Issue(s): Marvel Premiere #24, Marvel Premiere #25
Published Date: Aug-Oct 75
Title: "Summerkill" / "Morning of the mindstorm!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Patrick R. Broderick / John Byrne - Penciler
Vincent Colletta / Al McWilliams - Inker

Review/plot:
Iron Fist has a training session with Colleen Wing (Colleen is perhaps the first woman that Chris Claremont ever transformed into a martial artist; prior to this, she was never really shown to be a fighter; although as Walter notes there were hints in previous issues)...

...but is still coming to grips with the fact that he was raised in K'un-Lun to believe that women shouldn't be taught to fight.

He later joins a softball game at the park. One team is comprised of the local police, including Lieutenant Scarfe, and the other team looks suspiciously like the Marvel bullpen.

In the audience is a princess from a small obscure country ("Princess Azir of Halwan"), who is under police protection and dressed incognito. However, a robot (the "Monstroid" named "Ballox") is sent after her...

...and Danny changes into his Iron Fist costume and defeats it.

The next issue is the first by John Byrne - possibly his first work at Marvel. It's hard to judge the art in the B&W Essentials format (luckily my scans come from a color copy); it looks good but isn't quite the super-awesome style that Byrne will eventually develop. Unlike when Romita took over Spider-Man or Steranko took over Captain America, you don't have that sudden feeling of a major increase in quality, but it still looks fine.

Iron Fist gets into a fight with Princess Azir's bodyguard, Khumbala Bey, who says he is shamed that it was Iron Fist, and not he, that protected her.

Afterward he returns home and find that Professor Wing's apartment is busted up again and Colleen is missing. The Professor is uttering paranoid rantings.

Iron Fist and Lieutenant Scarfe find Colleen being arrested by some fake cops, and they chase them, but they are attacked by illusions generated by Angar the Screamer, who has teamed up with Princess Azir's disgruntled bodyguard.

Iron Fist defeats them and finds a Stark International business card.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first John Byrne on Iron Fist

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Ballox appeared previously in Marvel Team-Up #5.
  
• There's a broad reference to everything that has passed to date for Iron Fist, with a footnote referencing everything from Marvel Premiere #15 to issue #25 (the entire Iron Fist run to date).
  
• The last time Professor Wing's apartment was smashed up, it was done by the Cult of Kara-Kai in Marvel Premiere #21.
  
• Angar the Screamer was last seen in Daredevil #107.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Essential Iron Fist vol. 1

John Byrne's art was a bit overwhelmed by Al McWilliams' inking. Al had been at various comic companies(and on various comic strips) since the mid-1940s and had just come to Marvel after a long stint at Gold Key. He wasn't at Marvel long and went back to Gold Key quickly.

Colleen had enough aptitude with martial arts to handle a couple of Kali cultists in the last arc, and Iron Fist was about as impressed by her skills as he was by Misty Knight's, contrasting both of them with K'un L'un women. So her martial arts background seems to be more Tony Isabella's doing than Claremont's.

John Byrne later stated that he got on Iron Fist because Pat Broderick "screwed up", but he didn't elaborate.

Byrne also stated that he was put off Colleen Wing because Claremont told him that she was bisexual and promiscuous. I don't see how this was ever put through in the comics, so Claremont may have been just messing with him.

Although that does seem to be the backstory for most of Claremont's supporting characters, so it wouldn't be too surprising...

John Byrne's first Marvel art was in FOOM#5-9 and 11. A female Iron Fist parody was on the back cover of #9, predating this by months.