(Iron
Fist I#8 (fb) - BTS) - William Hao, who had secretly
followed Cynthia Wu and heard about his brother's plans, was captured
by the
Golden Tigers.
CHAKA
Real Name: Robert Hao
Identity/Class: Normal human, unconventional weapons user
Occupation: Crimelord
Group Membership: Golden Tigers
Affiliations: Ward Meachum
Enemies: Iron Fist (Daniel Rand), Jeryn Hogarth, Misty Knight, Joey Meachum, Colleen Wing
Known Relatives: William Hao (brother)
Aliases: King of Crime
Base of Operations: New York, USA
First Appearance: Iron Fist I#8 (October, 1976)
Powers/Abilities: Hao was highly skilled and trained in the martial arts. He was also a weapons master and used an electrified nunchaku as a deadly weapon to strike with blows of raw power with high accuracy. He also used a mystic crystal to control others' minds through a form of hypnosis.
History:
(Iron Fist I#72 (fb) - BTS) - Since he was a boy, Robert had been trained in the martial arts by his older brother, William. They both lived in Chinatown in New York with William eventually becoming a lawyer while Robert became part of a street gang. Thanks to his willpower and his martial arts abilities, Robert became the leader of the Golden Tigers and took on the name of Chaka.
(Iron Fist I#8 (fb) - BTS) - The Golden Tigers slowly gained more power, eventually controlling every racket from Canal Street to Battery, making shady businesses with corrupt people; Ward Meachum was among them.
(Iron Fist I#8) - Iron Fist stopped one of the Golden Tigers street raids, immediately becoming an enemy of Chaka, who wanted to slay him. Later, when the boss of Maggia Ruffio Costa was arrested, Chaka schemed a plan to take advantage of the power vacuum and take control of every illegal racket in the town. He gathered his gang of thugs to attack the Meachum Building. Cynthia Wu dared propose that her band of girls join to the assault but Chaka slapped her, claiming that women were not worthy to fight and had only to obey.
(Iron
Fist I#8 (fb) - BTS) - William Hao, who had secretly
followed Cynthia Wu and heard about his brother's plans, was captured
by the
Golden Tigers.
(Iron Fist I#8) - The day after, Chaka, along with Teng, Chen Wu, Kwai Chang and other warriors, invaded the Meachum Building threatening Ward Meachum and other businesspeople, as well as Joey Meachum, Jeryn Hogarth, Misty Knight and Daniel Rand.
(Iron Fist I#13 (fb) - BTS) - Chaka revealed the illegal activities in which Ward Meachum was involved.
(Iron Fist I#9 (fb)/Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (fb)) - Daniel Rand managed to protect his secret identity and changed into his Iron Fist outfit. After having defeated many members of the Golden Tigers, he confronted Chaka, but he wasn't prepared for his electrified nunchaku. Chaka hit and knocked Rand out with a single blow.
To gain further fame for himself, Chaka Khan wanted the people to know that he had defeated a superhero. He poisoned Iron Fist and let him free. The poison weakened the warrior, who was then tracked down by the Golden Tigers. Meanwhile, Chaka Khan hypnotized his brother, ordering him to wear his Chaka costume, and sent him to fight Iron Fist. If he had killed Iron Fist, William would have been imprisoned instead of Robert.
(Iron Fist I#9/Power
Man &
Iron Fist I#72 (fb)) - Danny Rand succeeded in curing his body using
the healing power of the Iron Fist and then defeated William Hao. But
Chaka
Khan had
a back-up plan; hidden on the roof of the duel, Robert managed to hit
William
with a savage blow from his triple-iron nunchaku.
(Iron Fist I#10/Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (fb)) - The police officers who found William Hao immediately charged Iron Fist with William's apparent murder. However, the hero escaped. In the following week, he, along with Luke Cage, thwarted every activity in which the Golden Tigers were involved, seriously undermining Chaka's authority. Meanwhile, William Hao recovered.
Chaka attacked Misty Knight and Colleen Wing's office to challenge Iron Fist. He easily defeated two women but Iron Fist resisted Chaka's improved electrified nunchaku. When Iron Fist broke the nunchaku, the fight was decided man to man. Chaka proved to be inferior to Iron Fist and was defeated. The police and his brother arrived on the scene and arrested him.
(Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (fb) - BTS) - William used his influence so that Robert would only get a light sentence.
(Power Man & Iron Fist I#72) - Still in prison, Robert was visited by William and informed about the new rise of the Golden Tigers and that someone was again wearing the mask of Chaka. Iron Fist and Luke Cage defeated the Golden Tigers and Chaka, who was revealed to be Thomas Arn. Robert laughed after William informed him of this.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Dan Adkins.
