Kien Phuc (Wild Cards)

Superherobox


caption=
comic_color=background:#c0c0c0
character_name=Kien Phuc
real_name=unknown
publisher=George R. R. Martin
debut="Wild Cards (book)" (1988)
creators=John J. Miller
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Deceased
alliances=Shadow Fists, "Loophole" Latham, the Jumpers, Sui Ma (sister)
previous_alliances=
aliases=
relatives=
powers=None, though Kien did possess the powers of two different aces when "jumped" into their bodies.|"for the historical figure see Kien Phuc"

Kien Phuc is a fictional criminal from the Wild Cards anthology book series. He was created by John J. Miller in the short story "Comes a Hunter", in the first book of the series, Wild Cards.

Kien Phuc (birth name unknown) was born an ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, and was subject to prejudice and poverty during his childhood. His parents tried to teach him honor, but jealousy and greed drove him to reject his parents' simple beliefs and embrace the worst aspects of Vietnamese, and later Western, culture. He changed his name to that of a Vietnamese emperor and adopted an accent and materialistic outlook that he believed would be more acceptable to his host country. He joined the army, rising through the ranks with a combination of talent, ruthlessness and corruption, reaching the rank of General.

An American officer named Daniel Brennan began investigating him, but Kien framed him for murder and destroyed his evidence, forcing the man to desert. Seeing that the war was not going well for the South, he abandoned the land of his birth and travelled to America, setting himself up as both a successful businessman and a powerful gang leader, ruling a set of organizations collectively known as the Shadow Fist Society.

When a number of Kien's low-rank thugs, and then an increasing number of higher operatives, began to turn up dead with arrows in them and the Ace of spades card prominently displayed, Kien knew he was being targeted, but thought it was a rival gang; he had no idea that Brennan, the man he'd dismissed from his thoughts so long ago, was now the bow-and-arrow vigilante called Yeoman. It was not until his diary was stolen by Wraith that he would come face to face with his enemy once again.

Kien lost part of his right hand when Wraith turned his gun intangible. He would eventually lose far more than that; he made a deal with the jumpers to swap him into the body of Fadeout, a Shadow Fist operative who could turn invisible. But when his borrowed body was hurt, his mind was eventually lost on the astral plane, his last coherent thought being a guilt-ridden hallucination of his father, mourning the loss of his son.