The ONE
Real Name: The One
Identity/Class: Extradimensional (K'un-Lun) robot, later able to absorb and gain power from massive quantities of chi (mystic life force);
active from early 20th century and into the modern era (including 1900-1929, 1930-1945, 1946-1960, and the pre-modern era, although only the first and last of those time periods are depicted/discussed/confirmed)
Occupation: Warrior
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Davos (aka Steel Serpent), Darius Scott Pilling, Terror Monks/Priests, zombie cyborg ninjas;
it used the residents of K'un-Lun's for power (they were its allies by some nature, although it was not their allies);
formerly the Fooh, Yu-Ti (Tuan/Tu-An), Yu-Ti (Nu-An);
uncertain connection to Wendell Rand;
at the end of its existence, it was allied with Iron Fist (Daniel Rand-K'ai)
Enemies: Crane Daughters, Crane Mother, Gork, Iron Fist (Daniel Rand-K'ai), K'un-Lun's
residents, Mr. Miller and an unidentified female lawyer, Lei Kung the Thunderer, Pei, Shou-Lao, Sparrow,
Zhu Rong, representatives of the other eight Heavenly Cities (K'un-Zi,
Peng Lai island, Spider City, Tiger Island, the Under City, Z'Gambo,
and the "Eighth City");
unidentified Iron Fist; unspecified number of other
Iron Fist-level characters that had bested Shou-Lao (including the one
who later became known as the Resourceful Snake);
formerly the Fooh;
Known Relatives: The Fooh (creator);
bonded to the corpse and/or memories of Wendell
Rand, he considered Daniel Rand'Kai as his son and Heather Rand as his wife
Aliases: Shu-Hu; the Lightning
claimed to be Wendell Rand (whose corpse he apparently incorporated);
the lawyer Mr. Miller called him "Ghandi" in a mocking fashion;
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly Rand Tower, Manhattan, New York, USA, Earth;
formerly the caverns below K'un-Lun city;
formerly K'un-Lun city, K'un-Lun
First Appearance: (As Shu-Hu) Marvel Premiere I#15 (May, 1974);
(composite One / Wendell Rand - BTS) Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#1 (June, 2014);
(composite, seen) Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#2 (July, 2014);
(composite, identified as "The One") Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#4 (September, 2014)
Powers/Abilities:
The One originally had the strength of
50 men and is preprogrammed in every fighting style known to K'un-Lun.
It does not know fear or fatigue, nor does it second guess or react; it
only acts. It knows what its combatants are going to do before even
they do. It could also project at least one dagger from each hand with
sufficient speed to stab even a supremely skilled martial artist.
The One could be programmed to be defeated, but once it gained self-awareness, it was almost impossible to defeat.
The One could add materials to its
own body to increase in size. It could alter its appearance, taking a
portion of Wendell Rand's face. It could extend tentacles, and regrow
severed limbs.
The One could drain Chi from others to increase its own power.
In its latter incarnation, the One
believed itself to be Wendell Rand; presumably it accessed his memories
from his corpse somehow (see comments).
Height: Unrevealed (variable; its original
form appeared to be perhaps 8' to 9' tall; its latter form could add
materials to itself to increase, even achieving the size of a
skyscraper when enhanced by the chi of K'un-Lun's natives)
Weight: Unrevealed (variable; its original form would likely
have been several hundred pounds due to its mechanical construction;
its latter form increased its mass by adding other materials)
Eyes: Glowing red; it adopted the facial appearance of Wendell Rand,
Hair: None (reddish blond false hair on mask / while posing as Wendell Rand)
History:
(Iron Fist V#5 (fb) - BTS) - K'un-Lun
warrior Shu-Hu presented the Challenge of the One, a
struggle new Iron Fists faced after having claimed Shou-Lao's power and
having overcome the Challenge of the Many, defeating multiple skilled
warriors in combat.
