I'm aware of how awful Masked Rider was, I'm just saying there's TECHNICALLY a presence in comics you could argue for, even if it's a minimal and absolutely terrible one. I'm sure it could be used for something fun if you actually tried XD
I'm not saying OPEN THE FLOODGATES AND LET ALL OF IT IN! I'm just saying there's sufficient connection and depth that a writer doing a decent job should get the chance to have their ideas evaluated like everyone else's even if manga's their chosen medium considering the long and intertwined history of the two.
EDIT: Eeesh, feel like I walked into a really awkward conversation here. ^^;
Eh, pretty sure the MOST awkward bits are over, and Gowi and Sloth bring up a good point, not every manga or anime is 'out there' and there are several properties I could legitimately see fitting in in Maximum if adapted right, especially things influenced heavily by western comics as is, which I'm also aware is a point that Rin tried to bring up before being sniggered down by exclusionists earlier on making comments about 'anime tiddies' and the inherent bizarre and clashing nature of the medium.
...Which honestly has never made sense to me since you already have a fair amount of manga/tokusatsu/japanese media influence in western comics anyway and vice versa. Most Excellent Super-Bat and the Super Young Team come to mind despite their semi-parody nature, Dum-Dum Dugan freaking fights Godzilla at a few points and then STARK International and S.H.I.E.L.D. build a giant Red Ronin Super Robot to fight him again, which gets stolen by a twelve-year-old boy. Lord Death-Man the immortal japanese crime lord originated in the Bat-Manga but he's been re-used in Western Comics since. Sonic the Hedgehog and Megaman, two characters I've seen people involved in previous Maximum stuff before express interest in, both have their roots in Japanese media and the former is a blue, supersonic talking anthropomorphic hedgehog. Hell, under the current indie comic rules, you could probably try for Avatar stuff and that's about as manga and anime influenced as you can get in western media.
As for the reverse of Manga being influenced by comics, while I could go into the history of the medium and the fact that Osamu Tezuka's stuff was all inspired by Disney Comics, I'll mostly go the route of bringing up Tiger and Bunny which is basically 'Western Superheroes exist in Japan, but they all have corporate sponsors' Kamen Rider which although it's flashy and over the top could easily be modified to fit, and the fact that both multiple comics characters and multiple comic book authors from the west have been involved in manga series of their own, some of which were actually not terrible.
and as far as the thing that brought this to my attention, Kamen Rider:
Have a Kamen Rider appearing in an official Marvel Comics publication!
Sure it only went one issue, but that's more than George Smiley got. So if Rin really wanted to use a Kamen Rider and people REALLY don't want manga and tokusatsu characters looked at on a one a one-by-one basis for acceptability, she still technically could do it.
[hider=Danny Rand A.K.A. The Immortal Iron Fist] | Identity | Daniel "Danny" Rand-Kai A.K.A. The Immortal Iron Fist
| Origin & Backstory |
1989-1995: Death of a Family In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned six years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun, though the official story was that the Rand Family and their good friend Harold were taking a pleasant vacation together at a mountain resort. Unbeknownst even to the others, Wendell Rand had been called back to K'un-L'un-secretly the place of his birth-to take up the mantle of the Immortal Iron Fist and in exchange, his family was meant to live happily forever in paradise among the immortal lords of the city.
However dark forces were set against Wendell that day, and before they could reach the safety of K'un-Lun they were attacked. Ghostly ninjas rose up from the snow to surround Meachum and the Rand family and like a corruption of the pure mountain ice itself, the shadowy form of the dark sorcerer known as Khan bled into reality before them. Khan's spectral ninjas attacked, and when Wendell proved capable of defeating them no matter the numbers they swarmed him with the enraged immortal wizard used his dark magics to bring the mountain down ontop of him, causing an avalanche that knocked Wendell and Harold off a cliff and buried Danny and his mother under an ocean of snow. The last memory Danny had before blacking out was of his father reaching out to him, thrown off a cliff by a wave of icy death.
When Danny came to, his mother had somehow managed to dig them free of the ice and was carrying him through the mountain pass, desperately searching for a way to safety. They trekked through the rocks and snow together, though eventually they began to notice they were not alone. A pack of wolves had begun stalking them. They fled blindly from their lupine pursuers through an icy haze, eventually coming upon an old and rickety bridge through what seemed to be sheer luck. Desperate for her son to get to safety, Heather begged him to run across the bridge while she held off the wolves as best she could, promising she would be right behind him. As Danny crossed however, Heather began using what was left of her mountaineering gear to destroy the bridge. Though Danny would never forget the minutes of sheer horror that happened next, some desperate force within him forced him to move on. Thus, six year old Danny Rand wound up wandering the icy slopes of the Himalayas alone, exhausted and traumatized. His last memory of that horrible period involved passing out, just in sight of a brightly burning golden gate.
When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, having been watching and waiting for his father's eventual arrival. For Danny's father Wendell was not only a native son of K'un-Lun and a man destined to be Iron Fist he was also the elder brother of the Yu-Ti, otherwise known as the August Personage in Jade, Lord of the House of Kai and ruler of K'un-Lun, making Daniel Rand-Kai a sort of prince among immortals. From that day on Danny Rand lived under the shadow of his father's past with his own future uncertain. 1995-2005: Forging of an Iron Fist
The Young Dragon-as he soon became known around the city-lived the strict but privileged life of a noble child of K'un-Lun: part ascetic monk, part scholar of lost and arcane knowledge and part warrior-in-training. The last of these was what most interested Danny, as his mind kept going back to the way his father had fought that day on the mountain slopes, and the shadowy being that had used dark magics to strike him down. As such he sought out the tutelage of Lei-Kung the Thunderer, the immortal weapon master and martial arts instructor of K'un-Lun. Lei-Kung's teachings were brutal and demanding but extremely effective, designed to be enlightening for mind, body and spirit alike and despite constant mockery and isolation from his fellow students due to his outsider status, Danny worked harder than anyone to master every task the Thunderer put before him.
Naturally though all of them trained harder than would ever be expected of children, for each of them harbored the same dream: To one day defeat the fearsome dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, a massive, reincarnating fire breathing dragon whose heart had long ago been ripped from his body and lay still beating in a mystically sealed brazier. For whoever defeated Shou-Lao and claimed his power in order to became the next Immortal Iron Fist, greatest martial artist in the world and champion of K'un-L'un. For ten years Danny trained towards that goal, honing his body into a living weapon the likes of which surprised even the Yu-Ti and Danny's fellow students. Thus when the time came for a tournament to decide who would face Shou-Lao, sixteen year old Daniel Rand-Kai emerged victorious, earning a right that most of those around him still thought would be his death sentence.
When the awaited morning arrived, Danny entered the depths of Shou-Lao's cave as the masses of K'un-Lun watched and faced down a giant, fire-breathing dragon with his bare hands. It was a difficult struggle, for Shou-Lao had the cunning of endless lifetimes in addition to his fire and the animal strength of his body, but eventually Danny was able to find an opening and grapple with the beast, covering the burning, dragon-shaped scar that fed it the mystical energies of its own disembodied heart. What came after was the most difficult part, a test of the will and spirit that came in the form of searing, agonizing pain at contact with the dragon's burning flesh and scalding blood. But Danny endured, earning a dragon-shaped brand on his chest for his troubles before Shou-Lao ultimately collapsed, enabling Danny to plunge his fists again and again into the burning brazier containing Shou Lao's molten heart to kill the beast and fuse their essences together in the same instant. Thus, with the dragon slain a new Iron Fist was born!
2005: A New Life Despite subsequently being offered an eternal life among the people of K'un-Lun, Danny knew that his new powers and skills were meant for more than defending his adopted home. Instead he would need to return to the mortal world in search of Khan, the being of darkness responsible for the destruction of his childhood life. Following the sage advice of his uncle the Yu-Ti, Danny decided to begin his search and reacquaint himself with the world by returning to his childhood home in New York City and using the resources of his father's vast Rand Incorporated company to search for signs of Khan's influence on Earth while learning how to live in the modern world. Unbeknownst to Danny, Lei-Kung and the Yu-Ti had already begun prepping the way for their protege and a story was concocted that ensured the young Danny Rand who had died tragically in the mountains ten years ago would soon be rediscovered very much alive at the age of sixteen.
Since then Danny has returned to New York as one of its' richest teenagers under the legal guardianship of Harold Meachum's adult daughter Joy and has even begun attending school in an attempt to become re-accustomed to modern life. However, he also secretly patrols the underworld of New York City, searching its' every dark corner for news of the Cult of Khan while also trying to channel his traumas into something positive and constructive.
| Attributes | Martial Arts-First and foremost despite his young age Daniel Rand-Kai is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, taught by masters with an immortal lifetime of experience with methods that would seem impossible to ordinary men. He is a master of all of the martial arts of K'un-Lun and many of the martial arts of Earth, including styles of fighting that have been unknown to most mortals for thousands of years. More mundanely he is a master of Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Aikido, all forms of Shaolin Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Boxing and even informal street-fighting techniques. He has complete mastery of nearly all martial arts weaponry and weapon styles, and is skilled enough at pressure point techniques to effectively use them against superhuman opponents and even beings whose physiology is completely inhuman.
Chi Manipulation and Augmentation-due to his training in K'un-Lun, Danny is able to manipulate his chi to enhance his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, endurance, agility and senses to superhuman levels, although doing this usually takes some concentration and leaves him greatly drained afterward. As an extension of this, Danny can also sense the flow of Chi in the world around him if he concentrates, occasionally including the auras of others and subtle interweavings with other types of energy.
Chi of Shou-Lao-Thanks to plunging his fists into the molten heart of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny can call upon the dragon's immense and powerful chi and focus it into his fist. While this is primarily used for his signature Iron Fist ability, Danny has occasionally been able to utilize the Chi of Shou-Lao to heal himself and others in times of great desperation and it may have other functions as well, unknown to him. Danny's main usage is focusing the Chi of Shou Lao into his hands in order to make them practically invulnerable and capable of striking with massive concussive force. Although "Becoming like a thing of Iron" is how it was phrased in ancient K'un-Lun, the Iron Fist technique is capable of easily shattering or shredding through iron, steel and much harder and denser substances with relative ease. What's more, Danny can focus more of Shou-Lao's chi into his fists for stronger strikes and has yet to reach his maximum power with the Iron Fist.
Meditation and Body Control-Thanks to meditative exercises learned in K'un-Lun Danny is able to exercise complete mastery over his body, enabling him to control his breathing and heartbeat well enough to slow them to a state indistinguishable from death, deaden himself to all pain, greatly slow the effects of drugs and toxins on his body, go days without sleep and adapt himself to a wide variety of environments with relative ease.
Peak-Human conditioning-Danny's incredibly intensive training in K'un-Lun means that his body is trained and conditioned to the peak potential of an unassisted human, making him just short of a Steve Rogers-level of physically fit even without the use of his chi.
Acrobatics-As part of his training in K'un-Lun, Danny was honed into a highly skilled acrobat, enabling him to maneuver through environments as diverse as the mountainous slopes outside K'un-Lun, the twisted jungles of the H'ylthri and the urban sprawl of New York city with equal ease, speed and grace.
Stealth-Though not as skilled as some, Danny's mastery of ninjutsu includes training in the arts of concealment, deception and stealth.
Multi-Lingual-Danny is fluent in numerous languages and dialects used throughout China, as well as American English and Japanese.
