Superhero Spotlight
Welcome to Superhero Spotlight! With the recent release of Marvel’s Iron Fist on Netflix, I thought it appropriate to give a rundown on the character, his powers, and abilities, his origin, and other interesting information. For simplicity’s sake, I will be covering the main Iron Fist featured in the comics, Danny Rand.
Creators
- Roy Thomas
- Gil Kane
First Appearance
- Marvel Premiere #15, 1974
Attributes
- Height: 5’11”
- Weight: 175 lbs
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Blonde
Powers
Iron Fist can harness his spiritual energy, or chi, to augment his physical and mental capabilities to peak human levels. By focusing his chi into his hand, he can tap the superhuman energy of the dragon Shou-Lao and temporarily render his fist superhumanly powerful, immune to pain and injury; however, this process is quite draining, and usually requires recovery time before repeat use. He can also harness his chi to heal himself of any injury or illness and project this power to heal others. He can sense mystic energy, particularly that which is related to the city of K’un-Lun. His entire body is oriented to combat, enabling him to adapt to any environment with minimal exposure.
Abilities
Iron Fist is an exceptional athlete, acrobat, and hand-to-hand combatant. He is a master of all of K’un-Lun’s martial arts and many of Earth’s, trained in the use of virtually all martial arts weapons. He has near-complete control over his nervous system, enabling him to deaden himself to pain.
Origin
Daniel Rand is the son of Wendell Rand, who had visited the mystic city of K’un-Lun in his youth. Rand had saved the life of K’un-Lun’s ruler Lord Tuan, who adopted Rand as his heir, to the resentment of Tuan’s son, Yu-Ti. During his time in K’un-Lun at some point, Rand won ritual combat against Davos, son of K’un-Lun’s greatest warrior, Lei Kung the Thunderer. This entitled Rand to claim the power of Shou-Lao the Undying, a man transformed into a mystic serpent over a thousand years ago by the Dragon King Chiantang; however, although great K’un-Lun warriors had periodically wielded Shou-Lao’s power as the Iron Fist, Rand declined the power.
Years later, when Daniel Rand was nine, at roughly the time K’un-Lun was scheduled to materialize, his father decided to bring him and his mother to K’un-Lun. Accompanied by Rand’s business partner Harold Meachum, they traveled to the Himalayas, but Wendell fell from a mountain ledge; clutching the edge, he called to Meachum for help, but Meachum, hoping to control Rand’s business shares, caused Wendell to plunge to his death. Shortly afterward, Heather sacrificed her life to protect Daniel from a wolf pack. The denizens of K’un-Lun found Daniel and took him in.
Vowing to avenge his parents, Daniel Rand studied martial arts under Lei Kung while growing up in K’un-Lun. His closest friends were Miranda Rand-K’ai, whom he did not know was his half-sister, and a K’un-Lun boy named Conal D’hu-Tsien. At age nineteen, Rand requested and earned an opportunity to win the power of the Iron Fist by confronting Shou-Lao the Undying, whose power resided within a flaming brazier. Rand slew Shou-Lao, a feat no other warrior had ever accomplished, and plunged his hands into the brazier, imbuing himself with the mystic energy of the Iron Fist.
 Feats
- Defeated and reclaimed the power of the Iron Fist from Steel Serpent, who had stolen Danny’s power from him
- Defeated a powerful red dragon that was thousands of years old
- Dodged Fat Cobra’s lightning attacks
- Knocked Colossus flying with a punch
- Blitzed Black Panther with a barrage of powerful strikes
- Cured himself of cancer by using his Chi
- Healed a dying Luke Cage
- Destroyed a speeding electromagnetic train with a punch
- Punched through the Iron Fist Killer
- Knocked out a drunken Hercules with one strike
- Brought down the Helicarrier with a single punch
Villains
- Madame Gao
- Steel Serpent
- Bullseye
- Mysterio
- Blackout
- Black Mamba
- Razor Fist
- Batroc the Leaper
- Master Kham
- Abbot Thanademos
Other Info
Iron Fist was created in response to the large Kung-Fu craze that began in the 1970’s.
In the comics, Iron Fist teamed up with Luke Cage to form a superhero team called Heroes for Hire. Originally, the team consisted of just Iron Fist and Luke Cage, but later iterations expanded to include the Human Torch, Ant-Man, Misty Knight, Hercules, She-Hulk, White Tiger, Thena, Black Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat Gargoyle, Humbug, Paladin, Shroud, Tarantula, Vienna, Black Widow, Elektra, Falcon, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Punisher, Silver Sable, Spider-Man, Hulk, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange.
Recommended Reading
- Immortal Iron Fist #8-14 – “The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven”
- Marvel Premiere #15-16
- Immortal Iron Fist #1-6 – “The Last Iron Fist Story”
- Iron Fist: The Living Weapon #1-12
- Power Man and Iron Fist #50
- Power Man and Iron Fist #1Â (2016)
Iron Fist now has his own Netflix series, Marvel’s Iron Fist, which debuted March 17th, 2017.
