Marvel Comics 2017
Written by Ed Brisson
Illustrated by Mike Perkins
Coloured by Andy Troy
Lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham
Couple things this isn’t anything like the Netflix series so hopefully that won’t deter people from reading this and rather thankfully this isn’t much like the Power Man & Iron Fist series either. Huge, I mean utterly huge fan of Mike and Andy’s work here which i’ll get to later but it’s about time a Marvel series has these kinds of interiors! Ed’s a strong writer and he knows what he’s doing so I was intrigued about what we were going to get here.
Personally i’m pretty much out of the Marvel loop but I was able to come into this right away and see what was going on. This is a well structured story that starts us off kind of in the middle of something but doesn’t make you feel like you’ve come in midway. The intrigue to understand what’s going on and why is incredible to witness firsthand. I want to know how things got to this point and where they going from here. The characterisation is phenomenal as you see this fully frustrated Danny going about things in this little boy lost way and it hits you in this way that you don’t expect.
There’s a darkness to this series that I wasn’t expecting either. Mike and Andy demonstrate that brilliantly right off the bat here. The attention to detail on this opening page and how we see the cars, bikes and the building in the rain immediately tell you something is off or wrong in some way shape or form. The way page layouts are used with their angles, perspective and utilisation of backgrounds tells us the story visually without the need for cumbersome dialogue. Though I will say this much watch the hair Andy, on the plane it went from blonde to brown and lighting aside it shouldn’t get as dark as it did.
So I already feel this is going to be one of those intense character driven books and I’m thrilled by that prospect. No unending series of team-ups or whining just a man on a mission to find himself, prove himself and in some twisted turn of the mind redeem himself in some unforeseen way. All because he is losing his connection to K’un-Lun and the Chi of Shou-Lao so let’s throw a pity party and get down to business shall we. I mean he’s only going to be able to mope for so long before going about rekindling that connection and that means he’s going to have to go through quite a lot before that can happen.
This has me excited for not only the character but for the creative team bringing this to life. There’s an energy they brought to this that is undeniably strong and interesting. This is going to be a great character journey for Danny Rand and I look forward to every moment of it!