Some Knowledge of the Occult-For someone who professes to totally lack any interest in or aptitude for magic Daniel Rand-Kai possesses a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the mystic arts, supernatural lore and arcane secrets mankind is typically not meant to know. However, Danny himself will swear-up-and-down that he's hardly an expert in such matters, instead insisting that growing up in the high society of K'un-Lun necessitates a basic understanding of such things.
| Character Notes |
K'un-Lun-Daniel Rand-Kai's adopted home, K'un-Lun is an ancient and mythical city whose dimension only overlaps with Earth once every ten years. While legendary for its' martial arts among those who know of its' existence, K'un-Lun is also a place of great mystical and occult importance as it is in truth one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, seven locations that form a nexus for all the world's chi and serve as a mirror to the world itself, collectively known as the Heart of Heaven. K'un-Lun is a place of magic and wonders in many ways. A tree whose fruit grants everlasting life, Immortal Sorcerer-Kings, dragons both great and small and ancient technologies and arcane artifacts lost to mankind for ages are all things residents of K'un-Lun hardly spare a second glance at. However in many other respects K'un-Lun is much like ancient China, especially for the common folks who are not immortal but live much as their ancestors have for untold centuries.
H'ylthri Jungles-When K'un-Lun is not connected to the mortal world, it is often surrounded by dense and wild jungles more vibrant and ravenous than any known on Earth. Apart from numerous strange plants and creatures the primary inhabitants of these jungles are the H'ylthri, a race of sentient plants that are uniformly powerfully telepathic and also capable of creating clones of other sentient beings given enough time. The H'ylthri hate K'un-Lun with a passion and desire it and its' peoples to be swallowed up by the jungles. Danny once spent considerable time stranded in the H'ylthri Jungles due to an accident during his training and described it as the toughest environment he has ever experienced.
Rand Incorporated- a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York and founded by Danny's father Wendell-Rand'Kai and his business partner Harold Meachum. While Rand Incorporated has subsidiaries involved in a wide variety of businesses including Rand Oil & Chemicals and Rand R&D, Rand Inc's initial focus was on real estate and land development, and as a result the company is said to own more buildings in New York City than any other though that is debatable and many of them are leased to Tony Stark and Norman Osborne respectively. Shipping, Freight and Transportation are also a specialty of Rand Incorporated and it actually holds the patents to and manufactures high-speed and mag-lev bullet trains used for everything from the Tokyo subways to American freight cars. RandMedia is also a well-known branch of Rand Inc, subsidizing cable TV companies, radio stations and newspapers like the Daily Globe and internationally published paper the News Express. Rand Incorporated also began using its' control over advertising, shipping and building-space to break into retail and distribution, with Rand-Mart quickly becoming one of the bigger retail chains in the U.S. It's overseas where Rand Incorporated really makes its' money and image however, as the company has incredibly strong long-standing relationships with business partners in East and Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, Japan and China. There Rand Incorporated is involved in a wide variety of business ventures and often serves an intermediary role in American markets. It also has a large philanthropic and charitable branch.
The Rand BuildingThe most iconic structure owned by Rand Incorporated, the Rand building is a towering skyscraper that serves as the headquarters and financial heart of the Rand empire. Unbeknownst to most but as revealed by Wendell Rand's notes, A secret sub-basement of the building links into a network of tunnels to other Rand-owned buildings Iron Fist uses to get around the city, along with a vast complex of hidden room curiously labelled 'Orson's' containing: a training area, what appears to be the remains of a Zeppelin and a semi-functioning hi-speed underground railway car.
Allies
Lei-Kung the Thunderer-an Immortal of K'un-Lun and Danny's primary instructor in the martial arts, Lei-Kung trained not only Iron Fist but all the warriors of K'un-Lun past and present and is a martial artist, warrior and leader with thousands upon thousands of years of experience. He was also one of Danny's primary mentors and caretakers from the age of six or seven until he was about sixteen and is one of the closest things Danny has to a father figure.
Yu-Ti the August Personage in Jade/Nu'An-another Immortal and the ruler of K'un-Lun. The current holder of the title Yu-Ti is Nu'An, a powerful sorcerer and mystic who also happens to be Danny's uncle. Nu'an allegedly rules K'un-Lun with benevolent wisdom along with the four Dragon Kings, but he has occasionally shown darker and more pragmatic tendencies though he maintains all that he does is for the good of both K'un-Lun and the mortal world.
Miranda Rand-Kai/Deathsting-Danny's older half-sister born in K'un-Lun, Miranda was secretly trained to be a master of the martial arts by her betrothed despite the laws of the Eternal City unfairly forbidding women from combat roles, and is currently exiled to Earth. after her brother's recent return to the mortal world Miranda has followed him to New York in order to protect him while both tracking down the Cult of Khan on her own and planning her separate vengeance on K'un-Lun for the city's perceived betrayals. She is nearly as skilled in the martial arts as Danny, is possessed of more practical experience and commands the Serpent's Sting, a powerful set of gauntlets that enables her to channel her chi into a strike similar to the Iron Fist.
Joy Meachum-Danny's legal guardian and the current CEO of Rand Incorporated. Joy considers Danny to be the next closest thing to family despite the two of them not having seen each other for well over ten years by now and the two are bonded by the mutual loss of their parents, although Joy remains ignorant of the true cause of her father's death, at least as far as Danny is aware. Under her surprisingly steady guidance Rand Incorporated has only grown and prospered over the last ten years, though it generally avoids directly competing with other massive multinational conglomerates like those belonging to Norman Osborne and Bruce Wayne. Joy herself is surprisingly level-headed and kind and remains one of Danny's most steadfast sources of support despite his difficulties adjusting and the secrets he's keeping from her.
Jeryn Hogarth-Rand Incorporated's chief financial and legal adviser, while Jeryn is no kung-fu expert or crime-fighter by himself, he performs the vital task of running the day-to-day affairs of Rand Incorporated along with Joy Meachum and also providing a sound source of life advice for Danny should the need arise.
Antagonists
The Cult of Khan is a shadow organization both inside of and outside of K'un-Lun that's dedicated to the worship and restoration of Master Khan, an immortal sorceror who used his powers to conquer all seven of the cities of heaven as well as at least portions of Earth and other dimensions and declared himself a god, using blood sacrifices from his subjects to continually increase his power and keep the population in slavery. Khan was 'killed' by the first Iron Fist but in actuality managed to flee and survive in a severely weakened state. Now he plots his revenge on all Iron Fists and K'un-Lun while looking for ways to heal himself and restore his full powers. As an immortal he's had plenty of time to worm his way into the world like a spreading infection and has an army of slavishly devoted followers, highly trained warriors, spirits and demons bound to his beck and call. However, the Cult of Khan is not as present in the world as the likes of the Mandarin or Fu Manchu, as Khan's main concern is restoring his body and powers so he can reclaim his inter-dimensional empire. While numerous people have been corrupted into the Cult of Khan either through choice or Khan's own mental powers, some of its' main members include:
Master Khan, otherwise known as the Master of Darkness and Most Ancient of All Wizards-As the legends fearfully whispered in K'un-Lun go, when the primordial darkness that the Japanese refer to as Amatsukami-no-Mikaboshi was driven from the world in battle with the gods, a small fragment of it was severed and left behind. From this fragment was born Khan, a shapeshifting being steeped in malice and dark sorcery that ruled over the seven cities in an ancient era of blood and terror. It was only when Quan Yaozu the first Iron Fist came into his power that Khan was defeated. Though he is thought long dead or a fairy tale by most, Khan very real and is merely vastly weakened and in hiding. Using the subtle tentacles of his cult, he plans to find a cure for his weakened state and reclaim his empire while destroying or corrupting all Iron Fists. Even in his weakened state, Khan is still a shapeshifting eldritch being and sorcerer of great power with untold ages of experience in the mystic arts as well as a powerful telepath.
Fera-When Master Khan learned of the new Iron Fist Danny Rand, in his cruel insanity he decided to craft a new, bizarre tool for the Immortal Weapon's destruction. Fera is a yaoguai, a malevolent supernatural entity spawned of the tortured spirits of the very wolf pack that killed Danny Rand's mother before his eyes. As well as proficiency with the martial arts of K'un-Lun, Fera has superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and durability that make her more than a match for Danny in combat. In addition she possesses magically sharp claws that can easily tear through steel given her strength and senses and tracking abilities far superior to any wolf that enable her to track in any terrain. While not exactly evil, her sense of morality and way of thinking is far from any human norm. However much she may not wish to kill and despises Master Khan for creating her his dark magics compel her to obey him in all things, including hunting Iron Fist and his allies.
Scimitar-An assassin and master swordsman raised by the Cult of Khan but roughly around the same age as Danny, Scimitar was given no real name of his own as a sign that he is merely a weapon for Master Khan's use. Despite that, he actually believes that serving his god and master is divine law and seems to find meaning in combat. More than anything this has lead to him seeing Iron Fist as potentially a fellow warrior whom he could respect were they not diametrically opposed. He wields a pair of swords crafted by Khan whose blades are composed purely of mystical energies, allowing him to change their shape and either let him zap opponents non-lethally or cut through or vaporize metal and flesh with ease.
Gin-Goh - A once powerful warlord who terrorized central Asia and was peerless in combat, Master Khan wanted to use Gin Goh to create the ultimate warrior and general to eternally command his armies. Therefore the sorceror-god crafted a powerful curse that ensured that if Gin Goh were ever killed, he would merely come back stronger. Unfortunately for Khan's designs, endless centuries of painful death have twisted and warped Gin Goh's mind, and while he still retains both immense physical power and instinctive fighting skill, he is little more than a mad, sadistic berserker kept docile only by Khan's telepathic leash.
Ghost Ninja(s)- The Ghost Ninja is a nameless assassin trained in dark arts by Master Khan, and Khan can actually summon multiple copies of the Ghost Ninja to carry out his nefarious works. The Ghost Ninjas can fuse back together into one warrior for a power boost, but they can only temporarily stabilize. along with his mortal converts, the Ghost Ninja serves as Khan's primary source of footsoldiers.
Davos/The Steel Serpent-Davos is the natural born son of Lei-Kung the Thunderer and was once friends with Wendell Rand-Kai during their time together in K'un-Lun. However, Davos' pride lead to him challenging the dragon Shou-Lao when doing so was Wendell's right, and his failed attempt at becoming the Iron Fist drove him into both exile and a seething hate for the line of Rand-Kai. Davos has had identical training to Danny plus several additional decades of practical experience to apply it along with none of Danny's restraint. as a result he is more than capable of defeating Iron Fist despite the latter's skill. In addition his incomplete Mark of Shou-Lao also allows him to absorb Danny's Iron Fist chi through a crushing technique, as well as enabling him to literally drain the life force out of others he gets in his death grip. Danny and Davos have fought only once shortly after Iron Fist arrived in New York, and Danny only survived the experience because Davos insisted killing 'an inexperienced child' would taint his revenge.
Chiantang, The Black Dragon-Formerly a dragon who terrified K'un-Lun, Chiantang was defeated by a previous Iron Fist, bound to a human form by K'un-Lun sorcery and banished to Earth ages ago. He has since made a living as the leader of one of New York City's most notable tongs given his ageless nature and supernatural powers. Although Chiantang is powerful and established, within recent decades his organization has become increasingly pushed back by new players including the Kingpin and the Golden Dragons.
The Si-Fan- A ruthless and ancient organization of criminals and feared assassins commanded by international criminal mastermind Fu Manchu. The Si-Fan are primarily connected to Iron Fist through Fu Manchu's insidious and dangerous daughter, Fa Lo Sui otherwise known as the Black Lotus. Fu Manchu himself is unsure of what to think of Danny Rand though he seems to have some knowledge of Danny's father Wendell and is sure that his daughter's interest should warrant interest of his own.
Fa Lo Sui, the Black Lotus-Fu Manchu's daughter and the currently designated heir to his organization, although seemingly young Fa Lo Sui is a skilled martial artist in her own right and more importantly a master of trickery and manipulation, having earned her place among the Si Fan and with it her father's favor.
