It’s been 46 years since Iron Fist was introduced to the world by Marvel Comics through the pages of Marvel Premiere #15.
Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Iron Fist has been one of the most enduring characters to come out of the 1970s. Last year, I was blessed to have interviewed Thomas. This year, to celebrate his 46th “birthday” or anniversary of his first appearance, I have a special treat for fans of the character—an exclusive interview with Iron Fist: The Living Weapon creator Kaare Andrews!
Andrews is a visionary creator, someone whose imagination cannot be contained. He was the writer, artist, inker, and colorist of the entire 12-issue series, something he learned from the great Jim Steranko. However, Andrews graciously left the lettering job in the capable hands of VC’s Joe Caramagna.
Andrews sought to reinvestigate Iron Fist’s origin story and decided that Danny Rand had to deal with the choice that he made in seeking to avenge his parents’ death rather than enjoy the benefits of immortality. This became the premise for his take on the Living Weapon.
Andrews beautifully summarized Danny’s decision to leave K’un-Lun and return to New York to exact his vengeance on Harold Meachum in this way:
“WHEN OFFERED LIFE HE CHOSE DEATH”
Seeing these words emblazoned on the cover of Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #1 not only added to the mystery of the story within its pages, but it also enhanced the beauty of one of the best Iron Fist covers ever. It’s no wonder why Andrews is in my top 10 Iron Fist artists of all time.
The series was released in 2014 and it introduced longtime fans to new and exciting characters that added layers to Danny’s past and gave him a new direction for the future.
Andrews followed up the aforementioned series with The Immortal Iron Fists, a digital-first series by Marvel in 2017 that was later compiled in trade paperback form. The story revolved around Danny becoming the Thunderer or trainer to Pei, a young girl from the mystical city of K’un-Lun who gained the power of the iron fist and is learning how to live in New York.
The Immortal Iron Fists is a light and fun story that’s a stark contrast to Andrews’ earlier dark and gloomy take on the Living Weapon.
During the interview, Andrews talked about his creative process, why he killed off Lei-Kung, the Thunderer, and his vision for the Netflix TV series that was essentially ignored.
SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead for Iron Fist: The Living Weapon and The Immortal Iron Fists series by Andrews,
I AM IRON FIST: First of all, I’m a big fan of your work and the creativity you bring to each of your projects. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to interview you about one of the most enduring characters from the 70s.
Before writing Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, what was your view of the character and how were you introduced to him?
KAARE ANDREWS: Prior to my work on The Living Weapon I had already done a bit of a stretch of covers on the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja run, which I was reading at the time. But I didn’t have an advanced knowledge of the rich history of the character.
I’m a life long Marvel Comics fan—I mean I’ve been reading those books before I could read words. So I know all of the characters to some degree but it wasn’t until I was approached about doing a run on Iron Fist that I went back and specifically focused on the first issues of his past, the Marvel Premiere stuff.
I was so blown away by those first few issues, it really sparked so many ideas and impulses. It was probably that first storyline and the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja stuff that made up the majority of my personal approach to the character.
IAIF: I love those covers you did for The Immortal Iron Fist! How did you eventually land the big assignment from Marvel to tackle the character?
ANDREWS: Marvel had a handful of characters they wanted to do something new with and I thought Iron Fist might be fun. I’m a huge martial arts fan and I loved his look and had done a few covers. But again, it wasn’t until I read those first Marvel Premiere issues that I knew I had to do this character!
IAIF: Iron Fist: The Living Weapon appeared to be an ongoing series at the beginning but ultimately ended when you left after 12 issues. Did you ever think that you could have continued the series for another year or two, at least as a writer, to pick up the story where you left off?
ANDREWS: We don’t really talk about these sorts of things publicly but the plan was always for me to do 10 issues. We added another two for story reasons as we went, but it was always going to be a limited run on the character.
I was writing/penciling/inking/coloring all of those issues so I was really pushing the amount of work I could handle as a one-man team. No one else in Marvel has ever done it before, not that big a run anyways.
