HAROLD MEACHUM

Real Name: Harold Meachum

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Former Chief Executive Officer of Meachum Enterprises;
    former partner in Rand-Meachum

Group Membership: Formerly Meachum Industries and Rand-Meachum, Inc.

Affiliations: Da Tempa, Scythe, Triple-Iron, various unnamed agents
    Formerly Daniel Rand (Iron Fist), Heather Rand, Wendell Rand-Kai,

Enemies: Iron Fist, Ninja, Heather Rand, Wendell Rand-Kai

Known Relatives: Joy Meachum (daughter), Ward Meachum (brother)

Aliases: "Uncle Harold" (nicknamed as an uncle to Daniel Rand due to their close family friendship)

Base of Operations: Meachum Industries Corporate headquarters, Manhattan, New York

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere I#15 (May, 1974)

Powers/Abilities: Harold Meachum had no superhuman powers. He was a wealthy and ruthless industrialist, willing to sacrifice his seeming best friend in hopes of stealing his business and wife. He had access to advanced weaponry and employed a number of costumed mercenaries.

History:
(Marvel Premiere I#15 (fb) - BTS) - Harold Meachum and Wendell Rand formed the business partnership of Rand-Meachum, Inc.

(Deadly Hands of Kung Fu#19 (fb)) - Harold and Joy Meachum attended the eighth(?) birthday of Daniel Rand.

(Marvel Premiere I#15 (fb) - BTS) - Harold attempted to dissuade Wendell Rand from taking Daniel and Heather on his quest to search for the city of K'un-Lun in the Himalayas. Failing this, Harold--who hoped to somehow claim their company, as well as Heather, for himself--agreed to accompany the three of them, claiming to be helping his friend and partner.

(Marvel Premiere I#15 (fb)) - Harold, Wendell, Heather, and Daniel made their way across the frozen Himalayas, with Harold complaining about having agreed to accompanying Wendell, and then reassuring Wendell of their friendship. Young Daniel slipped off of the edge of a natural bridge over a gorge, pulling his mother and father with him. The rope connecting the three broke, with Daniel and Heather rolling down the snow-packed mountainside, leaving Wendell hanging precariously off the edge. Rather than save Wendell, Harold instead stomped upon his hands with his spiked climbing boots, causing Wendell to plunge to his death.
    The exhilarated Harold then voiced his true motive of claiming their company for himself to his deceased former partner, but Heather heard this from the outcropping that had caught her and Daniel, and she struck Harold in the face with a rock. Harold tried in vain to tell her that he loved her and had done it all for her. When she continued to hurl rocks at him, Harold warned her that he'd leave them to die in the middle of nowhere, to which she responded that she'd rather die than share the same world as him. She said Daniel would either grow up to kill Harold with his own two hands, or he would die like his father. Harold left them there, assuming they would either die or change their minds.

(Marvel Premiere I#18 (fb)) - Harold began his trek back to the outpost and to the airport. However, after a few days of wandering over the trackless wastes--though he refused to accept it--he was hopelessly lost. By the third day a blizzard had begun to cover Harold's own tracks and he had begun to starve. By the fourth day he was delirious, and on the fifth day he blacked out, having long since lost all sensation in his limbs.

(Marvel Premiere I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Lying unconscious on a mountainside, Harold was found by a woman, who had Sherpas (high altitude porters of Tibetan origin) carry him back to her father (Da Tempa)'s house in Katmandu Valley. The woman cared for Harold, nursing him back to health, but the frost had already claimed his legs, which were amputated around knee level.

(Marvel Premiere I#18 (fb)) - Harold awakened, thanked his hosts, and told them to arrange transport to the nearest airport, but was devastated when the monk revealed that his legs had been amputated. Harold was forced to remain in the old man's hut until a cart could be delivered from the nearest village to the east. During this period, a wandering Tibetan monk visited the village, telling them of his visiting the legendary city of K'un-Lun, as well as of the young boy who had been taken in by the city's immortals--a boy whose parents had died in the mountains.
    Harold instantly realized that the boy was Daniel, who would be obsessed with the will to excel in combat training and would return to Earth to gain his vengeance when K'un-Lun's portal to Earth opened again ten years later.