Fin Fang Foom-An ancient shapeshifting entity that appeared on Earth in China in the form of a massive dragon thousands of years ago, He Whose Limbs Crush Mountains was sealed away when a past Iron Fist came to the mortal world with a magical herb from the Floating Gardens of K'un-Lun capable of casting Fin Fang Foom into a deep slumber. That said, Foom may awaken at any time to wreak havoc upon the world once more and worse yet due to his shapeshifting powers he may walk the human world unseen, waiting to unleash death and destruction for purposes unknown.
The Twelve Brothers in Silk-Twelve brothers and martial arts masters of the highest caliber, each one skilled in a different animal-style of martial art. The Silk Brothers are freelance assassins of great renown and Danny has encountered a few of them in his search through the martial arts underworld.
Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger-A martial artist of world-class skill with affiliations with the League of Assassins, Iron Fist first encountered Ben Turner shortly after arriving in New York. Danny was narrowly able to defeat Bronze Tiger, who has since taken up the idea of trying to recruit the Immortal Weapon to the League of Assassins himself, though Danny has adamantly and violently refused the offer.
The Foot-While Iron Fist tries to stay out of the affairs of ninjas and their ever raging shadow wars the Foot's more overt presence in New York has attracted his attention, as their meddling in the most shadowy aspects of martial arts both offends his sense of honor and reminds him too much of the Cult of Khan. Danny has thus begun investigating the Foot Clan on his own.
Items
The Jade Mirror-A massive mirror of polished jade through which the Yu-Ti can gaze upon all that occurs in numerous dimensions, and also open up portals between them if so desired. Nu-An mainly uses this to watch over Earth, though it is also used when he desires to transport others into or out of K'un-Lun as when Davos and Miranda were banished.
The Anomaly Stone a crystal which contains the souls of every past Iron Fist, the anomaly gem was fragmented into many pieces ages ago, many of which were lost in the mortal world. As they contain the collective power of numerous Iron Fists, even the fragments are energy sources of great power and occasional mystical significance.
Dragonslayer a jian which is the traditional sword of the Immortal Iron Fist, made from a fang of the first incarnation of Shou-Lao and dipped in the beast's own heart, it is forged to resonate with the Chi of Shou-Lao better than any mortal weapon. While the Dragonslayer is locked deep within K'un-Lun, it has been used in the past to defeat and bind Chiantang, slay the Sorceror God Khan and defeat numerous great evils in the past.
| Character Goals | I want to successfully weave Iron Fist into the Maximum Comics universe while also drawing on his lore to create stories that are well-crafted and self-aware while staying true to the character's Wuxia and Kung-Fu B-Movie influences in a way that's fun to write and to read. I may play through pre-established Iron Fist arcs, but I also want to try a slightly different take on the character than I normally use involving a much younger and more inexperienced Iron Fist dealing with a legacy and past history he doesn't yet understand that hopefully can be explored over time. Overall though I still want to collaborate with everyone to have a fun time, make something cool and expand the Maximum Comics universe for the better, especially where its' martial artists are concerned.
| References |
Iron Fist was still smiling as he pondered what sort of scenario to set up. It should be something to properly test the Titans stealth skills while being flexible enough to adapt to anything they tried to do or for that matter failed to do. Not to mention he wanted to have a little bit of fun with them first off and make the training memorable for those involved so it didn't come off as too harsh while not fading from anyone's memory any time soon. Eventually he decided on an amalgamation of some of his own experiences would best convey why the necessary skills were so necessary. He moved up to the observation deck and punched in the scenario he had in mind before announcing it over an intercom.
"Let's see. I think you'll all like this one. A little something from my personal file: The Castle of Nightingales."
With that the room began to fade away, replaced by a soaring series of pagodas dappled by soft moonlight. There were even crickets chirping in the background and the soft dripping of water from somewhere, in fact there was very little to indicate anything other than a peaceful night. directly behind Iron Fist a sliding screen door lay open with a vast hallway leading to a set of stairs that in turn lead to another hallway. Occasionally a guard in the sort of clothes that suggested a kabuki stagehand or stereotypical ninja would patrol set routes before turning around again. Interestingly their faces were completely covered, leaving no room even for eye slits. No torches or lighting illuminated the interior either.
"Welcome to the Castle of Nightingales, Titans. Your objective in this scenario is to sneak through this fortification and meet with the informant held captive at the very top of this its' tower. The guards inside are actually blind, but don't let that fool you, they're all highly trained professional killers who are more capable without their eyes than many warriors are with them. Moreover, if you fail to take them out quietly and attract the attention of too many, there's a dangerous surprise waiting for everyone. Work together and remember: the key is to think and move as one with both your environment and your enemies."
It wasn't actually that simple of course. The truth was that the floor was boobytrapped so that if anyone stepped on it carelessly or in the wrong way it would send up a sound like nightingales singing, which attracted the attention of the blind guardsmen. the guardsmen themselves were also actually androids underneath their masked faces and were more resilient to damage than they seemed though in this case he'd set it so a proper stealth attack would take them down easily. That said, he hadn't known those things going in, and the stakes were a lot lower for the teens in his care than they had been for him. As for the surprise, well, it was supposed to be more of a "game over" occurrence, but he was looking forward to seeing how they handled it.
Iron Fist kept himself composed and calm, resisting any impulse to sigh or seem irritated in any way. Amy was young and new to being a superhero, and besides that from what her file and a few briefings had said she had already managed to do a literal world of good despite both of those things. Anger would probably not be the way through to her in any case. She was clearly nervous and felt bad enough about having skipped training, if he lost his head senselessly over something that could be easily made up like this, he'd be doing her no favors as a mentor. Despite attempting to seem detached, he couldn't help but chuckle a little at being called 'Mr.Fist', although he supposed that none of the new kids new his name, nor was he sure about the senior members for that matter.
"Well, in order not to fall behind and potentially put yourself in danger, you'll probably need to make it up to yourself with extra training, either with a group if you can work something out or one-on-one with me or one of the senior Titans, if they're around. I know you're fairly new at working with a team like this and you'd rather be gaming, but unfortunately, regular training's part of being on the team. If you're having any issues adjusting to the training or any other part of the life here, not getting along with your teammates, even plain not wanting to put in the work instead of doing something else, I'm always here to talk it over with you, but I can't do that if you hide away in the Rec Room."
Danny paused and looked at the game Amy had been playing. Rand Industries actually had some subsidiaries involved in video games and this one seemed a little bit familiar...
"That guy on the other end is right you know. If you time things just right you can hit him with the projectile attack while he crouches and starts the low kick but before he can block or finish the attack, since the action leaves him open for more than a few frames. You must always be ready to adapt your strategies to fit your opponent's, no matter how unfair or devious. If you attended my training you might know that."
Luckily he was fully dedicated to understanding every aspect of his business. Let her wonder how someone like him knew that, though.
YES! FINALLY!
It probably wasn't the most tactful thought to have when hitmen burst in on his father's wedding and threatened people with assault rifles, but as fun as it was watching Drake feel even more uncomfortable than himself and insulting him consequence free to the amusement of Gotham's high society, if Damian had to act like an amusing ball of idiotic sunshine for the entire day he would have died. To say nothing of the horrific fallout that would have occurred had the old harpy next to Kate Kane or the woman herself dared to pinch his cheeks.
Unfortunately before he could run off and change to join the fray as Robin or just jumped in undisguised and counted on the chaos to conceal himself Cassandra came sliding down the railing in full combat mode and started rattling off orders and descriptions of the attackers. At the end before charging into the crowd she seemed to single him out specifically with "No one dies." As if he needed reminding not to kill when it was something he'd been practicing every day.
Glad to be free of the need to keep up his pointless 'normal child' disguise he muttered something about getting to a panic room just loud enough to throw off suspicion before preparing to bolt to the nearest hidden entrance to the cave and change into the only 'suit' he actually felt comfortable in. Maneuvering through the crowd was hardly a problem for someone of his size and training and Gordon and his alleged 'police force' would likely see to the evacuation and free the rest of them up to fight the assailants-
Except that one of the hitmen was already holding his gun poised to fire directly into the crowd and a few of the city's wealthiest sheep hadn't had the sense to get out of the way. He probably should've just allowed them to be shot. They were doubtlessly societal parasites like the rest of Gotham's elite and they were no concern of his when there was a fight to be had. But...
"-tt- Fine. No one dies."
Gritting his teeth in frustration Damian quickly altered his path and leaped to tackle the innocent idiots down and out of the gunsel's line of fire, making sure to get as many people clear of the shooter's potential trajectory in the one act as he could before the hitman could open up on them. It might not get him found out, it might just look like a frightened child had gotten turned around in the crowd maybe tripped or panicked, and sent a bunch of socialites sprawling. Provided it didn't get him killed he didn't particularly care, though he could tell it had already earned him a few new bruises. If he didn't die right about then he would disentangle himself from the mess and slip unnoticed into the chaos to make his way down to the cave. Then he would change and beat these attackers to within an inch of their deaths for making him do this.
Danny Rand-Kai could feel the qi of this city: a murky, pulsing, constantly shifting thing that felt gritty, strange and just...alien.
This was not his city, this wasn't even his world anymore, and the gleaming metal spears that were the buildings stabbing the sky with cars whizzing by underneath in a grating cacophony of horns and breaks and curses only served to contrast against his memories of K'un-Lun with its graceful architechture and pristine surroundings. K'un-Lun, his home since the age of six, a bubble of frozen time that had suddenly popped and left him stranded in this unfamiliar modern world with its' endless swarms of people rushing about in the blind frenzy of speed that only those who truly know mortality aspire towards. Danny supposed he had no one to blame for his feelings of loss and discomfort but himself, though. After all, he had chosen this path, chosen to give up paradise, eternal life, the love and adoration and peace of K'un-Lun....
For revenge. It was a path he alone could walk, for he had taken up the mantle of the Immortal Iron Fist: the Living Weapon, a title that should rightly have belonged to his father before his untimely death, that of a warrior who fought alone as a burning light against an eternal storm of dark-
"EVERYBODY WAS KUNG-FU FIGHTING!" THOSE KICKS WERE FAST AS LIGHTNING!"~
*sigh*
His cellphone ringtone was probably Joy's idea of a joke, and even though it grated on Danny, defeating a dragon was nothing compared to trying to figure out how to reprogram the thing. The instant interruptions of cell phones were exactly the sort of thing he hated about this modern world and-
"IN FACT IT WAS A LITTLE BIT"-
*Click*
"Go for Danny Rand, majority shareholder and future CEO of Rand Incorporated."
Joy's laughter on the other line brightened his mood significantly, even if he had to admit it wasn't really productive to his current train of thought.
"Very funny Danny, but we both know the day you have my job is the day the company goes under! Anyways, just calling to let you know that we're going to have to reschedule dinner, this whole meeting's running late but I'm dealing with some pretty important clients that I can't exactly walk out on. You gonna be alright taking care of yourself for the night?"
It had been Joy's idea to start having dinners together at the end of the day, maybe to try and give things a sense of routine, normality, even family. That's what she was trying to be, he supposed, some cross between a mother and an older sister ever since she'd been named as his guardian. It wasn't like they weren't close in their own way, considering Joy had known him since he was in diapers and she and her father had known his parents even before that. If anything they'd only grown closer due to the fact that both of them had lost their parents in those mountains-
He forced himself to respond before he started remembering.
"Yeah, I'm sure I'll be fine, I'll figure something out."
"Okay, if you say so. Oh, and before I forget make sure to get out of the penthouse, experience the city a little! It's not good for you to just sit in your room brooding all day, Danny. After all, you're only sixteen! You need to live a little!"