After Thomas Arn was arrested, Robert Hao had only a year to spend in prison before he would get his parole, so, even with highly dilated Marvel time, he should be a free man by now. I was sure that some months later, another story would reveal Arn to be another pawn (or lackey) of Robert Hao, and that the new Chaka was only a set-up to make Robert Hao's parole easier, or to prepare the field for the return of the real Chaka. However, there is no evidence about a connection between Hao and Arn.
Iron fist vs. Chaka: the Dragon vs. the Tiger. If I remember correctly, in oriental philosophy, the Dragon represents spiritual strength while the Tiger represents physical strength.
The images are taken from the Italian comics, hence the word balloons being in Italian for the main picture.
Chaka's Mystic Crystal and Gypsy's Mind-Jewel (Thor I#246-247 (April-May, 1976) could be made from the Hypnotic Diamonds found in the Upper Amazon of South America from Marvel Comics#1 (October, 1939) "Jungle Terror" in the territory of an English speaking tribe.
--Gammatotem
Some info by Matthew Baugh:
The character was never called "Chaka Khan." This is something that everyone on the Internet, including official Marvel sources, has reported, but the character is always called "Chaka" and never "Chaka Khan." I reread Iron Fist I#7-9 to verify this.
This is an example of the Mandela effect, where a large number of people seem to all remember something that never happened. Here are the elements that I thing combined to create this false memory.
Chaka debuted in 1976. His name is not Chinese and I've never seen how Chris Claremont came up with the name but I have a theory. Chaka wields a three-section staff, or triple-irons, which resembles the better-known nunchaku. In the 70s, the nunchaku was sometimes slangily called "nunchucks" or "Chaka sticks."
Also in the 1970s the singer Chaka Khan, called the "queen of funk," was at the peak of her popularity. The similar names seem to have been confused. Part of this confusion also comes from two other Marvel characters. The first of whom was a sorcerer named Master Khan. He had originally appeared in Strange Tales #77 way back in 1961, but Claremont brought him back as a villain for Iron Fist in Marvel Premier#22 in 1975.
Finally, in 1976, Doug Moench and Paul Guilacy created a Shang Chi villain named Shaka Kharn in Master of Kung Fu #46. I suspect this character's Name is a pun on the name of the singer, Chaka Khan. In any case, I believe that there was confusion between the names of Chaka, Master Khan, and Shaka Kharn, who all debuted at roughly the same time. Add confusion with the singer, Chaka Khan, And the Iron Fist villain "Chaka" Is now remembered as "Chaka Khan."
The speculation that Chris Claremont's inspiration from the name came from Chaka's signature weapons, nunchaku, is likely correct imo, but another option (in-universe at least) does present. There is a place called Chaka in China. So perhaps the title given to the leader of the Golden Dragon is the name of the original home town of the gang.
--Loki
I just spoke to my Chinese Singaporean partner & the word & English pronunciation of Chaka isn't Chinese. The Chaka location you see in China is in the western provinces (Tibet) & is the Chinese phonetic translation of the local language - going by the Chinese characters, it's not even the English "Ch" sound. I'd definitely stick with the Claremont explanation (derivation from nunchaku).
--Grendel Prime
Claremont getting it from nunchaku is purely speculation, and may not be correct. I'd concur that it is more likely than Claremont deriving the name from a place in China, based on the assumption (and it is an assumption) that Claremont would have been unlikely to know the names of semi-obscure Chinese locations. However, in universe that option makes less sense - firstly, nunchaku is the Japanese name for that weapon, while a Chinese individual would be more likely to call them shuang jie gun. In universe, I'd be more willing to go with it being a bad Anglicization of his actual name (cf Golden Claw vs Yellow Claw), and that would still permit the option of the actual name deriving from the aforementioned region.
--Loki
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Chaka, Robert Hao, should not be confused with:
but has no known connections to:
images:
(without ads)
Iron Fist I#9, p7, pan2/3 (triple-iron/Chaka, full body)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#72, p22, pan4 (Robert Hao, head shot)
Iron Fist I#9, p3, pan5 (Chaka, side profile)
Iron Fist I#9, p11, pan6 (with mystic crystal)
Appearances:
Iron Fist I#8 (October, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Fist I#9 (November, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne
(pencils),
Frank Chiaramonte (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Fist I#10 (December, 1976) - Chris Claremont (writer),
John Byrne
(pencils),
Dan Adkins (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (August, 1981) - Mary Jo Duffy
(writer), Kerry
Gammill (pencils), Ricardo Villamonte (inks), Christie Scheele
(colors), Dennis
O'Neil (editor)
First Posted: 03/30/2008
Last
updated: 11/16/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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