William Hao as Chaka

CHAKA

Real Name: William Hao

Identity/Class: Normal human, unconventional weapon user

Occupation: Assistant District Attorney

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Thunderbolt (Bill Carver), Iron Fist (Daniel Rand), Blake Tower, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Power Man (Luke Cage), Lieutenant Rafael Scarfe

Enemies: Golden Tigers, Chaka (Robert Hao), Chaka (Thomas Arn)

Known Relatives: Robert Hao (brother), unseen wife and children

Aliases: Bill

Base of Operations: New York, USA

First Appearance: Iron Fist I#8 (October, 1976)

Powers/Abilities: William was a very good fighter with a good knowledge of martial arts. Under hypnosis, his dormant skills were awakened to their peak levels. He knew how to proficiently use a triple-iron electrified nunchaku and probably also used other oriental weapons.

William Hao

History: 

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (fb) - BTS) - William Hao grew up in Chinatown in New York with his brother, Robert, and their family. William followed the way of the martial arts and taught them to Robert. He abandoned martial arts to devote more of his time to studying law. He was proud to be Chinese and, after college and a stint in the Army, William moved back to Chinatown, where he settled again with his family.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#61) - Hao became Assistant District Attorney and met Bill Carver, and the two soon became good friends.

(Iron Fist I#8) - One summer, Bill learnt of the Golden Tigers' raids and decided to investigate on his own. He knew that the Golden Tigers' Khan was his brother Robert. Hao secretly followed Cynthia Wu and found the Golden Tigers' hideout, but was unfortunately spotted and captured.

(Iron Fist I#9) - Robert hypnotized William to have him impersonate Chaka, then sent him to kill Iron Fist, who was a threat for the Golden Tigers. William found Iron Fist, weakened and poisoned, and almost beat him in a duel, but the fist of iron saved Rand, healing him and smacking William away. Hidden, the real Chaka struck the false Chaka with his triple-iron, apparently killing him. Iron Fist was charged of the murder. The previous year, Rand had been the prime suspect in the investigation into Harold Meachum's murder, so the police immediately started pursuing him.

(Iron Fist I#10) - William Hao's martial art training saved him. After a few days, he awakened from unconsciousness and informed the police. When Iron Fist succeeded in luring Chaka outside his base and defeated him, William charged his brother of his crimes. Chaka Khan was arrested and the Golden Tigers disbanded.

(Iron Fist I#12 (fb) - BTS) - The Daily Bugle printed the withdrawal about William Hao's death.

(Iron Fist I#15 (fb)) - Bill Hao and Blake Tower convinced Misty Knight to become Maya Korday and spy on Bushmaster's criminal organization.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#72 (fb) - BTS) - Using his influence as D.A., Bill Hao was able to get Robert get a light sentence.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#61) - At the N.Y.P.D.'s 68th precinct, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing gave a statement to Hao about a case followed by his office. Thunderbolt and Iron Fist showed up and were investigating Caesar Cicero.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#69/2) - William Hao was ready to prosecute any bad guy caught by Power Man and Iron Fist.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#72) - With the Golden Tigers formed anew by another Chaka (Thomas Arn), Bill tried to help Iron Fist and Power Man in finding the criminal. He visited Robert in prison looking for clues, but was unable to find any. Further theories were debated and followed by Hao, including a suggestion from Cage, who suspected the Lindon Street Association to be behind the Tigers, but there was no evidence to back that theory. However, Chaka knew that Hao's investigations were a danger to him and so he sent several members of the Golden Tigers to torture and kill him. Hao was ambushed at home. He managed to hold back a couple of the attackers but eventually he was injured; only Iron Fist and Power Man's arrival saved his life. Chaka then showed up, felled Power Man and let his lackeys escape, vowing revenge.

    A week later, Power Man and Iron Fist captured Chaka. Several days later, William was happy to confirm to his brother that he could get his parole in a year.

(Power Man & Iron Fist I#83) - Iron Fist was badly beaten in a fight with Warhawk. Hao went to visit him in hospital and offered Luke Cage any help that he might need to capture the madman, who was ravaging Chinatown. Days later, Hao was present with Lt. Scarfe at the siege of Warhawk's hideout where he saw Luke Cage defeat Warhawk.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Dan Adkins.

Afterward, every time that William spoke of his brother, he had an excessive and violent reaction to Luke Cage's comments about Robert. Was this overly defensive behavior about his brother? Racism? Mental control? 

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:
This Chaka, William Hao, should not be confused with:

and has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Iron Fist I#9, p17, pan3 (main image)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#72, p5, pan6 (head shot)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#69, p21, pan4 (Bill as D.A.)

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)
Iron Fist I#15 (September, 1977) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Bruce Patterson (colors), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#61 (February, 1980) - Mary Jo Duffy (writer), Kerry Gammill (pencils), Bruce Patterson (inks), George Roussos (colors), Roger Stern (editor)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#69/2 (May, 1981) - Mary Jo Duffy (script), Steven Grant (plot), Alan Weiss (pencils), Ricardo Villamonte (inks), Ben Sean (colors), Dennis O'Neil (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)
Power Man & Iron Fist I#83 (July, 1982) - Mary Jo Duffy (writer), Denys Cowan (pencils), Carl Potts and Joe Chiodo (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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