*Click!*
Danny took a moment to gaze out the window at the skyline and the bustling city below. His father's city. Maybe he had gotten a little too distracted and grim lately, forgotten who he really was and why he was here.
"Experience the city and...live a little...huh?"
Chinatown March 20th, 2005 7:30 PM
"KILL HIM, KILL HIM, KILL HIM, KILL HIM!!!~
Okay, so an illegal underground fighting arena beneath a run down Chinatown restaurant prooobably wasn't the side of the city Joy was hoping he'd experience, but the Young Dragon had to admit for the first time in a while he definitely felt like he was living.
Besides, it felt good to be back in the traditional masked garb of the Iron Fist, dragon symbol plain on his chest, wailing on criminal scum in hopes of fighting well enough to secure an audience with the mob boss known as Chiantang. Because in addition to being one of the most established tong leaders around, The Black Dragon was well known to Danny as a literal, actual dragon in disguise and one of the most well-connected figures when it came to the hidden subcultures where mysticism and martial arts intersected.
The bloody faced, stony skinned man-mountain before him went by the name of Six Elephant Jiang and was his tenth opponent of the night, and if at first both he and the crowd had looked hesitant and amused at the sight of a short-for-sixteen blue-eyed white kid in the garb of a legendary warrior, well, several successive cash injections and the way he was quickly becoming a betting favorite ensured that there were plenty more to come.
But Danny had let himself get overconfident. Before he knew what was happening the mass of muscle that was Jiang had recovered from his latest Thunderfoot Kick to the face and picked him off the ground in a death grip that reinforced the suggestion that he wasn't entirely human. Specifically, boosting his body's durability with qi was only just preventing all of his ribs and the organs in between from being ground into a fine paste and his efforts at kicking out of it or reversing were about as effective as an ant trying to wrestle an actual elephant. If he wanted to avoid dying, there was only one thing to do.
Danny searched deep within himself, deep within his very being, and called upon the fiery Qi of Shou-Lao. Though it was still nearly pinned against the giant of a man, his right fist began to glow...to smolder...to burn.
Until Daniel Rand-Kai hit a man twice his size with a One-Inch-Punch that was Like A Thing of Iron. The impact blew the man off his feet...and through the ropes of the ring...and into a few unlucky audience members...and three inches deep into the concrete arena wall.
The bloodthirsty crowd that had been roaring for death just moments before fell silent and then, the whispers began:
"The real Iron Fist?...the kid's the real deal?...I thought the costume was a joke...Nobody's ever beaten Six Elephant Jiang...If it's the real Iron Fist he's been scamming all of us!...If he's the real Iron Fist he'll try and punish us all..."
"THE KID'S THE REAL IRON FIST! KILL HIM!
Then waves of humanity rushed at Danny like an angry tsunami.
March 20th 2005, The same arena, 9:00 PM
"EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU FIGHTING!~" "THOSE KICKS WERE FAST AS LIGHTNING! IN FACT IT WAS A LITTLE BIT FRIGHTNING! BUT THEY FOUGHT WITH-"
*click*
From atop his seat on what was less of a pile and more of a small hill of unconscious kung fu gangsters, a slightly more battered Danny Rand-Kai answered the phone.
"Yeah, hi Joy. Oh no, no need to worry about me, I'm doing just fine. Yup, I decided to go get some takeout. Um...yeah, Chinese-" his foot lashed out at a figure that started to stir without actually bothering to stand "-food. The owners were pretty friendly, it's been a nice time. D'you want anything? Well, alright then. It's fine, I understand. I'll see you in the morning before school."
So much for a lead on his revenge, but if nothing else Danny was certainly feeling more at home. Maybe New York City wasn't so bad after all. Besides, from what he'd heard the legitimate front for this place had some pretty badass pork dumplings.
Then he felt it, thrumming across battle-senses still heightened from his melee with the street-fighters. An aura of qi of massive potential power, wild, barely-masked and restrained like a bonfire in the night or music in a soundproofed room. It resonated with him, despite coming from above ground and apparently...from the direction of the Bronx? Regardless It was a savage, bestial aura that Iron Fist was absolutely sure could only have its' origins in one place.
K'un-Lun.
Danny hopped off the pile of twitching, concussed thugs with a grin.
"Look, guys I hate to beat up and run, but something's just come up. So uh, just stay right there, and when some of you are capable of moving again do me a favor and tell the Big Boss that the Immortal Iron Fist is in New York City. Got it? Great."
Martial arts action, occult secrets, sudden and endless mysteries...
Maybe K'un-Lun and New York weren't so different after all.
Really just have references left and some formatting changes
| Identity | Daniel "Danny" Rand-Kai A.K.A. The Immortal Iron Fist
| Origin & Backstory |
1989-1995: Death of a Family In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned six years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun, though the official story was that the Rand Family and their good friend Harold were taking a pleasant vacation together at a mountain resort. Unbeknownst even to the others, Wendell Rand had been called back to K'un-L'un-secretly the place of his birth-to take up the mantle of the Immortal Iron Fist and in exchange, his family was meant to live happily forever in paradise among the immortal lords of the city.
However dark forces were set against Wendell that day, and before they could reach the safety of K'un-Lun they were attacked. Ghostly ninjas rose up from the snow to surround Meachum and the Rand family and like a corruption of the pure mountain ice itself, the shadowy form of the dark sorcerer known as Khan bled into reality before them. Khan's spectral ninjas attacked, and when Wendell proved capable of defeating them no matter the numbers they swarmed him with the enraged immortal wizard used his dark magics to bring the mountain down ontop of him, causing an avalanche that knocked Wendell and Harold off a cliff and buried Danny and his mother under an ocean of snow. The last memory Danny had before blacking out was of his father reaching out to him, thrown off a cliff by a wave of icy death.
When Danny came to, his mother had somehow managed to dig them free of the ice and was carrying him through the mountain pass, desperately searching for a way to safety. They trekked through the rocks and snow together, though eventually they began to notice they were not alone. A pack of wolves had begun stalking them. They fled blindly from their lupine pursuers through an icy haze, eventually coming upon an old and rickety bridge through what seemed to be sheer luck. Desperate for her son to get to safety, Heather begged him to run across the bridge while she held off the wolves as best she could, promising she would be right behind him. As Danny crossed however, Heather began using what was left of her mountaineering gear to destroy the bridge. Though Danny would never forget the minutes of sheer horror that happened next, some desperate force within him forced him to move on. Thus, six year old Danny Rand wound up wandering the icy slopes of the Himalayas alone, exhausted and traumatized. His last memory of that horrible period involved passing out, just in sight of a brightly burning golden gate.
When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, having been watching and waiting for his father's eventual arrival. For Danny's father Wendell was not only a native son of K'un-Lun and a man destined to be Iron Fist he was also the elder brother of the Yu-Ti, otherwise known as the August Personage in Jade, Lord of the House of Kai and ruler of K'un-Lun, making Daniel Rand-Kai a sort of prince among immortals. From that day on Danny Rand lived under the shadow of his father's past with his own future uncertain. 1995-2005: Forging of an Iron Fist
The Young Dragon-as he soon became known around the city-lived the strict but privileged life of a noble child of K'un-Lun: part ascetic monk, part scholar of lost and arcane knowledge and part warrior-in-training. The last of these was what most interested Danny, as his mind kept going back to the way his father had fought that day on the mountain slopes, and the shadowy being that had used dark magics to strike him down. As such he sought out the tutelage of Lei-Kung the Thunderer, the immortal weapon master and martial arts instructor of K'un-Lun. Lei-Kung's teachings were brutal and demanding but extremely effective, designed to be enlightening for mind, body and spirit alike and despite constant mockery and isolation from his fellow students due to his outsider status, Danny worked harder than anyone to master every task the Thunderer put before him.
Naturally though all of them trained harder than would ever be expected of children, for each of them harbored the same dream: To one day defeat the fearsome dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, a massive, reincarnating fire breathing dragon whose heart had long ago been ripped from his body and lay still beating in a mystically sealed brazier. For whoever defeated Shou-Lao and claimed his power in order to became the next Immortal Iron Fist, greatest martial artist in the world and champion of K'un-L'un. For ten years Danny trained towards that goal, honing his body into a living weapon the likes of which surprised even the Yu-Ti and Danny's fellow students. Thus when the time came for a tournament to decide who would face Shou-Lao, sixteen year old Daniel Rand-Kai emerged victorious, earning a right that most of those around him still thought would be his death sentence.
When the awaited morning arrived, Danny entered the depths of Shou-Lao's cave as the masses of K'un-Lun watched and faced down a giant, fire-breathing dragon with his bare hands. It was a difficult struggle, for Shou-Lao had the cunning of endless lifetimes in addition to his fire and the animal strength of his body, but eventually Danny was able to find an opening and grapple with the beast, covering the burning, dragon-shaped scar that fed it the mystical energies of its own disembodied heart. What came after was the most difficult part, a test of the will and spirit that came in the form of searing, agonizing pain at contact with the dragon's burning flesh and scalding blood. But Danny endured, earning a dragon-shaped brand on his chest for his troubles before Shou-Lao ultimately collapsed, enabling Danny to plunge his fists again and again into the burning brazier containing Shou Lao's molten heart to kill the beast and fuse their essences together in the same instant. Thus, with the dragon slain a new Iron Fist was born!
2005: A New Life Despite subsequently being offered an eternal life among the people of K'un-Lun, Danny knew that his new powers and skills were meant for more than defending his adopted home. Instead he would need to return to the mortal world in search of Khan, the being of darkness responsible for the destruction of his childhood life. Following the sage advice of his uncle the Yu-Ti, Danny decided to begin his search and reacquaint himself with the world by returning to his childhood home in New York City and using the resources of his father's vast Rand Incorporated company to search for signs of Khan's influence on Earth while learning how to live in the modern world. Unbeknownst to Danny, Lei-Kung and the Yu-Ti had already begun prepping the way for their protege and a story was concocted that ensured the young Danny Rand who had died tragically in the mountains ten years ago would soon be rediscovered very much alive at the age of sixteen.
Since then Danny has returned to New York as one of its' richest teenagers under the legal guardianship of Harold Meachum's adult daughter Joy and has even begun attending school in an attempt to become re-accustomed to modern life. However, he also secretly patrols the underworld of New York City, searching its' every dark corner for news of the Cult of Khan while also trying to channel his traumas into something positive and constructive.
| Attributes | Martial Arts-First and foremost despite his young age Daniel Rand-Kai is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, taught by masters with an immortal lifetime of experience with methods that would seem impossible to ordinary men. He is a master of all of the martial arts of K'un-Lun and many of the martial arts of Earth, including styles of fighting that have been unknown to most mortals for thousands of years. More mundanely he is a master of Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Aikido, all forms of Shaolin Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Boxing and even informal street-fighting techniques. He has complete mastery of nearly all martial arts weaponry and weapon styles, and is skilled enough at pressure point techniques to effectively use them against superhuman opponents and even beings whose physiology is completely inhuman.
Chi Manipulation and Augmentation-due to his training in K'un-Lun, Danny is able to manipulate his chi to enhance his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, endurance, agility and senses to superhuman levels, although doing this usually takes some concentration and leaves him greatly drained afterward. As an extension of this, Danny can also sense the flow of Chi in the world around him if he concentrates, occasionally including the auras of others and subtle interweavings with other types of energy.
