Publication History
Iron Fist, along with the previously created Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, came from Marvel Comics during a pop culture trend in the early 1970s for martial arts heroes. Debuting in a story by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane in the umbrella title Marvel Premiere #15-25 (May 1974 – October 1975), 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. Following this run, Iron Fist was immediately spun off into the solo series Iron Fist, which ran 15 issues (November 1975 – September 1977). The solo series was written by Claremont and pencilled by Byrne. A subplot involving Steel Serpent left unresolved by the cancellation of the series was wrapped up in issues #63-64 of Marvel Team-Up.
Iron Fist joined the cast of the Luke Cage series in a three-parter story in Power Man #48-50. The title 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 the series until the final issue (#125, September 1986).
Two solo miniseries followed a decade later: Iron Fist (vol. 2) #1-2 (September – October 1996), by writer James Felder and penciller Robert Brown; and Iron Fist (vol. 3) #1-3 (July – September 1998), 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 (July 1997 – January 1999).
Following a four-issue miniseries by writer Jay Faerber and penciller Jamal Igle, Iron Fist: Wolverine (November 2000 – February 2001), 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 (May – October 2004), by writer Jim Mullaney and penciller Kevin Lau. The first issue of a new ongoing series, The Immortal Iron Fist, by co-writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction and primary artist David Aja, premiered with a January 2007 cover-date. Duane Swierczynski took over the series from issue #17.
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 1940s Bill Everett character, Amazing-Man. Thomas later wrote that he and artist co-creator Gil Kane had...
| “ | ...started "Iron Fist" because I'd seen my first kung fu movie, even before a Bruce Lee one came out, and it had a thing called 'the ceremony of the Iron Fist' in it. I thought that was a good name, and we already had Master of Kung Fu going, but I thought, 'Maybe a superhero called Iron Fist, even though we had Iron Man, would be a good idea.' Stan liked the name, so I got hold of Gil and he brought in his Amazing Man influences, and we designed the character together... | ” |
Iron Fist appearances outside his own title include three Iron Fist stories in Marvel's black-and-white comics magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (March 1975), an additional story co-starring the Sons of the Tiger in issue #18 (November 1975), and a six-part serial, "The Living Weapon", in #19-24 (December 1975 – May 1976). He made guest appearances in such titles as Marvel Two-in-One, Marvel Team-Up, the Sub-Mariner series Namor, Black Panther, and Daredevil.
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