Being born on Earth and raised in the harsh, other dimensional city of K'un-Lun led to Danny Rand becoming an Iron Fist, one of the Marvel Universe's premier martial arts masters and a defender of both his birthplace and adopted land. A man with feet in two different worlds, sadly neither of them feel like home. What would happen, though, if the circumstances that created Danny played out in reverse and a young child with the powers and skills of the Iron Fist suddenly found herself stranded in modern day New York? How would she adapt? And how comfortable would Danny be in playing the role of Thunderer, the traditional instructor of Iron Fists, for her?
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Those questions and more are being answered right now in Immortal Iron Fists, a series starring Danny Rand and Pei, a young girl monk from K'un-Lun. The comiXology-exclusive digital series marks the return of writer Kaare Andrews, who introduced Pei back in 2014's Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, to the world of the title characters and teams him with artist Afu Chan.
CBR spoke with Andrews about collaborating with Chan, what brought him back to the world of the Iron Fists, the real mythological foes Danny and Pei will face as the series unfolds, and the unique way in which the series has been marketed.
CBR: I understand what brought you back to Iron Fist was the chance to write Pei, the young girl monk from K'un-Lun introduced during your run on Iron Fist: The Living Weapon.What was it about Pei in particular that made you want to come back? Which aspects of her story were you still interested in telling?
Kaare Andrews: I've always been very interested in adding to the Marvel Universe. It's a lot of fun to write the characters I grew up with, but I also want to contribute to the universe. And when I'm long gone and away maybe one or two of those creations can continue to live on through other hands and voices. I think that's part of the fun in working on superhero comics.
These characters outlast their initial creators and transcend media. They're just bigger than any one person. So it's a lot of fun to find ways to add to this pantheon of heroes.
When I created Pei, this little kung fu monk girl, I was interested in the role reversal; the opposite of what Danny experienced as a little American kid being raised in mystical Asia. I thought, “Wouldn't it be fun to have the complete opposite? To have a mystical kung fu monk girl raised in modern day New York?”
That was a story that I hadn't necessarily seen in Marvel Comics, but one also tied directly to Danny's experience since it was the polar opposite. Also, it enhanced Danny's journey because it gave him a reason to become more than just himself.
I always viewed him as a lovable but selfish character. [Laughs] He has a group of friends, but he doesn't necessarily have larger responsibilities. There's a certain point where a martial artist transitions from student to master, and passes along their training to the next generation. So I thought having Danny play the role of the Thunderer to the next generation of Iron Fists would be a fun way to reinvest in his core and his origin.
When they asked if I wanted to do more with Pei I was kind of finished with Iron Fist. I had my turn at bat, but I felt like Pei was so new that I barely got a chance to investigate her and say what I wanted to say with her. So I really wanted to be the person to give her that initial foundation that could later be built on. I loved the character and wanted to spend some more time with her before I said goodbye.
Going back to what you said about Danny, it seems like he has good intentions, but he doesn't understand that he's not just a teacher. He's also a father figure to Pei.
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Yeah, Danny is not a father, and I don't want him to be a dad. That's not my intention. When you have a young person charged in your care, though, you have to be more than just a teacher. [Laughs] You have to take care of that person. And, like I said, he's a bit of a selfish character. It's not that he doesn't care about Pei. It's that he just doesn't understand. He grew up in the private education system with all the money in the world. He may not understand what exactly he's asking when he puts Pei into the public school system as an outsider.
It's not just in terms of wealth either. It's worlds. She came from an entirely different world, and I think it would be quite a shock for anyone to be suddenly plunged into the chaos of the public school system, let alone someone who grew up training to be a warrior.
In the first installment of Immortal Iron Fists we follow Pei as she navigates an environment of metaphorical monsters in her fellow students, and Danny as he investigates a supernatural mystery involving real monsters. Will their two separate narratives connect as the story moves forward?
Yes, eventually their stories will be very connected. We begin with these two people, Danny and Pei, who are a little disconnected. Through this storyline we're going to push them further apart and ultimately bring them back together and reinvest in their relationship. Hopefully, if everyone survives, they will be stronger for it and more connected than before, and will have learned lessons along the way about how to be who they are in the now and not who they think they should be.