Chi of Shou-Lao-Thanks to plunging his fists into the molten heart of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny can call upon the dragon's immense and powerful chi and focus it into his fist. While this is primarily used for his signature Iron Fist ability, Danny has occasionally been able to utilize the Chi of Shou-Lao to heal himself and others in times of great desperation and it may have other functions as well, unknown to him. Danny's main usage is focusing the Chi of Shou Lao into his hands in order to make them practically invulnerable and capable of striking with massive concussive force. Although "Becoming like a thing of Iron" is how it was phrased in ancient K'un-Lun, the Iron Fist technique is capable of easily shattering or shredding through iron, steel and much harder and denser substances with relative ease. What's more, Danny can focus more of Shou-Lao's chi into his fists for stronger strikes and has yet to reach his maximum power with the Iron Fist.
Meditation and Body Control-Thanks to meditative exercises learned in K'un-Lun Danny is able to exercise complete mastery over his body, enabling him to control his breathing and heartbeat well enough to slow them to a state indistinguishable from death, deaden himself to all pain, greatly slow the effects of drugs and toxins on his body, go days without sleep and adapt himself to a wide variety of environments with relative ease.
Peak-Human conditioning-Danny's incredibly intensive training in K'un-Lun means that his body is trained and conditioned to the peak potential of an unassisted human, making him just short of a Steve Rogers-level of physically fit even without the use of his chi.
Acrobatics-As part of his training in K'un-Lun, Danny was honed into a highly skilled acrobat, enabling him to maneuver through environments as diverse as the mountainous slopes outside K'un-Lun, the twisted jungles of the H'ylthri and the urban sprawl of New York city with equal ease, speed and grace.
Stealth-Though not as skilled as some, Danny's mastery of ninjutsu includes training in the arts of concealment, deception and stealth.
Multi-Lingual-Danny is fluent in numerous languages and dialects used throughout China, as well as American English and Japanese.
Some Knowledge of the Occult-For someone who professes to totally lack any interest in or aptitude for magic Daniel Rand-Kai possesses a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the mystic arts, supernatural lore and arcane secrets mankind is typically not meant to know. However, Danny himself will swear-up-and-down that he's hardly an expert in such matters, instead insisting that growing up in the high society of K'un-Lun necessitates a basic understanding of such things.
| Character Notes |
K'un-Lun-Daniel Rand-Kai's adopted home, K'un-Lun is an ancient and mythical city whose dimension only overlaps with Earth once every ten years. While legendary for its' martial arts among those who know of its' existence, K'un-Lun is also a place of great mystical and occult importance as it is in truth one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, seven locations that form a nexus for all the world's chi and serve as a mirror to the world itself, collectively known as the Heart of Heaven. K'un-Lun is a place of magic and wonders in many ways. A tree whose fruit grants everlasting life, Immortal Sorcerer-Kings, dragons both great and small and ancient technologies and arcane artifacts lost to mankind for ages are all things residents of K'un-Lun hardly spare a second glance at. However in many other respects K'un-Lun is much like ancient China, especially for the common folks who are not immortal but live much as their ancestors have for untold centuries.
H'ylthri Jungles-When K'un-Lun is not connected to the mortal world, it is often surrounded by dense and wild jungles more vibrant and ravenous than any known on Earth. Apart from numerous strange plants and creatures the primary inhabitants of these jungles are the H'ylthri, a race of sentient plants that are uniformly powerfully telepathic and also capable of creating clones of other sentient beings given enough time. The H'ylthri hate K'un-Lun with a passion and desire it and its' peoples to be swallowed up by the jungles. Danny once spent considerable time stranded in the H'ylthri Jungles due to an accident during his training and described it as the toughest environment he has ever experienced.
Rand Incorporated- a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York and founded by Danny's father Wendell-Rand'Kai and his business partner Harold Meachum. While Rand Incorporated has subsidiaries involved in a wide variety of businesses including Rand Oil & Chemicals and Rand R&D, Rand Inc's initial focus was on real estate and land development, and as a result the company is said to own more buildings in New York City than any other though that is debatable and many of them are leased to Tony Stark and Norman Osborne respectively. Shipping, Freight and Transportation are also a specialty of Rand Incorporated and it actually holds the patents to and manufactures high-speed and mag-lev bullet trains used for everything from the Tokyo subways to American freight cars. RandMedia is also a well-known branch of Rand Inc, subsidizing cable TV companies, radio stations and newspapers like the Daily Globe and internationally published paper the News Express. Rand Incorporated also began using its' control over advertising, shipping and building-space to break into retail and distribution, with Rand-Mart quickly becoming one of the bigger retail chains in the U.S. It's overseas where Rand Incorporated really makes its' money and image however, as the company has incredibly strong long-standing relationships with business partners in East and Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, Japan and China. There Rand Incorporated is involved in a wide variety of business ventures and often serves an intermediary role in American markets. It also has a large philanthropic and charitable branch.
The Rand BuildingThe most iconic structure owned by Rand Incorporated, the Rand building is a towering skyscraper that serves as the headquarters and financial heart of the Rand empire. Unbeknownst to most but as revealed by Wendell Rand's notes, A secret sub-basement of the building links into a network of tunnels to other Rand-owned buildings Iron Fist uses to get around the city, along with a vast complex of hidden room curiously labelled 'Orson's' containing: a training area, what appears to be the remains of a Zeppelin and a semi-functioning hi-speed underground railway car.
Allies
Lei-Kung the Thunderer-an Immortal of K'un-Lun and Danny's primary instructor in the martial arts, Lei-Kung trained not only Iron Fist but all the warriors of K'un-Lun past and present and is a martial artist, warrior and leader with thousands upon thousands of years of experience. He was also one of Danny's primary mentors and caretakers from the age of six or seven until he was about sixteen and is one of the closest things Danny has to a father figure.
Yu-Ti the August Personage in Jade/Nu'An-another Immortal and the ruler of K'un-Lun. The current holder of the title Yu-Ti is Nu'An, a powerful sorcerer and mystic who also happens to be Danny's uncle. Nu'an allegedly rules K'un-Lun with benevolent wisdom along with the four Dragon Kings, but he has occasionally shown darker and more pragmatic tendencies though he maintains all that he does is for the good of both K'un-Lun and the mortal world.
Miranda Rand-Kai/Deathsting-Danny's older half-sister born in K'un-Lun, Miranda was secretly trained to be a master of the martial arts by her betrothed despite the laws of the Eternal City unfairly forbidding women from combat roles, and is currently exiled to Earth. after her brother's recent return to the mortal world Miranda has followed him to New York in order to protect him while both tracking down the Cult of Khan on her own and planning her separate vengeance on K'un-Lun for the city's perceived betrayals. She is nearly as skilled in the martial arts as Danny, is possessed of more practical experience and commands the Serpent's Sting, a powerful set of gauntlets that enables her to channel her chi into a strike similar to the Iron Fist.
Joy Meachum-Danny's legal guardian and the current CEO of Rand Incorporated. Joy considers Danny to be the next closest thing to family despite the two of them not having seen each other for well over ten years by now and the two are bonded by the mutual loss of their parents, although Joy remains ignorant of the true cause of her father's death, at least as far as Danny is aware. Under her surprisingly steady guidance Rand Incorporated has only grown and prospered over the last ten years, though it generally avoids directly competing with other massive multinational conglomerates like those belonging to Norman Osborne and Bruce Wayne. Joy herself is surprisingly level-headed and kind and remains one of Danny's most steadfast sources of support despite his difficulties adjusting and the secrets he's keeping from her.
Jeryn Hogarth-Rand Incorporated's chief financial and legal adviser, while Jeryn is no kung-fu expert or crime-fighter by himself, he performs the vital task of running the day-to-day affairs of Rand Incorporated along with Joy Meachum and also providing a sound source of life advice for Danny should the need arise.
Antagonists
The Cult of Khan is a shadow organization both inside of and outside of K'un-Lun that's dedicated to the worship and restoration of Master Khan, an immortal sorceror who used his powers to conquer all seven of the cities of heaven as well as at least portions of Earth and other dimensions and declared himself a god, using blood sacrifices from his subjects to continually increase his power and keep the population in slavery. Khan was 'killed' by the first Iron Fist but in actuality managed to flee and survive in a severely weakened state. Now he plots his revenge on all Iron Fists and K'un-Lun while looking for ways to heal himself and restore his full powers. As an immortal he's had plenty of time to worm his way into the world like a spreading infection and has an army of slavishly devoted followers, highly trained warriors, spirits and demons bound to his beck and call. However, the Cult of Khan is not as present in the world as the likes of the Mandarin or Fu Manchu, as Khan's main concern is restoring his body and powers so he can reclaim his inter-dimensional empire. While numerous people have been corrupted into the Cult of Khan either through choice or Khan's own mental powers, some of its' main members include:
Master Khan, otherwise known as the Master of Darkness and Most Ancient of All Wizards-As the legends fearfully whispered in K'un-Lun go, when the primordial darkness that the Japanese refer to as Amatsukami-no-Mikaboshi was driven from the world in battle with the gods, a small fragment of it was severed and left behind. From this fragment was born Khan, a shapeshifting being steeped in malice and dark sorcery that ruled over the seven cities in an ancient era of blood and terror. It was only when Quan Yaozu the first Iron Fist came into his power that Khan was defeated. Though he is thought long dead or a fairy tale by most, Khan very real and is merely vastly weakened and in hiding. Using the subtle tentacles of his cult, he plans to find a cure for his weakened state and reclaim his empire while destroying or corrupting all Iron Fists. Even in his weakened state, Khan is still a shapeshifting eldritch being and sorcerer of great power with untold ages of experience in the mystic arts as well as a powerful telepath.
Fera-When Master Khan learned of the new Iron Fist Danny Rand, in his cruel insanity he decided to craft a new, bizarre tool for the Immortal Weapon's destruction. Fera is a yaoguai, a malevolent supernatural entity spawned of the tortured spirits of the very wolf pack that killed Danny Rand's mother before his eyes. As well as proficiency with the martial arts of K'un-Lun, Fera has superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and durability that make her more than a match for Danny in combat. In addition she possesses magically sharp claws that can easily tear through steel given her strength and senses and tracking abilities far superior to any wolf that enable her to track in any terrain. While not exactly evil, her sense of morality and way of thinking is far from any human norm. However much she may not wish to kill and despises Master Khan for creating her his dark magics compel her to obey him in all things, including hunting Iron Fist and his allies.
Scimitar-An assassin and master swordsman raised by the Cult of Khan but roughly around the same age as Danny, Scimitar was given no real name of his own as a sign that he is merely a weapon for Master Khan's use. Despite that, he actually believes that serving his god and master is divine law and seems to find meaning in combat. More than anything this has lead to him seeing Iron Fist as potentially a fellow warrior whom he could respect were they not diametrically opposed. He wields a pair of swords crafted by Khan whose blades are composed purely of mystical energies, allowing him to change their shape and either let him zap opponents non-lethally or cut through or vaporize metal and flesh with ease.
Gin-Goh - A once powerful warlord who terrorized central Asia and was peerless in combat, Master Khan wanted to use Gin Goh to create the ultimate warrior and general to eternally command his armies. Therefore the sorceror-god crafted a powerful curse that ensured that if Gin Goh were ever killed, he would merely come back stronger. Unfortunately for Khan's designs, endless centuries of painful death have twisted and warped Gin Goh's mind, and while he still retains both immense physical power and instinctive fighting skill, he is little more than a mad, sadistic berserker kept docile only by Khan's telepathic leash.
Ghost Ninja(s)- The Ghost Ninja is a nameless assassin trained in dark arts by Master Khan, and Khan can actually summon multiple copies of the Ghost Ninja to carry out his nefarious works. The Ghost Ninjas can fuse back together into one warrior for a power boost, but they can only temporarily stabilize. along with his mortal converts, the Ghost Ninja serves as Khan's primary source of footsoldiers.
