Iron Fist #1 (1975)

“A Duel of Iron”
Writer: Chris Claremont

Pencils: John Byrne

More FIRST ISSUE excitment, this time from the 70’s Kung Fu fad. Well, was it really a “fad”? I mean, is Kung Fu and martial arts ever NOT cool?! Nonetheless, here’s Danny Rand, Iron Fist, in his Very Own Collectible First Issue. In all his open-shirt, ballet-shoe wearing glory!

Spun off from a successful stint in “Marvel Premiere”, this issue opens up with Iron Fist on the trail of the missing Colleen Wing. Aside from a few asterisks telling us to read “Marvel Premiere”, very little information is given. As a first issues, this is something of a hinderance, because we’re not even given Iron Fist’s origin. Just that Colleen has been kidnapped and our hero; along with a guy named Lt. Scarfe; is on her trail. This book really hits the ground running as Fist and Scarfe are shaking down Angar the Screamer for info.

Angar mentions Stark International, so Fist follows up on the lead and meets Misty Knight along the way. Knight, the longtime partner of Colleen Wing in “Nightwing Restorations”. Which I only mention, because I always thought it was weird that they spelled it “Nightwing” instead of “Knightwing”. I guess after a few failed print jobs in their marketing materials, Colleen and Misty got pissed of always having to people “it’s spelled with a K, not an N, you dolt”, so they just went with “Nightwing”.

Also need to mention that Misty’s not really a superhero, yet she has her own belt-buckle with her intials on it! Slammin’!

Anyhoo, Misty’s also on the trail of Colleen and heard from Stark Industries’ Chief of Security, Don Cauley. Misty and Iron Fist find Cauley…dead at his desk. Iron Fist uses a “computer card” he took off of one of Colleen’s kidnappers and accesses Stark’s Delphi System. Of course, the dead body and the computer access brings Tony Stark running in all his Iron Man glory.

Iron Fist wanders off to search for clues and runs into Iron Man amidst some …gasp… Cryongeic Fuel Storage Containers! Thus, fearing an explosion, Iron Man can’t use his Repulsor Blasts, so we get a fairly even fisticuffs duel between Iron Man and Iron Fist in the obligatory Super Hero Fight of Misunderstanding! Iron Man even uses some of his spare armor suits, yet they still brawl to a standstill.

Check out Iron Man’s face. I think this was around the time when they decided that his face-plate should be “more expressive”; so his eyes would slant, mouth would open more, etc.

The two are distracted when a mysterious figure sneaks up on Misty and bombs the entire computer room. Iron Fist finally floors Iron Man with his actual… umm, iron fist, all charged up with his inner “chi”. The move that’s his “finisher”, of sorts.

Iron Fist digs through the wreckage, allowing Iron Man time to recover and ask for a second round. But it’s all stopped when the presumed-dead Misty Knight AND Don Cauley show up to stop them. Misty and Cauley explain that the whole thing was a set-up, arranged by “a group of sleeper agents in Stark International, working for one Mr. Big in Halwan”. Ah, “Halwan”, the good ol’ Fictional Country Pastiche.

Iron Man apologizes to Iron Fist about the misunderstanding and offers to help… until a caption at the bottom of his panel tells him that he has enough trouble in his own monthly title (now on sale, kids). Iron Fist flies off into the night to continue his search as the issue ends.

There’s also an interlude, showing Colleen in Halwan, where she’s slated to be sold into a slavery ring. She briefly runs into Steel Serpent, who would go on to become Iron Fist’s opposite number, if not his archenemy. Serpie even has his own Chest Tattoo, so you know he’s the “anti-Iron Fist”, so to speak.

I don’t like to talk about creators, but you’ll notice that this has Chris Claremont and John Byrne working on it, a few years before their famed collaboration in “Uncanny X-men”. Byrne’s style isn’t fully developed at this point, but he does have some of his traits displayed. Including the distinctive “Byrne Arm Pose” that always influenced me as a kid. Not surprising, but the final issue of “Iron Fist” (#15); two years later; even included a guest appearance by the X-men. That’s one I’d like to cover, as soon as my Collectible First Issue gimmick runs itself into the ground (what, you mean it hasn’t yet? Sheesh).

Overall, this story is full of action and actually gives its star something of a rub, since he fights Marvel Heavyweigt Iron Man to a standstill. I’m sure it was great for “Marvel Premiere” readers, but it wasn’t exactly accessible to someone picking up the book for the first time. There’s a lot of catching up to do. Consider that this was 1975, well before the widespread appearance of Comic Book Shops. Thus, if someone had missed “Marvel Premiere”, they probably would’ve had to order those issues through the mail. In those days, it might’ve taken about six months for them to arrive (considering you’d have to send a request to the shop, wait for their list to arrive, then send back an order and wait for that to arrive). Still, I like this book quite a bit and can’t really say anything too bad about it. My only knock would be the melodramatic narration captions, but those have always been a Marvel trait.

Just like a 70’s “kung fu” movie, you’ll go into this book thinking it’s kinda’ cheesy, but then you’ll get sucked in and actually enjoy it.

Summary: Iron Fist vs. Iron Man in a Hardcore Cryogenic Storage Room Brawl, Misty Knight’s belt buckle and the middle of a kidnapping plot
Cover Price:.25
Rating: 1.95