Iron Fist (character)
Iron Fist is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane and inspired by kung fu films, Iron Fist first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15. The character is a practitioner of martial arts and the wielder of a mystical force known as the Iron Fist, which allows him to summon and focus his chi. This ability is obtained from the city of K'un-L'un, which appears on Earth every 10 years. According to his co-creator Thomas, the creators of Iron Fist used some story elements from Bill Everett's 1939 hero Amazing-Man, which itself had borrowed heavily from James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon and its 1937 film adaptation by the director Frank Capra.
Iron Fist starred in his own solo series in the 1970s, and shared the title Power Man and Iron Fist for several years with Luke Cage, partnering with Cage to form the superhero team Heroes for Hire. Rand frequently appeared with the Daughters of the Dragon duo Misty Knight and Colleen Wing – with Rand often seen in a relationship with the former, marking the first interracial romance in Marvel Comics history. Danny Rand has starred in numerous solo titles since, including The Immortal Iron Fist, which expanded on his origin story and the history of the Iron Fist. This series establishes that there is a long tradition of Iron Fist incarnations in the Marvel Universe, and that Danny Rand is only the most recent.
In later years, Iron Fist occasionally assumes the role of the Thunderer, becoming a mentor to several young heroes and martial artists, including the new Power Man Victor Alvarez and the young monk Pei. Rand eventually relinquishes his title and powers, which are later passed on to his successor Lin Lie. Rand meets his untimely death at the hands of the Ch'i-Lin, a longtime foe of the Iron Fists, but is resurrected and bestowed with new powers as the Ghost Fist in the series The Undead Iron Fist.
Iron Fist has been adapted to appear in several animated television series and video games. Finn Jones portrayed the character in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe Netflix television series Iron Fist, The Defenders, and the second season of Luke Cage. Other incarnations of Iron Fist have appeared in the Marvel Studios Animation series What If...? and Eyes of Wakanda.
Publication history
Creation
Iron Fist, along with the previously created martial artist Shang-Chi, came from Marvel Comics during an American pop culture trend in the early to mid-1970s of martial arts heroes. 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 Bill Everett character, John Aman, the Amazing-Man, created in 1939. Thomas later wrote that he and artist/co-creator Gil Kane hadThe film mentioned by Thomas is King Boxer, aka Five Fingers of Death, which presents the Iron Fist technique. Thomas further discussed the character's creation stating, "When Stan Lee gave me a verbal approval to star him in a series, I contacted Gil Kane and we worked out the costume and story. I had Gil give him a dragon brand on his chest, inspired by the one branded into Bullseye, a great western character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. At Gil's urging, we took some story elements from Bill Everett's 1939 hero Amazing-Man, which itself had borrowed heavily from James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon and the first movie made from it, which introduced "Shangri-La" to the world."
1970s
Debuting in a story written by Thomas and pencilled by Kane in the umbrella title Marvel Premiere #15–25, 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, John Byrne. As the Marvel Premiere issues had successfully established a considerable readership for the character, following this run, Iron Fist was immediately spun off into the solo series Iron Fist, which ran 15 issues. The solo series was written by Claremont and pencilled by Byrne. A subplot involving the Steel Serpent left unresolved by the cancellation of the series was wrapped up in issues #63–64 of Marvel Team-Up, the latter of which featured Rand kiss Misty Knight, marking the first interracial kiss and first long-term interracial couple in Marvel Comics history, as well as the first depiction of an age gap between a couple since Knight was significantly older than Rand.Iron Fist's appearances outside his own title include three Iron Fist stories in Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10, an additional story co-starring the Sons of the Tiger in issue #18, and a six-part serial, "The Living Weapon", in #19–24. He made guest appearances in such titles as Marvel Two-in-One, Marvel Team-Up, the Submariner series Namor, Black Panther, and Daredevil.
