Merge:Iron Fist

Iron Fist (also Daniel "Danny" Rand or Daniel Thomas Rand-K'ai) is a superhero martial artist in the created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. He first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15 in May of 1974.

Publication history
According to the letters page of Marvel Premiere #15, Iron' Fist's origin and creation owe much to the 1940's Bill Everett character, Amazing Man.

Iron Fist was created by Marvel Comics along with characters such as Shang Chi, to cash in on the sudden popularity of martial arts in the early 1970s. He appeared in nine issues of Marvel Premiere (#15-24) before receiving a solo title in November, 1975. As the martial arts craze died down, sales struggled and the solo title lasted 15 issues. The character then appeared in Power Man #48-50, where he was teamed with Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, aka Power Man. The Power Man title was renamed Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50. The title ran another 75 issues, ending with issue #125 in September, 1986.

Origin
Daniel Rand was the son of wealthy American businessman Wendell Rand, an entrepreneur who had appeared out of nowhere with a large sum of money and over the course of ten years built up Rand-Meachum Incorporated with his business partner Harold Meachum. His mother Heather Duncan Rand had been a New York society belle before she met and married Daniel's father. Wendell was obsessed with finding the mystical city of K'un L'un, high on the mountain of the same name, which according to legend was the dwelling place of the immortals of China and the basis of other legendary and immortal cities like Shangri-La. When Daniel was 9, Wendell organized an expedition to seek K'un L'un, taking Heather and their son, with Harold Meachum also following.

During the journey up the mountain, Daniel slipped off the path, his tie-rope taking his mother and father with him. While Daniel and Heather landed safely on a ledge below, Wendell hung precariously over a gorge. It was at this point that Meachum showed his true intentions, and eliminated his business partner by causing Wendell to lose his grip and plunge to his death. Meachum, who also loved Heather, offered to rescue her and Daniel, but she rejected his help, preferring to make it on their own or die.

While Meachum made his own way back to civilization, Heather and Daniel came across a makeshift bridge that appeared, impossibly, in the middle of nowhere. Before they could cross it, however, a pack of wolves attacked them. To give Daniel enough time to reach the other side, Heather threw herself on the wolves. As Daniel watched, the wolves killed Heather, just as arrows flew from the other side of the bridge too late to save the woman. The Bridge of Dreams did indeed lead to K'un L'un, which only appeared in this dimension once every ten years. The archers sent from the city took the grieving Daniel to see Yü-Ti, the hooded August Personage of Jade who ruled K'un L'un. When Daniel expressed his desire for vengeance, Yü-Ti apprenticed him to Lei Kung, the Thunderer, who taught him the martial arts.

Daniel proved to be the most gifted of Lei Kung's students, attaining the Crown of Fu-Hsi, the King of Vipers at age 16, overcoming the Challenge of the Many and even defeated Shu-Hu the Lightning, the mechanical warrior of K'un L'un. Rand conditioned his fists by plunging them into buckets of sand, then gravel and rock to toughen them. At 19, Daniel was 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 threw himself against the scar of Shou-Lao, which burned a dragon tattoo into his chest. Having killed Shou-Lao, he entered its cave and plunged his fists into a brazier which contained the creature's molten heart, emerging with the power of the Iron Fist. 10 years having passed, K'un L'un was about to connect with the outside world once more. Yü-Ti offered Daniel the fruit of the Tree of Immortality and asked him to dwell with them forever, but Daniel's need for revenge against Meachum was too great. He decided to leave K'un L'un and find his father's killer. Before he left, however, Yü-Ti made a startling revelation: he was Wendell Rand's brother, and Daniel's uncle.

