Watch it here if you haven’t already… But buried in the middle of the trailer was a very quick flash of something fascinating: Was that an Iron Fist? Their run, and Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman’s follow ups, introduced a sprawling backstory to the Iron Fist mythos that included the long history of Iron Fists – a title given to the protector of the mythical city of K’un L’un every generation, given that every Iron Fist dies at the age of 33. Iron Fists (Irons Fist?), in addition to their martial arts prowess, are known for their traditional green and gold outfits, something the filmmakers behind Shang Chi almost certainly knew when they put the fight sequence with a woman in a green and yellow outfit in the middle of this trailer.
Wu Ao-Shi, The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay
That tradition of Iron Fists dying at 33 would seem to indicate that there are any number of possible defenders of K’un L’un who could have appeared in this trailer. However, in the comics, we’ve only seen four women hold the title: two, in borderline nonsensical Avengers stories (Fongji Wu was an Iron Fist and the Phoenix at the same time, and Fan Fei was the Iron Fist of 1,000,000 BC back when Odin and Phoenix were dating and somehow people existed on Earth?), and one from a digital first series that may be out of continuity (Iron Fist: the Living Weapon). The one with the biggest profile: Wu Ao-Shi, the Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay. Wu was a K’un L’un prodigy who claimed the mantle of Iron Fist early, defeating the dragon Shou Lao with ease. She abandoned K’un L’un after beating the dragon to join her love, a simple fisherman, on the mortal plane, and after some adventuring as a mercenary, she eventually channeled her chi through flaming arrows and single-handedly defeated an entire flotilla of pirates to liberate Pinghai Bay, settle down with her beloved, and start a family. In the comics, this story is told with stunning economy and grace in the second issue of Brubaker/Fraction/Aja’s run, and it is very likely the moment when that story was cemented as one of the best comics from that era of Marvel. With that story, Wu was the only woman we saw hold the title of Iron Fist for the first 40 years of the character’s history, and the only adult woman to hold the title that wasn’t tainted by a vague association with an X-Men concept. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens on Sept. 3.
