here's the quick background - i picked up iron fist starting with the second story arc. thus, i have a vague idea of who orson randall is and what he's all about, but i haven't read any of his stories.

now...

- "the immortal iron fist: orson randall and the green mist of death" is a FANTASTIC title.

- i love orson randall's group of friends. even though i hadn't read them before, i get who they are - the vaudeville magician, the plucky kid sidekick, the big dumb guy, etc. what a fun, colorful bunch of characters!

- i got the story...until they were in the old west. maybe i missed something, but i don't know how they were in a big city one minute, and then in the old west (complete with busty cowgirls) the next. this was baffling.

- and then, how did orson get from the old west to meet frankenstein? even more baffling. this story made no sense!

- while each of the artists had a good look, as a whole, it makes for a terribly jarring experience to have so many different styles in one book. this is a personal thing, and i tolerate it on the main book as helping differentiate two totally different time periods and casts of characters (and even then i wish aja did the whole thing!). but in a book like this it's a downer.

- i love what they're doing with iron fist - i love building the legacy, and introducing all these cool side characters. my first taste of orson, and i liked the feel he and his crew have - a sort of larger-than-life indiana jones-style old-timey adventure bunch. the only thing i didn't like was how freaking confusing the details of this story were.