Iron Nail
The Iron Nail is a male comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents[hide] |
Biography
Origin
Ran Shen
Ran Shen became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and quickly climbed the agency's ladder, competing with Nick Fury as the number one spy in the organization for their time. Very few people in S.H.I.E.L.D. knew of his existence. In 1966, he was tasked with the assignment of bringing in two former Nazi scientists. These were Peter and Mila Hitzig who were the creators of the Alchemy Formula with them being former associates of Arnim Zola. Agent Shen was up against the very best operatives from both Soviet Russia and Hydra. After infiltrating Hydra's castle hideout to free the scientists, he and Nick Fury came to be ambushed by the infamous Winter Soldier. (Winter Soldier: The Bitter March v1 #1.NOW)
Iron Nail
In 1968, on the Chinese New Year, Shen travelled up Mount Everest where he had convinced a villager to enact a ritual using a golden lion statue to awaken a great dragon that slept below the mountain. Ran had told the man that he had to do this for the sake of his family and the villager complied. This resulted in a cave-in where Ran Shen found himself before the great Nian who had been disturbed from his slumber. Taking the proper pose, he beseeched the dragon for his power as a servant looking to aid his people and the Nian granted it after being satisfied at the mortal before him. Piercing Shen's chest with a nail, the dragon said that he would be given power if his heart was true thus giving Ran superpowers as a result. (Captain America v7 #12)
In 1969, he returned to S.H.I.E.L.D. after going missing for two years on his assignment. At the S.H.I.E.L.D. Hub Station, he was debriefed by Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan where the former expressed concerns over the loyalties of his agent. (Captain America v7 #13)
Shen showed up years later calling himself the Iron Nail where he was responsible for the released former super-soldier Nuke into Eastern Europe who began to attack individual countries he perceived as enemies of America and to also have him engage the heroes Captain America and Falcon. (Captain America v7 #13)
After Steve and Sam arrested Nuke to interrogate him, Ran literally blew up Nuke, destroying the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier where Nuke was imprisoned and killing several agents. As he proceeded with his plan, Ran freed Dr. Mindbubble from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prison and went on to activate Gungnir, an enormous robot weapon, trying to erase Nrosvekistan and start a new World War. Captain America, alongside Jet, fought him and Mindbubble, who was defeated. Then, after engaging a short fight with Zola's daughter, Ran started fighting Cap: Steve, as Maria Hill suggested, was trying to arrive to Gungnir's Core, as the only way to stop the robot was destroying its source of energy. Shen fought to stop Rogers since that would ruin his plan to shame the United States of America. With his power, Ran completely drained Cap's Super-Soldier Serum from Steve's body, but the American hero still succeeded destroying the core thanks to a miraculous shield throw. A bit disappointed about his failure, Shen was happy anyway because he had finally neutralized Captain America and shown him the secret tyranny of S.H.I.E.L.D. Engulfed in the flames of the Core's explosion, Ran Shen died screaming Mila's name saying that he had done all that he could to bring down S.H.I.E.L.D.
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was his time in S.H.I.E.L.D. showed him what he perceived to be the injustices of the world. Shen believed that action must be taken in order to break the status quo kept by the insatiable corporations looking to crush the people to achieve their bottom line. (Captain America v7 #12)
He claimed that his actions were not driven out of revenge for his wife or for himself but rather for all of mankind. Shen believed that people were born to suffer under greedy lords that ruled the modern world. Thus, he sought to bestow a magnificent gift to the planet that would be a great levelling. Ran intended to create a glorious new future where people were bonded to one another as comrades united against the common darkness. As such, he believed a single life was nothing when faced against the potential for all others to improve. According to Shen, the capitalist lords of the West only put value on wealth alone whilst he believed in ensuring the well-being of mankind as a whole. (Captain America v7 #12)
Powers and abilities
Ran Shen was born an ordinary human being with no special inherent powers or abilities. (Captain America v7 #12)
In the 1960s, he sought power from a great dragonic Nian who agreed to the pact and pierced Shen's chest with his claws. These gave Ran a variety of superhuman abilities that he could manifest at any moment. (Captain America v7 #12) From his chest, he was able to fire several nails attached to tendrils that could pierce the flesh of other beings. These were capable of draining the life energy from others and even removing unique special traits in them for a time. (Captain America v7 #13)
Whilst being part of the Chinese Communist Party, Shen began using its resources to assemble his own homegrown army. These became the Shaolin Scientist Squad that were used as part of his operations. (Captain America v7 #13)
Notes
- The Iron Nail was created by Rick Remender and Carlos Pacheco where he made his first appearance in Captain America v7 #12 (October, 2013).
Alternate Versions
- In Hail Hydra v1 #3 (2015), an alternate version of the Iron Nail appeared in the Hydra domain of Battleworld that was designated as Earth-85826 in the Multiverse. Iron Nail was a member of Hydra's Avengers team that was sent to capture Nomad and Captain America's daughter Ellie in order to end the remnants of the rebel movement which was resisting Hydra's rule in the domain of the Hydra Empire.
Appearances
- Captain America v7: (2013)
- Winter Soldier: The Bitter March v1:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