I was pretty proud of the technical accomplishment but I was also pretty worn out by the experience! I did sort of jump back into the world and wrote The Immortal Iron Fists, a mini-series that premiered on Comixology and featured my new creation, Pei. That was a lot of fun and the artist Afu Chan was great to collaborate with. But that story sort of exists a little walled off from normal continuity.
IAIF: We’ll get back to your experience writing The Immortal Iron Fists as I would like to hear more from you about Iron Fist: The Living Weapon.
I just have to say that I love the visuals you created for The Living Weapon! What was the most challenging aspect of the storytelling process for you as an artist in this series?
ANDREWS: I really wanted to (and continue to try to) push the visual language of storytelling. I have all of these weird ideas and theories about visual language and panel-to-panel storytelling.
Sometimes I run into a couple of moments where my editor will be, “These panels are incorrectly laid out. If you put a large vertical panel on the right side and two horizontal panels on the left side, your eyes are going to hit that vertical panel twice”, and I was “Exactly.” Forcing the reader to hit the same reaction to two different moments can be exactly what you might want.
It creates a sort of film effect of cutting back to the same reaction shot twice without drawing the same panel twice. Anyways, I have a lot of fun expressing myself in these weird little ways.
Sometimes they are quite subtle and sometimes they are very flashy—like using text as panels, or doing an entire splash page that’s just teeth biting a lip. It makes me want to keep going.
IAIF: You created a number of new and interesting characters in the series—Pei, Fooh, Detective Li, Brenda, etc. Who was your favorite from among them?
ANDREWS: I think Pei was my favorite new creation. And it was simply asking the question—if Danny was a little kid raised by monks in a mystical land, what would the opposite of that look like? What would a little monk raised in New York by Danny look like? I made an effort to expand the world of Danny and his friends.
I’m not really a fan of worlds that become too insular. That’s not how life works, we’re continually reinventing and expanding the people we interact with, affecting small groups of people at a time. Like a rock skipping across a pond.
IAIF: I’m pretty sure, Iron Fist fans would want to hear your answer to this next question since it involves a major character.
What prompted you to kill off Lei-Kung the Thunderer, who has been a longtime Iron Fist supporting character and one of the pillars of his mythology? It was a shocking moment for me, personally, and one that I truly didn’t expect. I even thought he would come back from the grave later in the series.
ANDREWS: One of the most archetypal storylines in martial arts films has always been one where the Master is killed and the student must seek revenge. It just seemed so true and simple that I knew I had to do it. I’ve never been afraid to make big moves — I’m the jerk who killed off Mary Jane Watson [in Spider-Man Reign]!
Thematically, however, it also helped that Danny had his own father issues. The Thunderer was also a father figure and putting Pei in Danny’s path made him into a father figure himself in some way.
But you know, this is comics—the Thunderer could come back in some way, somehow… maybe even in a story that involves Chinese werewolves.
IAIF: Hmmm…I wonder if there’s a Marvel writer who would be interested in bringing the Thunderer back, but I understand why you did what you did. I remember watching those martial arts films as well and, almost always, the master would be killed by their enemy, prompting the pupil to take revenge.
Your Immortal Iron Fists series was a lot of fun. I honestly didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. Did you pitch the idea to Marvel or did they simply approach you and ask you to write anything that you like about Iron Fist?
ANDREWS: After Living Weapon, I had mentioned somewhere on one of the social media sites or something that I would love to do something more with Pei someday and I think (former Marvel Comics Editor-In-Chief ) Axel [Alonso] saw that.
And then one day, out of the blue my old Iron Fist editor Jake [Thomas] called and said they wanted to do something with Pei and would I be interested in getting involved. I didn’t have the time to draw it but I really love that little kid and had some ideas.
Jake hooked me up with Afu Chan and together we sort of jumped in and made something. A little John Hughes, a little Buffy, a little Hong Kong cinema… It was also an opportunity for me to write Danny a little lighter. I had put him through so much in Living Weapon, I wanted to give him a break. It was so much fun to do that book, I really enjoyed myself too.
