Defenders Week Unofficial Primer: Iron Fist

Tomorrow morning you will wake up to a world that has The Defenders series in it. In advance of the premiere of the series, I am compiling primers to showcase the heroes themselves. This last primer will feature The Living Weapon himself, the Immortal Iron Fist.

Iron Fist

Real Name: Daniel Thomas Rand

AKA: Iron Fist / The Living Weapon

Created by: Roy Thomas and Gil Kane

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974)

Comic Origins: Iron Fist was created in response to the growing popularity of martial arts films in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Danny Rand is the son of a wealthy industrialist Wendell Rand. While on an expedition, Wendell, his wife, his business partner Harold Meacham and nine-year old Danny are caught in a storm and Danny’s parents are killed while Harold escapes and Danny is rescued by a group of warrior monks and taken to a mysterious city called K’un L’un. Danny is trained to defend the city from outside attackers and becomes the living weapon and defender of the city after defeating the dragon Shou-Lao.

Pre-Defenders: With the gates of K’un L’un closed to Danny, he and Colleen have started a new mission: destroy The Hand. As they try to gather information from sources around the world, their mission becomes more difficult when a mysterious assassin murders the people he is seeking out. When a dying contact tells him to go back to New York, he discovers that The Hand has never left and just might be stronger than he imagined.