One of the oddest "couples" in comics had to be the teaming-up of streetwise Luke Cage (briefly known as Power Man) and Danny Rand, the rich kid who ended up becoming the martial arts master known as Iron Fist.
They both appeared in their own comics in the early-to-mid '70s, but when sales dropped, they were combined into a single title, Power Man and Iron Fist, and that series (which continued Luke's original occupation as a Hero for Hire) rolled on for another eight years (or so).
In the 30 years since then they've both been through major changes. Luke dropped the superhero name, married former superhero Jessica Jones (perhaps you've heard of her?) and they're parents of an infant girl.
Iron Fist has been established as a legacy hero, carrying on a legendary role as the man with the fist of iron. He's also (I believe) back to being wealthy.
So this series, written by David Walker, tries to fit all those crazy puzzle pieces together and find a reason for these old friends to work together. The story does that, as Luke and Danny set out to do a favor for a mutual friend - an errand that brings them into conflict with some heavy hitters, and lands them in the middle of a power struggle.
It would work fine as a one-off story, but it's hard to see how this is going to work as an ongoing series. I kept thinking, I'd rather see each hero in his own series - certainly Luke and Jessica are interesting enough on their own - ditto for Iron Fist.
It's a nice bit of nostalgia to see the two guys back together, but I don't have a good feeling about the projected life span of this series.
And the title no longer makes sense.
Grade: B
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