Lin Lie


Lin Lie is a superhero who appears in media produced by American comic book publisher Marvel Comics. Created in partnership with the Chinese media company NetEase, the character first appeared in the 2018 Chinese digital manhua ''Warrior of the Three Sovereigns #1, written by Shuizhu and illustrated by Gunji.
A descendant of the mythological Chinese figure Fu Xi, Lin was initially established with the alias Sword Master, and wielded the mystical Sword of Fu Xi. He later joins the superhero team the Agents of Atlas, making his English-language debut in the 2019 comic War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #2. After the Sword of Fu Xi is destroyed he becomes the new Iron Fist, debuting as the character in Iron Fist'' vol. 6 #1.

Publication history

In 2017, Marvel partnered with the Chinese media company NetEase as part of an initiative to expand its audience in China and East Asia. This partnership resulted in the creation of the superheroes Lin Lie and Aero, both of whom debuted in May 2018 in Chinese-language digital manhua published on 163.com.
Sword Master made his American comics debut in War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas by writer Greg Pak and artist Gang Hyuk Lim before starring in his own solo series, titled Sword Master, written by Pak and illustrated by Ario Anindito. The Sword Master series also featured republications of the Warriors of Three Sovereigns series Lin debuted in, with translations done by Pak. Sword Master would continue to have regular appearances in Agents of Atlas.
In 2022, Lin Lie made his debut as Iron Fist in a five issue miniseries written by Alyssa Wong and illustrated by Michael YG and Sean Chen; his Iron Fist costume was designed by Jim Cheung. The miniseries was followed up with the one-shot A.X.E.: Iron Fist #1 as part of the A.X.E.: Judgment Day crossover event.
In May 2023, to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Lin starred in a backup story in Daredevil Vol. 7 #11, written by Jason Loo and drawn by Lynne Yoshii, with an AAPI Heritage Month Variant Cover featuring Iron Fist drawn by artist InHyuk Lee.
In August 2024, Lin was featured in a one-shot commemorating the 50th anniversary of Iron Fist, with Wong returning as writer and Von Randal illustrating.
In November 2025, it was announced that Lin would star in 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.

Fictional character biography

''Warriors of Three Sovereigns''

Lin Lie is a college student from Shanghai who receives a mysterious sword from his archaeologist father, who went missing along with Lie's older brother Feng shortly afterwards. One year after his family's disappearance, Lie is attacked by a demon at his apartment after receiving a mysterious red orb contained in a puzzle box. The sword Lie's father entrusted to him moves on its own to save Lie from the demon, which is then destroyed by Ji Shuangshuang, a demon hunter. Shuangshuang reveals that the sword is the Sword of Fu Xi, one of three sacred weapons used by the Yellow Emperor and the clans of the Three Sovereigns to seal the evil god Chiyou in the far past. Shuangshuang explains that she and Lie are the descendants of Nü-wa and Fu Xi, respectively, and that the Sword and the red orb containing a piece of Chiyou's soul were removed from one of Chiyou's three tombs, weakening his seal and allowing several of his demon minions to be unleashed around the world. Believing Lie to be too incompetent to protect the orb, Shuangshuang takes it with her. Lie gives chase but is attacked by Baron Mordo, who attempts to take the Sword for himself, but is driven away by Doctor Strange. Strange offers to keep the Sword for safekeeping but relents after Lie explains his lineage and needing the Sword to find his missing father, using his magic to help Lie reunite with Shuangshuang. Together, Lie and Shuangshuang destroy the remaining demons. Lie travels with Shuangshuang and his roommate Ah Cheng to the Nü-wa Clan's headquarters at Gansu, where he is greeted by Shuangshuang's grandmother and the Nü-wa chief Ji Xiangyun. As Lie, his father and brother are the only known descendants of Fu Xi, Xiangyun has Lie trained under Shuangshuang to prepare against Chiyou and his demon army.

''Agents of Atlas''

