Essential Iron Fist, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)
Essential Iron Fistis another good use of Marvel's budget-priced Essentials series.  Iron Fist was a second-tier character intended to capitalize on the '70s kung-fu craze who ended up occupying a middle ground between conventional super-heroes and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu.  Created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Iron Fist was raised as a martial-arts master in the fabled city of K'un-Lun, but gave up an immortal life in that paradise in order to return to the United States in pursuit of revenge.Essential Iron Fist Vol. 1collects his opening run inMarvel Premiere15-25 followed by his own book,Iron Fist1-15.  The book floundered a bit once the initial story arc was over, but was distinguished by the team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne, who were also working on their historic run on the X-Men (there's some character overlap).  But even so,Iron Fistonly lasted 15 issues until some of the loose ends had to be tied up in two issues ofMarvel Team-Upfeaturing Spider-Man.  The volume concludes withPower Man48-50, in which Iron Fist meets his eventual partner Luke Cage, the former Hero for Hire.--David Horiuchi