Iron Fist

Iron Fist is an American comic book series from Marvel Comics about a martial arts hero of the same name. The character was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane. The first standalone series ran for 15 issues from November 1975 to September 1977; it was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne. According to the comic, Iron Fist comes from the mystical city of K'un-Lun, which appears on Earth once every ten years. His special ability is concentrated qi energy, which the comic calls the "Iron Fist", that is, the iron fist. It is a fictional ability, not a description of real training. According to Wikipedia, the character is trained in a range of martial arts: Shaolin kung-fu, Wing Chun, Aikido, Judo, Karate, Muay Thai, Ninjutsu and Wushu. We did not find in the sources how faithfully the comic depicts each art. After the original series was cancelled, Iron Fist was paired with the character Luke Cage to keep both series going.

Martial arts in this work

Origin

Iron Fist emerged in the first half of the seventies, when martial arts heroes were popular in American comics, and drew on kung-fu films. According to Wikipedia, the character was inspired by the 1972 film King Boxer, released in the USA as Five Fingers of Death, which features an "iron fist" ceremony. According to the same source, co-creator Roy Thomas cites another model, the character Amazing-Man, created by Bill Everett in 1939. The character first appeared in Marvel Premiere no. 15 from May 1974, about a year and a half before the start of his own series.

People and martial arts

• Roy ThomasAuthor
• Gil KaneAuthor
• Chris ClaremontAuthor
• John ByrneAuthor

Details

Status

Cancelled

First published / aired

Marvel Premiere #15 (1974)