“The Immortal Weapons, laughing as one? I never would’ve thought I’d live to see such a day.” — Immortal Iron Fist #13 by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, Tonci Zonjic, David Aja, Kano, Matt Hollingsworth, and Artmonkeys Studios
Iron Fist Week, Day 5: A Favorite Team-Up
One of my favorite superhero teams of all time. Forget the Avengers, forget the Justice League. Let's talk about the Immortal Weapons.
This is a group of people that is not meant to be friends. Each of the Capital Cities of Heaven exists on a separate plane of existence, and each Weapon is intended to be a tool of their city, first and foremost. Their only interactions with the Weapons from the other cities seem to be at formal events like the Tournament of Heavenly Cities, in which their job is to mindlessly beat the hell out of each other for the glory and advancement of their people.
The Weapons, for the large part, are shown to be solitary in their experiences in the role. Even in cities where there is a close connection between the Weapon and their community, as seems to be the case with Tiger's Beautiful Daughter and her sisterhood of soldiers, and maybe also with the Crane Warrior and Crane Daughters (though we've never met a living Crane Warrior so it's all a little vague), the harsh experience of being an Immortal Weapon is singular. Nobody else will truly be able to understand what that is like. We are shown the former Iron Fist Wu Ao-Shi and her mild-mannered fisherman husband, who were deeply in love but could never fully see eye-to-eye. We see Fat Cobra, who is jovial and outgoing and gathers friends wherever he goes and yet, at heart, is alone. We see Orson Randall, who had so many people who cared about him but who ultimately couldn't save him from what the trauma of being the Iron Fist had done to him. These are people who are living a difficult, dangerous life, gifted with enormous power that they must use to battle tremendous hardship. And so often, no matter how many loved ones are around them, at the end of the day they are doing it alone.
And yet. And yet! The new generation of Weapons forms a bond. They connect. They become friends and allies, a team that was never meant to exist. And these people who are so different, yet have everything in common, find each other and care for each other and joke around and kick ass together, and it's beautiful every time because it is in defiance of everything they're supposed to be to each other. And seeing people who are meant to be enemies usually, or acquaintances at best, forming friendships that transcend dimensions and defy all odds is profoundly cool to me.