Wendell Rand had really been Wendell Rand-K'ai, the eldest son of the previous Yü-Ti, Lord Tuan. It was revealed later that Yü-Ti wanted the throne that was Wendell's birthright as the eldest son, and so drove Wendell from K'un L'un, claiming to the Lung Wang, the Dragon Kings of K'un L'un, that Wendell's return would signal death for the city. He was also jealous of Wendell, who was his rival for and had won the affections of a woman named Shakirah. Wendell fathered a daughter with Shakirah, Miranda Rand-K'ai, and left them both behind when he left the city. Yü-Ti also knew that Wendell would try to return on that fateful day, but held off on his archers, allowing Heather Rand to die on the Bridge of Dreams. When he lived in the city, Daniel had grown up with Miranda, but did not know she was his half-sister until her apparent death at the hands of the H'ylthri, a hostile species of sentient plant life that lived outside the city.

Returning to New York, Daniel Rand, dressed in the ceremonial garb of the Iron Fist, sought out Harold Meachum, now head of Meachum Industries. Meachum, who had lost both his legs from frostbite on the journey back from the mountain, had been waiting for Rand, having learned of his adoption by K'un L'un from a passing traveler. Before Iron Fist could decide whether to kill him, however, Meachum was murdered by a mysterious ninja, and Iron Fist was blamed for the death. Eventually, Iron Fist cleared his name and began a career as a superhero, aided by his friends Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, the latter with whom he fell in love. Notable adversaries in his early career included 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.

Heroes for Hire
Iron Fist Vol. 1 only lasted 15 issues before cancellation, and the Steel Serpent storyline was wrapped up in two issues of Marvel Team-Up. 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 rescue Temple and Burstein as well as obtain evidence that proved Cage's innocence on prior drug charges. The two decided to become partners, forming Heroes for Hire, Inc.

The two characters' comics merged, with Power Man renamed Power Man and Iron Fist with #50. Although they supposedly were only heroes for money, the running plot device of the series (which lasted for over sixty issues after the merger) was that 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, and was actually quite wealthy. This caused a lot of tension between him and Cage, who was raised poor in the ghetto.

In the final issues of Power Man and Iron Fist, Rand was exposed to radiation and contracted cancer. He returned to K'un L'un to seek Lei Kung's help to focus his healing powers and cure himself, but discovered that the city had been destroyed as revenge by Chiantang the Black Dragon, the brother of Shou-Lao. Feeling responsible, Rand wore red instead of green for a time to reflect this dishonor. Meanwhile, the Heroes for Hire became involved with a dying young boy, Bobby Wright, who could transform into the super-powered Captain Hero. Cage had tried to trick Rand into believing he had atoned for his sins, and the two had a public falling out when Rand discovered the ruse. However, they put their differences aside to stay by Bobby's hospital bed, where Rand tried to use the Iron Fist to heal him, no matter how exhausting this process was. In the middle of the night, the boy awoke in excruciating pain to find Rand unconscious. Unable to wake him, Bobby turned into Captain Hero, but in his fevered state misjudged his strength and beat Rand to death trying to wake him. Bobby's powers then caused him to disintegrate. With Bobby Wright missing and Daniel Rand dead, Luke Cage became the prime suspect because of his recent falling out with Rand, and became a fugitive from the law as the series ended.

Resurrection
The storyline would not be resolved until years later, in the 1990s in Namor. Rand apparently returned from the dead, but was revealed instead to be the Super-Skrull, who admitted that he had been Captain Hero, and that the plot to destroy Rand and Cage's lives had been masterminded by Master Khan. It was also discovered that the "Iron Fist" that had died was actually a doppelgänger created by the H'ylthri. Rand had, in fact, been kidnapped and replaced by the H'ylthri just after he had left K'un L'un for the last time. While in stasis with the H'ylthri, Rand had managed to focus his chi and cure the cancer. After the Onslaught incident, Rand and Cage decided to reform Heroes for Hire, Inc. with an expanded team, working for Namor's Oracle Corporation. This was chronicled in a new Heroes For Hire series, but the title was eventually cancelled due to low sales, ending with Namor dissolving Oracle as well as Heroes for Hire, Inc.

