The identities of Sparrow and the blue-eyed servant girl have been a mystery to Iron Fist fans, but not so much because we don’t know who they are. These women have similar stories that make them difficult to separate and so many of us have considered them to be one and the same person.
But are they?
SPOILERS AHEAD! Please refrain from continuing if you haven’t read The Immortal Iron Fist by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja, and Iron Fist: The Living Weapon by Kaare Andrews.
Sparrow and the servant girl have been thought by some members of the Iron Fist fandom to be the same character, mostly because of certain overlaps between them. Nevertheless, I still had a nagging feeling that they were not the same person.
The Immortal Iron Fist introduced fans and Danny Rand himself to the mysterious servant girl with no name who eventually became K’un-Lun’s new Thunderer. In Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, Sparrow is the new Thunderer and Danny’s childhood friend and lover. They reconnected during one of the most trying times of his life.
Both Sparrow and the servant girl were slaves before and were trained in K’un-Lun’s martial arts even though it was forbidden for women to learn how to fight. Danny’s sister Miranda learned that lesson the hard way in Iron Fist (1975) #2.
We didn’t think a new Thunderer would be introduced in such a short time so a certain chunk of Iron Fist fans (me included) and readers simply accepted it as a retcon of sorts.
Visually, they are nothing alike, though artists have been known to stamp their mark on the characters they draw. The aforementioned characters’ hair, in particular, shows a major difference between the two. Sparrow has black hair and sports a mohawk while the servant girl is brown-haired with a pixie cut (thanks to my wife for helping me identify her hairstyle).
I’d been itching to ask writer-artist Kaare Andrews about Sparrow’s identity so I wrote him recently.
Here’s what he said:
“Yeah, there have been some continuity concerns or issues with Iron Fist before, but it’s pretty much the same with practically every character, especially if they’ve been around for a while as Iron Fist has been. The continuity of Iron Fist is always a little fuzzy. Definitely some inspiration and overlap.
These characters tend to write their own histories as you go. I consider them different characters at this point, myself. But the history of these characters is defined by the readers. Saying that, I’d love to come back and do another tour with Danny at some point.”
Soon after Andrews’ response, I did a little digging and rediscovered that the servant girl is the daughter of Orson Randall, Danny’s late Iron Fist predecessor. In contrast, Sparrow is Lei-Kung’s adopted daughter and Davos’ sister. Andrews didn’t explain why the servant girl was no longer the Thunderer, so that story could be explored down the line.
We’d all like to know what happened to the blue-eyed servant girl. Did she eventually receive a name from Lei-Kung or did she choose one for herself? Where did she go and what kept her from remaining as the Thunderer? In comic book time, it’s probably only been a few months to a year or so since the conclusion of the Immortal Iron Fist to the beginning of the Living Weapon.
Perhaps that’s a story that Andrews would like to explore someday if Marvel gives him another shot at writing Iron Fist’s adventures. For now, at least, we know that Sparrow and the blue-eyed servant girl are their own unique characters.
I AM IRON FIST 