| Shadow Fists | |
|---|---|
| Wild Cards character | |
| First appearance | Jokers Wild (1987) |
| Created by | John J. Miller introduced the organization, individual members were created by various contributing authors |
The Shadow Fist Society is the name of a fictional criminal organization in the Wild Cards book series. They were created by John J. Miller, and featured in many of his Wild Cards short stories, but have also been used by other Wild Cards writers. The Shadow Fists are composed of three major gangs: the Immaculate Egrets, the Werewolves, and the Jumpers. United under one leader and backed by powerful Aces, the Shadow Fists oppose and eventually overpower the Italian Mafia, becoming the preeminent criminal syndicate of the Wild Cards universe.
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The Shadow Fists are the umbrella organization of millionaire Kien Phuc, who poses as a legitimate businessman, owning a chain of cleaners, restaurants and other businesses. A native of Vietnam, Kien rose from the ambitious son of simple shopkeeper to the rank of General in the ARVN. Selling information to the Viet Cong, Kien first attracted the enmity of Daniel Brennan, who continued to hound Kien years later as the vigilante Yeoman. Kien prefers to operate only through his trusted lieutenants, thus maintaining the public illusion that his hands are clean. The reptilian joker Wyrm acts as his personal bodyguard. Gaining access to the brain-switching powers of the Jumpers, Kien fakes his own death in order to flush out traitors within his organization.
Kien's major organized crime operation is called the Immaculate Egrets, a mostly Chinatown based group specializing in drugs and extortion. Known by a variety of street names including the Snowboys, and Snowbirds, the Egrets begin exerting pressure on the neighboring Jokertown as they move in on extortion rackets operated by the Italian Mafia. Most members of this gang can be identified by the snow white egret depicted on the backs of their jackets. The Egrets are run by Kien's sister Sui Ma ("Little Mother")-- like Kien, her real name is unknown - - and operate out of various Chinese restaurants such as the Twisted Dragon. The aces Lazy Dragon and Fadeout act as their super-powered spies and enforcers.
The joker gang called the Werewolves is also a branch of the Shadow Fists. This group has power on their own turf, but outside of Jokertown, they are too conspicuous to be useful. Their leader is called Warlock, a joker/ace who claims to have the power to curse people to die; actually, he is a precognitive who can foresee the death of another, only "cursing" those who he knows will die soon. Another high-ranking Werewolf is the Whisperer, whose body generates all manner of infectious disease, making him the perfect assassin. The Werewolves all wear masks of celebrities' faces, changing every few days to match whatever the Warlock is wearing. Among some of the masks mentioned are two fictional politicians, Rev. Leo Barnett and Sen. Gregg Hartmann, and real life celebrity Michael Jackson. Prior to the Werewolves association with the Shadow Fists the major gang operating in Jokertown was the Demon Princes. The Werewolves primarily operate out of an abandoned hotel in Jokertown. Warlock's study is decorated with various occult paraphernalia and a large portrait of Aleister Crowley.
Forming the third arm of the Shadow Fist organization, the Jumpers first appear in One-Eyed Jacks, the eighth book of the Wild Cards series. A group of mostly teenage criminals with the ability to swap bodies with other people, the Jumpers are created by Edward St. John Latham, a prominent attorney and secretly a major operative of crime lord Kien Phuc. When Latham is exposed to a new strain of Wild Card virus spread by The Sleeper in his "Typhoid Croyd" phase, he becomes the Ace called Prime, leader of the Jumpers. Possessing no innate powers in and of himself, Latham could, through sexual contact with others, spread a stable mutation of the virus that endows the recipient with the power to exchange bodies with another. The victims of this power are typically stunned by the psychic transfer and lay in a state of semi-conscious as the jumper runs amok in their stolen body. The jumpers operate out of the Rox (a street name for Ellis Island), protected by Bloat's Wall.
Others who work for Kien include a reptilian joker called Wyrm who can track people by their taste, the brain-eating ace Deadhead, drug designer Quinn the Eskimo, a minor ace mercenary named Christian, Tachyon's grandson Blaise Andrieux during his brief stint as leader of the Jumpers, and a small army of crooked cops and politicians who are on the take. The Cannibal Headhunters, a smaller gang of criminals whose members could be easily identified by ritual scars and facial piercings, were absorbed by other, more powerful gangs in the Shadow Fist food chain following the death of their leader, a teleporting ace known as Scar, at the hands of the vigilante Yeoman. The joker revolutionary Bloat was associated with the Shadow Fists, through the Jumper branch of the organization, making his own bid for power after the Fists were finally dismantled in Jokertown Shuffle, the ninth book of the series.