In the Iron Fist miniseries, Miranda Rand-K'ai also returned from the dead. The H'ylthri had revived her and promised to restore her to full life if she retrieved the extradimensional artifact known as the Zodiac Key for them. To this end, she took the identity of Death Sting, and this brought her into conflict with Iron Fist as well as the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D.. When the H'ylthri tried to kill Iron Fist, Miranda turned the power of the Zodiac Key on them, apparently killing herself in the process. However, exposure to chemicals from the H'ylthri pods had been enough to restore her completely.

In New Warriors, a ninja named Junzo Muto stole the Iron Fist powers and subsequently appeared in the Iron Fist and Wolverine miniseries. Later, in Black Panther, Chiantang the Black Dragon returned, mentally controlled Daniel Rand and restored his Iron Fist powers to use him against the Black Panther. Chiantang was eventually defeated by both heroes.

Civil War
Rand disguises himself as Daredevil to convince the media and the public that Matt Murdock is not the masked vigilante (Daredevil #87). He is opposed to the Super-human Registration Act which is the focus of Marvel's 2006 summer crossover event, Civil War, and joins Captain America while still pretending to be Daredevil. Rand believes that he had been hired to pose as Daredevil by Foggy Nelson, who, unknown to Rand, had been apparently murdered.

Iron Fist is also set to be featured in the first issue of Doctor Strange: The Oath, to be released in October 2006, as well as an ongoing series, The Immortal Iron Fist, starting in November 2006, co-written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction, and art by David Aja.

Powers and abilities
Plunging his fists into the molten heart of Shou-Lao the Undying gave Rand the power of the Iron Fist, allowing him to focus his chi and enhance his natural abilities to extraordinary levels. His strength, speed, reflexes and senses can all be 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. 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 the energy inward to heal himself or outward to heal others of injury, as well as being able to telepathically meld with another person's mind. Even without the Iron Fist, Rand is an accomplished martial artist, and is easily one of the most skilled practitioners of unarmed combat in the Marvel Universe.

Ultimate Iron Fist
Daniel Rand has appeared in the Ultimate Spider-Man issue "Ultimate Spider-Man 1/2". He is questioning whether he will become a costumed vigilante like Spider-Man or not, and does not like fighting. He stops an assault, but Spider-Man, misunderstanding the situation, attacks him. Iron Fist later appears in vol. 14 along with Shang Chi whom he seems to know, perhaps from training alongside him.

In other media

 * A proposed Iron Fist movie has been in development for some time, with Ray Park in talks to star, but so far the film has yet to materialize.
 * In The Simpsons comics, Lenny Leonard is Iron Foot of Heroes for Rent.

Key issues
The Iron Fist run was not well known. The series was published in the early 1970's amist the "Kung Fu" or "Chopsocky" movie boom. The other martial arts comicbook run series to note is The Hands of Shang-Chi Master of Kung-Fu. Throughout the run there were several key issues. The first was Marvel Premiere #15. This was the first appearance of the character and includes the origin. Iron Fist #1 was another important issue as this was the first issue where Iron Fist had his own mag. Iron Fist #15 signaled the end of the short run in his own magazine. The series was continued when Marvel made the decision to combine Iron Fist and Luke Cage (Power Man). Power Man and Iron Fist #50 was another important issue as it marks the first issue where the combination of the two heroes took place. Power Man and Iron Fist #125 signaled the end of run for the two heroes and thus marks the ending of the series until it was resurrected years later. Marvel Team-Up #31 was a significant issue as Iron Fist teamed up with Spider-Man for the first time. Iron Fist was later again paired with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #63 and #64 when fighting and defeating the Steel Serpent. The key comicbook covers for each of the issues described appear below for recognition of those issues.

Relevance
Iron Fist was the first pairing of Claremont & Byrne, beginning with Marvel Premiere #24-25, Iron Fist's last two appearances before going on to his own book.