five to someone who tried really, really hard but ultimately failed at drawing. Said artist tried emulating the original artist's style and it didn't work out too well. Thankfully (?) the original artist came back for the last issue. Pay special attention to the colorists in this... First few issues look amazing and make up for the shortcomings in the artwork, but once he left the comic fell flat. Oh, you want to know about the story? Well, it was pretty terrible and lasted at least 4 issues too long.
Lastly we have Iron Fist's origin story, which should have totally been first! This is short, but good. Artwork is just fine, although I wonder how they had electricity in a magical city, modern day gymnastics equipment, and why Yu-Ti is a comic artist. Very strange inclusions that just made me shake my head.
All in all, this is a barely passable collection and explains why Iron Fist kinda fell by the wayside for so long. Each story had him "lose his powers" (fully or partially) or had him question himself as a hero. They were all very generic and it seemed like Marvel's writers were terrified of letting Iron Fist go all out.
Thankfully there are modern stories that show Iron Fist in a better light. I highly recommend Iron Fist Secret Wars (Misty and Danny are adorbs), as well as The Immoral Iron Fist and Iron Fist: The Living Weapon. The new series, Powerman and Iron Fist, is amazing and shows why he works best with Luke Cage. If you're interested in some classic Fist stories, check out Iron Fist the Epic Collection. All of these are available digitally on Comixology and Marvel Unlimited, but some are out of print physically.
The first story from 1996 reminded me about everything terrible about comics from that time... The story is passable, but the artist wished terribly to look like Todd McFarlane (and drew the most neanderthalic Danny Rand). Early computer graphics were rampant, with super gradient 3D logos, to really shocking "effects" (and not in a good way). Thankfully this is the shortest storyline in the graphic novel.
The second story is from 1998, called "In The Fold". This is, honestly, the only story in this graphic novel that is worth the read. The artwork is amazing and you can tell that the artist studied up on how to depict martial arts on the page. Storywise, it's a typical comic story which touches on Danny Rand's origin a bit, but offers little in the way of resolution. Usually mini-series like this are "pilots" for a full series, which obviously didn't pan out.
Iron Fist/Wolverine features surprisingly little of the secondary billed character. It should really read "Iron Fist Makes Some Dumb Decisions And The Avengers Show Up For Some Reason... In Japan!" Well, I guess the original title fits better on that page... This story is really bad and features some plot holes, but just seemed like it tried to do too much with too little. Whats worse is the art... Wow. Depictions of the characters were a little TOO 2000s, but the backgrounds and scenes were laughable at times. If you read this, pay attention to how they draw "downtown" Tokyo... Which is apparently surrounded by green grass hills and not the rest of the city. Also, I can read Japanese... Which made me wonder what kind of gibberish was written on the billboards in Tokyo. One of them was Hebrew. Not kidding. Oh yeah, the story! Um, don't read this one.
The longest story in the book was "Breathless", which was done by longtime Street Fighter artists from Udon Comics. I remember reading this one and being excited... Now I can't remember why I was so excited! The artwork is okay at times, but all I see is Blonde Ryu or Cody from the Street Fighter comics. The artist also abruptly changes for issue five to someone who tried really, really hard but ultimately failed at drawing. Said artist tried emulating the original artist's style and it didn't work out too well. Thankfully (?) the original artist came back for the last issue. Pay special attention to the colorists in this... First few issues look amazing and make up for the shortcomings in the artwork, but once he left the comic fell flat. Oh, you want to know about the story? Well, it was pretty terrible and lasted at least 4 issues too long.
Lastly we have Iron Fist's origin story, which should have totally been first! This is short, but good. Artwork is just fine, although I wonder how they had electricity in a magical city, modern day gymnastics equipment, and why Yu-Ti is a comic artist. Very strange inclusions that just made me shake my head.
All in all, this is a barely passable collection and explains why Iron Fist kinda fell by the wayside for so long. Each story had him "lose his powers" (fully or partially) or had him question himself as a hero. They were all very generic and it seemed like Marvel's writers were terrified of letting Iron Fist go all out.
