Danny RandIron Fist

Origin of an Orphan

Daniel Thomas “Danny” Rand was born into a wealthy family. His father, Wendell Rand, founded the highly successful Rand Enterprises. While traveling with their young son, Mr. and Mrs. Rand perished when their plane crashed in the Himalayas. Danny survived the impact and was discovered by monks from K’un-Lun, who took the boy to their city and trained him in their mystical ways. While considered an outsider (“xiaoguliao”) by the inhabitants of K’un-Lun, Danny worked his way up through the ranks to become a fierce warrior and eventually, the Immortal Iron Fist.

Back in New York, all three Rands were declared legally dead and Wendell’s business partner, Harold Meachum, assumed control of the company.

Living Weapon

Once activated, Danny’s fist can defeat any adversary or destroy any material. The power of the Iron Fist is derived from driving one’s own hand into the very heart of Shou-Lao.

Having been away for so many years, Danny is a bit naive and headstrong, determined to reconnect with those who thought he was dead and destroy an ancient enemy he believes to be polluting his father’s company.

Foes of the Fist

He’ll never let you forget it, but Danny’s greatest foe is the Hand, the ancient warrior group that causes pain and suffering wherever it decides to set up shop. Most unfortunately for New York, the Hand opts to activate Black Sky in Manhattan in a plan to use the Iron Fist for their own personal gain. Danny stands against them no matter what. In particular, Rand finds opposition in the form of Hand operatives Bakuto and Elektra Natchios.

Danny finds a more personal enemy in Harold Meachum, the man responsible for his parents’ death.

Finding Family

Danny finds a kindred spirit and strong ally in the form of Colleen Wing, a karate instructor who owns a dojo in Manhattan. At first, she thinks he is a crazy homeless man and pities him, but as time moves forward, Colleen discovers Danny’s true nature and the two pursue a romantic relationship, while also serving as a strong crime-fighting duo.

Claire Temple is another friend to Danny, becoming embroiled in Danny’s struggle due to the fact that she is a student at Colleen’s dojo.

During his hunt for the Hand, Danny ends up fighting alongside Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. He and Luke form a particularly strong bond that continues beyond their initial team up.

Forging an Iron Fist

Years after the plane crash, Danny left K’un-Lun—despite his duty to protect the place as the Iron Fist with his friend Davos—and returned to New York, looking like a vagrant. He entered the headquarters of Rand Enterprises and attempted to see Harold Meachum, but reception asks security to escort him from the premises. Defeating the guards in hand-to-hand combat, Danny entered the elevator and reunited with Harold’s children Ward and Joy, with whom he was friends as a kid. Now running the company, the siblings didn’t believe a word of Danny’s story and informed him that their father died of cancer and told him to leave.

Danny was able to corroborate their story when he took refuge in Central Park and became friendly with a fellow homeless man by the name of Big Al. Using an iPhone that Al stole, Danny learned that people believed him dead. He tried reconciling with Joy again the next day, but she threatened to have him arrested if he kept following her. He tried to get through to Ward by sneaking into his car at night, but experienced a similar result.

While mediating in Central Park, Danny spied Colleen Wing putting up flyers for her dojo and asked if he could get a job there as a teacher, a request she declines. He later showed up at her dojo, asking to challenge the master, but Colleen, confused and a little humored, refused. Pitying Danny, she gave him a pair of shoes to wear.

Danny found his way back into the Rand building and forced Joy to tell him what happened to his parents. Seemingly believing him, Joy agreed to talk, even offering him a cup of tea. However, the beverage was actually drugged and Danny woke up in a mental institution. Our hero insisted that he was the real Danny Rand, but no one believed him.

Then, it was revealed that Harold was actually alive, living a secret life in a spacious apartment, where he could keep an eye on Danny in the hospital. Ward was the only person aware of Harold’s continued existence. While Harold wanted to study the man calling himself Danny, Ward wished for the apparently psychotic individual to be out of the picture. The younger Ward Meachum arranged for a group of thugs to beat Danny to death, but their assault allowed him to harness his chi, defeat his attackers, and break out of the institution.

Danny once again took refuge at Colleen’s dojo and sparred with her, defeating her in hand-to-hand combat while pointing out the flaws in her fighting style. Later that day, Joy met with Danny, finally believing that he was who he said. However, this didn’t prove the welcome that Danny expected, as she offered him $100 million to change his name, as it would be more of a headache for Rand to appear in the public eye again after all these years.

Depressed at being rejected by the only family he had left, Danny recruited Jeri Hogarth of Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz LLP to represent him like she did for his parents. She promised to help him regain control of the company and gave him a client suite to stay in and money to buy clothes with. Using an artifact from his childhood, Hogarth proved Danny’s identity, thus making him the owner of Rand Enterprises. His non-materialistic approach to the world began to clash with the money-making business model supported by Ward.

