MARVEL PREMIERE #25

”MORNING OF THE MINDSTORM!”
Writer: Chris Claremont | Artist: John Byrne | Inker: Al McWilliams
Letterer: Karen Mantlo | Colorist: Michele Wolfman | Editor: Len Wein

You are Iron Fist and this man is trying to kill you.

His name is Khumbala Bey and, until three days ago, he served as bodyguard to the princess Azir of Halwan, serving her as his family had served the Lion Throne of Halwan for over a thousand years.

And then, a stolen robotic nightmare called a Monstroid soared out of the Central Park sky and tried to take Azir’s life… and Khumbala Bey was nowhere to be found.

Azir would have died that afternoon, Iron First--had you not saved her. And, by saving her, shamed Khumbala Bey beyond redemption.

He would kill you for that now.

The Plot: At the Halwan embassy, Iron Fist is attacked by Princess Azir’s disgraced ex-bodyguard, Khumbala Bey. Their fight stops when Azir orders Bey to leave Iron Fist alone. She expresses her hope to see the Living Weapon again, then he departs the embassy with Lt. Rafael Scarfe. The duo drives to the Wing residence, where they find Professor Wing roughed up and hallucinating, babbling that Colleen is in danger.

Iron Fist and Scarfe travel to the office shared by Colleen and Misty, where they find two men posing as police abducting her. Fist and Scarfe pursue the kidnappers into a blind alley, where they run into Angar the Screamer, whose screams create vivid illusions. Iron Fist battles several illusory foes and unmasks the last one as Khumbala Bey. This allows him to break from Angar’s altered reality, but by the time he and Scarfe recover their senses, the kidnappers and Collen are gone.

Iron Fist prepares to kill Angar, but Scarfe stops him and reveals a clue: Angar’s ID card from Stark International.

Continuity Notes: Narration on page 2 recaps all the enemies Iron Fist has encountered to date, with a footnote pointing to the past ten issues.

As Iron Fist and Scarfe enter the Wings’ home, they're observed by two men working for “the Fat Man”. Their employer will be revealed a few issues from now.

When Colleen doesn't answer her phone, Lt. Scarfe suggests that perhaps she and Misty are “on a case,” our first hint at their shared profession.

Angar (real name: David Angar, if you can believe it) last appeared in DAREDEVIL #107.

My Thoughts: All right, now we're talkin’! John Byrne has arrived, and this series suddenly looks better than ever. I'm not saying all of Iron Fist’s prior artists were bad, because they weren't. Gil Kane, for Pete’s sake, is a comic book art god. But, in my humble opinion, John Byrne -- even at age twenty-five -- blows them all away.

I've often looked at Marvel comics from this era and found them severely overdrawn, filled with unnecessary detail lines and excessive rendering. That's just not the case with Byrne. Put his work from 1975 next to that of Kane or Hama or Jones or even Dave Cockrum or Sal Buscema. Some of those guys are good, very good. But all their work looks scratchy and unfinished next to Byrne’s smooth, clean illustrations. Byrne’s art, especially at this period in his career, is polished and shiny and clean, making it far more attractive to my eye than even artists who are technically superior to him. And whenever he comes onto a series in the seventies, it's like a burst of regenerative energy is pumped into the book.

Such is the case here, though I suspect it's coincidence. Claremont began his Halwan story last issue, but that was still a one-off adventure to set it up. This installment, however, features Claremont’s first genuine cliffhanger on IRON FIST, with Colleen’s kidnapping and the teasing of an Iron Man appearance next time. And this won't be a short serial, either – settle in, because Iron Fist’s search for Colleen is going to take the better part of eight issues, told over a mostly bi-monthly schedule, to resolve.

And with Byrne along for the entire ride, for the first time ever, Iron Fist has a permanent, long-term creative team in place. These two may be best remembered together for the X-Men, but it was on IRON FIST that they first joined forces, and I look forward to revisiting the earliest days of their legendary partnership.