The Living Weapon will live again. Over the past 50 years, Danny Rand has been the Immortal Iron Fist and defender of the heavenly city of K’un-Lun. But in the pages of Marvel’s Iron Fist 50th Anniversary Special #1 in August, in a story by writer Jason Loo (Werewolf by Night: Red Band) and artist Whilce Portacio (Cable), Rand became just the second Iron Fist to live past their 33rd birthday. One year ago, a mystical creature called the Ch’i-Lin tried to feed on the life force of the mystical dragon Shou-Lao: the source of the Iron Fist’s powers (back in 2008’s Immortal Iron Fist #17-20).
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Rand defeated the beast, but he did not escape his fate. He only postponed it. The Iron Fist anniversary special ended with the blade-handed assassin Razor Fist — possessed by the ravenous Ch’i-Lin — cutting off Rand’s right hand and left leg before killing the Iron Fist on his 34th birthday. But a bonus page unlocked by QR code showed a skeletal hand bursting free from Rand’s grave, suggesting the Immortal Danny Rand would live up to his name.
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This week’s Timeslide #1 revealed glimpses into the future of the Marvel Universe when the time-traveling mutant Tempus showed Bishop and Cable events yet to pass (including Rand’s fellow hero-for-hire, Luke Cage, as the Iron-Fisted Sentry from the future in Power Man: Timeless). As Bishop and Cable traveled through the timestream to stop the time-eating Vacuna from erasing mutants from existence, a future version of the X-Man Bronze showed them a list of events still to come:
- One World Under Doom
- Rise of the New Champions
- The Eternal Storm
- The False Metal
- Who Waits Within the Last Egg?
- Strange of Asgard
- Galactic Leaders Assassinated
- The Time of Strife
- Dormammu Invasion of Earth
- Ms. Marvel: Second Genesis
- Ultimate Incursion
- Who is the Man With the Hammer?
- The Ghost Fist Walks
- Where Is Spider-Man?
- What Became of Emily Bright?
- The Will of Doom
- Utgard Rises
- Age of Revelation
- Beware the Spider-Woman
- Who Would Trade Away Immortality?
- XVX
- 3K Gene Bomb
Relevant to this story is “The Ghost Fist Walks,” which hints Rand will return from the grave as the Ghost Fist in 2025. Meanwhile, Rand’s protégés, the young Pei of K’un-Lun and the Chinese warrior Lin Lie — the new Iron Fists — defeated the Spider-Man villain the Shocker, who was sent as a distraction so the Ch’i-Lin could kill Rand.
The Living Weapon. The Immortal Iron Fist. The Ghost Fist. Danny Rand lives.