Spoilers for The Immortal Iron Fist #21 by Duane Swierczynski, Final Crisis: Revelations #4 by Greg Rucka, and Deadpool #5 by Daniel Way.
The Immortal Iron Fist #21
“Wah Sing-Rand and the Mandate of Heaven” is a story about another Immortal Iron Fist. Wah is young, obviously related to Danny, and doesn’t live much as he’s in a stasis and then shortly killed after he escapes. While, Swierczynksi shows a different way that the Immortal Iron Fist means life. This time literally.
While the chi wins, Wah still dies. And the Rand line mostly likely ends there. It’s supposed to show that life is more than just living, but the tone isn’t quite right. Not exactly an uplifting story like it’s supposed to be.
Final Crisis: Revelations #4
I’m still reading this comic, thinking “what the heck is going on?” Or moreover, I know what’s going on, I just think Rucka is trying to be too cryptic. Perhaps he’s spent too much time around Chaos Magician Grant Morrison and the whole anti-life equation? I’m all for high literature and comics being more than just beefed up superheroes dressed in spandex, but sometimes, a writer can take it so far that the meaning becomes meaningless. (Read: My big issue with Morrison and my big worry about DC’s direction since Morrison’s been their lead writer these days.)
Deadpool #5
This was the zombie issue that I was waiting for. (Though Way slightly reused his Skrull plot, but at least he admitted it.)
Of course, feeding Deadpool to zombies forever would seem like a good idea to the super villain. But a really bad idea since everyone knows zombies don’t like to eat the dying. 😉
It is funny to see the zombies spit out Deadpool and proclaim him to be foul meat. Reminds me of the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Gollum spits out the lembas bread.
It is interesting to see how Way makes Deadpool outsmart everyone by double-double crossing them. Sure, he doesn’t like to be betrayed. No one does. And he really isn’t happy when he doesn’t get paid. However, this is an interesting look into how Way sees Deadpool, especially compared to Nicieza’s Cable & Deadpool, where Cable can see the bigger picture, but Deadpool never can. In fact, over and over in that series, Cable “hires” Deadpool (largely to keep him out of trouble) without Deadpool figuring it out until the plot arch’s reveal.