Marvel’s martial artis t set to move to the big screen with a script from xXx creator Richard Wilkes
Has there ever been a truly successful superhero with a green and yellow costume? Banshee was hardly ever A-List, let’s be honest.
For those of you not immersed in the nitty gritty of the Marvel universe, Iron Fist may not be a familiar name. Along with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, he was Marvel’s attempt to cash in on the martial arts movie craze of the ’70s, first appearing in ’74. But whereas Shang-Chi was clearly Bruce Lee influenced and looked cool and hard, Iron Fist looked more like an escapee from a Chinese circus. For a while he even teamed up with Power Man, himself a by-product of ’70s blaxploitation pics, in a comic series that – when read today – seems almost like a Life On Mars -style post-modern pisstake (to be fair, it often had its tongue firmly in cheek). But even the mighty Frank Miller had problems making him look cool.
At various times since, various writers and artists, including some top rank ones, have resurrected and reinvented the character, but Marvel movie boss Kevin Feige and Wilkes must have some pretty radical plans for the big screen version of Iron Fist if he thinks the company can make a hit movie out of him. Like, perhaps, changing the costume?
