IRON FIST

Real Name: Bei Ming-Tian 

Identity/Class: Presumably extradimensional (K'un-Lun) humanoid, 13th century

Occupation: Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun 

Group Membership:  Immortal Weapons

Affiliations: None;
    it is likely, though unconfirmed,that he was trained by Lei Kung, the Thunderer.

Enemies: Mongol hordes, Shou-Lao 

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Presumably K'un-Lun 

First Appearance: Immortal Iron Fist #1 (January 2007)

Powers/Abilities: Bei-Ming Tian was presumably a master of the martial arts of K'un-Lun. 

    Though he only demonstrated the ability to summon his chi via intense concentration, lighting up his left fist and presumably rendering it superhumanly powerful and immune to pain and injury, he may well have been able to perform some or all of the chi feats his predecessors and successors have demonstrated, including: augmenting his physical and mental capabilities to peak human levels; create hypnotic energy from his fingers; extend his power to surround other parts of his body (including his feet) or hand-held objects (such as swords), project energy over short distances, or extend his power to projectile weapons; heal himself of injury or illness and project this power to heal others; sense mystic energy, particularly that which is related to K’un-Lun; fuse his consciousness with that of another person, enabling each to perceive the other’s emotions and memories; absorb energy directed at him and channel it to augment his own power; create nexus points between dimensions. 

    Like other Iron Fists, his entire body was presumably oriented to combat, enabling him to adapt to any environment with minimal exposure or control his nervous system to deaden himself to pain, and he would have been an exceptional athlete, acrobat and hand-to-hand combatant, trained in many martial arts weapons.

Height: 5'8" (speculative)
Weight: 135 lbs. (estimated)
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Unrevealed

History: (Immortal Iron Fist#16, BTS) - Bei Ming-Tian was born in 1194 A.D. 

(Immortal Iron Fist#1 (fb)) - In 1227 A.D. Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes were invading Western Xia. As their forces neared the K'un-Lun mountain range, Bei Ming-Tian, the Iron Fist of that era, went out to confront them. 

    The rice farmers of a small, insignificant village at the foot of the mountains, home to around 300 people, had just spotted the Khan's horsemen galloping towards them when Bei Ming-Tian strode purposefully between them, eliciting whispered queries wondering at his identity. Once on firm ground, Bei Ming-Tian took a combat stance, undaunted by the closing enemies' numbers, weapons or fierce reputation, and mentally prepared for the coming battle. 

    Silently he answered the villager's question to himself - he was the Iron Fist, who stands before the unstoppable hordes and holds them back. That's what he did, what he had always done. And he summoned his Iron Fist power and smiled.

(Immortal Iron Fist#16 (fb) - BTS) - Bei Ming-Tian died in 1227A.D., aged 33, ...

(Immortal Iron Fist#18 (fb) - BTS) - ...slain by the Ch'i-Lin.

Comments: Created by Matt Fraction (writer), Travel Foreman (pencils) and Derek Fridolfs (inks).
    N.B. David Aja provided art for most of Bei Ming-Tian's debut issue, but not the introductory pages the character appears on.

    With only three pages, there's very little we know for sure about Bei Ming-Tian. 

• We never see his face, we don't know for sure that he is a K'un-Lun native (but he probably is, because the non-native Danny Rand was considered an exception to the Iron Fist lineage), or that he lived there (but he probably did, since most Iron Fists did and since he was seen operating near the mountains that are home to his city). 
• If Lei-Kung the Thunderer was around back then, then Bei Ming-Tian was almost certainly his student. 
• Image wise, there are a grand total of six images of him, all of which are used here. The two distance shots wouldn't be worth including if they weren't the only full body images the comic gives him. There's a full-body image of Bei Ming-Tian floating around the web on various sites. However, while it's a nice image, it's also fan art, and so not really for use here, especially without the artist's permission.

    It is implied in Immortal Iron Fist#1 that Bei Ming-Tian was the first Iron Fist, when Danny thinks about the "very first" as he reads Bei's name, but this was later disproven in Immortal Iron Fist#24 with the introduction of Li Park. 

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Bei Ming-Tian should not be confused with

• any of the other 65 Iron Fists

images: (without ads)
Immortal Iron Fist#1, p2-3, pan2 (main image)
Immortal Iron Fist#1, p1, pan4 and p2, pan1 (full body front and back, respectively)
Immortal Iron Fist#1, p3, pan4-5 (summoning Iron Fist)
Immortal Iron Fist#1, p1, pan2 (striding through rice paddy)

Other Appearances:
Immortal Iron Fist#1 (January, 2007) - Matt Fraction (writer), Travel Foreman (pencils) and Derek Fridolfs (inks), Alejandro Arbona (assistant editor), Warren Simons (editor)
Immortal Iron Fist#16 (August, 2008) - Matt Fraction (writer), David Aja (artist), Alejandro Arbona (assistant editor), Warren Simons (editor)
Immortal Iron Fist#18 (Ocotber, 2008) - Matt Fraction (writer), Travel Forman & Russ Heath (artists), Alejandro Arbona (assistant editor), Warren Simons (editor)

Last updated: 04/11/16

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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