Holiday Request: Iron Fist and Prince of Orphans

[glprime]

Time again for my seasonal contribution to the community!

As per request of skjam, I'm posting in three parts the interactions between the Iron Fist and the Prince of Orphans from the Brubaker run of The Immortal Iron Fist.

The character is, like many of those introduced during the supreme "The Capital Cities of Heaven" story arc, both awesome and mysterious.

What went down when these supernatural martial artists crossed paths?


So... Danny Rand, 33rd Immortal Iron Fist, is back in the mystical city of K'un-Lun to participate in something called the "Tournament of Heaven".



That question will be answered later, but it's not really important for our purposes. To the Banquet Hall!


(sorry, for the tiny-ness; it's a double page spread panel.)

So basically, the Prince of Orphans is the MOST mysterious ancient fighter amongst all these other mysterious ancient fighters. Groovy.

After a little demonstration of power, the boisterous cult favorite Fat Cobra gets the honor of choosing his first opponent. He chooses the Iron Fist as, for reasons not yet clear, everybody has it out for Danny, as his predecessor, Orson Randall, did some nasty stuff at the last meeting of the cities, and then did a runner from his duties from that day on. We'll get back to that.



Also, Prince of Orphans is so badass, he gets the honor of having a round 1 buy amongst the odd-numbered competitors.



Seated beside the Prince of Orphans is Davos, Danny's longtime evil-counterpart and the villain from the first arc of the series.

Danny expects he has a shot at taking down this big sumo guy with some fast moves. Unfortunately, Fat Cobra is called that for a reason: he's big AND he's fast. Danny loses, though he's not completely out of the tournament yet.

After another round of fighting, Lei Kung the Thunderer (Danny's old trainer and mentor) is congratulating one of the fighters when ol' Prince rolls up.





More dramatic background you'll have to read the series to enjoy the details of. Back to the fighting!

So, Davos is set to fight next...



Davos underestimates his opponent and loses a hand for it. This is why you don't ignore the battle fan wielders, folks. Sometimes it's paper, sometimes it's razor sharp metal.

In retribution, Davos unleashes the fury, and beats Tiger's Badass Daughter into the dirt and then rattles her limp body a little for good bad measure. All of the spectators are appalled.

Some more intrigue plot development happens, and the next day we get this...



Oh, shit... You see a martial artist with that many scars, you run away.



Oh, I forgot to mention, y'know how all these fighters have some kind of special power or something, like Danny's fist of iron or Fat Cobra's lightning flail? Yeah, the Prince of Orphans turns into an intangible green-hued hurricane that can rip you limb from limb.





Given Davos' eventual character development, it says a lot that this little "lesson" he's given by the Prince is a major factor for things later on. Also, being an elder of the Immortal Weapons group, and even older than all the other long-lived denizens, the Prince gets the most epic names for his martial arts techniques.





"Away." That's all he has to say and they know to back the fuck up.

But later on...



Huh. So he's got a real name, and apparently he and the Thunderer have something they're cooking up. And what was going on with the Prince of Orphans and Orson Randall?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.



DISCLAIMER: Violence and bloodshed behind the cut. May be unsuitable for little tykes.

1 2/3 pages from Immortal Iron Fist #8, 1/3 page from #9, 2 pages from #10, 1 page from Iron Fist #11, and a whopping 7 pages from #12.

Comments

[turtlefu]

White guys: the superior Asian Martial Artist.

[glprime]

Mighty Whitey is very much in effect with this series, unfortunately. The only saving grace for Brubaker is that Danny and John Aman are both existing characters, so he really can't do much about that, though not having Shang Chi come in and mess some of their shit up is almost inexcusable.

[tacobob]

Bah! Nobody is better than Fat Cobra! :D

[aaron_bourque]

Because white people are otherwise inherently incapable of learning martial arts?

[strannik01]

In fairness, John Aman the Amazing Man was created in 1939, long before this became a cliche. And, as Roy Thomas readily admitted, Iron Fist was based on the Amazing Man.

[crinos]

I now <3 Prince of Orphans. That fucker Davos had it coming.

[badficwriter]

Favorite panel:

Dog Brother #1: HE'S NOT MOVING. HE'S NOT MOVING. SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. HE'S STILL NOT MOVING! FUCK! I DRAW MY SWORD!!

[glprime]

That's largely his response to most things.

Barista: Here's your Grande Non-Fat Green Chai Latte, sir.
*SHING*
Dog brother #1: I requested a Venti... and a muffin.

[akodo_rokku]

The one story Dog Brother #1 tells during this series ends with, "So then I chopped off all their heads and burned down the village!" or some such.

So yeah, he's that kind of guy.

[shadeedge]

One of the things I like about this run is that it's the other competitors taking turns to announce the fights. Because they're all just so awesome that the only people impressive enough to introduce them are themselves.

[terrykun]

I like it too. It's a very wonderful sense of comraderie.

[terrykun]

Fat Cobra.... = martial arts Volstagg?

[gaomachine]

You know I'd never considered that connection before.. and it's not terribly far off.

[tsunamiwombat]

Basically.

Fat Cobra x Volstagg teamup anyone?

[tsunamiwombat]

It's a shame Prince of Orphans is a white dude. I was expecting some aged asian guy.

Never. Ever. Ever, fuck with the old guy.

[nezchan]

Stay away from short people too. They'll fuck your shit up.

[valtyr]

There was a lot to like in this run - and the Prince of Orphans is a very cool character. And the art was great.

I like the barker pun. I bet no one ever laughs at his jokes for fear of offending him.

I'm going to register standard displeasure at white dudes being best at martial arts, again. And Bride of Nine Spiders is cool and deadly, but one of her most dangerous moves involves taking her top off. I liked the story, and the mythos, and the characters, and I adored seeing Misty and Luke and Colleen putting up with Danny's shenanigans, but sigh. I could've liked it so much better.

[shadur]

Dunno about the best part - Danny gets taken to the cleaners by Fat Cobra in the first round of the match. Yeah, he was told to throw the fight but there's no indication he did so intentionally even in his internal dialogue.

[gaomachine]

It may involve taking off her top but really all it does is make you realize that she's even creepier than she looks.

Maybe it's the arachnophobe in me but the Bride is some Grade A Nightmare Fuel.

The Prince has another name....

[bewareofgeek]

Amazing-Man

Re: The Prince has another name....

[nezchan]

Not to be confused with 'Mazing Man.

[skjam]

Oh, and before I forget, thanks for filling my request!

[glprime]

Haha, no prob. It was stuff I already had in collection, and we always need more Immortal Iron Fist love.

[proteus_lives]

Wenches of Waiting!

Never gets old.

[hyperactivator]

At first the Prince seemed overpowered but then it was revealed that his abilities are used to put him on equal standing with his usual foes , EVIL GHOSTS!

I like that.

[glprime]

Shh! Don't spoil the last post!

[ninjapeps]

it's amazing how people who live in a kung fu movie aren't familiar with Rule One. you're up against an old, severely battle-scarred martial artist and the first thing you do is mock him? Davos was lucky John wasn't blind or crippled otherwise he'd really be in a world of hurt.