Davos/The Steel Serpent-Davos is the natural born son of Lei-Kung the Thunderer and was once friends with Wendell Rand-Kai during their time together in K'un-Lun. However, Davos' pride lead to him challenging the dragon Shou-Lao when doing so was Wendell's right, and his failed attempt at becoming the Iron Fist drove him into both exile and a seething hate for the line of Rand-Kai. Davos has had identical training to Danny plus several additional decades of practical experience to apply it along with none of Danny's restraint. as a result he is more than capable of defeating Iron Fist despite the latter's skill. In addition his incomplete Mark of Shou-Lao also allows him to absorb Danny's Iron Fist chi through a crushing technique, as well as enabling him to literally drain the life force out of others he gets in his death grip. Danny and Davos have fought only once shortly after Iron Fist arrived in New York, and Danny only survived the experience because Davos insisted killing 'an inexperienced child' would taint his revenge.
Chiantang, The Black Dragon-Formerly a dragon who terrified K'un-Lun, Chiantang was defeated by a previous Iron Fist, bound to a human form by K'un-Lun sorcery and banished to Earth ages ago. He has since made a living as the leader of one of New York City's most notable tongs given his ageless nature and supernatural powers. Although Chiantang is powerful and established, within recent decades his organization has become increasingly pushed back by new players including the Kingpin and the Golden Dragons.
The Si-Fan- A ruthless and ancient organization of criminals and feared assassins commanded by international criminal mastermind Fu Manchu. The Si-Fan are primarily connected to Iron Fist through Fu Manchu's insidious and dangerous daughter, Fa Lo Sui otherwise known as the Black Lotus. Fu Manchu himself is unsure of what to think of Danny Rand though he seems to have some knowledge of Danny's father Wendell and is sure that his daughter's interest should warrant interest of his own.
Fa Lo Sui, the Black Lotus-Fu Manchu's daughter and the currently designated heir to his organization, although seemingly young Fa Lo Sui is a skilled martial artist in her own right and more importantly a master of trickery and manipulation, having earned her place among the Si Fan and with it her father's favor.
Fin Fang Foom-An ancient shapeshifting entity that appeared on Earth in China in the form of a massive dragon thousands of years ago, He Whose Limbs Crush Mountains was sealed away when a past Iron Fist came to the mortal world with a magical herb from the Floating Gardens of K'un-Lun capable of casting Fin Fang Foom into a deep slumber. That said, Foom may awaken at any time to wreak havoc upon the world once more and worse yet due to his shapeshifting powers he may walk the human world unseen, waiting to unleash death and destruction for purposes unknown.
The Twelve Brothers in Silk-Twelve brothers and martial arts masters of the highest caliber, each one skilled in a different animal-style of martial art. The Silk Brothers are freelance assassins of great renown and Danny has encountered a few of them in his search through the martial arts underworld.
Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger-A martial artist of world-class skill with affiliations with the League of Assassins, Iron Fist first encountered Ben Turner shortly after arriving in New York. Danny was narrowly able to defeat Bronze Tiger, who has since taken up the idea of trying to recruit the Immortal Weapon to the League of Assassins himself, though Danny has adamantly and violently refused the offer.
The Foot-While Iron Fist tries to stay out of the affairs of ninjas and their ever raging shadow wars the Foot's more overt presence in New York has attracted his attention, as their meddling in the most shadowy aspects of martial arts both offends his sense of honor and reminds him too much of the Cult of Khan. Danny has thus begun investigating the Foot Clan on his own.
Items
The Jade Mirror-A massive mirror of polished jade through which the Yu-Ti can gaze upon all that occurs in numerous dimensions, and also open up portals between them if so desired. Nu-An mainly uses this to watch over Earth, though it is also used when he desires to transport others into or out of K'un-Lun as when Davos and Miranda were banished.
The Anomaly Stone a crystal which contains the souls of every past Iron Fist, the anomaly gem was fragmented into many pieces ages ago, many of which were lost in the mortal world. As they contain the collective power of numerous Iron Fists, even the fragments are energy sources of great power and occasional mystical significance.
Dragonslayer a jian which is the traditional sword of the Immortal Iron Fist, made from a fang of the first incarnation of Shou-Lao and dipped in the beast's own heart, it is forged to resonate with the Chi of Shou-Lao better than any mortal weapon. While the Dragonslayer is locked deep within K'un-Lun, it has been used in the past to defeat and bind Chiantang, slay the Sorceror God Khan and defeat numerous great evils in the past.
| Character Goals | I want to successfully weave Iron Fist into the Maximum Comics universe while also drawing on his lore to create stories that are well-crafted and self-aware while staying true to the character's Wuxia and Kung-Fu B-Movie influences in a way that's fun to write and to read. I may play through pre-established Iron Fist arcs, but I also want to try a slightly different take on the character than I normally use involving a much younger and more inexperienced Iron Fist dealing with a legacy and past history he doesn't yet understand that hopefully can be explored over time. Overall though I still want to collaborate with everyone to have a fun time, make something cool and expand the Maximum Comics universe for the better, especially where its' martial artists are concerned.
| References |
Iron Fist was still smiling as he pondered what sort of scenario to set up. It should be something to properly test the Titans stealth skills while being flexible enough to adapt to anything they tried to do or for that matter failed to do. Not to mention he wanted to have a little bit of fun with them first off and make the training memorable for those involved so it didn't come off as too harsh while not fading from anyone's memory any time soon. Eventually he decided on an amalgamation of some of his own experiences would best convey why the necessary skills were so necessary. He moved up to the observation deck and punched in the scenario he had in mind before announcing it over an intercom.
"Let's see. I think you'll all like this one. A little something from my personal file: The Castle of Nightingales."
With that the room began to fade away, replaced by a soaring series of pagodas dappled by soft moonlight. There were even crickets chirping in the background and the soft dripping of water from somewhere, in fact there was very little to indicate anything other than a peaceful night. directly behind Iron Fist a sliding screen door lay open with a vast hallway leading to a set of stairs that in turn lead to another hallway. Occasionally a guard in the sort of clothes that suggested a kabuki stagehand or stereotypical ninja would patrol set routes before turning around again. Interestingly their faces were completely covered, leaving no room even for eye slits. No torches or lighting illuminated the interior either.
"Welcome to the Castle of Nightingales, Titans. Your objective in this scenario is to sneak through this fortification and meet with the informant held captive at the very top of this its' tower. The guards inside are actually blind, but don't let that fool you, they're all highly trained professional killers who are more capable without their eyes than many warriors are with them. Moreover, if you fail to take them out quietly and attract the attention of too many, there's a dangerous surprise waiting for everyone. Work together and remember: the key is to think and move as one with both your environment and your enemies."
It wasn't actually that simple of course. The truth was that the floor was boobytrapped so that if anyone stepped on it carelessly or in the wrong way it would send up a sound like nightingales singing, which attracted the attention of the blind guardsmen. the guardsmen themselves were also actually androids underneath their masked faces and were more resilient to damage than they seemed though in this case he'd set it so a proper stealth attack would take them down easily. That said, he hadn't known those things going in, and the stakes were a lot lower for the teens in his care than they had been for him. As for the surprise, well, it was supposed to be more of a "game over" occurrence, but he was looking forward to seeing how they handled it.
Iron Fist kept himself composed and calm, resisting any impulse to sigh or seem irritated in any way. Amy was young and new to being a superhero, and besides that from what her file and a few briefings had said she had already managed to do a literal world of good despite both of those things. Anger would probably not be the way through to her in any case. She was clearly nervous and felt bad enough about having skipped training, if he lost his head senselessly over something that could be easily made up like this, he'd be doing her no favors as a mentor. Despite attempting to seem detached, he couldn't help but chuckle a little at being called 'Mr.Fist', although he supposed that none of the new kids new his name, nor was he sure about the senior members for that matter.
"Well, in order not to fall behind and potentially put yourself in danger, you'll probably need to make it up to yourself with extra training, either with a group if you can work something out or one-on-one with me or one of the senior Titans, if they're around. I know you're fairly new at working with a team like this and you'd rather be gaming, but unfortunately, regular training's part of being on the team. If you're having any issues adjusting to the training or any other part of the life here, not getting along with your teammates, even plain not wanting to put in the work instead of doing something else, I'm always here to talk it over with you, but I can't do that if you hide away in the Rec Room."
Danny paused and looked at the game Amy had been playing. Rand Industries actually had some subsidiaries involved in video games and this one seemed a little bit familiar...
"That guy on the other end is right you know. If you time things just right you can hit him with the projectile attack while he crouches and starts the low kick but before he can block or finish the attack, since the action leaves him open for more than a few frames. You must always be ready to adapt your strategies to fit your opponent's, no matter how unfair or devious. If you attended my training you might know that."
Luckily he was fully dedicated to understanding every aspect of his business. Let her wonder how someone like him knew that, though.
YES! FINALLY!
It probably wasn't the most tactful thought to have when hitmen burst in on his father's wedding and threatened people with assault rifles, but as fun as it was watching Drake feel even more uncomfortable than himself and insulting him consequence free to the amusement of Gotham's high society, if Damian had to act like an amusing ball of idiotic sunshine for the entire day he would have died. To say nothing of the horrific fallout that would have occurred had the old harpy next to Kate Kane or the woman herself dared to pinch his cheeks.
Unfortunately before he could run off and change to join the fray as Robin or just jumped in undisguised and counted on the chaos to conceal himself Cassandra came sliding down the railing in full combat mode and started rattling off orders and descriptions of the attackers. At the end before charging into the crowd she seemed to single him out specifically with "No one dies." As if he needed reminding not to kill when it was something he'd been practicing every day.
Glad to be free of the need to keep up his pointless 'normal child' disguise he muttered something about getting to a panic room just loud enough to throw off suspicion before preparing to bolt to the nearest hidden entrance to the cave and change into the only 'suit' he actually felt comfortable in. Maneuvering through the crowd was hardly a problem for someone of his size and training and Gordon and his alleged 'police force' would likely see to the evacuation and free the rest of them up to fight the assailants-
Except that one of the hitmen was already holding his gun poised to fire directly into the crowd and a few of the city's wealthiest sheep hadn't had the sense to get out of the way. He probably should've just allowed them to be shot. They were doubtlessly societal parasites like the rest of Gotham's elite and they were no concern of his when there was a fight to be had. But...
"-tt- Fine. No one dies."
Gritting his teeth in frustration Damian quickly altered his path and leaped to tackle the innocent idiots down and out of the gunsel's line of fire, making sure to get as many people clear of the shooter's potential trajectory in the one act as he could before the hitman could open up on them. It might not get him found out, it might just look like a frightened child had gotten turned around in the crowd maybe tripped or panicked, and sent a bunch of socialites sprawling. Provided it didn't get him killed he didn't particularly care, though he could tell it had already earned him a few new bruises. If he didn't die right about then he would disentangle himself from the mess and slip unnoticed into the chaos to make his way down to the cave. Then he would change and beat these attackers to within an inch of their deaths for making him do this.
Will bring up a few more if it's necessary or these are no good. Could always bring up one of my few from the previous Maximum's Iron Fist.
right, putting this here again for a moment with the potential finishing edits made in case the other version didn't take.
Really just have references left and some formatting changes
| Identity | Daniel "Danny" Rand-Kai A.K.A. The Immortal Iron Fist
| Origin & Backstory |
1989-1995: Death of a Family In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned six years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun, though the official story was that the Rand Family and their good friend Harold were taking a pleasant vacation together at a mountain resort. Unbeknownst even to the others, Wendell Rand had been called back to K'un-L'un-secretly the place of his birth-to take up the mantle of the Immortal Iron Fist and in exchange, his family was meant to live happily forever in paradise among the immortal lords of the city.