(Iron Fist V#5 (fb) - BTS) - After the departure of Shu-Hu in the late 19th century or early 20th century,
the Yu-Ti (presumably Tuan/Tu-An) resolved to replace Shu-Hu with a robot that would
not question him but simply obey.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#5 (fb)) - Standing in the middle of the arena amidst the fallen Many, an Iron Fist proclaimed his victory and demanded to meet the Challenge of the One.
With his chi fully summoned, the Iron Fist
charged the One, who sidestepped his strike, caught his wrist, and
smashed the Iron Fist in the back with a devastating blow.
The One then kicked the Iron Fist back and then apparently leapt to meet him as he landed.
As the crowd jeered the Iron Fist, the One hurled him into the stands, where he landed between Sparrow and the young Daniel Rand.
The One leapt up after the Iron Fist, and the spectators fled. Though Daniel was reluctant to leave, fearing that the One would kill the Iron Fist, Sparrow pulled him away, advising Daniel, "it was his challenge...his fate."
The Iron Fist summoned his chi, but the One delivered a fatal blow, and the glowing fist faded and collapsed.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#5 (fb) - BTS) - From this, Daniel realized that claiming the Iron Fist wasn't a prize rewarding a life of hardship, but only the beginning; and if you didn't clench your hand tightly enough, the iron could be taken at any time.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#5 (fb) - BTS) - Presumably at Yu-Ti (Nu-An)'s orders (or those of one of his subordinates), the One was restrained by a number of chains held by multiple warriors. Before being taken away, the One stared into the eyes of the young Daniel, and both seemed to know that they would one day face each other.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#8 (fb) - BTS) - The One was programmed to fail against Daniel Rand when he became Iron Fist.
(Marvel Premiere I#15 / Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#7 (fb) - BTS) - Having earned the title of Iron Fist by Shou-Lao and having won the Challenge of the Many, Daniel Rand faced the Challenge of the One.
Rand dodged the One's first blow
and struck a solid body blow to no effect, and his next strike to the
One's chin was similarly ineffective, after which he narrowly dodged
the One's blow. A flying kick by Rand bent the One back slightly, but
it instantly swatted Iron Fist back.
The One leapt forward and struck with a kick that Iron Fist dodged, but it then struck him in the face with its darting fist, after which it struck him in the face twice more. Rand allowed himself to be knocked against a far wall and ricochet away to gain a moment's respite, but the swiftly moving One caught him with another powerful kick.
As the stunned Iron Fist struggled
to maintain consciousness, he questioned who his opponent was to toss
him about so easily, but the One silently responded by launching a
dagger from out its palm and into Rand's shoulder.
Appreciating that his foe was not
human and then dodging a second dagger-strike, Rand -- inspired by a
vision of his mother -- pulled the dagger from his shoulder and
furiously struck back with a series of kicks and smashes that finally
caused the metal beneath the One's hood to start to give, to bend and
twist.
As the One slowed and began to totter, Rand decapitated the One using his Iron Fist power; he then removed its mask to reveal it to be a robot.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#6 (fb) - BTS) - The One arranged an alliance with Davos (formerly the Steel Serpent), granting him a cybernetic arm to replace the part of Davos' arm severed by Tiger's Beautiful Daughter.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#2 (fb)) - The One flew on the platform of one of at least ten helicopters as they approached the city of K'un-Lun. After the helicopters landed, a number of K'un-Lun guardsmen approached, and the unidentified One assured the city's immortals that they were safe and that despite the pomp and circumstances, he was not there to harm them; asking them not to force his hand, he requested to speak to their Yu-Ti (Lei Kung).(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#2 (fb) - BTS) - The One and his forces decapitated Lei Kung and the dragon Shou-Lao, slaughtered many residents, and set the city of K'un-Lun afire.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#1 (fb) - BTS) - Presumably seeking both Pei -- who had escaped to Earth to deliver a message to Iron Fist -- and Iron Fist himself, the One dispatched a pair of Apache helicopters full of undead cyborg ninjas.
(Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#1 - BTS) - In the middle of the night, the One's undead cyborg ninjas descended on nylon ropes from a pair of Apache helicopters in Manhattan in proximity to the Rand building. Iron Fist destroyed both the helicopters, the explosions of which destroyed the still airborne undead cyborg ninjas. Within his apartment, Iron Fist defeated the last of these cyborgs, though his Iron Fist power failed when he tried to summon it.Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, and Dick Giordano.
Wendell Rand? and timeline?
I really hated this series when it
came out. I felt like it crapped ALL OVER the character of Wendell Rand as
established in the great Immortal Iron Fist, AND it marginalized the
powerful Shou-Lao into this easy contest that many won, only to lose to
this robot AND, it took Davos, who had finally accepted his own flaws
and had begun to do penance for them, and turned him back into the
one-dimensional villain he was before that series AND it slew
Lei-Kung...
In re-reading and reviewing ad nauseum to profile
the characters, I have gotten to appreciate it a lot more, and there
certainly was some consideration of Brubaker's series and the events
therein, but I still don't love how easily Lei Kung was slain, nor the marginalization of Shou-Lao and the reversion of Davos...
If Nu-An controlled who could be Iron Fist, he certainly wouldn't have let Daniel Rand, the son of his rival, Wendell Rand, become one.
The face of the represenative of the "eight
cities"
who denounced the One looked spider-webby, and she was
standing in the same position the obviously spider-city representative
had been, but her comment about his "Number Two" (Davos) having been a
reject from "their lands," I would have thought
this would refer to the Crane Mother, as Davos had traveled to that
realm and allied with them, draining life force from the Crane Mother's
daughters for his own power. But, perhaps she just meant from the lands
of the other representatives, rather than just the city of the person
speaking...
In Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#5,
it appears that the Fooh rescued Iron Fist. However, it was
subsequently revealed that the Fooh had perished a decade ago, and that the Fooh was just a ghost. Sparrow
wasn't shown as being on the sled in #5 because Rand was seeing the
Fooh, but it was actually Sparrow.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The One was designed to mimic:
images: (without ads)
Marvel Premiere I#15, pg. 10, panel 4 (The One's entrance);
panel 6 (bowing with Daniel Rand);
pg. 17, panel 1-2 (firing knives from hands);
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#3, last panel (revealing Wendell Rand face);
#4, pg. 18, panel 2 (full, confronting Daniel);
#5, story pg. 11, panel 5 (color; smashed to ground by the One);
pg. 12, panel 3 (One chasing Iron Fist into crowd);
pg. 13, panel 5 (The One in chains, staring down young Danny Rand);
pg. (multiple faced form);
#6, last page, panel 2 (in profile, greeting Davos in front of the Terror Priests)? - notscanned
#7, pg. 15, panel 1 (retelling of MP#15) - notscanned
pg. 17, panel 6 (robot face);
#8, pg. 19, panel 4 (One; face)
#9, pg. 14, panel 1 (towering over Iron Fist)
#10, pg. 14 (shoving hand through Iron Fist's chest)
#11, pg. 1, panel 3 (chair) - notscanned
pg. 11, panel 1 (combined with Rand building)
Appearances:
Marvel Premiere#15 (May, 1974) - Roy Thomas (writer, editor),
Gil Kane (artist), Dick Giordano (inker)
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#1-6 (June-November, 2014) - Kaare Kyle Andrews (writer and artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#7 (January, 2015) - Kaare Kyle Andrews (writer and artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
Iron Fist: The Living Weapon#8-12 (March-July, 2015) - Kaare Kyle Andrews (writer and artist), Jake Thomas (editor)
Iron Fist V#3-5 (July-September, 2017) - Ed Brisson (writer), Mike Perkins
(artist), Kathleen Wisneski (assistant editors), Jake Thomas (editor)
First posted: 03/30/2019
Last updated: 06/11/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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