Immortal Weapons

The Immortal Weapons are fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are each a champion of one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven in the Marvel Universe. The Immortal Weapons first appear in The Immortal Iron Fist #8 (September 2007) and as a group, were created by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja.

The characters were first introduced in The Immortal Iron Fist #8—and remained supporting characters in the series until its cancellation (#27). The group then starred in their own series, which began in July 2009—with the first issue focusing on Fat Cobra; written by Jason Aaron and Duane Swierczynski with art by Mico Suayan and Travel Foreman.^[1]

The Immortal Weapons are the champions of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, each skilled in martial arts and are blessed with mythical chi that they can utilize in battle.^[2] Thousands of years ago, the Immortal Weapons at the time used their chi to seal the gates to the Eighth City while the Iron Fist Quan Yaozu sacrificed himself to lock the gates from the inside.^[3]

Every 88 years, the Heavenly Cities are merged into the Heart of Heaven, where each of the Immortal Weapons are to participate in the Tournament of Heaven to decide the order in which each of the Seven Cities of Heaven will appear on Earth.^[4] In 1933, the Iron Fist Orson Randall refused to participate and the other Immortal Weapons were dispatched to strip him of his title, but he killed the Crane Champion in self defense and fled into exile.^[5]

In the present day, the Tournament was held again and the Immortal Weapons were summoned to compete, with Randall's successor Danny Rand and his rival, Davos, entering as participants.^[6] As the Crane Mother could only give birth to a new Crane Champion every 300 years, she chose Davos to represent K'un-Zi and she changes his moniker of Steel Serpent to Steel Phoenix.^[7] As the Tournament commences, the Immortal Weapons discover the corruption behind the leadership of the Heavenly Cities.^[8] They join forces with Lei Kung's Army of Thunder to overthrow the Yu-Ti and stop the Crane Mother and Hydra from destroying the Heart of Heaven. The Immortal Weapons and the Army are victorious, although Davos is cut off from his Crane powers by the Crane Mother for betraying her, stripping him of his status as Immortal Weapon.^[9]

The remaining Immortal Weapons accompany Rand back to his home of New York City.^[10] While helping Rand against the C'hi-Lin, they trace the demon's origins to the Eighth City.^[11] At the behest of Davos and Lei Kung, the Immortal Weapons travel to the Eighth City to rescue its wrongful prisoners but are captured and forced to fight each other in matches by its ruler, Changming.^[12] The Immortal Weapons work together to break out of the Eighth City, although Changming—revealed to be Quan Yaozu—uses the opportunity to escape as well.^[13]

In the events of Spider-Island, the Immortal Weapons help battle against the mutated citizens of Manhattan.^[14] However, the Bride of Nine Spiders inexplicably starts attacking and abducting Immortal Weapons.^[15] Following a lead from Silver Sable for the Bride's lair, Shang-Chi defeats the Bride of Nine Spiders and frees Rand but discovers that she was possessed by the demon Ai Apaec who seeks to feed off the Immortal Weapons.^[16] As Shang-Chi fights Ai Apeac, Rand scrambles to free the other Immortal Weapons. Shang-Chi mutates into a spider during the battle as a result of the infection, but Rand uses his chi to cure Shang-Chi. After making sure the Immortal Weapons are evacuated, Shang-Chi collapses the mansion hide-out on Ai Apeac, leaving him immobilized for the Avengers to put back into custody.^[17]

During the "Fear Itself" storyline, the Immortal Weapons are transported to Beijing when the gates to the Eighth City are opened, causing a demon invasion. With their ally War Machine, they defeat the possessed Titania and Absorbing Man and prepare a ceremony to close the gates. Agamotto attempts to prevent them by possessing Rand into attacking them, but with War Machine's help they succeed.^[18]

In an alternate timeline, the Prince of Orphans betrays and kills the Immortal Weapons save for Rand. Doctor Strange uses his magic to prevent this alternate future from happening, preventing the Prince's betrayal and saving the Immortal Weapons.^[19]

The Immortal Weapons rally together to save the dragons of Heavenly Cities from the Hierophant. Their success comes at a cost, as Tiger's Beautiful Daughter is killed at the beginning of the conflict while Rand is forced to transfer the Iron Fist to their ally Okoye in order to defeat the Hierophant and revive the slain dragons. Okoye turns down Rand's offer to be the new Iron Fist and instead transfers it to Shou-Lao's reborn egg.^[20] Rand later recruits Fat Cobra and the Bride of Nine Spiders to help him track down the new Iron Fist, Lin Lie, when his successor emerges.^[21]