Soon after, he discovered that Harold Meachum was still alive. The Hand killed Harold and brought him back to life after his cancer diagnosis. Danny was shocked and horrified to learn that the evil organization had infested his father’s company and assured Harold he would help eradicate the Hand, the sworn enemy of K’un-Lun.

Danny began to suspect the Hand of running a heroin drug ring under the auspices of Rand Enterprises, given that the logo on the drug’s packaging was that of Shou-Lao. Over a fancy takeout meal at the dojo, he asked Colleen to help him stop the drugs from coming into the city. It was here that he also met Claire Temple for the first time. Colleen agreed to help Danny after he admitted that he bought the building in which her dojo resides and was now her landlord, meaning that she never had to pay rent again.

Making the acquaintance of Hand lieutenant Madame Gao, Danny struck a deal with her that if he completed all of her challenges, the Hand would remove itself from Rand Enterprises. If Danny lost, however, he had to leave them alone. Danny defeated everyone: Andrei, Grigori Veznikov, the Bride of Nine Spiders, and Scythe, thus completing Gao’s gauntlet. The elderly woman kept her word, but not before mentioning Wendell’s name, causing Danny to ask her how she knew his father.

Wanting more answers, Danny traveled to a factory in Anzhou, China with Colleen and Claire, kidnapped Gao and brought her back to the dojo in America. Colleen was poisoned and hovered near death until a mysterious man named Bakuto showed up and told Danny to heal her with the power of the Iron Fist. Drained from this, Rand was taken to Bakuto’s compound, the place where Colleen was raised, but soon discovered that his supposed benefactor and his disciples were members of the Hand. He confronted Colleen, whom he believed was in Bakuto’s pocket the entire time, but she assured him that there was no conspiracy and that this sect of the Hand was good.

Nevertheless, Danny was lured into an area of the compound where a number of screens show that the Hand had been watching him in Colleen’s dojo and even in Harold Meachum’s secret apartment. Danny, realizing that the Hand was malevolent, escaped with the help of his friend Davos, who showed up at the last second. Davos explained that he was sent by the monk Lei Kung to bring Danny home to K’un-Lun. During their escape, Bakuto stabbed Danny, an act witnessed by Colleen who helped them flee.

Danny eventually forgave Colleen, realizing that she was not evil and, more importantly, that he loved her. They went back to Bakuto’s compound and questioned Gao, who made him realize it was Harold Meachum who caused his parents’ plane to crash. Filled with anguish at Harold’s true nature, Danny was determined to kill his former father figure. Despite his original plan, Rand instead subdued him by impaling him on a sharp object while fighting with him on the top of the Rand Enterprises building. Danny announced that Harold could go to prison for his crimes. Danny turned away and was almost killed by Harold, but Ward showed up and shot his father, who fell over the side of the building.

With Colleen at his side, Danny traveled back to the Himalayas only to discover that the Hand attacked the pass to K’un-Lun and that the portal to the city had closed. Distraught with guilt at shirking his duty as the city’s protector, Danny began to hunt the Hand across multiple countries with Wing. In Cambodia, Rand faced off against Elektra Natchios, defeating her with the Iron Fist. He and Colleen returned to New York to follow up on some leads and crossed paths with Luke Cage. This in turn led to an alliance with Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil. Together, all four heroes uncovered a plot by the Hand, who wanted to use the Iron Fist to open an ancient door that would give them eternal life. It was also revealed that the leading members of the Hand were once citizens of K’un-Lun who rebelled against the status quo.

With Daredevil, Luke, Jessica, Claire Temple, Misty Knight and Colleen, Danny helped defeat the Hand and thwart their plot – though Daredevil sacrificed himself so that Danny, Jessica, and Luke could all escape the Hand’s Midland Center building before it blew up. Blaming himself for Matt’s apparent death, Danny pledged to protect New York from those who wish to do it harm. Moreover, he promised Misty the best care after she lost an arm fighting Bakuto.

After helping secure Misty a bionic replacement arm, Danny, at Claire’s behest, visited Luke. Together, the two of them searched the streets -- including a new medicinal marijuana shop owned by former gun dealer Turk -- for the recently-wounded crime lord called Bushmaster, who’d escaped from police custody after Luke had stopped him. 

Danny could sense Luke was letting his anger and frustration drive him and tried to hand out some friendly advice about aligning one’s mind, body and spirit - in order to balance one’s chi. Luke wasn’t exactly open to the idea, but he enjoyed Danny’s help, and company, nonetheless.

When the two of them discovered the warehouse Bushmaster was using to grow more of the nightshade plant that granted him special powers, Danny and Luke teamed up to take down all of the armed men inside, including using double team moves that utilized both Luke’s invulnerability and Danny’s chi-fueled Iron Fist ability. Afterwards, with the building ablaze, Danny had his company buy the entire property, before he and Luke enjoyed dinner together at Luke’s favorite local Chinese restaurant.