Marvel Premiere #15 (1974)
By Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano
So, What Happens? Danny Rand, the martial arts master carrying the title of the Iron Fist, undergoes his final trials under the watch of Yu-Ti, lord of the mystic city of K'Un-Lun. First he battles four warriors called the Dragon Kings in hand-to-hand combat and easily wins. Then it's the turn of the champion Shu-Hu, who proves to be a much tougher challenge. During the fight, Danny reminisces about his past: ten years ago, as a kid, he took part in an Himalayan expedition with his parents Wendell and Heather and his father's business partner and best briend Harold Meachum. Their goal was to find the mystic and legendary city of K'Un-Lun, but Harold betrayed them and caused Wendell to fall and die. Left alone and lost, Danny and Heather wandered in the snow until they found a rope bridge, but before they could both cross it they were chased by a pack of wolves and the woman had to sacrifice herself to save her child. Danny was then rescued by the monks of K'Un-Lun, who took him in and trained him to become Iron Fist, the Living Weapon. Back to the present, Danny lets his mother's memory motivate him to overcome Shu-Hu and finally defeats him by focusing his inner energy - his chi - into his fist and deliver a mighty finishing blow. Shu-Hu is revealed to be a robot, while Danny is asked to choose between immortality and death.
Notes: This and the following ten stories of Iron Fist were published on Marvel Premiere before the character proved to be popular enough to deserve his own title.
Something Silly This Way Comes: Wendell and family went to explore the Himalayas without as much as a guide.
Review: With martial arts made popular in the '70s by Bruce Lee and a plethora of movies, Marvel tried to capitalize and create its own kung fu master. The character will eventually prove to be successful enough, if never stellar, but unfortunately as far as origin stories go this one is a drag. The absurdity of taking a ten-year-old to the Himalayas is commented upon in the story itself, and Meachum's betrayal is as telegraphed as they come. The present day scenes are weighed down by too much captioned narrative, which is helpful in giving context to what we are seeing but doesn't do the flow of the story or the predictable ending to the fights any favours. Roy Thomas is a fine plotter and writer, author of some of Marvel's greatest stories, but here it looks like he was asked to create something he didn't feel affinity with, and the only really powerful scene is Heather literally throwing herself to the wolves to save Danny. It's not surprising that later issues will be written by a number of different writers until Chris Claremont and then John Byrne arrive to give the character some stability.
On the flipside, the art by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano does its job. The Iron Fist costume is striking in its essentiality, with the green/yellow colour scheme being unique enough to stay in mind and make the character immediately recognizable. The fights are obviously supposed to be the core of the title and pretty much deliver thanks to some nice choreographies and the use of both real and fictional moves, the only disappointment being the iron fist itself, whose power is neither clear not evident yet, My favourite parts however are the flashbacks, with some detailed, realistic and emotional facial expressions making the reader feel for the fate of the Rands more than the story would deserve.
Final Verdict: Good art can't quite save an origin story that feels dull and derivative. 1.5/5
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