MARVEL PREMIERE #16

”HEART OF THE DRAGON!”
Writer: Len Wein | Inker: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: L.P. Gregory | Co-Plotter/Editor: Roy Thomas
And introducing the pulse-pounding penciling of Larry Hama!

You are Iron Fist -- and the odors that assault your tender nostrils this night fill you with a growing feeling of revulsion.

You have heard many stories of this strange place called New York -- this city that is hardly more than a memory to you --

-- And, unfortunately, it seems that all the tales are true.

The Plot: In a New York alleyway, Iron Fist is assaulted by a group of thugs out to claim a $10,000 reward on his head. As he fights them, Iron Fist remembers his decade in K’un L’un, where he was trained in the martial arts by Lei Kung the Thunderer. In the present, he defeats the thugs and sends them packing.

Iron Fist’s flashback continues as he recalls challenging a dragon called Shou-Lao the Undying. Upon defeating the creature, Danny Rand was branded with the emblem of a dragon on his chest and then, within Shou-Lao’s cavern, he sank his hands into a smoldering brazier and gained the power of the Iron Fist.

In the present, Iron Fist is attacked by a mercenary named Scythe. During their duel he flashes back to a week ago, after completing his trials. Yu-Ti offered him the fruit of the Tree of Immortality and the chance to live forever in K’un L’un, but Danny chose instead to leave the hidden city -- thus preventing him from ever returning -- in order to return to civilization for vengeance on his father’s killer, Harold Meachum.

In the present, Iron Fist defeats Scythe and learns that the bounty was placed upon him by Meachum himself. Iron Fist heads for Meachum’s skyscraper headquarters for revenge.