Brotherhood of the Fist
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The Brotherhood of the Fist is both one of the titles of an order of fictional martial artists, and the name of a five-issue comic book crossover dealing with that order, published by DC Comics in 1998. The story was written by Chuck Dixon, and pencilled by Dougie Braithewaite, Alex Maleev, Will Rosado, and Scott McDaniel. It took place in Green Arrow #134, Detective #723, Robin #55, Nightwing #23, and ended in Green Arrow #135.
The story featured several of the DC Universe's top Martial Arts masters prominently, and introduced the Cult of the Monkey Fist. It is perhaps best known for solidifying Green Arrow (Connor Hawke)'s standing as one of the world's best martial artists.
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[edit] Background
[edit] The Monkey King
The Monkey King is one of the most famous figures in Chinese legends, and the main character in Journey to the West. A mischievous trickster, the Monkey King was also a warrior without any equal in the Heavenly Kingdom or Earth. He made so much trouble that eventually the greatest army and warriors in the Heavenly Kingdom were called upon to subdue him, yet the Monkey King defeated them all. Ultimately Buddha himself was able to trick and imprison him. The Brotherhood of the Monkey Fist is built around the worship of this unrivaled warrior, through the perfection of martial arts skills. There are different schools and disciplines in the Brotherhood, and the lower the school's hierarchy in the Brotherhood, the more members (with the heighest ranked schools only having a single member, such as The Silver Monkey).
[edit] The Silver Monkey
The warrior only known as The Silver Monkey first appeared in Detective Comics #685, working as an assassin assigned to kill the Gotham City crime lord King Snake of the Ghost Dragons. Both men were exceptional martial artists and their fight was in stalemate when Robin intervened. The Silver Monkey was forced to withdraw, his contract unfulfilled.
He would next appear in the pages of Green Arrow, working for a corrupt businessman who had taken control over the ashram that Connor Hawke had once called home. The Silver Monkey defeated Connor in combat, driving him from the ashram. He confronted Connor again, this time hired to kill the young hero by arms dealer Milo Armitage (Connor's villanous step-father). This time, however, Connor soundly defeated the Silver Monkey, driving him off shamed and dishonored.
[edit] The Brotherhood of the Fist
[edit] The stalkers
Although both Robin and Connor Hawke had considered The Silver Monkey to be a unique foe, nothing could have been further from the truth. The Silver Monkey was actually one of the top ranking warriors in the Brotherhood of the Monkey Fist, made up of some of the most fearsome martial artists in the world. The Silver Monkey had brought great disgrace to the Brotherhood, both by selling his skills for mere money, and further by losing in battle to Connor Hawke, an outsider. To erase this insult the cult not only decided to kill Connor, but to defeat and kill as many of the world's best martial artists as possible, so that their position would never again be questioned. The Brotherhood first made its presence known when a group of Bronze Monkey fighters challenged Connor's friends Jansen and Eddie Fyers to battle, demanding to know Connor's location. Fyers shot and killed them all before a single punch was thrown, then set out to warn Connor.
Meanwhile, both Batman and Connor had followed a crime trail to a Kobra facility near Gotham, (Connor investigating an arms deal orchestrated by his step-father, Milo Armitage). They found that unarmed assailants had killed all the occupants (including Adder, one of the top assassins in the martial arts underground). Connor and Batman were ambushed by the killers, warriors of the Emerald Monkey discipline. Batman and Connor defeated the warriors, but not before one of them could trigger the Kobra facility's self distruct.
[edit] Fight back to Gotham
Connor and Batman survived the blast by shielding themselves in a Kobra tank. This left Batman and Connor in the snow-covered mountains miles from Gotham. To make matters worse, they were soon attacked by members of the Ivory Monkey discipline, and after defeating the warriors found themselves in the path of an avalanche. Batman saved Connor and the two began walking toward Gotham. Back in Gotham, Nightwing arrived from Blüdhaven to assist Robin in Batman's absence. The two were attacked by Steel Monkey warriors, but quickly defeated them. Another discipline of Brotherhood warriors began to attack Nightwing and Robin with spears from afar, but were killed by Eddie Friers. Friers informed Nightwing and Robin that the Brotherhood was attacking skilled fighters all over the world (including the Question, Katana, and Judomaster). Nightwing and Robin confirmed this information with Oracle, who tried to contact her operative Black Canary for more information. Black Canary was already in the middle of a fight with several members of the Brotherhood, however. While Black Canary is an exceptional martial artist, she found herself in danger of losing due to the sheer number of enemy warriors. Luckily the fighter Bronze Tiger intervened, feeling it safest if he and Canary watched one another's backs.
