Immortal Weapons #3

Written by Rick Spears
Art by Tim Green II

When Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction introduced the various Immortal Weapons of the different Capital Cities of Heaven in their excellent run on The Immortal Iron Fist, I remember thinking that there was a lot of story potential there. I'm really glad to see that Marvel is taking the time to mine some of that potential, and that they are using such a wide variety of creators to do it with.

The previous issues of this title have been good and okay respectively, but this month's issue is excellent. Rick Spears has a talent for writing about lost, waify kids. His amazing (and sadly unfinished) Pirates of Coney Island is a good example, as is Teenagers From Mars. Tim Green is an excellent artist - his work on Marvel's Star-Lord mini-series a couple of years ago was a nice surprise, and I've been trying to follow his work ever since.

These two creators work well together. This issue of Immortal Weapons focuses on Dog Brother #1, a swordsman who travels with a pack of dogs, rescuing children from slavery or dangerous lives. The story is set in Hong Kong in 1841, where Sihing and Sidai are living on the streets, trying to avoid beatings and scrounge enough food to get by. Sihing is schooling Sidai, and attempting to protect him. This part of the story reminded me of Tekkonkinkreet (also reminding me that I need to read that some day). Later, the friends get caught up in the opium trade, and have still farther to fall before Dog Brother #1 will come for them.

Spears does a great job of building up these characters in a short span of time, and uses almost every scene to underscore Sihing's strength and faith. While this comic has its share of novel and gory kung-fu moves ("The Judgement of Solomon (With Assistance)" is brilliant), it has a lot of heart too.