Origin
Lin Lie is a young college student, who came into possession of a mystic sword. It was given to him by his archeologist father right before he and Lin’s older brother disappeared. Now, Lin uses the sword to ensure Chiyou, God of War remains sealed away, as is his family’s sacred duty.
Creation
Sword Master was created for the Chinese Market by artist Gunji and writer Shuizhu and first appeared in the Chinese Marvel comic Warriors of Three Sovereigns Vol 1 1 (2018). His first American debut was in War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas issue 2, although he already appeared on the cover of War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas issue 1 one month earlier. The original Chinese Warriors of Three Sovereigns comic would later be published or “reprinted” in the American Sword Master series.
Major Story Arcs
War of the Realms
Malekith has brought his War of the Realms to Midgard, and a band of heroes from the Pacific Rim stood in the way of Sindr and her Fire Demons. In Shanghai, Sword Master held the line with the elementals, Aero, Wave, and Pele. This got the attention of Jimmy Woo and Amadeus Cho, who teleported them to Korea to join their new Agents of Atlas.
Cho’s new plan meant defending Arctic, despite Sword Master’s belief that they were all needed in their home nations. However Sindr’s plan to melt the polar ice caps would affect them all. Sword Master was part of the squad to confront Sindr directly. After defeating the fire demons, the new Agents of Atlas help with the clean up in the Pacific region.
Portal City
Lin was in New York training with Shang-Chi when The Agents of Atlas were called together once again when a tech mogul, Mike Nguyen, opened portals in all major Asian cultural centers linking them together as one multinational city, Pan. Pan came with its own designated superhero, The Protector of Pan (Isaac), but when the Agents intervened on a group of dragons attracted by the portals’ energy signatures, Nguyen spun them as corporate approved guardians as well.
Isaac sought out the Agents because he had his own suspicions of his boss and why so many dragons are attracted to his tech. Looking into it, they find that the portals of Pan are powered from the magic of an enslaved dragon. If they were to free it, they would strand a number of refugees without a state and cut off many working class people from new revenue streams. Even worse, the dragon was stolen from Atlantis, and Namor is angry.
Atlantis Attacks
Namor gives the Agents one day to return the dragon. Jimmy Woo shows up with the previous Agents of Atlas. Cho, 3-D Man, Uranian, and M-11 are tasked with finding a way to replicate the power of the dragon so they can release it, while Lin and the rest prepare for a fight. The big brains are successful, but the dragon has been tampered with. An implant causes it to attack Atlantis once it returns, convincing Namor that he was betrayed.
It was revealed that The Sirenas, ancient enemies of Atlanteans, were working with Mike Nguyen and were responsible for driving the dragon insane. With these new revelations, the team lost trust in Mike and split up. They united with the Sirenas and Atlanteans to solve their dragon problem and force Mike out of the shadows.
Unfortunately, when the team found Mike, he used a device to Hulk-out Amadeus and direct him at Atlantis. The new allies did their best to fight off Amadeus until Sword Master and Shang-Chi could rip the device from Amadeus. They were too late though. The shockwave from Amadeus’ last blow to Namor caused a tsunami to head toward Pan.
Aero and Wave used their powers to buy the land team time to evacuate the coastal regions of Pan. Amadeus was forced to Hulk out once more to try and counter-shockwave the wave, stopping it from causing too much damage. However, Mike Nguyen perished when he refused to evacuate.
In the wake of these events, Amadeus was sick of Jimmy Woo’s lies and secrets and left the team.
Death of Doctor Strange
When Doctor Strange is killed, ending Earth’s protection against other dimensions, Lie was fighting extra-dimensional threats in the Philippines as an Agent of Atlas with teammate, Wave. Woo interrupts him with a new mission. He is to go to Korea and check in with White Fox after a Kumiho is discovered. White Fox was believed to be the last of their kind.
Lie and Fox investigate this new sighting only to find an evil twisted Kumiho that was bound in another dimension by an ancient Sorcerer Supreme. During the fight, this Kumiho was able to break Lie’s sword with her mighty jaws. Lie was in shock over its destruction leaving himself open for an attack. The Kumiho was able to knock him off a cliff and into a river.
After White Fox defeated the Kumiho, she went searching for Lie with the help of both her team, Tiger Division, and Lie’s. However, they did not find him.
