Iron Fist (comics)

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Iron Fist
Art by Carlos Pacheco
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974)
Created by	Roy Thomas Gil Kane
In story information
Alter ego	Daniel Thomas Rand-K'ai
Team affiliations	New Avengers Heroes for Hire The Defenders
Partnerships	Luke Cage
Notable aliases	Daredevil, The Living Weapon, Young Dragon, Daniel Thomas "Danny" Rand
Abilities	The Iron Fist, a concentration of his chi in his fist Healing ability Master martial artist

Iron Fist (Daniel Rand) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a practitioner of martial arts. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, he first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974).

Contents 1 Publication history 2 Fictional character biography 2.1 Background 2.2 Heroes for Hire 2.3 Resurrection 2.4 Civil War and Daredevil 2.5 New Avengers 2.6 Secret Invasion 2.7 The Immortal Iron Fist 3 Powers and abilities 4 Other versions 4.1 Age of Apocalypse 4.2 Marvel Zombies 4.3 Ultimate Iron Fist 5 In other media 5.1 Film 5.2 Video games 6 Parodies 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Publication history

Iron Fist, along with the previously created Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu, came from Marvel Comics during a pop culture trend in the early 1970s for martial arts heroes. Debuting in a story by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane in the umbrella title Marvel Premiere #15–25 (May 1974 - Oct. 1975), he was then written successively by Len Wein, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, and Chris Claremont, with art by successive pencillers Larry Hama, Arvell Jones, Pat Broderick, and, in some of his earliest professional work, future industry star John Byrne. Following this run, Iron Fist was immediately spun off into the solo series Iron Fist, running 15 issues (Nov. 1975 - Sept. 1977). A storyline involving the Steel Serpent was wrapped up in two issues of Marvel Team-Up.

The character later co-starred in the Luke Cage series Power Man, re-titled Power Man and Iron Fist from #67-125 (Feb. 1981 - Sept. 1986), the final issue. Two solo miniseries followed a decade later: Iron Fist vol. 2, #1-2 (Sept.-Oct. 1996), by writer James Felder and penciller Robert Brown; and Iron Fist vol. 3, #1-3 (July-Sept. 1998), by writer Dan Jurgens and penciller Jackson Guice. Also around this time, he was among the ensemble of the group series Heroes for Hire which ran 19 issues (July 1997 - Jan. 1999).

Following a four-issue miniseries by writer Jay Faerber and penciller Jamal Igle, Iron Fist: Wolverine (Nov. 2000 - Feb. 2001), co-starring the X-Men character Wolverine and cover-billed as Iron Fist/Wolverine: The Return of K'un Lun, came another solo miniseries, Iron Fist vol. 4, #1-6 (May-Oct. 2004), by writer Jim Mullaney and penciller Kevin Lau. The first issue of a new ongoing series, The Immortal Iron Fist, by co-writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction and primary artist David Aja, premiered with a January 2007 cover-date.

Writer co-creator Roy Thomas wrote in a text piece in Marvel Premiere #15 that Iron Fist's origin and creation owe much to the 1940s Bill Everett character, Amazing Man. Thomas later wrote that he and artist co-creator Gil Kane had

“

...started 'Iron Fist" because I'd seen my first kung fu movie, even before a Bruce Lee one came out, and it had a thing called 'the ceremony of the Iron Fist' in it. I thought that was a good name, and we already had Master of Kung Fu going, but I thought, 'Maybe a superhero called Iron Fist, even though we had Iron Man, would be a good idea'. [Publisher] Stan [Lee] liked the name, so I got hold of Gil and he brought in his Amazing Man influences, and we designed the character together....[1]

”

Iron Fist appearances outside his own title include three Iron Fist stories in Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (March 1975), an additional story co-starring the Sons of the Tiger in #18 (Nov. 1975), and a six-part serial, "The Living Weapon", in #19-24 (Dec. 1975 - May 1976). He made guest appearances in such titles as Marvel Two-In-One, Marvel Team-Up, the Sub-Mariner series Namor, Black Panther, and Daredevil.