Thankfully there are modern stories that show Iron Fist in a better light. I highly recommend Iron Fist Secret Wars (Misty and Danny are adorbs), as well as The Immoral Iron Fist and Iron Fist: The Living Weapon. The new series, Powerman and Iron Fist, is amazing and shows why he works best with Luke Cage. If you're interested in some classic Fist stories, check out Iron Fist the Epic Collection. All of these are available digitally on Comixology and Marvel Unlimited, but some are out of print physically.
April 19, 2015
So, I love Iron Fist stories, but a collection like this, full of mini-series and one-shots, really highlights a weakness of the character as he's been used solo over the years.
That is, Marvel mostly only knows how to tell roughly two solo Iron Fist stories. One, his origin (which, to my surprise, has actually remained more or less unchanged) and two, someone wants to use the Iron Fist power for themselves - either bringing Iron Fist somewhere for the purpose of causing a reaction, or killing him so they can take and use the power. In smaller doses its hard to notice, but all stacked up like this, it really does stick out.
Beyond that, I cay say most of the stories here are okay. Nothing to write home about, but inoffensive and sometimes pretty decent.
The best is the final six-parter, "Breathless." This pairs Iron Fist with a young girl who sees visions, a situation he doesn't like terribly much as he's having a crisis of faith about his being a hero. It's actually a really well-paced piece, a lot more intense than the rest. There's only one real problem with it.
The art in the first part is gorgeous (and stylistically, the different stories in this can have very different styles, but I liked the first part of this last story's art the best). But they changed artists to a more cartoony, almost anime-ish style, and this artist... I don't know. The guy in the first half looked like Danny Rand, but I swear in the second half he was drawn more like Chase Stein of the Runaways. I guess it's easy to do they're roughly the same build, same hair, etc. But it was jarring.
Overall, read if you like Iron Fist a whole lot, but if you just want to learn about the character, there are way better series out there.
That is, Marvel mostly only knows how to tell roughly two solo Iron Fist stories. One, his origin (which, to my surprise, has actually remained more or less unchanged) and two, someone wants to use the Iron Fist power for themselves - either bringing Iron Fist somewhere for the purpose of causing a reaction, or killing him so they can take and use the power. In smaller doses its hard to notice, but all stacked up like this, it really does stick out.
Beyond that, I cay say most of the stories here are okay. Nothing to write home about, but inoffensive and sometimes pretty decent.
The best is the final six-parter, "Breathless." This pairs Iron Fist with a young girl who sees visions, a situation he doesn't like terribly much as he's having a crisis of faith about his being a hero. It's actually a really well-paced piece, a lot more intense than the rest. There's only one real problem with it.
The art in the first part is gorgeous (and stylistically, the different stories in this can have very different styles, but I liked the first part of this last story's art the best). But they changed artists to a more cartoony, almost anime-ish style, and this artist... I don't know. The guy in the first half looked like Danny Rand, but I swear in the second half he was drawn more like Chase Stein of the Runaways. I guess it's easy to do they're roughly the same build, same hair, etc. But it was jarring.
Overall, read if you like Iron Fist a whole lot, but if you just want to learn about the character, there are way better series out there.
September 7, 2016
This was a fairly enjoyable compilation of several miniseries featuring Iron Fist from the mid-nineties. Any compilation ends up being a mixed bag. The first story has some pretty awful art and features a lot of violence towards animals that I could have done without. Later issues improve, since they have more contemporary storylines to draw from, and had clearer art. I particularly liked the later one that involved Wolverine and some other support characters, since Iron Fist so often ends up in his own corner not interacting with other Marvel characters. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, though to be fair, I might have enjoyed it more because of how much I love the character.
August 10, 2016
It had it's moments, but I need a little better martial arts action. I've read too much Battle Angel Alita and manga to really find this as satisfying as I think it should be.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews