Steel Serpent

Steel Serpent
Cover art for Immortal Iron Fist *4. Art by David Aja.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Unnamed: 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
Team affiliations	HYDRA Immortal Weapons
Notable aliases	Steel Phoenix
Abilities	Master martial artist The power of the Serpent's Sting Ability to drain the power of the Iron Fist from its wielder

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

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.

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

The Steel Serpent is a native of K'un-L'un named Davos, the son of Lei Kung the Thunderer. A gifted student of the martial arts, Davos was one of the final two candidates for the right to challenge for the power of the Iron Fist but was defeated in single combat by Wendell Rand, adopted son of K'un-L'un's ruler, Lord Tuan. Davos accused Tuan of unfairly favoring his 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. Wendell Rand left K'un-L'un the same day without having confronted the dragon. 20 years later, Wendell's son Daniel Rand succeeded in winning the Iron Fist power and soon afterwards also returned to Earth. Davos tracked Iron Fist to New York and stole his power, possessing it until it consumed him and Iron Fist absorbed it back into himself.

Davos' spirit was cast into a realm accessible from the Anomaly Gem, and through that Davos used the Contemplator to gather the fragments of the Anomaly Gem and release himself. Then, he again battled Iron Fist and stole his power; Davos then returned to K'un-L'un and took over the city. Lei Kung allied with Iron Fist, who defeated Davos and restored Yu-Ti's rule.

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 slaying a HYDRA agent who had failed to engage Iron Fist, Davos sent other agents to bring in both Orson Randall and Daniel Rand. Slaughtering 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.