[edit] Fictional character biography

[edit] Background

Daniel Rand was born in New York City, the son of American businessman Wendell Rand, a wealthy entrepreneur who discovered the mystical city of K'un-L'un as a young boy. During his time in K'un L'un, Wendell saved the life of the city's ruler, Lord Tuan, and was adopted as Tuan's son. However, Wendell eventually left K'un L'un and became a wealthy entrepreneur in the United States. He married socialite Heather Duncan and had a child, Daniel. When Daniel was nine, Wendell organized an expedition to again seek out K'un L'un, taking his wife Heather, his business partner Harold Meachum, and Daniel. During the journey up the mountain, Daniel slipped off the path, his tie-rope taking his mother and father with him. Meachum, who also loved Heather, forced Wendell to plunge to his death but offered to rescue Heather and Daniel. She rejected his help, preferring to journey without him or die.

As explained in Marvel Premiere #15, Heather and Daniel come across a makeshift bridge that appears out of nowhere and are attacked by a pack of wolves. Heather throws herself on the wolves to save Daniel and is killed even as archers from K'un L'un attempt to save her. The archers take the grieving Daniel to see Yü-Ti, the hooded ruler of K'un L'un. When Daniel expresses his desire for vengeance, Yü-Ti apprentices him to Lei Kung, the Thunderer, who teaches him the martial arts.

Daniel proves to be the most gifted of Lei Kung's students. Rand conditions his fists by plunging them into buckets of sand, gravel and rock to toughen them. At 19, Daniel is given the chance to attain the power of the Iron Fist by fighting and defeating the dragon known as Shou-Lao the Undying, which guarded the molten heart that had been torn from its body. During the battle, Daniel throws himself against the scar of Shou-Lao, which burns a dragon tattoo into his chest. Having killed Shou-Lao, he enters its cave and plunges his fists into a brazier containing the creature's molten heart, emerging with the power of the Iron Fist.

When K'un L'un reappears after 10 years, Daniel decides to leave and find his father's killer. Returning to New York, Daniel Rand, dressed in the ceremonial garb of the Iron Fist, seeks out Harold Meachum, now head of Meachum Industries. Before Iron Fist can decide whether or not to kill him, Meachum is murdered by a mysterious ninja in front of Iron Fist, and Iron Fist is blamed for the death.^[2] Eventually, Iron Fist clears his name and begins a career as a superhero, aided by his friends Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, falling in love with the latter.^[3] Notable adversaries in his early career include the first appearance of the villain Sabretooth (who was not yet known to be connected to Wolverine), the mysterious Master Khan (whom the ninja that killed Meachum once served) and the Steel Serpent, the exiled son of Lei Kung, who coveted the Iron Fist power.

[edit] Heroes for Hire

Iron Fist met the hero Iron Man early in his career.^[4] Soon after that, he recounted his first battle with the H'ylthri.^[5]

Just before Rand's battle with Steel Serpent, Misty Knight had been working undercover, infiltrating the organization of the crime lord John Bushmaster. When Bushmaster discovered Knight's treachery, he kidnapped Claire Temple and Noah Burstein, the closest associates of Luke Cage, better known as Power Man, holding them hostage to force Cage to eliminate Knight. Iron Fist was on hand to stop him, however, and after a battle, the truth came out. Rand then helped Cage and the Daughters of the Dragon (Knight and Wing) battle Bushmaster, and rescue Temple and Burstein as well as obtain evidence that proved Cage's innocence on prior drug charges. Iron Fist and Power Man decided to become partners, forming Heroes for Hire, Inc.^[6]

Although Iron Fist and Power Man supposedly were only heroes for money, they were always doing the right thing, which usually left them with less money rather than more. Iron Fist, in his secret identity of Daniel Rand, had reassumed control of his parents' fortune as half of Rand-Meachum, Inc., and was actually quite wealthy. This caused a lot of tension between him and Cage, who was raised poor in the ghetto.