However dark forces were set against Wendell that day, and before they could reach the safety of K'un-Lun they were attacked. Ghostly ninjas rose up from the snow to surround Meachum and the Rand family and like a corruption of the pure mountain ice itself, the shadowy form of the dark sorcerer known as Khan bled into reality before them. Khan's spectral ninjas attacked, and when Wendell proved capable of defeating them no matter the numbers they swarmed him with the enraged immortal wizard used his dark magics to bring the mountain down ontop of him, causing an avalanche that knocked Wendell and Harold off a cliff and buried Danny and his mother under an ocean of snow. The last memory Danny had before blacking out was of his father reaching out to him, thrown off a cliff by a wave of icy death.
When Danny came to, his mother had somehow managed to dig them free of the ice and was carrying him through the mountain pass, desperately searching for a way to safety. They trekked through the rocks and snow together, though eventually they began to notice they were not alone. A pack of wolves had begun stalking them. They fled blindly from their lupine pursuers through an icy haze, eventually coming upon an old and rickety bridge through what seemed to be sheer luck. Desperate for her son to get to safety, Heather begged him to run across the bridge while she held off the wolves as best she could, promising she would be right behind him. As Danny crossed however, Heather began using what was left of her mountaineering gear to destroy the bridge. Though Danny would never forget the minutes of sheer horror that happened next, some desperate force within him forced him to move on. Thus, six year old Danny Rand wound up wandering the icy slopes of the Himalayas alone, exhausted and traumatized. His last memory of that horrible period involved passing out, just in sight of a brightly burning golden gate.
When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, having been watching and waiting for his father's eventual arrival. For Danny's father Wendell was not only a native son of K'un-Lun and a man destined to be Iron Fist he was also the elder brother of the Yu-Ti, otherwise known as the August Personage in Jade, Lord of the House of Kai and ruler of K'un-Lun, making Daniel Rand-Kai a sort of prince among immortals. From that day on Danny Rand lived under the shadow of his father's past with his own future uncertain. 1995-2005: Forging of an Iron Fist
The Young Dragon-as he soon became known around the city-lived the strict but privileged life of a noble child of K'un-Lun: part ascetic monk, part scholar of lost and arcane knowledge and part warrior-in-training. The last of these was what most interested Danny, as his mind kept going back to the way his father had fought that day on the mountain slopes, and the shadowy being that had used dark magics to strike him down. As such he sought out the tutelage of Lei-Kung the Thunderer, the immortal weapon master and martial arts instructor of K'un-Lun. Lei-Kung's teachings were brutal and demanding but extremely effective, designed to be enlightening for mind, body and spirit alike and despite constant mockery and isolation from his fellow students due to his outsider status, Danny worked harder than anyone to master every task the Thunderer put before him.
Naturally though all of them trained harder than would ever be expected of children, for each of them harbored the same dream: To one day defeat the fearsome dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, a massive, reincarnating fire breathing dragon whose heart had long ago been ripped from his body and lay still beating in a mystically sealed brazier. For whoever defeated Shou-Lao and claimed his power in order to became the next Immortal Iron Fist, greatest martial artist in the world and champion of K'un-L'un. For ten years Danny trained towards that goal, honing his body into a living weapon the likes of which surprised even the Yu-Ti and Danny's fellow students. Thus when the time came for a tournament to decide who would face Shou-Lao, sixteen year old Daniel Rand-Kai emerged victorious, earning a right that most of those around him still thought would be his death sentence.
When the awaited morning arrived, Danny entered the depths of Shou-Lao's cave as the masses of K'un-Lun watched and faced down a giant, fire-breathing dragon with his bare hands. It was a difficult struggle, for Shou-Lao had the cunning of endless lifetimes in addition to his fire and the animal strength of his body, but eventually Danny was able to find an opening and grapple with the beast, covering the burning, dragon-shaped scar that fed it the mystical energies of its own disembodied heart. What came after was the most difficult part, a test of the will and spirit that came in the form of searing, agonizing pain at contact with the dragon's burning flesh and scalding blood. But Danny endured, earning a dragon-shaped brand on his chest for his troubles before Shou-Lao ultimately collapsed, enabling Danny to plunge his fists again and again into the burning brazier containing Shou Lao's molten heart to kill the beast and fuse their essences together in the same instant. Thus, with the dragon slain a new Iron Fist was born!
2005: A New Life Despite subsequently being offered an eternal life among the people of K'un-Lun, Danny knew that his new powers and skills were meant for more than defending his adopted home. Instead he would need to return to the mortal world in search of Khan, the being of darkness responsible for the destruction of his childhood life. Following the sage advice of his uncle the Yu-Ti, Danny decided to begin his search and reacquaint himself with the world by returning to his childhood home in New York City and using the resources of his father's vast Rand Incorporated company to search for signs of Khan's influence on Earth while learning how to live in the modern world. Unbeknownst to Danny, Lei-Kung and the Yu-Ti had already begun prepping the way for their protege and a story was concocted that ensured the young Danny Rand who had died tragically in the mountains ten years ago would soon be rediscovered very much alive at the age of sixteen.
Since then Danny has returned to New York as one of its' richest teenagers under the legal guardianship of Harold Meachum's adult daughter Joy and has even begun attending school in an attempt to become re-accustomed to modern life. However, he also secretly patrols the underworld of New York City, searching its' every dark corner for news of the Cult of Khan while also trying to channel his traumas into something positive and constructive.
| Attributes | Martial Arts-First and foremost despite his young age Daniel Rand-Kai is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, taught by masters with an immortal lifetime of experience with methods that would seem impossible to ordinary men. He is a master of all of the martial arts of K'un-Lun and many of the martial arts of Earth, including styles of fighting that have been unknown to most mortals for thousands of years. More mundanely he is a master of Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Aikido, all forms of Shaolin Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Boxing and even informal street-fighting techniques. He has complete mastery of nearly all martial arts weaponry and weapon styles, and is skilled enough at pressure point techniques to effectively use them against superhuman opponents and even beings whose physiology is completely inhuman.
Chi Manipulation and Augmentation-due to his training in K'un-Lun, Danny is able to manipulate his chi to enhance his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, endurance, agility and senses to superhuman levels, although doing this usually takes some concentration and leaves him greatly drained afterward. As an extension of this, Danny can also sense the flow of Chi in the world around him if he concentrates, occasionally including the auras of others and subtle interweavings with other types of energy.
Chi of Shou-Lao-Thanks to plunging his fists into the molten heart of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny can call upon the dragon's immense and powerful chi and focus it into his fist. While this is primarily used for his signature Iron Fist ability, Danny has occasionally been able to utilize the Chi of Shou-Lao to heal himself and others in times of great desperation and it may have other functions as well, unknown to him. Danny's main usage is focusing the Chi of Shou Lao into his hands in order to make them practically invulnerable and capable of striking with massive concussive force. Although "Becoming like a thing of Iron" is how it was phrased in ancient K'un-Lun, the Iron Fist technique is capable of easily shattering or shredding through iron, steel and much harder and denser substances with relative ease. What's more, Danny can focus more of Shou-Lao's chi into his fists for stronger strikes and has yet to reach his maximum power with the Iron Fist.
Meditation and Body Control-Thanks to meditative exercises learned in K'un-Lun Danny is able to exercise complete mastery over his body, enabling him to control his breathing and heartbeat well enough to slow them to a state indistinguishable from death, deaden himself to all pain, greatly slow the effects of drugs and toxins on his body, go days without sleep and adapt himself to a wide variety of environments with relative ease.
Peak-Human conditioning-Danny's incredibly intensive training in K'un-Lun means that his body is trained and conditioned to the peak potential of an unassisted human, making him just short of a Steve Rogers-level of physically fit even without the use of his chi.
Acrobatics-As part of his training in K'un-Lun, Danny was honed into a highly skilled acrobat, enabling him to maneuver through environments as diverse as the mountainous slopes outside K'un-Lun, the twisted jungles of the H'ylthri and the urban sprawl of New York city with equal ease, speed and grace.
Stealth-Though not as skilled as some, Danny's mastery of ninjutsu includes training in the arts of concealment, deception and stealth.
Multi-Lingual-Danny is fluent in numerous languages and dialects used throughout China, as well as American English and Japanese.
Some Knowledge of the Occult-For someone who professes to totally lack any interest in or aptitude for magic Daniel Rand-Kai possesses a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the mystic arts, supernatural lore and arcane secrets mankind is typically not meant to know. However, Danny himself will swear-up-and-down that he's hardly an expert in such matters, instead insisting that growing up in the high society of K'un-Lun necessitates a basic understanding of such things.
| Character Notes |
K'un-Lun-Daniel Rand-Kai's adopted home, K'un-Lun is an ancient and mythical city whose dimension only overlaps with Earth once every ten years. While legendary for its' martial arts among those who know of its' existence, K'un-Lun is also a place of great mystical and occult importance as it is in truth one of the Seven Cities of Heaven, seven locations that form a nexus for all the world's chi and serve as a mirror to the world itself, collectively known as the Heart of Heaven. K'un-Lun is a place of magic and wonders in many ways. A tree whose fruit grants everlasting life, Immortal Sorcerer-Kings, dragons both great and small and ancient technologies and arcane artifacts lost to mankind for ages are all things residents of K'un-Lun hardly spare a second glance at. However in many other respects K'un-Lun is much like ancient China, especially for the common folks who are not immortal but live much as their ancestors have for untold centuries.
H'ylthri Jungles-When K'un-Lun is not connected to the mortal world, it is often surrounded by dense and wild jungles more vibrant and ravenous than any known on Earth. Apart from numerous strange plants and creatures the primary inhabitants of these jungles are the H'ylthri, a race of sentient plants that are uniformly powerfully telepathic and also capable of creating clones of other sentient beings given enough time. The H'ylthri hate K'un-Lun with a passion and desire it and its' peoples to be swallowed up by the jungles. Danny once spent considerable time stranded in the H'ylthri Jungles due to an accident during his training and described it as the toughest environment he has ever experienced.
Rand Incorporated- a multinational conglomerate headquartered in New York and founded by Danny's father Wendell-Rand'Kai and his business partner Harold Meachum. While Rand Incorporated has subsidiaries involved in a wide variety of businesses including Rand Oil & Chemicals and Rand R&D, Rand Inc's initial focus was on real estate and land development, and as a result the company is said to own more buildings in New York City than any other though that is debatable and many of them are leased to Tony Stark and Norman Osborne respectively. Shipping, Freight and Transportation are also a specialty of Rand Incorporated and it actually holds the patents to and manufactures high-speed and mag-lev bullet trains used for everything from the Tokyo subways to American freight cars. RandMedia is also a well-known branch of Rand Inc, subsidizing cable TV companies, radio stations and newspapers like the Daily Globe and internationally published paper the News Express. Rand Incorporated also began using its' control over advertising, shipping and building-space to break into retail and distribution, with Rand-Mart quickly becoming one of the bigger retail chains in the U.S. It's overseas where Rand Incorporated really makes its' money and image however, as the company has incredibly strong long-standing relationships with business partners in East and Southeast Asia, especially Taiwan, Japan and China. There Rand Incorporated is involved in a wide variety of business ventures and often serves an intermediary role in American markets. It also has a large philanthropic and charitable branch.
The Rand BuildingThe most iconic structure owned by Rand Incorporated, the Rand building is a towering skyscraper that serves as the headquarters and financial heart of the Rand empire. Unbeknownst to most but as revealed by Wendell Rand's notes, A secret sub-basement of the building links into a network of tunnels to other Rand-owned buildings Iron Fist uses to get around the city, along with a vast complex of hidden room curiously labelled 'Orson's' containing: a training area, what appears to be the remains of a Zeppelin and a semi-functioning hi-speed underground railway car.
