Steel Serpent

Comics character

Steel Serpent

Cover art for The Immortal Iron Fist #4.
Art by David Aja.

Publication information
Publisher| Marvel Comics
First appearance| Unnamed:
The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (March 1975)
Davos:
Iron Fist #1 (November 1975)
Created by| Unnamed:
Tony Isabella
Frank McLaughlin
Davos:
Chris Claremont
John Byrne
In-story information
Alter ego| Davos
Species| Human
Team affiliations| HYDRA
Immortal Weapons
Notable aliases| Steel Phoenix
Abilities| Master martial artist
The power of the Serpent's Sting
The ability to drain the power of the Iron Fist from its wielder

Steel Serpent (Davos) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Iron Fist.

Sacha Dhawan portrays Steel Serpent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Iron Fist.[1]

## Publication history

[edit]

The first, otherwise unnamed, Steel Serpent appeared in The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #10 (1974), his only appearance, and was created by Tony Isabella and Frank McLaughlin.[2]

The second Steel Serpent, Davos, debuted in Iron Fist #1 (1975) and was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.[3]

## Fictional character biography

[edit]

The Steel Serpent is a native of K'un-L'un named Davos, the son of Lei Kung. A gifted student of his father, Davos was one of two candidates who earned the right to challenge for the power of the Iron Fist but was defeated by Wendell Rand, adopted son of K'un-L'un's ruler Lord Tuan. Davos accused Tuan of unfairly favoring his adopted son and left the city without permission to confront the dragon Shou-Lao. Failing to defeat the dragon, he returned to K'un L'un in disgrace and was exiled to Earth.[volume & issue needed]

Wendell Rand ultimately left K'un-L'un without facing the dragon to start a family. Twenty years later, Wendell's son Daniel succeeded in winning the Iron Fist power and soon afterwards also chose to return to Earth. Davos tracked Iron Fist to New York and stole his power, but as he had not earned it fairly, the Iron Fist consumed his body and Danny took it back into himself.[4]

Davos transported his spirit to a realm accessible from the Anomaly Gem; reassembling the fragments of the gem, he restored his physical form and was reincarnated. Then, he again battled Danny and managed to successfully absorb the power of the Iron Fist. Returning to K'un-L'un, he overthrew Yu-Ti and took over the city. With Lei Kung's help, Danny defeated Davos without his power, thereby proving himself worthy of it once again. Yu-Ti was restored to his rightful place, while Davos escaped but was left permanently crippled in both body and mind for misusing the dragon's power.[volume & issue needed]

### The Immortal Iron Fist

[edit]

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Davos was restored by the Crane Mother, promising to locate and destroy the renegade Iron Fist Orson Randall in return. His power was further enhanced via the consumption of the life forces of the Crane Mother's daughters. Davos allied with HYDRA against Iron Fist in a plot to obtain Rand-Meachum's Randrapid train to build a tunnel through the K'un-Lun mountains. Davos located Randall in an opium den in Bangkok, Thailand and reported this to the Crane Mother; who sent a pair of her daughters to investigate. Agents of Davos, posing as NYPD, picked up Randall as he arrived in a US airport, but Randall determined the truth and broke free. Davos met with Xao, spokesman for HYDRA's front company Wai-Go, expressing his displeasure at HYDRA's failure. After killing a HYDRA agent who had failed to engage Iron Fist, Davos sent other agents to bring in both Orson Randall and Daniel Rand. After killing a group of HYDRA agents in a training session, Davos then took out two whole legions of HYDRA agents and destroyed a Mechagorgon. He then contacted the Crane Mother, asking for a dozen or more daughters to allow him to reach his power's peak to stop his foes. Crane Mother agreed to the request.[volume & issue needed]