At one point, the pair traveled to K'un-L'un together, where they battled Master Khan.^[7]

Power Man and Iron Fist's partnership ended with Rand contracting cancer from radiation poisoning and inadvertently dying at the hands of Captain Hero, and Cage becoming a fugitive as the prime suspect in Rand's death.^[8]

[edit] Resurrection

In the 1990s, the storyline of Rand's death is resolved in the pages of Namor. Although Rand apparently returns from the dead, it is revealed instead to be the Super-Skrull. He admits that he had been Captain Hero, and that the plot to destroy the lives of Rand and Cage had been masterminded by Master Khan. It is also revealed that the "Iron Fist" that had died was actually a doppelgänger created by the extra-dimensional H'ylthri. Rand had, in fact, been kidnapped and replaced by the H'ylthri copy just after he left K'un L'un for the last time.^[9] While in stasis with the H'ylthri, Rand manages to focus his chi, curing the cancer. Iron Fist is later discovered alive in K'un-L'un. With Namor and Misty Knight, he battles Master Khan once more.^[10]

After Marvel's Onslaught crossover event, Rand and Cage reform Heroes for Hire, Inc. with an expanded team, this time working for Namor's Oracle Corporation. Chronicled in a new Heroes For Hire series, the title is eventually cancelled due to low sales, ending with Namor dissolving Oracle as well as Heroes for Hire, Inc.

Iron Fist at one point also lost his powers to Junzo Muto ^[11] the young leader of the Hand but subsequently regained them ^[12].

In the Iron Fist miniseries, Miranda Rand-K'ai also returns from the dead. The H'ylthri revive her and promise to restore her to full life if she retrieves the extra-dimensional artifact known as the Zodiac Key. To this end, she takes the identity of Death Sting, bringing her into conflict with Iron Fist as well as with S.H.I.E.L.D.. When the H'ylthri try to kill Iron Fist, Miranda turns the power of the Zodiac Key against them, seemingly killing herself in the process. However, exposure to chemicals from the H'ylthri pods prevented her death.

During the "House of M" crossover event, Rand is shown to be a part of Luke Cage's resistance group.

[edit] Civil War and Daredevil

Rand disguises himself as Daredevil to convince the media and the public that Matt Murdock is not the masked vigilante (Daredevil #87). Rand believes that he had been hired to pose as Daredevil by Foggy Nelson. In reality Nelson had faked being murdered and was in witness protection.

He is opposed to the Super-human Registration Act which is the focus of the Civil War, and joins Captain America while still pretending to be Daredevil. While posing as Daredevil, Rand is apprehended by Pro-Registration forces, calling Tony Stark 'Judas' and giving him a silver dollar. He is later freed from the Negative Zone Prison, joining Captain America's team for the final battle with Iron Man's forces.

[edit] New Avengers

After the final battle, and the arrest of Captain America, Rand joins the New Avengers, a team, that also has his former teammate Luke Cage as a member. Now underground after the surrender of Captain America and provided with secure accommodation by Doctor Strange, the New Avengers are driven by two goals; to save people "the way [they] want to", and to investigate the reason why the world has been turned upside-down recently. After a confrontation with Elektra and the Hand to rescue Echo, the team discover that Elektra had been replaced with a Skrull some indeterminate time ago, but whether more prominent figures in the Marvel Universe have been replaced with Skrulls by this point is unclear. After facing the Hood's criminal empire, Doctor Strange left the team, which forced the team to move its headquarters to an apartment that Danny had previously rented out to Samuel Sterns, the Leader.

In World War Hulk, Iron Fist attempts to defend Rick Jones from Hiroim and Elloe of the Hulk's Warbound during their attack on the Sanctum Sanctorum to capture Doctor Strange. Along with Echo and Ronin, he is defeated and captured.

[edit] Secret Invasion

Along with the Mighty and New Avengers he was fighting the new "old" heroes from the Skrull ship.^[13]

[edit] The Immortal Iron Fist

In 2006, Marvel launched a new ongoing series, The Immortal Iron Fist, co-written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction and featuring art by Spanish illustrator David Aja. "The Immortal Iron Fist" began with a six-part drama, counter-intuitively titled "The Last Iron Fist Story". The story reveals the Iron Fist to be a legacy power conferred on the champion of K'un Lun roughly once a generation. There have been sixty-six Iron Fists, stretching back in time at least as far as the thirteenth century A.D. K'un L'un is also revealed to be one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, each of which has an analogous champion whose powers are as-yet unknown.

