Issue(s): Marvel Premiere #20, Marvel Premiere #21, Marvel Premiere #22, Marvel Premiere #23
Cover Date: Jan-Aug 75
Title: "Batroc and other assassins" / "Daughters of the death-goddess" / "Death is a ninja" / "The name is... Warhawk"
Credits:
Tony Isabella / Chris Claremont - Writer
Arvell Malcolm Jones / Pat Broderick - Penciler
Dan Green / Vincent Colletta / Aubrey Bradford / Bob McLeod - Inker

Review/plot:
Nice title on issue #20. Batroc and other assassins. Poor guy. "Eh, we've got... well, Batroc, and, uh, some other guys, i guess."

Ward Meachum hires Batroc and his brigade (The narrator notes that the word brigade means "roughly a thousand men", which isn't accurate in this case) to kill Iron Fist.

With the help of the Ninja, Iron Fist manages to avoid being killed. Then we (but not Iron Fist, yet) learn that the Ninja is really Professor Wing.

Batroc is pissed because some of his men died fighting the Ninja. He demands to be paid even though he didn't accomplish what he was hired to do, but Ward refuses (rightly so, in my opinion!).

Ward Meachum continues to manipulate Joy, as well. He knows that Iron Fist didn't kill her father, but he's got his own reasons for goading her on.

After the Ninja disappears on him after the fight with Batroc's men, Iron Fist returns to the Wing's apartment and sees evidence of a recent fight. A woman named Misty Knight is there as well, and they have a Misunderstanding Fight.

Iron Fist knocks out Misty, and we don't hear from her again this arc, but she will of course become a major supporting character for Iron Fist.

Then the Ninja appears and leads Danny to a Temple of Kali.

The leaders of the Kali cult, the Living Goddesses, want their book back from Professor Wing.

But the book of Kali is destroyed in the fight and the Ninja is separated from the Professor. The Ninja also admits to killing Harold Meachum, because Meachum was going to kill Iron Fist, and at the time he wanted Fist alive. But no longer. He teleports Iron Fist to a mystical dimension and attacks him.

We learn that the Ninja works for a wizard named Master Khan.

The Ninja fights to destroy K'un Lu because it's a threat to his master, Khan. On a previous attack, he was defeated by Lei Kung the Thunderer and bound by Yu-Ti to the Book of Many Things.

While the Ninja is explaining all of this, Iron Fist is able to balance himself in the strange dimension which was created by Khan for the Ninja.

They fight, and Iron Fist uses his iron fist.

This results in an explosion which destroys the mystical dimension and returns Iron Fist to Earth. Professor Wing confirms that he's no longer possessed.

The leaders of the Kali cult escape the police. But since the police heard the Ninja confess (and they apparently believe him), Danny is no longer wanted by the law.

We get the first hint that Colleen is apparently more than just another pretty face when she defeats a number of followers of Kali off panel.

Chris Claremont starts his run on issue #23. He has Iron Fist fight a sniper named Warhawk.

He's a Vietnam Vet with metallic skin and severe post-traumatic stress syndrome. He seemingly drowns at the end of the issue. The story is a little brutal but otherwise unremarkable, and Warhawk doesn't ever really become a major character despite a later appearance in X-Men.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - first Misty Knight, first Warhawk. First mention of Master Khan.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP has Iron Fist's appearances in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Special Album Edition and Marvel Team-Up #31 taking place between issues #19-20 of this series. After these issues, Iron Fist is no longer wanted by the police (not that it stopped him from appearing elsewhere previously).

References:

• The Ninja protected Iron Fist from Harold Meachum in Marvel Premiere #18.
  
• Iron Fist refused the offer of immortality in exchange for the ability to seek revenge on Harold Meachum in Marvel Premiere #16.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Iron Fist vol. 1

This is very early artwork by many of the artists listed. Pat Broderick was formerly at DC and did some things for House of Mystery and probably a few other books. I know absolutely nothing about Aubrey Bradford.

I always thought warhawk had a lot of potential. a bulletproof martial artist who uses a range of modern weapons (sniper rifle, grenades, etc) and suffers from post-tramatic stress disorder. he couldve been a great captain america foe.

FOOM#9 has the first mention of a Colleen Wing/Misty Knight detective agency(possibly first seen in the Iron Fist solo feature in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu), but Claremont weirdly says that Misty would be "part-time" because she's a "painter".

Ralph Macchio has a letter in #22.

Aubrey Bradford drew UN Force.