The big news of the day is that Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are leaving The Immortal Iron Fist after 16 issues, one annual and one special. The new creative team are writer Swierczynski and artist Travel Foreman, who’s already done an issue or two of Iron Fist I think. Already the internet is prepared to drop this book once Bru and Fraction leave, setting up Swierczynski in an almost no-win situation.
At the Newsarama link, Sweirczynski outlines the start of his run and it sounds kinda, sorta interesting. I haven’t read his Punisher or Cable stuff yet so I don’t know what kind of writer he is. At the same time, I know what kind of writer Fraction and Brubaker are so I was looking for a way to squeeze their upcoming Uncanny X-Men run into my limited budget. Well, I think that I’ve now found the way– Immortal Iron Fist is going bye-bye so I can pick up their X-Men.
As these kind of announcements do, this has prompted some discussion about the merits of following creators or characters. Obviously from my above statement, I’m following the creators. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for Fraction to get this kind of writing assignment– a huge book, top 10 on a regular basis and one that needs his unique plotting. Maybe he was courted for it but I’m still a bit shocked that he didn’t get one of the Amazing Spider-Man writing slots. I guess the X-Men is a good second-place finish.
So I guess you can tell that I’m much more interested in the creators than I am in the creation. Brubaker and Fraction have done a good job on Iron Fist and I probably do wish that they would stick out a bit longer. If the current kung-fu tournament is their swan song, I wonder what the point of their story is going to be. It felt like they were setting up something larger and bigger than that. I think the next issue or two of Iron Fist had better be something special or this could be one of those great but cut-too-short comic runs. Over in the X-World, I quickly lost interest in Brubaker’s X-Men so I hope we get to see a lot of Fraction’s personality show through on that book.
Of course, I’d also point out that it felt like James Robinson was setting up JSA for something when he left and was taken over by a nobody named Geoff Johns. Maybe Sweirczynski could be the next Johns.
April 7, 2008
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i’m going to stick with iron fist. i love characters a write will make me pick up a new book but his leaving won’t make me drop a book the stories got to get really bad or the story has to do something i don’t agree with.