The story introduces Orson Randall, Daniel Rand's immediate predecessor, who reneged on his responsibilities to K'un L'un after suffering immense psychological trauma during the First World War. Randall is discovered in Thailand; apparently preserved by the spirit of Shou-Lao and in full possession of his powers, but living in drug-soaked seclusion. Randall is pursued by agents of the Steel Serpent, resurrected and pressed into the service of the Crane Mother, ancient enemy of K'un L'un, and the terrorist group HYDRA. Jolted out of his decades-long ennui, Randall seeks out Daniel Rand in New York and gives to him The Book of the Iron Fist, a sacred ledger supposedly containing all the Kung Fu secrets of K'un Lun, which Randall claims will be necessary if Rand is to compete successfully in the coming tournament of the Seven Champions.

The Steel Serpent, whose powers have been greatly augmented by Crane Mother, quickly dispatches Randall in single combat. On the brink of death, Randall surrenders his Chi to Danny, giving him sufficient power to battle the Serpent to a standstill. After the battle, Rand is immediately summoned by his master, Lei Kung (who is also the father of Steel Serpent) to compete in the tournament Randall mentioned. The tournament will decide the cycle according to which each of the Seven Cities of Heaven appears on Earth. If the Iron Fist loses, K'un Lun may lose its place in the cycle according to which it appears on Earth once per decade. However, the leaders of the Seven Cities had secretly erected gateways between Earth and each city without the knowledge of the populace. The corruption of the leaders of the Seven Cities of Heaven has spurred Iron Fist, his master Lei Kung the Thunderer, Orson Randall's daughter, and John Aman to secretly plan a revolution. At the same time, Iron Fist discovers that Crane Mother, and Xao, a high-ranking HYDRA operative, are orchestrating a plot to destroy K'un Lun by using the interdimensional portal developed by Orson Randall's father. Steel Serpent was apparently unaware of the plot to destroy K'un Lun, however. Upon learning of this, he unites with Danny and the other Immortal weapons, although he stresses that he is neither their ally nor their enemy, but merely, "Xao's reckoning."

Danny and John Aman are able to unite with the other Immortal weapons to stop Xao. Danny destroys the train intended to destroy K'un Lun (and, in effect, the other cities of Heaven) by extending his chi to find the train's electro-magnetic field, transforming himself into "a human bullet." Meanwhile, the revolution orchestrated by Lei Kung and Orson's daughter proves successful, with Nu-an, the Yu-Ti (ruler of K'un Lun) fleeing in terror. As Danny confronts Xao, he reveals that there is an eighth city of Heaven, and rather than be captutred, leaps to his death off of a cliff.

Steel Serpent ultimately repents and seeks to redeem himself to his father and to Danny. Before returning to Earth, with Luke, Misty, Coleen, and the other Immortal weapons accompanying him, Danny suggests Lei Kung as the new Yu-Ti, with Orson's nameless daughter as the new Thunderer. ^[14]

[edit] Powers and abilities

Plunging his fists into the molten heart of the dragon Shou-Lao the Undying infused the dragon's superhuman energy into Rand; this along with training by Lei Kung the Thunderer gave Rand the power of the Iron Fist, allowing him to summon and focus his chi (or, natural energy) and enhance his natural abilities to extraordinary levels. His strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes and senses can all be astronomically intensified, making his already formidable martial arts skills even more so. The ultimate expression of this focus is the ability to concentrate his body's natural energies into his hand, manifesting as a supernatural glow around his clenched fist, making his fist "like unto a thing of iron." So concentrated, this "iron fist" can smash into its target with superhuman hardness and impact, while his hand becomes impervious to pain and injury. However, the feat of summoning the power required leaves Rand physically and mentally drained, unable to repeat the act for a time.

