We felt that Iron Fist might be a character that many aren’t super familiar with. In order to address this issue, we felt that it might be helpful to let people know who the character is and why you should be excited about the show.
Who is the Iron Fist?
Let’s give you the low down on this character. He originally appeared in Marvel Premiere #15 way back in 1974. He later earned his own title emblazoned with his name “Iron Fist”. Iron Fist is Daniel Rand, the son of Wendell Rand. When he was roughly 9 years old, he was included on an expedition to go to the fabled city of K’un-Lun. This mystical city only appears once every ten years.
During the expedition, Daniel Rand’s parents perished. Luckily, nine-year-old Daniel was rescued by archers from the fabled city as it was appearing. He spent the next ten years in the city of K’un Lun practicing martial arts and ultimately earned the power and title of the Iron Fist.
How Did He Earn this Power?
The process of earning the Iron Fist involved him defeating a dragon known as Shou-Lao the Undying. In order to defeat him, Daniel covered a dragon-shaped scar on Shou-Lao with his own body. This process burned a dragon shape onto Daniel’s chest that resembles a tattoo, but it also ended the life of Shou-Lao by blocking the life energy from his molten heart. After defeating Shou-Lao, Daniel was able to go inside of Shou-Lao’s cave. Once inside, Daniel discovered the dragon’s molten heart contained within a brazier. Upon finding his heart, Daniel repeatedly drives his hands into the dragon’s fiery heart. He continued plunging his fists into the heart until he ultimately collapsed from the effort.
This entire process finally leads to him gaining the dragon’s power and becoming the Iron Fist. In a nutshell, when Danny Rand focuses his Chi he can turn his fist “. . . like unto a thing of iron”. This is awesome because his fist glows and he can cause an enormous amount of damage from a single blow.
Like any good super hero, he has an interesting rogue’s gallery of villains. One particularly notable villain was introduced in this series. In Iron Fist #14, the world was introduced to the mutant character known as Sabretooth.
Heroes for Hire
He later partnered up with fellow crime fighter Power Man, a.k.a. Luke Cage, in the title “Power Man and Iron Fist”. In this title, this super-powered duo worked as private investigators for their own detective agency known as “Heroes for Hire”. The series ran for several issues. In the eventual end to the series, issue #125, Iron Fist was killed off and Power Man was framed for his death. His actual death, albeit temporary, was at the hands of a confused Captain Hero.
The ending to this comic outraged and confused a many people. It was a less than spectacular end to one of the main characters of the series, and the worst part was that it was the final issue of the series. Some interpreted this act as a middle finger to the editors for deciding to cancel the book. Regardless of the rationale, this made Luke Cage a fugitive and Iron Fist . . . well . . . dead for several years.
Namor – Root of Evil
It took until John Byrne, a writer and artist that started his career on Iron Fist, to bring him back. John Byrne retconned Iron Fist’s death by revealing that the Iron Fist that had previously been murdered was a clone. In the Namor story arc (taking place from around 21-23), Iron Fist was rescued by Namor.
The Iron Fist that had died was actually a clone created by race a sentient plant creatures known as the H’ylthri. These plant people kept Iron Fist in stasis until he was freed by Namor.