[edit] Monkey Fist
Batman used a remote control to bring the Batmobile to him, then travelled with Connor to Gotham. With so many of his students being highly skilled martial artists (and thus targets of the Brotherhood), Batman felt that it was safest to close ranks until they could learn more.
As the members of the Brotherhood of the Monkey Fist were not allowed use firearms, they were vulnerable to Eddie Fyers. As a result, the Brotherhood's leader hired Deathstroke to kill Fyers. Oracle informed the others of reports that martial artists around the world were being attacked by members of the Brotherhood. Eddie Fyers briefly appeared in Gotham to warn Connor of the Brotherhood. Batman immediately ordered Fyers to leave Gotham, which Fyers did, deciding to hunt after the Brotherhood instead of waiting for them to attack. Meanwhile, the Paper Monkey demanded from the other schools that only she be allowed to fight Connor, and that Robin be left alone entirely. Most of the Brotherhood's warriors realized that to defy her was suicide - when practitioners of the school of the Obsidian Monkey refused to agree, she swiftly killed them.
[edit] Paper revelations
While investigating the deaths of the Obsidian Monkeys, Nightwing, Robin and Connor Hawke were attacked by the Bamboo Monkey. Exceptionally skilled, the Bamboo Monkey quickly defeated Robin and Nightwing. Before he could kill Nightwing, however, Connor Hawke defeated the warrior. While going over the last few battles, Connor deduced that the schools' titles were not based on the strength of their namesakes, but rather their namesakes' properties as a whole (Ivory being strong but brittle, Bamboo strong and flexible).
Oracle, meanwhile, was concerned that she had lost contact with Black Canary. Black Canary and Bronze Tiger were exploring for the Brotherhood's main temple along the Burma-China border. Coming upon signs of the Brotherhood's presence, Bronze Tiger explained some of the story of the Monkey King, pointing out that there were some that believed that Buddha had imprisoned the Monkey King under nearby mountains. Tiger and Canary were ambushed and defeated by a large number of the Brotherhood's warriors, and taken to the main temple for execution. Eddie Fyers arrived soon after, however, and confronted Deathstroke.
Back in Gotham, the Paper Monkey continued killing any members of the Brotherhood that would challenge her. Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Connor found her killing a large number of Brotherhood warriors in a building that had been knocked sideways by the recent Gotham City Earthquake. Falsely interpreting their arrival as eagerness to confront her, the Paper Monkey challenged Conor Hawke and revealed her true identity: Lady Shiva.
[edit] The borrowed life
Connor and Nightwing then faced off against Lady Shiva. While chopping Connor's arrows in two, Shiva landed a single kick on Nightwing, defeating him before he was able to throw a punch. As Shiva continued to destroy Connor's arrows, she explained that she was only with the Brotherhood because she went anywhere that master fighters could fight to the death. She also said that Connor was worthy of such a duel.
Nightwing regained consciousness but was then set upon by the Brotherhood's warriors in order to prevent him from interfering with the battle as they believed Lady Shiva's victory would restore their honor. Outnumbered, he was eventually saved by Batman. Meanwhile, Connor surprised Shiva by using the pitfalls in the sideways building to send them both falling. As they resumed their battle, Shiva revealed that the Cult of the Monkey Fist had a pyramidal ranking with her at the top. Should Connor defeat her, he would take her place. Should he lose, however, Shiva would kill him.
Connor remained largely on the defense, but did land a good kick. In the Brotherhood's Temple, Deathstroke and Eddie Fyers faced off, with Deathstroke faring slightly better until Eddie used a planted explosive to blow up a pillar, burying Deathstroke. Eddie then rescued Canary and Tiger, leaving the Silver Monkey imprisoned in the next cell.
Being one of the first fighters in recent memory to draw blood and perhaps break bone in a fight with Lady Shiva, Connor fared reasonably well but ultimately was defeated. Just as Shiva was about to kill him with her "Leopard Blow," Robin interrupted. Robin had once saved Shiva's life, and asked that Shiva spare Connor in return. Shiva pointed out that she did not have honor or care about honor debts. However, she did respect courage and decided to spare Connor in light of Robin's courage in standing up to her. As she left she told Robin that this meant he would have to one day face her in battle himself.
Batman was impressed at how well Connor fared, and the heroes together remarked at how incredible it was that Connor had fought Shiva to a "draw" [sic]. (Much has been made of the injuries that Connor inflicted on Shiva. It warrants mentioning, however, that by this point Shiva had already fought and killed dozens of Monkey cultists. At the very least she had engaged the Obsidian Monkey discipline, an unknown discipline whose corpses were found by Batman, and the large discipline she was killing as Connor and Nightwing found her). Batman warned Connor that the young hero had just secured himself a "number two" position in the underground fighting world, and that anyone wishing to fight against Shiva would likely test themself against Connor first.