To rescue the character from cancellation, Marvel paired Iron Fist with another character who was no longer popular enough to sustain his own series, Luke Cage. The two characters were partnered in a three-part story in Cage's series Power Man #48–50. The title of the series changed to Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50, although the indicia did not reflect this change until issue #67. Iron Fist co-starred in the series until the final issue, when the character was killed off. Writer Jim Owsley later commented, "Fist's death was senseless and shocking and completely unforeseen. It took the readers' heads clean off. And, to this day, people are mad about it. Forgetting, it seems, that you were supposed to be mad, that death is senseless and Fist's death was supposed to be senseless, or that this is a comic book."
1990s
Iron Fist was revived half a decade later in Namor, the Sub-Mariner #21–25, a story which revealed that the character killed in Power Man and Iron Fist #125 was a doppelgänger. The story was both written and drawn by Byrne, who found the manner of Iron Fist's death objectionable and later commented, "In one of those amazing examples of Marvel serendipity, it turned out to be fairly easy not only to resurrect Danny, but to make it seem like that was the plan all along." Iron Fist then became a frequently starring character in the anthology series Marvel Comics Presents, featuring in three multi-part story arcs and four one-shot stories in 1992 and 1993. Two solo miniseries followed: Iron Fist #1–2, by writer James Felder and penciller Robert Brown; and Iron Fist #1–3, 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.2000s
Following a four-issue miniseries by writer Jay Faerber and penciller Jamal Igle, Iron Fist: Wolverine, 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, by writer Jim Mullaney and penciller Kevin Lau. Subsequently, a new Iron Fist series premiered called The Immortal Iron Fist. The series was written jointly by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction from issues #1–14 with artists David Aja and Travel Foreman. Fraction wrote issues #15 and 16 alone. From issue #17 to the series' cancellation at issue #27, the series was written by Duane Swierczynski and largely drawn by a returning Travel Foreman.2010s
Iron Fist appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010–2013 New Avengers series, from issue #1 through its final issue, #34. In 2014, Iron Fist was given new life and set to star in a new 12-issue comic book series written and drawn by Kaare Andrews titled Iron Fist: The Living Weapon as part of the All-New Marvel NOW! event.2020s
In January 2021, Iron Fist starred in the series Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon, written by Larry Hama with art by David Wachter. In October 2021, Marvel announced that Danny Rand will retire as Iron Fist and pass the mantle to a successor. The five-issue limited series, written by Alyssa Wong and art by Michael YG, was released in February 2022, which revealed Lin Lie as the new Iron Fist and Rand appearing in a supporting role.Iron Fist's 50th anniversary was commemorated in the one-shot Iron Fist 50th Anniversary Special #1. Released in August 2024, the one-shot featured Danny Rand in several short stories set throughout his life that included Wolverine, Lin Lie, the Daughters of the Dragon and Heroes for Hire in supporting roles. The anniversary special featured the return of previous Iron Fist writers which included Claremont and Wong. The one-shot concluded with Rand being killed off in the final story, which was written by Jason Loo and illustrated by Whilce Portacio. Similar to the X-Men line of comics featured in the 2024 "X-Men: From the Ashes" relaunch, the special included a QR code leading to an extra digital stinger page, in which case teased a possible resurrection for Rand.
In September 2025, Rand was resurrected and made his debut as Ghost Fist in the four issue limited series The Undead Iron Fist, with Loo returning as writer and Fran Galán on art. Artist Von Randal designed Ghost Fist's costume, which included arnis sticks, armor encasing his right arm and a full cowl mask inspired by the Wildstorm and DC Comics character Grifter. Initially, Randal incorporated a dragon motif on the armor's spaulder, but editor Danny Khazem requested it be replaced. Randal ultimately settled on an eagle, which he felt better aligned with the themes of The Undead Iron Fist.
In November 2025, it was announced that The Undead Iron Fist will be followed with Deadly Hands of K'un-Lun, a five issue limited series written by Yifan Jiang and illustrated by Paco Medina, which is set for a February 2026 release.