In terms of tone would it be fair to characterize your story as a supernatural kung fu mystery?
Yeah. That sounds good. We've been talking about it as a John Hughes movie with kung fu and demons. [Laughs]
There's also a little bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in there, and a little bit of Chinese mythology. So it's kind of a big bag of all these things that I think would be fun and cool for Pei to experience.
So far, the supporting cast of Immortal Iron Fists includes returning characters from your previous run like Detective Li and the dragon Gork. There have been some new characters as well though like Pei's classmates and Madam Yao, the governess Danny hired to help care for Pei. What inspired her creation?
When I did Iron Fist: The Living Weapon I made the decision to create as many heroic Asian characters as I could. That led to the creation of Pei, Fooh the monk, Detective Li, and bringing in Sparrow, Danny's possible former love interest from the past.
I thought for a book that dealt with so many Asian tropes and themes it didn't have a lot of Asia in it. So that was a specific decision I made, and now that I've brought Pei to New York City I want to surround her with the real people of New York; all the classes and colors that the city represents.
Madame Yao was an attempt to bring in a caregiver for Pei that had a connection to her Asian origins. She's someone who could help her find a way to fit into New York City without forgetting who she was and where she came from.
The first issue hinted that supernatural mayhem was afoot in New York City. What can you tell us about the antagonist behind these occurrences? Are they new characters? Or established ones?
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If you know your Chinese mythology and demonology you'll be familiar with some characters that will show up later. We are building towards one of the most powerful demons in Chinese mythology. I'll leave it at that for now.
What I loved about Afu Chan's art in part one was, there was a sense of both fun and whimsy, and then real terror, in both Danny and Pei's stories. What do you enjoy most about Afu's style?
I deliberately wrote the book a little lighter and a little more fun just because of the situation that the characters are in, but what Afu brought to the table was he's pushing those areas even further into the kind of anime meets story book quality that the story has become, and I loved that. I thought it was so refreshing.
The more Afu used his voice in the work, the more I enjoyed working with him. I'm seeing pages from issue #5 right now and he really grows. If you like issue #1, by issue #5 he is blazing. His storytelling is so big and bold. It's a mix of both fun and danger, and it's that yin and yang that make it so fun to read. So I love working with Afu. It's been a real pleasure.
It sounds like you're really enjoying moving from a singular artistic endeavor like Iron Fist: The Living Weapon to a more collaborative one like Immortal Iron Fists.
Yeah, Iron Fist: The Living Weapon was intentionally a very singular voice. I did everything but letter the book. I really wanted to own almost every step of the process, but that's just one way of doing things. So when I came back to the character I wanted to do things a different way. It's been a lot of fun. I also recently collaborated with my friend Troy Nixey on a book for Dark Horse Comics called The Black Sinister, which is available now.
If you're not allowing yourself to do things in a new way then you're not collaborating properly. The best way a collaboration works is you push each other up higher than any one person could go. It's not to control the other person. It's to empower them. When I work with creators like Troy and Afu I want their voices on those pages and in the story. I want it to feel different than if I had just done things myself.
Finally, what's it like telling your story via this digital format? Has that affected the way you've worked on Immortal Iron Fists?
It hasn't affected it at all. I think the bigger effect has been in how it was marketed. At a certain point there was a deliberate decision to stop talking about the book and let it hit people unexpectedly.
I thought that was a very interesting decision because it happened right during the San Diego Comic Con where you have every publisher trying to make as much noise as possible about every one of their projects. Everyone is competing for headlines and space with press releases, preview books, signings, and guest appearances. I thought this was a brilliant way to have your voice heard by doing the opposite; dropping the information that it was available immediately and showing you where you could go to read it.
That was the part I really engaged with as a creator. To me it was like, “We just Beyonce-ed this thing.” [Laughs] It was really fun to just have it out there and contrast the approach to how a book is normally marketed.
I hope people enjoy this book. It's full of new things for me; a new approach, a new tone, a new collaborator, and a new style for a new series. I think it has a strong voice and as we move along through the series it only gets stronger. It really builds to something spectacular.
If you love martial arts, superheroes, TV shows like Buffy, John Hughes movies, or the Shao Lin films, check this out. I think it will be right up your alley.