Howdy amigos!
As I said in yesterday’s post, we are looking to bring you more comic book related content to the blog, so in keeping with this, the mighty Rich Kid aka Rich Reviews makes his long awaited return to Woo Long Talks with his love letter to Marvel comics brilliant ‘Power Man and Iron Fist’!
Not only are they back, they are back with a bang. The original lethal weapon, the first rush hour. Each reintroduced to a new audience whether as part of a group like the avengers or in a solo series. Well the audience has spoken and marvel has listened even if it is at the behest of Luke Cage himself the mudda fuddle fiddle faddle boys, the heroes for hire aka. Power Man and Iron Fist are back in town.
The creative powerhouse behind the series is writer David Walker, who most notable work was the ‘Shaft’ series that he wrote for Dynamite Comics. On art duties we have Sanford Greene, whose work on the marvel series ‘Runaways’ made some noise. Walker’s understanding and love of 70’s blaxploitation/pop culture keeps both old and new fans of the characters happy reintroducing characters that would not even be considered Z list these days and not only fleshing them out but making them relevant to the area in which they reside. I for one was definitely shocked but also excited to see ex Spiderman villain Tombstone running his “business” and running into the ‘Heroes For Hire’. The Da Vinci for this book in Greene is nothing short of a phenom. It’s like he was born to draw these characters and all that appear in this book. He has managed to show his side of new York that fits perfectly with the style of the characters and has an almost graffiti style feel to it. It always feels busy and vibrant, whether it’s a simple panel of Cage on the phone to his wife while Danny Rand is in the background practising kung fu forms or may it be while a big battle is happening and passers by are using their smartphones to take pictures or record videos.
This isn’t your daddy’s heroes for hire or even your heroes for hire from the early 2000s. As we have grown since then so too have Cage and Rand. Cage has become a full fledged father to his daughter Danielle and loving husband to Jessica Jones. Cage no longer wants to do the superhero businesses because of his family but yet misses hanging out with his best friend. Rand is still single to mingle and all he knows is how to be a living weapon and he also misses hanging with his best friend this is art imitating life as we all know that as you get older responsibilities change order. But since this is the world of comics we can’t have a title named after our characters and not deliver what we want, so through circumstances and after being repeatedly asked if they are back together like some couple that broke up in high school and then rekindled later on in life by issue 4 they are back to doing what they do best. The running joke for the first issues is whoever the duo bump into they keep on getting asked if they are back together with Danny answering with an excited yes and Cage a begrudging no.
With its ears and eyes firmly keeping tabs on what is happening today there are references to Tupac, classic cinema (Rashomon), shamrocks and shenanigans in radio stations and even police brutality. This easily some of the best writing I have personally seen come out from Marvel in a long time. The last time I was this excited about a series was writer Matt Fraction’s and artist David Aja’s run on the ‘Iron Fist’ comic which was followed by everyone’s favourite jackass archer ‘Hawkeye’.
With the trailers for both ‘Luke Cage’ and ‘Iron Fist’ being released for the TV shows and also with the announcement of the solo series comic books to be released this year now more than ever would be a good time to jump on the Cage/Fist train and ride the fiddle faddle out of it.
While writing this I had been listening to some music of what I thought would reflect the tone of the series would inspire me to get more of a feel. You can find the tracklist below.
Until next time.
Rich Kid aka Rich Reviews
- THE ROOTS: Seed 2.0
- THE ROOTS: Here I come
- TUPAC: Me Against The World
- Jay Z: Empire State of Mind
- WU TANG CLAN: Bring the Rukus
- LENNY KRAVITZ: Are You Going to Go My Way
- DIGABLE PLANETS: Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
- BUSTA RYHMES: Woo Ha (I Got You All In Check)
- TUPAC: Changes
- LORDS OF THE UNDERGROUND: Chief Rocka
Woo Long Talks 