(Marvel Premiere I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Obsessed with an overwhelming fear of death, driven to the brink of insanity with gut-sick worry and tension, Harold spent his fortune designing a series of death-traps and hiring a number of assassins to stop Daniel Rand when he came for him. In particular, he set up Triple-Iron as his chief assassin, possibly keeping him contained within a chamber for ten years, promising him his freedom only if he slew Daniel Rand.

(Marvel Premiere I#18 (fb) - BTS) - As the ten year anniversary of his Himalayan adventure arrived, Harold sent out notice of a ten thousand dollar contract to bring in the wearer of the Iron Fist dragon brand dead or alive.

(Marvel Premiere I#16 - BTS) - A gang of four men assaulted Iron Fist for the reward, but he stopped them all. Iron Fist was then attacked by Scythe, whom he also defeated. Scythe surrendered Harold Meachum's location.

(Marvel Premiere I#17 - BTS) - Iron Fist entered Meachum Industries' corporate skyscraper, where he fought his way past a number of traps, including spikes from the hallways walls, machine-guns emerging from the floor, lasers shooting from the stairwell walls, a bomb on the stairs, a number of assassins posing as harmless employees, acid spray from the ceiling, a door opening into empty space out of the side of the building, a wolf, vertigo-inducing gas, colliding elevator cars, and another laser fired from a monitor camera. Upon entering a final door, he was confronted by Meachum's chief assassin, Triple-Iron.

 

(Marvel Premiere I#18) - Iron Fist defeated Triple-Iron and confronted Harold Meachum, who revealed his disability and the circumstances following their last meeting. Emotionally exhausted, Harold finally realized that he was wrong to try to stop his own death, because he deserved it. Seeing Harold for the corroded shell of a man that he had become, Iron Fist was unable to carry out his intended mission of vengeance, and he turned his back to leave. Harold began shouting that he wanted to die, and when Iron Fist continued to walk away, Harold pulled a gun. Shouting that he wouldn't let Iron Fist leave him, he fired the gun, but a shuriken (throwing star) struck his hand just before  he pulled the trigger, spoiling his aim so that Iron Fist was only struck a glancing blow.
    Harold turned to see what had spoiled his aim, and the mysterious Ninja raised his sword and stabbed Meachum through the chest, killing him, then vanished. Iron Fist pulled himself to his feet and checked on Meachum, at which point Harold's daughter, Joy, having heard the commotion, came in to check on him. Seeing Iron Fist standing over her murdered father, she assumed him to be the killer, and she vowed that she would find the means to kill him.

 

 

 

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, with Dick Giordiano.

    Further information on Harold Meachum certainly may have been discussed by Harold and/or Joy Meachum in other appearances, but I don't have it recorded anywhere in my notes.

    The Ninja was later revealed to be an agent of Master Khan (in this case using Colleen's father, Lee Wing, as his host). I plan to cover several other critical Iron Fist mythos profiles over the next several months, and the Ninja will be one of those, so I'll sort out anything else then.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

images: (not counting ads)
Marvel Premiere I#15, p5, panel 1 (face)
        p6, panel 4-5 (stomping Wendell)
    #18, p9, panel 1 (older amputee)

Marvel Premiere I#16 (July, 1974) - Roy Thomas & Len Wein (writers), Larry Hama (pencils), Dick Giordano (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Marvel Premiere I#17-18 (September-October, 1974) - Doug Moench (writer), Larry Hama (pencils), Dick Giordano (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Deadly Hands of Kung Fu#19 (December, 1975) - Chris Claremont (writer), Rudy Nebres (artist), Archie Goodwin (editor)

Last updated: 08/25/05

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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