Allies
Lei-Kung the Thunderer-an Immortal of K'un-Lun and Danny's primary instructor in the martial arts, Lei-Kung trained not only Iron Fist but all the warriors of K'un-Lun past and present and is a martial artist, warrior and leader with thousands upon thousands of years of experience. He was also one of Danny's primary mentors and caretakers from the age of six or seven until he was about sixteen and is one of the closest things Danny has to a father figure.
Yu-Ti the August Personage in Jade/Nu'An-another Immortal and the ruler of K'un-Lun. The current holder of the title Yu-Ti is Nu'An, a powerful sorcerer and mystic who also happens to be Danny's uncle. Nu'an allegedly rules K'un-Lun with benevolent wisdom along with the four Dragon Kings, but he has occasionally shown darker and more pragmatic tendencies though he maintains all that he does is for the good of both K'un-Lun and the mortal world.
Miranda Rand-Kai/Deathsting-Danny's older half-sister born in K'un-Lun, Miranda was secretly trained to be a master of the martial arts by her betrothed despite the laws of the Eternal City unfairly forbidding women from combat roles, and is currently exiled to Earth. after her brother's recent return to the mortal world Miranda has followed him to New York in order to protect him while both tracking down the Cult of Khan on her own and planning her separate vengeance on K'un-Lun for the city's perceived betrayals. She is nearly as skilled in the martial arts as Danny, is possessed of more practical experience and commands the Serpent's Sting, a powerful set of gauntlets that enables her to channel her chi into a strike similar to the Iron Fist.
Joy Meachum-Danny's legal guardian and the current CEO of Rand Incorporated. Joy considers Danny to be the next closest thing to family despite the two of them not having seen each other for well over ten years by now and the two are bonded by the mutual loss of their parents, although Joy remains ignorant of the true cause of her father's death, at least as far as Danny is aware. Under her surprisingly steady guidance Rand Incorporated has only grown and prospered over the last ten years, though it generally avoids directly competing with other massive multinational conglomerates like those belonging to Norman Osborne and Bruce Wayne. Joy herself is surprisingly level-headed and kind and remains one of Danny's most steadfast sources of support despite his difficulties adjusting and the secrets he's keeping from her.
Jeryn Hogarth-Rand Incorporated's chief financial and legal adviser, while Jeryn is no kung-fu expert or crime-fighter by himself, he performs the vital task of running the day-to-day affairs of Rand Incorporated along with Joy Meachum and also providing a sound source of life advice for Danny should the need arise.
Antagonists
The Cult of Khan is a shadow organization both inside of and outside of K'un-Lun that's dedicated to the worship and restoration of Master Khan, an immortal sorceror who used his powers to conquer all seven of the cities of heaven as well as at least portions of Earth and other dimensions and declared himself a god, using blood sacrifices from his subjects to continually increase his power and keep the population in slavery. Khan was 'killed' by the first Iron Fist but in actuality managed to flee and survive in a severely weakened state. Now he plots his revenge on all Iron Fists and K'un-Lun while looking for ways to heal himself and restore his full powers. As an immortal he's had plenty of time to worm his way into the world like a spreading infection and has an army of slavishly devoted followers, highly trained warriors, spirits and demons bound to his beck and call. However, the Cult of Khan is not as present in the world as the likes of the Mandarin or Fu Manchu, as Khan's main concern is restoring his body and powers so he can reclaim his inter-dimensional empire. While numerous people have been corrupted into the Cult of Khan either through choice or Khan's own mental powers, some of its' main members include:
Master Khan, otherwise known as the Master of Darkness and Most Ancient of All Wizards-As the legends fearfully whispered in K'un-Lun go, when the primordial darkness that the Japanese refer to as Amatsukami-no-Mikaboshi was driven from the world in battle with the gods, a small fragment of it was severed and left behind. From this fragment was born Khan, a shapeshifting being steeped in malice and dark sorcery that ruled over the seven cities in an ancient era of blood and terror. It was only when Quan Yaozu the first Iron Fist came into his power that Khan was defeated. Though he is thought long dead or a fairy tale by most, Khan very real and is merely vastly weakened and in hiding. Using the subtle tentacles of his cult, he plans to find a cure for his weakened state and reclaim his empire while destroying or corrupting all Iron Fists. Even in his weakened state, Khan is still a shapeshifting eldritch being and sorcerer of great power with untold ages of experience in the mystic arts as well as a powerful telepath.
Fera-When Master Khan learned of the new Iron Fist Danny Rand, in his cruel insanity he decided to craft a new, bizarre tool for the Immortal Weapon's destruction. Fera is a yaoguai, a malevolent supernatural entity spawned of the tortured spirits of the very wolf pack that killed Danny Rand's mother before his eyes. As well as proficiency with the martial arts of K'un-Lun, Fera has superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and durability that make her more than a match for Danny in combat. In addition she possesses magically sharp claws that can easily tear through steel given her strength and senses and tracking abilities far superior to any wolf that enable her to track in any terrain. While not exactly evil, her sense of morality and way of thinking is far from any human norm. However much she may not wish to kill and despises Master Khan for creating her his dark magics compel her to obey him in all things, including hunting Iron Fist and his allies.
Scimitar-An assassin and master swordsman raised by the Cult of Khan but roughly around the same age as Danny, Scimitar was given no real name of his own as a sign that he is merely a weapon for Master Khan's use. Despite that, he actually believes that serving his god and master is divine law and seems to find meaning in combat. More than anything this has lead to him seeing Iron Fist as potentially a fellow warrior whom he could respect were they not diametrically opposed. He wields a pair of swords crafted by Khan whose blades are composed purely of mystical energies, allowing him to change their shape and either let him zap opponents non-lethally or cut through or vaporize metal and flesh with ease.
Gin-Goh - A once powerful warlord who terrorized central Asia and was peerless in combat, Master Khan wanted to use Gin Goh to create the ultimate warrior and general to eternally command his armies. Therefore the sorceror-god crafted a powerful curse that ensured that if Gin Goh were ever killed, he would merely come back stronger. Unfortunately for Khan's designs, endless centuries of painful death have twisted and warped Gin Goh's mind, and while he still retains both immense physical power and instinctive fighting skill, he is little more than a mad, sadistic berserker kept docile only by Khan's telepathic leash.
Ghost Ninja(s)- The Ghost Ninja is a nameless assassin trained in dark arts by Master Khan, and Khan can actually summon multiple copies of the Ghost Ninja to carry out his nefarious works. The Ghost Ninjas can fuse back together into one warrior for a power boost, but they can only temporarily stabilize. along with his mortal converts, the Ghost Ninja serves as Khan's primary source of footsoldiers.
Davos/The Steel Serpent-Davos is the natural born son of Lei-Kung the Thunderer and was once friends with Wendell Rand-Kai during their time together in K'un-Lun. However, Davos' pride lead to him challenging the dragon Shou-Lao when doing so was Wendell's right, and his failed attempt at becoming the Iron Fist drove him into both exile and a seething hate for the line of Rand-Kai. Davos has had identical training to Danny plus several additional decades of practical experience to apply it along with none of Danny's restraint. as a result he is more than capable of defeating Iron Fist despite the latter's skill. In addition his incomplete Mark of Shou-Lao also allows him to absorb Danny's Iron Fist chi through a crushing technique, as well as enabling him to literally drain the life force out of others he gets in his death grip. Danny and Davos have fought only once shortly after Iron Fist arrived in New York, and Danny only survived the experience because Davos insisted killing 'an inexperienced child' would taint his revenge.
Chiantang, The Black Dragon-Formerly a dragon who terrified K'un-Lun, Chiantang was defeated by a previous Iron Fist, bound to a human form by K'un-Lun sorcery and banished to Earth ages ago. He has since made a living as the leader of one of New York City's most notable tongs given his ageless nature and supernatural powers. Although Chiantang is powerful and established, within recent decades his organization has become increasingly pushed back by new players including the Kingpin and the Golden Dragons.
The Si-Fan- A ruthless and ancient organization of criminals and feared assassins commanded by international criminal mastermind Fu Manchu. The Si-Fan are primarily connected to Iron Fist through Fu Manchu's insidious and dangerous daughter, Fa Lo Sui otherwise known as the Black Lotus. Fu Manchu himself is unsure of what to think of Danny Rand though he seems to have some knowledge of Danny's father Wendell and is sure that his daughter's interest should warrant interest of his own.
Fa Lo Sui, the Black Lotus-Fu Manchu's daughter and the currently designated heir to his organization, although seemingly young Fa Lo Sui is a skilled martial artist in her own right and more importantly a master of trickery and manipulation, having earned her place among the Si Fan and with it her father's favor.
Fin Fang Foom-An ancient shapeshifting entity that appeared on Earth in China in the form of a massive dragon thousands of years ago, He Whose Limbs Crush Mountains was sealed away when a past Iron Fist came to the mortal world with a magical herb from the Floating Gardens of K'un-Lun capable of casting Fin Fang Foom into a deep slumber. That said, Foom may awaken at any time to wreak havoc upon the world once more and worse yet due to his shapeshifting powers he may walk the human world unseen, waiting to unleash death and destruction for purposes unknown.
The Twelve Brothers in Silk-Twelve brothers and martial arts masters of the highest caliber, each one skilled in a different animal-style of martial art. The Silk Brothers are freelance assassins of great renown and Danny has encountered a few of them in his search through the martial arts underworld.
Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger-A martial artist of world-class skill with affiliations with the League of Assassins, Iron Fist first encountered Ben Turner shortly after arriving in New York. Danny was narrowly able to defeat Bronze Tiger, who has since taken up the idea of trying to recruit the Immortal Weapon to the League of Assassins himself, though Danny has adamantly and violently refused the offer.
The Foot-While Iron Fist tries to stay out of the affairs of ninjas and their ever raging shadow wars the Foot's more overt presence in New York has attracted his attention, as their meddling in the most shadowy aspects of martial arts both offends his sense of honor and reminds him too much of the Cult of Khan. Danny has thus begun investigating the Foot Clan on his own.
Items
The Jade Mirror-A massive mirror of polished jade through which the Yu-Ti can gaze upon all that occurs in numerous dimensions, and also open up portals between them if so desired. Nu-An mainly uses this to watch over Earth, though it is also used when he desires to transport others into or out of K'un-Lun as when Davos and Miranda were banished.
The Anomaly Stone a crystal which contains the souls of every past Iron Fist, the anomaly gem was fragmented into many pieces ages ago, many of which were lost in the mortal world. As they contain the collective power of numerous Iron Fists, even the fragments are energy sources of great power and occasional mystical significance.
Dragonslayer a jian which is the traditional sword of the Immortal Iron Fist, made from a fang of the first incarnation of Shou-Lao and dipped in the beast's own heart, it is forged to resonate with the Chi of Shou-Lao better than any mortal weapon. While the Dragonslayer is locked deep within K'un-Lun, it has been used in the past to defeat and bind Chiantang, slay the Sorceror God Khan and defeat numerous great evils in the past.
| Character Goals | I want to successfully weave Iron Fist into the Maximum Comics universe while also drawing on his lore to create stories that are well-crafted and self-aware while staying true to the character's Wuxia and Kung-Fu B-Movie influences in a way that's fun to write and to read. I may play through pre-established Iron Fist arcs, but I also want to try a slightly different take on the character than I normally use involving a much younger and more inexperienced Iron Fist dealing with a legacy and past history he doesn't yet understand that hopefully can be explored over time. Overall though I still want to collaborate with everyone to have a fun time, make something cool and expand the Maximum Comics universe for the better, especially where its' martial artists are concerned.
Captain Uni
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