Other applications of the Iron Fist power include the ability to focus chi energy inward to heal oneself or outward to heal others of injury, as well as being able to telepathically fuse his consciousness temporarily with another person and meld with that person's mind. In Maximum Carnage, Danny was able to use the mental application of the Iron Fist to temporarily calm a rioting mob. When asked about this by Spider-Man, Danny replied that all humans are, in essence, one divine being, in a constant craving for that oneness, and once it is offered, it cannot be refused. When asked by Spider-Man how long it would take to learn this "meditative technique", Danny replied, "Eight or ten years." Orson Randall, Danny's predecessor as Iron Fist, demonstrated applications including hypnosis and channeling his chi energy into projectile weapons to increase their destructive capacity. Randall also showed enhanced resistance to injury, including resilience to poison gas dropped on his fellow combatants in the trenches of World War I, and a greatly slowed aging process. Although almost one hundred years old by the time he encountered Daniel Rand, he demonstrated physical vitality commensurate with a highly-trained martial artist half his age. Danny has presumably acquired powers and abilities at least equivalent to Orson Randall's -- though not necessarily the skill to control them -- thanks to combining Randall's chi energy with his own. He is also in possession of the Book of the Iron Fist, study of which will greatly expand his kung fu skills. Danny displayed what he had learned from Orson Randall regarding alternative applications of the Iron Fist when he was able to extend his chi from his fist into the electro-magnetic field of the train intended to destory K'un Lun, transforming himself into "a human bullet." Despite the train being loaded down with "enough explosives to make Hiroshima look like a sparkler", Danny was able to destroy the train, and survive the massive explosion virtually unharmed.

Even without the Iron Fist, Danny is a master of all of K'un Lun's martial arts and many of Earth's, making him easily one of the most skilled practitioners of unarmed combat in the Marvel Universe.

In a confrontation with Tony Stark, it is revealed that Iron Fist has long registered his powers as being a deadly weapon but not as a super-hero.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] Age of Apocalypse

In Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1 #2, a man is seen running from Holocaust with the Iron Fist tattoo on his upper left shoulder.

[edit] Marvel Zombies

Iron Fist is shown twice in battle during the miniseries. He can be seen in several splash panels, as well being bitten by a zombie version of Luke Cage, and again punching a hole through a zombified Black Cat and once again being bitten.

[edit] Ultimate Iron Fist

Daniel Rand has appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. His first appearance in the Ultimate universe was in Ultimate Spider-Man #1/2. Later, he appeared in the Warriors story-arc (issues #79-85) along with Shang Chi, Moon Knight, and others. He reappears in the Ultimate Knights Arc, as a member of a Daredevil-led team trying to take down the Kingpin. In Ultimate Spider-Man #107, however, he has apparently betrayed the group to the Kingpin. Daredevil has uncovered the deception and ends issue #109 demanding answers from Rand. In issue #110 Iron Fist reveals that he has a daughter and the Kingpin threatened her life, so he chose his daughter's life over Daredevil's, and the rest of the heroes that teamed up to take down the Kingpin. He did distract Kingpin while Daredevil grabbed Kingpin's wife. Rand is last seen with his daughter and his daughter's mother Ultimate Colleen Wing.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Film

In May 2000, Marvel Studios brought Artisan Entertainment to co-finance the film,^[15] hiring Ray Park to star and John Turman to write the script in January 2001.^[16] Park studied a wide amount of comic books.^[17] Kirk Wong signed to direct in July 2001, with filming set for late 2001/early 2002.^[18] Iron Fist nearly went into pre-production in March 2002.^[19] Wong left the project in April 2002.^[20] By August 2002 pre-production had started.^[21] Filming was pushed back to late 2002,^[22] and then to late 2003.^[23] In March 2003 Marvel announced a 2004 release date.^[24] In April 2003 Steve Carr entered negotiations to direct.^[25] In November 2003 the release date was moved to 2006.^[26] In March 2007 Carr placed Iron Fist on hold due to scheduling conflicts.^[27]

[edit] Video games

• Iron Fist appears as a non-playable character in the 16-bit video game Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage (1994), which was released for the Super Nintendo and Genesis game consoles.

• Iron Fist appears in the game Spider-Man: Friend or Foe as a playable character, voiced by John Rubinow.

[edit] Parodies

• In The Simpsons comics, Lenny Leonard is Iron Foot of Heroes for Rent.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Marvel.com's profile of Danny Rand
• A profile of his father Wendell Rand-K'ai
• A profile of his mother Heather Duncan Rand, Silver Dragon
• Iron Fist movie entry on the Internet Movie Database