Now going by the name Sword Master, Lie begins a superhero career while fighting the forces of Chiyou and searching for his missing family. During the "War of the Realms", Amadeus Cho summons Sword Master and several other Asian superheroes to Seoul to help the New Agents of Atlas defend Asia from Queen Sindr and her Fire Goblin forces from Muspelheim. Sword Master and the New Agents of Atlas take Sindr and her army in Northern China and later help Captain Marvel defeat her and her remaining forces at the Great Wall of China near Beijing. After Sindr's liege Malekith is defeated, Sword Master joins the Agents of Atlas.
Sword Master runs into his Atlas teammate Shang-Chi in New York City while searching for his father. Noticing the upstart hero's inexperience and recklessness, Shang takes Lie under his wing to improve his skills. The two are reunited with the other Atlas agents when Flushing and other Asian, Pacific and predominantly Asian cities outside of Asia are merged into the portal city of "Pan" Tech by mogul Mike Nguyen of the Big Nguyen Company. Sword Master and Shang-Chi are later confronted by Ares, who attempts to take the Sword of Fu Xi to rescue his kidnaped drakon son Ismenios, who Ares believes was captured by another god. Shang-Chi makes a compromise to Ares: in exchange for Sword Master and Shang-Chi helping him, Ares would help find Lie's missing father. Ares accepts and use Pan Portals to track Ismenios to a temple in Madripoor, where they encounter Davi Naka, the Mother Goddess of Madripoor. Naka reveals that Ismenios attempted to plunder Atlantis's treasure hoard during the absence of its sea serpent guardian, but was caught by Namor. Due to her duty to protect all dragons, Naka rescued Ismenios from Namor's wrath and imprisoned the young drakon in her temple for his protection and to placate the king. Naka further warns the four that despite her efforts, Namor is still outraged over the disappearance of his dragon and implores them to find her.
Sword Master and the Atlas Agents help assist Pan's citizens, including defending the city from invading wyverns and sea serpents and protecting Madripoorean refuges from harassment from the Pan Guard. Suspicious by these events, Sword Master joins several of his teammates into infiltrating Nguyen's personal tower, where they discover that the Big Nguyen Company had captured Atlantis' missing dragon and were harvesting her scales to power Pan's portals. Before a decision could be made about releasing the dragon, Namor emerges from the waters off of Pan's coast to reclaim his stolen dragon, kickstarting a war between Pan and Atlantis.
In the "Atlantis Attacks" storyline, Sword Master and the other New Agents of Atlas are summoned by Amadeus Cho during his confrontation with Namor. Namor warns the group to return Atlantis' dragon in a day or else face the wrath of Atlantis before retreating. After the skirmish, Sword Master and the other New Agents are introduced to the original Agents of Atlas by Atlas Foundation head Jimmy Woo. When Woo sends Namora, Venus, Aero and Wave to Atlantis for a diplomatic mission, Amadeus discretely orders Sword Master and Shang-Chi to spy on Namora, due to her familial ties with Namor. The dragon is eventually released from captivity, but upon arriving home, she unexpectedly goes berserk and attacks the underwater kingdom. Sword Master witnesses the destruction caused by the dragon and Shang-Chi relays to Amadeus that Atlantis' scientists discovered an implant embedded in the dragon's scales to be the source of her behavior and that Namor believes Amadeus to be behind the sabotage, prompting the king to resume his assault on Pan. When Amadeus is forcibly transformed into his Hulk form and put under Nguyen's control with Sirena tech in a last-ditch effort to destroy Atlantis, Sword Master and Shang-Chi are able to remove the device from Amadeus, freeing him from Nguyen's control. When the conflict between Pan and Atlantis is peacefully resolved, Amadeus and Shang-Chi leave the team after admonishing Woo for using the team as his pawns, but Sword Master remains with the Agents of Atlas.
During the "King in Black" event, Sword Master initially defends Shanghai from invading symbiote dragons with Aero and the Black Knight, who had been abandoned in Shanghai and separated from his Ebony Blade, but abandons his mission after realizing that the symbiotes were minions of Knull rather than Chiyou, believing the task to be beneath him. Angered by Lie's arrogance, the Sword of Fu Xi abandons him for the Black Knight, which incenses Sword Master as he dismisses the Black Knight as a "psychotic American" unworthy of wielding the Sword. While using the Sword of Fu Xi, the Black Knight succumbs to madness, which prompts the Sword to return to Lie. As Sword Master and the Black Knight fight over the Sword, a symbiote dragon ensnares them with its tendrils, which also mentally connects them to Knull, who expresses his desire for their respective swords and ruthlessly mocks the two for their ignorance of their weapons' true histories. The Sword of Fu Xi uses the opportunity to use its flames to burn the Black Knight's hand, returning to Sword Master and freeing the two from Knull's grasp just as a swarm of symbiote dragons amalgamates into Knull's avatar, taking on a gigantic appearance of Chiyou. Sword Master helps the Black Knight recover the Ebony Blade and two use their respective swords to destroy the avatar with Aero's help.
When the "Death of Doctor Strange" prompts legions of demons to invade parts of the world, Sword Master is sent to Seoul by Woo to assist his teammate White Fox with taking down a demonic kumiho that had been terrorizing the South Korean countryside. While fighting the kumiho, the Sword of Fu Xi is destroyed by the kumiho who then threw Sword Master into a ravine. Although White Fox is able to slay the demon, she, the Agents of Atlas and South Korea's Tiger Division are unable to find Lie, with White Fox recovering only a single shard of the Sword, causing them to presume he died. Due to the Sword of Fu Xi's destruction, the seals on Chiyou's three tombs further weakened, prompting more of his demon minions to attack cities around the world.