Aside from Kung-Fu movies, blaxpoitation movies and horrible pants, the seventies gave us comic companies trying to cash in on these fads (unfortunately that includes the horrible pants). One way Marvel worked all of this into one comic title was with the mysterious Iron Fist.
First off, I have to say whatever you may think about the costume, I think this character is great. He's hokey, he's got some corny dialogue (the stories are told in the third person, either by Iron Fist or someone else...sometimes it's hard to tell), but there's a brutal honesty to the character which wasn't/still isn't available in most other titles.
I've just finished the Essential Iron Fist and I've got to tell you, It's only convinced me to continue looking for more Iron Fist material.
The book starts out with Iron Fist's origin. Danny Rand was taken with his mother-by his father a wealthy business man who also was an heir/citizen of the fabled Tibetan city of K'un-Lun-to find the lost city. It appears on the mortal plane every ten years. The Rands also have their father's partner Harold Meachum along, who, it turns out came along just to make sure that the Rands never came back so he could keep the business for himself.
Well Danny's father is helped off a cliff by Meachum and after Danny and his mother flee, she is killed by wolves. Danny alone makes it across the bridge to K'un-Lun. There he is trained to become the Immortal Iron Fist. He basically goes through a rigorous training course that ends with him facing a dragon (which, through some weird ritual where he hugs the dragon gives him the dragon brand on his chest). After defeating the dragon he plunges his fists into a pot filled with the dragon's molten heart. This gives him his Iron Fists.
The Iron Fist is allegedly NOT a super-power, but it might as well be. His fist glows as he centers all of his body's chi in his hand and it allows his fist to become indestructible, impervious to harm and can even bust metal. Unfortunately since it's his chi-or his body's energy-he can't use it whenever he wants. He has to allow himself about a full day to recharge.
When Danny finally returns to Earth to get revenge he finds some strange twists in the plot that lead up to his parents' deaths. In fact little bits and pieces keep revealing themselves throughout the entire book which reprints like 30 or 40 issues, so it took awhile for the readers who read month-to-month to get the whole story (for about 3 years).
Basically the entire run of Iron Fist (until the end when the title merges with Power Man and they become a duo) focuses in on Danny/Iron Fist reclaiming his inheritence from his father's business and taking revenge on the people who killed his family. He faces many martial artists (as one would expect) and a series of increasingly ridiculous villains like The Wrecking Crew and Batroc the Leaper. He even has a run in with the Avengers (well, Captain America) when battling the Wrecking Crew who are trying to get Thor's hammer to kill Thor. Iron Fist also has a battle (of sorts) with the X-Men and Iron Man.
Wolverine is stalking Jean Grey by standing outside her appartment brooding over the fact that she loves Scott Summers, when he sees Iron Fist sneaking in through the roof. Well Jean's roommate is Misty Knight, Iron Fist's love interest. Wolverine goes into a rage, wears the stupidest costume I've ever seen, and starts a scuffle with the kung-fu master. Then Colossus and Nightcrawler appear on the scene to try and bring some rationale to the matter and divulge that Iron Fist isn't an enemy but a friend (Storm still gets a face full of potato salad though).
The thing that seems much different about Iron Fist than other comic titles being published at the time, is the degree of violence he's willing to resort to. Iron Fist is not above busting skulls, literally. Most of the time the people he battles are hopped-up ninjas or androids or super-powered rednecks; but when he's battling murderous street thugs he doesn't pull a Captain America and just bandies about, sweeping the legs and tossing them about.
He actually kills one of his opponents- The Warhawk-a dillusional Vietnam vet who still thinks he's in the jungle. He opens fire in a sniper position on a busy park and takes out civilians including two parents, leaving their child in his scopes before Iron Fist intercedes. All through the story Warhawk has had the upper hand because apparently he wasn't even human. There's some quality about him (never explained) that makes him like steel. He's basically a Punisher with a different costume. Well Iron Fist crosses the threshold of his anger and snaps, releasing his chi and knocking Warhawk into the ocean. At the time he was dead. Then for some reason Marvel needs to constantly re-use every shitty one-spot supporting character to confuse continuity and can't let sleeping dogs lie. So they said later that he actually wasn't dead.
Whatever.
One of the reasons I hate Marvel.
We learn as the title progresses that the Iron Fist has other applications aside from beating the hell out of people. He can use it to heal himself, and apparently he can do a mind-meld sort of thing. He does this once to both life-saving and yet a sort of lingering uncomfortable effect.
The title has some other things about it which should probably make it more popular than it was/is. It gives us the first appearance of Sabretooth. And, though we don't learn til decades later...Iron Fist actually, during the battle with Wolverine, makes the father/son connection of Sabretooth/Wolverine and even thinks it out loud. Apparently no one read it so it took Marvel another two decades of playing the is he/isn't he thing off its readers until they confirmed it.
There's a steady dose of martial arts action. One of the strange things, probably limited by the number of ways you can draw a punch or kick, is the fact that every issue gives us like thirty new "styles" when Iron Fist pucnhes someone. One time it will be the "monkey fist" or the "crane fist" or the "tiger fist" or something. Yet every panel looks like the same fist and fight. So I guess it was probably implemented to break up monotony.
This character, as Shang-Chi, was hinged on the increasing popularity of kung-fu and martial arts films in the mid seventies. The fad was short-lived and when it died down, the title lost its audience and was forcesd to merge with another failing title, Luke Cage/Powerman (based on the Blaxpoitation fad at the same time). The two actully did quite well for a duo and have had lasting effect on the industry. They are still referenced (even in an episode of Reno 911!) by other comics, including the Simpsons which did a parody of Iron Fist and Power Man with Lenny Leonardson and Carl Carlson who became Iron Foot and Nuclear Power Man.
In closing, this is, once again as with everything, not everyone's cup o' tea. Some of the story seems ultimately forced and the potential of such a characters, could be said to have limited potential. Nontheless it was entertaining and worth my time so if you're a fan of action and martial arts movies this will probably be up your alley.
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