Iron Fist (Daniel Rand) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a practitioner of martial arts. Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, he first appeared in Marvel Premiere #15 (May 1974).Publication historyIron 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 #1525 (May 1974 - Oct. 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, running 15 issues (Nov. 1975 - Sept. 1977). The solo series was written by Claremont and pencilled by Byrne, who modeled Daniel Rand's face in part on Chuck Norris. 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 Luke Cage series in a three-parter story in Power Man #4850. The title series changed to Power Man and Iron Fist with #50. Note that there is a discrepancy between the cover logo and the indicia. The cover logo is titled Power Man and Iron Fist, but the indicia did not reflect this change until #67. Iron Fist co-starred the series until final issue (#125 , September 1986).Two solo miniseries followed a decade later: Iron Fist vol. 2, #1-2 (Sept.-Oct. 1996), by writer James Felder and penciller Robert Brown; and Iron Fist vol. 3, #1-3 (July-Sept. 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 - Jan. 1999).Following a four-issue miniseries by writer Jay Faerber and penciller Jamal Igle, Iron Fist: Wolverine (Nov. 2000 - Feb. 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-Oct. 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.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 Lee 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 #18 (Nov. 1975), and a six-part serial, The Living Weapon , in #19-24 (Dec. 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.Fictional character biographyBackgroundDaniel Rand was born in New York City, the son of American businessman Wendell Rand, a wealthy entrepreneur who discovered the mystical city of K'un-L'un as a young boy. During his time in K'un L'un, Wendell saved the life of the city's ruler, Lord Tuan, and was adopted as Tuan's son. However, Wendell eventually left K'un L'un and became a wealthy entrepreneur in the United States. He married socialite Heather Duncan and had a child, Daniel. When Daniel was nine, Wendell organized an expedition to again seek out K'un L'un, taking his wife Heather, his business partner Harold Meachum, and Daniel. During the journey up the mountain, Daniel slipped off the path, his tie-rope taking his mother and father with him. Meachum, who also loved Heather, forced Wendell to plunge to his death but offered to rescue Heather and Daniel. She rejected his help, preferring to journey without him or die.As explained in Marvel Premiere #15, Heather and Daniel come across a makeshift bridge that appears out of nowhere and are attacked by a pack of wolves. Heather throws herself on the wolves to save Daniel and is killed even as archers from K'un L'un attempt to save her. The archers take the grieving Daniel to see Y Show less «