Crane Mother sent over a dozen daughters to Steel Serpent, along with the warning that if he failed, they would consume his immortal soul. Davos led HYDRA agents and the Crane daughters to Rand Corporation HQ to kidnap Jerryn Hogarth for Xao, but Luke Cage and the Daughters of the Dragon were already there to protect Hogarth. When the Iron Fists arrived outside Rand HQ, they were confronted in the street by Davos' army. Maintaining his power by consuming the Crane daughters' life forces, Davos eventually attacked Orson Randall, who let Davos kill him so he would not have to keep running (or so he said at the time but his true motivation would only be revealed much later). Randall gave Rand his chi, enabling him to drive off Davos, who vowed to face him again in the Tournament of the Heavenly Cities.[volume & issue needed]

When it was Davos' time to enter the tournament, he was approached by the Prince of Orphans to reveal his new Warrior's name since he was representing Kun-Zi for the first time, to which he chose "the Steel Phoenix". Davos now displays wings at either side of his serpent tattoo to mirror this.[volume & issue needed]

Early in the tournament, Davos faced Tiger's Beautiful Daughter. During the contest, she severed Davos' hand. Enraged, Davos concentrated his chi into a new hand and proceeded to viciously beat his opponent to near-death, even refusing to let her yield. The next day, the old and wise Prince of Orphans challenged Davos to a fight instead of his scheduled opponent, Fat Cobra. Davos accepted and watched as his opponent turned into a green mist of chi and was swiftly dispatched by the old fighter, who then declared such brutal tactics as Davos's would not be acceptable for future matches.[volume & issue needed]

Later, Davos took part in the rebellion of K'un-L'un, after his father forced him to recognise the potential treachery of his allies by asking him to consider the possibility that there might another angle that he had not anticipated rather than constantly assuming that he was always right. He helped defeat Yu-Ti, leader of K'un-L'un, and began a process of redeeming himself in the eyes of his peers. His father, Lei Kung the Thunderer, who has taken over leadership of K'un-L'un, charged him with guarding a dragon egg, from which Shou-Lao shall be reborn for the next Iron Fist to fight.[volume & issue needed]

## Powers and abilities

[edit]

The Steel Serpent is a master of the martial arts of K'un-Lun, including those practiced millennia ago. His skills rival those of Iron Fist, and he has defeated him several times in combat, though usually with the element of surprise on his side. He is very strong, fast, agile, and tough with lightning quick reflexes and reactions. He has proved capable of draining the power of the Iron Fist (the energies of Shou-Lao) from its wielder by pressing his serpentine tattoo against the wielder's dragon tattoo. On at least one occasion he retained some fragment of Shou-Lao's power after the previous holder of the Iron Fist had reclaimed his power. At his full power he has weathered assaults from Spider-Man.

Davos also utilized the fiery energies of the Serpent's Sting, though that may be a function of the taloned gloves he wore at the time. When slain, Davos's spirit is transferred into the Anomaly Gem alongside the spirits of all past Iron Fists. From there he can be resurrected under certain circumstances.

Since taking on the nom de guerre of the Steel Phoenix, Davos has been able to perform the Steel Phoenix Blow. The first time he executed this move, he created a replacement hand from chi.

## In other media

[edit]

* Davos / Steel Serpent appears in Iron Fist, portrayed by Sacha Dhawan,[5] while his younger self is portrayed by Shiv Pai.

* Steel Serpent appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2,[6] voiced by Sacha Dhawan.[7]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Post, David Betancourt, The Washington. "'Iron Fist' villain broke new ground". The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Retrieved 2025-04-18.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. ^ Steel Serpent (unnamed) at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
3. ^ Steel Serpent (Davos) at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
4. ^ Marvel Team-Up #64
5. ^ Lee, Ben (March 17, 2017). "There's a secret Marvel villain in Netflix's new Iron Fist series". Digital Spy. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
6. ^ "Characters". IGN Database. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
7. ^ "Steel Serpent Explained: Who is Davos, the Netflix Iron Fist Season 2 Villain? - IGN". 24 July 2018.

## External links

[edit]

* Steel Serpent (Davos) at the Marvel Universe
* Steel Serpent (Davos) at the Marvel Database Project
* Steel Serpent (Davos) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
* Steel Serpent (unnamed) at the Marvel Database Project
* Steel Serpent (unnamed) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

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