Fox was able to collect the shards of the sword and pledged she would defend the world from Chiyou in Lie’s absence.
The New Iron Fist
When he fell off the cliff, he was saved by the spirit of Shou-Lao. He woke up on the shores of K’un-Lun with some of the shards of his sword embedded in his hands. The shards cause him a lot of agony, especially when he fights, but other shards of his sword are scattered after being picked off by Chiyou’s demon army. Lie commits to collecting them, while based out of K’un-Lun as the new Iron Fist. Unfortunately, the patriarch of his host family is a Chiyou demon in disguise. To protect the additional shards he already collected, he jammed them into his arm. Before he is slain, the demon informs Lie the first of Chiyou’s tombs have been opened, so Lie and his new allies went to protect the second.
This causes Lie to cross paths with Feng, the brother he thought had died. He had opened the first tomb of Chiyou to steal his power and is now in the process of stealing the second. He requests his brother join him, but Lie refuses. He focuses his power and turns the shards in his hands into a dagger.
While fighting his brother and the Chiyou demon army at his disposal, he was joined by Danny Rand and the citizens of K’un-Lun. He put in a call to Sparrow to join them on the battlefield. Unfortunately, this was part of Feng’s plan. He needed his brother’s help to access K’un-Lun as it was the location of the third and final tomb. He retreated through the portal that Sparrow had opened and locked everyone out.
Defeated, Lie earned a new ally when Danny promised to teach him every tip and trick he knows about being the Iron Fist.
Judgment Day
During a war between Eternals and mutants, the Celestial serving as Avengers Mountain was raised to protect the mutants. Instead, this Progenitor decided to judged each person on Earth independently. It found Lin Lie on a flight to Korea to visit White Fox for the first time since his supposed death. Lie was conversing with Loki at the time. They were both forced to witness each other’s judgment and ultimately give aid to one another.
During Loki’s vision of a time when he jealously dunked Thor into an ice cold lake when they were just children, Loki was attacked by multiple Mjolnirs raining down on him, forcing him into the same icy water. Lie dove in after him, grabbing and throwing the one hammer driving Loki deeper. Loki was impressed by his worth as determined by Mjolnir.
They reemerged in a small pool in K’un-Lun where Lie was confronted by Shao-Lao. The dragon demanded that Lie finally slay him and take his heart, but Lie refused having grown fond of Shao-Lao’s companionship. Loki opened a portal to the Mjolnir rain to strike Shao-Lao and stop his attack on Lie, who simply acknowledged that Shao-Lao had given him the power freely and there was no more need for death.
For their conviction, they both passed, however, Lie’s test proved more real that he realized when he awoke back on the plane with the dragon brand on his arm.
Death of Danny Rand
On the night of Danny Rand’s 34th birthday, Lin Lei and Pei were attacked by Shocker. Unbeknownst to them, Shocker had been hired by Ch’i-Lin, the demon who has managed to kill every Iron Fist on their 33rd birthday except Danny. Now, he was desperate to finish what he started. Possessing the body of Razor-Fist, Chi’i-Lin stabbed Danny in the chest, now that he was vulnerable without his students’ help.
Character Profile
- Height: 5’9″
- Weight: 175 lbs
- Eye Color: Brown
- Hair Color: Black
- Citizenship: Chinese
- Place of Birth: Shanghai, China
- Marital Status: Single
- Occupation: Adventurer
- Known Relatives: Fu Xi (ancestor), unnamed father, Lin Feng (brother)
- Distinguishing Features: Red dragon marking on his right arm signifying the Iron Fist.
Powers and Abilities
Sword of Fu Xi: Lin is originally armed with the Sword of Fu Xi, a star-forged weapon with divine capabilities. It glowed green with energy and potentially had the power to destroy the world. However, that power could not be fully unlocked by a mortal like Lin.
- Sword Shards: When the sword broke, shards of it were stuck in his hand, augmenting his punches with supernatural power. This ability causes his hand to glow green. It also causes him great pain. He eventually learns to focus the shards into a dagger form.
The Iron Fist: Lin was granted the power of the Iron Fist, the ability to focus his chi into into a single point of his body to increase its strength. This ability causes his hand to glow yellow.
Expertise: Lin is a very proficient sword fighter. He has also trained under Shang-Chi and in K’un-Lun, thus mastering a number of different martial arts. Lin also has a knack for puzzles.