DEATH-STING

Real Name: Miranda Ran'd'Kai

Identity/Class: Other-dimensional human

Occupation: Adventurer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Mo Chou, Fat Cobra, Iron Fist (Orson Randall), Scimitar, Sharyd (Conal), Sidewinder

Enemies: D'Kay, Legion of Vengeance, Joy Meachum, Merrin, Malik Shippinsky

Known Relatives: Iron Fist (Daniel Rand-Kai, half-brother), Wendell Rand (father, deceased), Shakari (mother, deceased)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile;

(formerly) K'un Lun


First Appearance: Iron Fist I#2 (December, 1975)



Powers/Abilities: Miranda Ran'd'Kai was trained in martial arts by a warrior of K'un Lun. As Death-Sting, she briefly wielded the powerful Scorpio Key.

History: (Power Man and Iron Fist I#75 (fb)) - An Earthman, Wendell Rand, traveled to K'un-Lun and married a native woman named Shakari. The two married and bore a daughter, Miranda. Shakari was later killed by the plant people, H'ylthri, and Rand, despairing, returned to Earth. He bore a son there named Daniel and was killed when he attempted to return to K'un-Lun. Miranda grew up without her parents.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Conal D'Hu-Tsien fell in love with Miranda Ran'd'Kai and agreed to teach her martial arts, though that was against the laws of K'un-Lun.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb)) - When Daniel Rand, now the Iron Fist, was beset by attacks from Merrin and other assassins, Conal and Miranda, who was masked, aided him in repelling the attackers. Miranda was unmasked, though, and their crimes were exposed. They were arrested by orders of K'un-Lun's leader, Yü-Ti.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Conal and Miranda were ordered to be mind-wiped and given new identities. Conal agreed as long as his love for Miranda would remain, but his request was denied. Angered, Conal and Miranda decided to leave K'un-Lun for good.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb)) - Conal and Miranda snuck out of the city where they met Iron Fist, who tried to stop them from leaving, but they left him behind, unconscious.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Upon entering the woods outside the city, which were purportedly deadly, Conal and Miranda survived only briefly before being captured by the H'ylthri. They were placed in feeding tubes.

(Iron Fist I#2 (fb)) - Iron Fist's attempts to rescue Conal and Miranda were unsuccessful. As they were taken away, Miranda confessed to Iron Fist that she was his sister.

(Power Man and Iron Fist I#75) - Iron Fist saw Conal and Miranda's emaciated forms in a H'ylthri feeding field.

(Iron Fist III#3 (fb) - BTS) - Conal and Miranda were kept in the feeding pods for years. Eventually, one H'ylthri, Sss'Lethcott, freed them, needing them to retrieve a powerful weapon, the Scorpio Key, on Earth, so that Sss'Lethcott could use the power to grow a new generation of H'ylthri. Conal and Miranda needed a treatment of special chemicals from the H'ylthri to stay alive. Sss'Lethcott promised Conal and Miranda that he would free them from the H'ylthri pods permanently if they retrieved the key for them. In order to do so, Conal adopted a demonic costume as Sharyd, and Miranda, a copy of the villain Scorpio's costume, calling herself Death-Sting.

(Iron Fist III#1 (fb) - BTS) - Death-Sting hired three villains to retrieve the Scorpio Key from a S.H.I.E.L.D. station, but all three were killed by S.H.I.E.L.D's defenses.

(Iron Fist III#1) - Death-Sting hired another operative, Sidewinder, who made it into the station only to be killed at the last second. Death-Sting proposed they recruit Iron Fist next. Sharyd hired Scimitar and others to feign an attack on Iron Fist, then tempted Iron Fist with information that his sister was still alive, kidnapped, and would be spared if Iron Fist got the Scorpio Key.

(Iron Fist III#2) - Sharyd and Scimitar took Joy Meachum captive. Conal and Miranda watched as Iron Fist retrieved the Scorpio Key. When Iron Fist brought the Key, Miranda dressed Joy as Death Sting and posed as a hostage. She helped 'defeat' Sharyd, and Iron Fist willingly turned the Key over to his sister.

(Iron Fist III#3) - Conal and Miranda moved to return the key to Sss'Lethcott, who demanded the key before he release them, but Iron Fist, with Joy Meachum and Malik Shippinsky, tracked them down and attacked. Conal and Miranda battled them until Miranda used the power of the Scorpio Key to destroy Sss'Lethcott and the H'ylthri in order to save her brother. Conal's body was later found after the explosion. Miranda was found by a passing boat and boarded their ship, in tears. Her whereabouts since then are unknown.

SECRET WARS HAPPENED

(Iron Fist V#79) – In Hell, Miranda was kept in a cage until D’Kay the demon approached her, offering her a chance to win her soul back through combat. She was taken to the Hotel Inferno, in the hellscape of Las Vegas, where she was to battle Orson Randall, Iron Fist.

(Iron Fist V#80) – Miranda and Orson sparred while demons cheered on, but Iron Fist and Fat Cobra, with his mother Mo Chou, joined them and changed the stakes. The five of them needed to defeat the twelve demons of the Legion of Vengeance to win their lives back. Orson Randall sacrificed himself, and Miranda returned to life, eager to begin again.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (penciler), and Frank Chiaramonte (inker).

Profile by Chadman.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Death-Sting no known connections to:

Shakari

(Power Man and Iron Fist I#75 (fb)) - A native of K'un-Lun, Shakari was the love of Nu-An, who would eventually become the Yü-Ti, the August Personage in Jade. However, when an outworlder, Wendell Rand, came to K'un-Lun, Shakari helped nurse him back to health and fell in love with him. She fell in love with Rand and the two were wed, causing all of K'un-Lun, except for Nu-An, to rejoice.  They soon had a daughter and named her Miranda. Ten years later, though, Rand and Shakari went outside of the city and were attacked by the H'ylthri, the native plant creatures of K'un-Lun, and Shakari was killed by a thrown projectile, driving Rand to despair.






--Power Man and Iron Fist I#75 (Power Man and Iron Fist I#75 (fb)

images:
Iron Fist III#3, cover
Iron Fist III#3, p10, pan2
Power Man and Iron Fist I#75, p25, pan4
Power Man and Iron Fist I#75, p11, pan5 (Shakari)

Other Appearances:

Iron Fist I#2 (December, 1975) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (penciler), Frank Chiaramonte (inker), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Power Man and Iron Fist (November, 1981) - Mary Jo Duffy (writer), Kerry Gammill (penciler), Ricardo Villamonte (inker), Dennis O'Neil (editor)
Iron Fist III#1-3 (July-September, 1998) - Dan Jurgens (writer), Jackson Guice (penciler), Scott Koblish (inker), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Iron Fist V#79-80 (June-July, 2018) – Ed Brisson (writer), Damian Couciero (artist), Mark Basso (editor)

First posted: 09/06/2006
Last updated: 04/30/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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