IAIF: It was great to see how you let Danny become a father-figure to Pei. It was definitely a different look for him, and it made for an entertaining read. Pei is adorable!
Now that you’ve written two Iron Fist stories, I wonder what you would do next if Marvel gave you the chance to write a new series today. What would you like to explore about the character this time around?
ANDREWS: The way I work is very in the moment. I’m not sure what I would do if I came back to Iron Fist in a year or two… but just to play the game here, if I was to start writing Iron Fist TODAY– like, right after I finished this interview I’d probably start him on some sort of personal quest.
Take away everything he loved by the malicious actions of someone he doesn’t even really know, someone who tries to use him for position and power. Assassinate his character. Oust him from the family business. Poor, alone, betrayed and accused of horrible things.
Force him to look for his true worth not from other people but inside of himself. I’d create a new opponent– someone who has an answer for everything Danny can throw at him. Force Danny to search for ancient teachings and bring back something new from the brink of death.
A new technique, a new philosophy, a new life force. Defeating his opponent wouldn’t be the end of the story. The end of the story would be letting his legacy burn. Knowing he has no power over what others may think of him. He only has power over his actions. And along the way, a friend or two might show up to help him on the way. Also, werewolves. Chinese werewolves.
IAIF: Wow! That sounds like your version of Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again but for Iron Fist. I’d love to read about it someday if Marvel ever reads this interview and decides to give you another crack at Iron Fist. Those Chinese werewolves are going to be stars in this one!
As a feature film director, how would you translate Danny Rand’s story to the big screen? What elements would you keep and what would you remove to make him relevant to the world we live in today?
ANDREWS: You know, when Iron Fist was in danger of falling apart at Netflix I wrote this big treatise on how to interpret him to the big screen and shared it with them. Not really being inside the room and assuming they were simply having creative problems trying to sort the character out- I offered my help as a sort of thought exercise but I was also being a bit naive and a bit bratty about the situation.
The showrunners went a different way. In fact, they already had a vision worked out, they just had some scheduling issues. The show is what the show is. There are things that worked and things that didn’t but translating these comic characters to film is hard for anyone.
But… I still have that original breakdown of how to make it work. I think the most important thing is to always honor the character, not reinvent him. Ultimately what is the core of that character? The distilled, one-sentence statement that makes him unique and important.
Other than that, really lean into what it means to be a martial artist. It’s a different perspective than other heroes. There are deep existential themes at play in the art of violence. A striving towards honor and truth, through combat.
And because of all of this, the most important aspect of translating Iron Fist to the screen has to be this: honor the martial arts of it all. Don’t treat it like something you can cut to a stunt performer for. There is so much embedded in that art form. It’s embodied in a way that is more real than any other superpower. It has to honor it.
IAIF: That’s perfect! You just expounded greatly on what I thought a live-action Iron Fist series or movie should be and more. Thank you for that!
To tell you honestly, this blog and my passion to promote the character through social media are due in large part to my frustrations with the Netflix series. I needed an outlet for my disappointments with the series and to share with others how amazing the character is if given the proper treatment.
I studied martial arts as a kid and a superhero martial artist should be one of the coolest things to come to life from the comics.
Nevertheless, I’ve already accepted that though the Netflix series didn’t portray Iron Fist with integrity, it has at least made the public aware that the character exists. Additionally, some have become Iron Fist fans through the show.
One last question—what’s your wish for Iron Fist on his 46th birthday?
ANDREWS: I wish for Iron Fist to get what he needs not what he wants.
IAIF: I think I speak on behalf of every Iron Fist fan that what Danny needs are two things—first, a new ongoing title from Marvel, and second, a movie announcement before the year ends!
Thank you so much, Kaare for giving me the privilege of picking your brain about your work on Iron Fist the past few years. You’ve been a wonderful interviewee and it was an honor to hear from one of the most innovative comic creators of this generation.
ANDREWS: My pleasure, Omar. It’s been a while since I talked some Danny Rand.
I AM IRON FIST 