Artists & Action Sequences

(I have ruined Aja's art here by adding panel numbers for reference
as the flow on this page isn't linear left to right for each row.)

This sequence is from David Aja's work on The Immortal Iron Fist (2006-2009). On pages like this one, I always try to examine the physical logic flow from each panel to the next.

It is to be expected that artists have to be selective about which stages of movement to illustrate and which ones to leave for the reader's imagination to fill in.

I really enjoy Aja's art, and this sequence is no exception. However, my little brain continues to struggle to fill in some of gaps in the physical movement of Iron Fist on this page, especially from panel 2 to 3 and from panel 6 to 7.

If you take a close look at panel 2, the tassels on Iron Fist's mask and belt are being blown to the left (which is just a tad bit odd as the helicopter in panel 1 would generate its own wind blowing to the right, would it not?).

Anywho, if you focus on the angle of Iron Fist's shoulders in panel 2, he appears to be turning away from the helicopter and towards the "camera" or "audience," if you will.

So, how does he end up face-right in panel 3 instead of face-left? If he continues his movement forward and dives off the roof to the right, he should end up face-left by the time he reaches the top of the lantern bar in panel 4.

The only thing I can figure is that he must have turned away from the "camera" in panel 2, instead of towards it, and preformed a back flip off the roof to end up in the face-right position depicted in panel 3.

I have absolutely no problem with the visual logic flow from panel 3 to 4. However, given the placement of his feet entering and exiting panel 5, Iron Fist's momentum would seem to propel him over the bar in face-left position in panel 6, not face-right.

(The flow of the tassels also seems to magically switch directions in panel 6 given the direction of their flow in panel 4.)

And even if you imagine Iron Fist pausing at the top of the bar and reversing his direction so that he goes under the bar instead of over it, he still would be face-left.

Unless he also completes a twisting movement, most likely at the top of the bar, in panel 6.

Otherwise, in panel 7, Iron Fist is again facing the opposite direction of where the momentum of his movement from the previous panels would seem to have taken him.

My point is, my wee brain would really have benefited from Aja showing me the beginning of that back flip in panel 2 and that twisting motion at the top of the bar in panel 6 so I wouldn't have to have spent hours trying to decipher what my problem was with the visual logic flow on this page.