By Tim Stevens
On December 24, IMMORTAL IRON FIST #21 hits shelves and readers won't Danny Rand anywhere inside.
Writer Duane Swierczynski and guest artist Timothy Green take the book into the far flung future, the year 3099, to see what may be humanity's last gasps. The idea to turn the concept of the Book of Iron Fist—which has previously introduced fans to such past Immortal Weapons as Orson Randall and Bei Bang-Wen—on its head came as a result of a casual comment made by editor Warren Simons.
"Warren was the one who suggested, kind of off-handedly, a one-shot featuring a future Iron Fist," Swierczynski remembers. "'I don't know,' he said, 'maybe Iron Fist 3099, or 4099, or whatever, bro. You know what I mean.' I take those kinds of statements as a dare."
The dare fits nicely in with Swierczynski's approach to the book, which strives to consistently surprise and intrigue fans.
"It's kind of what we—myself, and editors Warren Simons and Alejandro Arbona—like to do with Iron Fist: keep the fans guessing," the writer explains. "You should never feel entirely comfortable reading
[IMMORTAL IRON FIST]. You can get punched in the face at any given moment, spinning you into other subgenre. This time, we're trying to punch you so hard, you'll land a thousand years in the future."
Drawing on the works of noted authors like Alfred Bester, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Theodore Sturgeon, Swierczynski has conceived a world where the last pieces of humanity, having escaped a dead Earth, huddle together on a planet rich with technology and little else.
"I'm kind of an optimistic pessimist," he says, describing his outlook on the future, "I think a lot of people start out with good intentions, but things fall apart anyway, usually to a spectacular degree."
Until the start of this story, the legacy of the Iron Fist has been dormant for quite some time. With scientific advancements reaching a point so spectacular in 3099 that it has the ability to create robotic versions of the Immortal Weapons, it would seem to be a world without place for an Iron Fist. Swierczynski, however, sees it differently:
"Machines are great and all, but they can also fail you. And when you have nothing left, what can you cling to—other than faith?"
On December 24, fans can witness the people of the year 3099 answer that very question in IMMORTAL IRON FIST #21. To catch up with Iron Fist, visit Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
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