Immortal Iron Fist - Orson Randall And The Green Mist of Death #1 Review

IMMORTAL IRON FIST: ORSON RANDALL AND THE GREEN MIST OF DEATH #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Mitch Breitweiser, Chris Brunner, Lewis Larosa and Russ Heath

I was a little worried the multiple artists on this issue might drag the story down. Thankfully, I was wrong about that as the artist switches are signalled by switches in time frames in the story.

As you may have guessed, the Green Mist of Death is, in fact, the Prince of Orphans, whom we say open a can of green mist ass whooping on Davos not too long ago. It turns out John Aman was contracted by the Seven Celestial Cities to hunt down Orson for his fleeing his duties and the theft of seven coins, one from each city.

We get to see the cat and mouse chase between the two men throughout the years as Orson goes from place to place and adventure to adventure with his merry band of friends, the Confederates. Orson outright fears John Aman and I have to assume Danny would pose no threat to him either based on what I see in this issue if he ever ended up facing the Prince of Orphans.

While Aman is hunting Orson, he is not without honour and on numerous occasions opts to let Orson go, whether it's due to one of Orson's friends being injured in the fight or saving Orson from a would be Frankenstien. Orson finally gets to the Prince when he poses the question to him of how did the seven coins actually get to Earth in the first place.

The final confrontation between the two men is when Orson's father is dying and Aman kidnaps him, prompting him to come to Aman. Aman reveals he was merely playing the part and was keeping his father alive. It is revealed Orson's father built teleporters for all the cities and John has been used all this time.

In the end, we see how Aman ended up on the Thunderer's side at the end of last issue. Orson told Aman of the Thunderer's planned coup and told him to wear the mark if he wanted to join them at the next meeting of the seven cities.

My only complaint about this issue is that it basically goes from point A to point B in a linear fashion. It's a great ride, but it's still a fairly predictable story and there's not too much plot development for the main storyline. Still, good to see more of Orson. I found this removed too much of the mystery behind Prince of Orphans, but that's too be expected when you learn more about mystery men, I suppose.

Verdict - Must Read. A great trip through the various adventures of Orson and some much needed background info on the Prince. I'm still left wondering what happened to Orson to have him end up in that opium den at the beginning of Bru and Fraction's run on the book, though, as it's drastically different portrayal from here with the Confederates.

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