In The Undead Iron Fist, Quan Yaozu has his Wraithlins possess the Immortal Weapons and uses them to attack Rand, who has returned from the dead as Ghost Fist. Ghost Fist is able to defeat and free them from their possession.^[22]

In Deadly Hands of K'un-Lun, Lin Lie's brother Lin Feng has his demonic army invade and destroy the Capital Cities of Heaven as part of his plans to revive Chiyou. The Immortal Weapons are killed defending their cities while the Steel Serpent—who has regained his Crane powers—and Tiger's Faithful Daughter—the successor of Tiger's Beautiful Daughter—join Feng's forces.^[23]

Historically, the Immortal Weapons have had seven members to each represent the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven for the Tournament of Heaven. Previously known Immortal Weapons for this event have included the Iron Fits Quan Yaozu and Orson Randall and an unnamed Crane Champion who was killed by Orson in 1932.

• Iron Fist - Danny Rand, the 67th wielder of the Iron Fist and champion of K'un-Lun. He would later be succeeded by Lin Lie.
• Fat Cobra - A large man who can project lightning and move at superhuman speeds, despite his bulky size. The champion of Peng Lai.
• Bride of Nine Spiders - A woman who controls spiders and can store them in her body. The champion of the Kingdom of Spiders.
• Dog Brother #1 - Shihing, the leader of the Under City who can communicate with and control dogs.
• Tiger's Beautiful Daughter - Li Hua, the champion of Tiger Island, a nation renowned for its women warriors. After her death, she was succeeded by Tiger's Faithful Daughter.
• Prince of Orphans - John Aman, the champion of Z'Gambo who can turn his body into a green colored mist.
• Steel Phoenix - When K'un-Zi lacked a representative for the Tournament of Heaven, the Crane Mother chose Davos—the Steel Serpent—and imbued him with the powers of the Crane Champion. Following the Tournament, Davos was stripped of his title and powers.

An alternate universe iteration of the Immortal Weapons appears in the Ultimate Universe imprint. This version of the group are servants of the Hulk and the Children of the Eternal Light. In addition to chi, they all derive their power from gamma radiation injections.^[24] In his past life 10,000 years ago, the 8th Iron Fist Shen Qi was considered the strongest of the Immortal Weapons.

• Hulk - The current Iron Fist and leader of the Immortal Weapons.
• Uranium Brother #235
• Decay's Beautiful Daughter
• Prince of Meltdowns
• Bride of Nine World-Breakers
• Crane Mother of the Bomb
• Fat Cobra

• Bride of Nine Spiders appears in Iron Fist, portrayed by Jane Kim. This version is a Korean arachnologist whose real name is Alessa.^[25]
• Fat Cobra appears in Hit-Monkey, voiced by Noshir Dalal.^[26]

The Immortal Weapons appear in Marvel Rivals. Most of them go missing when Timestream Entanglement occurs, with the exception of Iron Fist, Prince of Orphans and Dizang. When Doctor Doom attempts to claim the Iron Fist for himself by exploiting the circumstances of Lin Lie's ascension, Shou-Lao invokes a Tournament of Heaven to delay Doom's plans. With most of the Immortal Weapons absent, the Immortal Beasts select new champions to represent them for the Tournament.

• Iron Fist - Lin Lie, the 68th wielder of the Iron Fist and successor of Danny Rand. Unlike his predecessors, Lin Lie did not undergo the Shenloong Trial to earn Shou-Lao's chi but was instead gifted it by the dragon.
• Crane Deceiver - Loki manipulated the Vermillion Bird into making him its champion over Susan Storm, its original choice as the new Crane Mother.
• Odin's Beautiful Daughter - Angela was chosen by the White Tiger to represent Tiger Island.
• Groot - was chosen by the Black Tortoise to represent Peng Lai.
• Black Widow - was chosen by the Mountain Spider to represent Spider-Kingdom.
• Queen of Orphans - Storm was chosen by Xiezhi to represent Z'Gambo when the Prince of Orphans failed to appear for the Tournament.
• Dog Brother X - Wolverine was chosen by Huodou to represent Under City.
• Dizang - Daredevil became the ruler of the Eighth City and its first Immortal Weapon after rescuing its forgotten Immortal Beast, Yinglong.

• Immortal Weapons at Marvel.com