May 1974: Legacy and the Living Weapon

Iron Fist, a superhero created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane for Marvel Premiere 15 (May 1974), was the result of pop cultural cross-pollination.

The Marvel Age of Comics was already more than a decade old, and to freshen it up the Bullpen tried superhero titles reflecting popular trends. 

Thanks to a relaxed Comics Code, more vivid horror stories could then be published, so Ghost Rider was born in Marvel Spotlight 5 (Aug. 1972).

Martial arts had been popularized by the David Carradine TV series Kung Fu in 1972 and the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon in 1973. Add the superhero trappings of a lost-child Tarzan origin, a secret identity, a colorful costume and the ability to focus chi into a punch of overwhelming power, and you have Iron Fist.

The character was presented in his Netflix series as a kind of billionaire super-Buddhist. And that may well ring a bell.

Comics readers might remark on the similarity of Danny Rand to Adrian Veidt, the superhero Ozymandias created by by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons for their 1986 Watchmen graphic novel.

Well, yes, and there’s a reason for that.

Iron Fist was in part an homage to Amazing-Man, Bill Everett’s original variation on the Superman theme introduced in Amazing-Man Comics 5 (Sept. 1939). That Tibetan-trained super-being also inspired Pete Morisi to create Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt for Charlton Comics in 1966. And Moore and Gibbons used Thunderbolt as the template for Ozymandias.

The history of superhero comics is a wonderfully multi-faceted and multivariate thing.

January 1966: From the Himalayas to the Deep Blue Sea

Although Pete Morisi’s art was a bit static for my taste, I had to admire the realistic veneer he had worked out for his title Peter Cannon… Thunderbolt, seen here in this Charlton Comics house ad for issue 55 (Jan. 1966).

Thunderbolt’s will-based powers were relatively restrained by comic book standards, and his costume was really a monastic training outfit with an added mask.

The Himalayan hero didn’t want to fight crime, having an enlightened contempt for the greed and corruption of a western culture that remained alien to him. He just wanted to be left alone so he could write.

Created by Joe Gill and Bill Montes, the Fightin’ Five were commandos recruited by the CIA to free a kidnapped physicist, something “…the CIA, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and all other agencies” hadn’t been able to accomplish.

They also continued the publisher’s long and relentless war against the letter “g.” (Charlton’s titles included Fightin’ Air Force, Fightin’ Army, Fightin’ Marines, Fightin’ Navy and Fightin’ Five).

Here, in issue 41 (Jan. 1967), they tackle what is clearly supposed to be Gorgo, one of the three giant movie monsters licensed by Charlton.

Or maybe Charlton should spell that ’Or’o.