Iron Fist TLDR

Standing	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
St.L	5	2	11	+3	+1
St.M	7	4	16	+1	-1
St.H	11	5	19	+2	0
SF.H	9	4	21	+4	+2
SB.H	12	7	25	-6	-8

Alright, time for Iron Fist.

His standing normals are really good.  Being around the -1 to -4 range on block means they are practically safe from punish against the entire cast.  This makes hitconfirming pretty easy since you can poke out with a simple M H B.H and be positive on block.

At 5 frame startup Iron Fist sits around average in terms of speed on his L's, however the range is pretty terrible.

As a special not, his B.H cancels up to medium priority projectiles and if you can preemptively throw one out against someone like Magneto then you can actually beat L Disruptor spam with B.H spam.  It has slow startup but better recovery than Disruptor, which is why you need to get a little psychic with it (and that shouldn't be too hard since everyone wants to zone Iron Fist out).

As a small sidenote, St.M and any of the St.H normals (forward and back) can be used to kara other moves.  Ranges vary though so choose wisely.  Practical applications of the particularly poor-ish range on SB.H would be to punish a zoning attempt if you were fast enough.

Crouching	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Cr.L	5	2	12	+2	0
Cr.M	8	4	17	0	-2
Cr.H	10	4	25	--	-5

Not much to mention here except that the only true low amongst his crouching normals is the H, which is incredibly slow as far as crouching normals go.  Even so, at -5 it is punishable by the faster characters unless you cancel it into a St.S (but we'll get to that in a minute).

Jumping	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
J.L	6	8	12	+14	+12
J.M	8	3	20	+19	+17
J.H	9	3	29	+20	+17

Not much to see here either.  Iron Fist isn't amazing in the air.

Launchers	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
St.S	12	2	27	--	-5
J.S	10	4	27	+18	+16

St.S is interesting in that it's a low attack and is generally safe.  At -5 a faster character can punish it, but the range and pushback on it makes it safe unless used on a cornered opponent.  So if you're going for a low mixup on a blockstring and your Cr.H is blocked, a late cancel to St.S will either catch them into a launcher or push them back enough to evade punishes.

Forward Rekka (Punches)	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Rekka L	15	3	21	+2	0
Rekka M	10	2	39	--	-17
Rekka H	20	3	28	--	-7
Rekka S*	15	5	41	--	-22

*Frames 5-17 have super armor.

Now we're into the meat of IF's game.  The two Rekkas we're looking at for this article are the L and S ones though.

L Rekka is completely safe on block which makes it good for extending hitconfirms if you really need to.  Note that while you can't do 3 L Rekkas in a row, you can do 2 by putting something else in the middle.

S Rekka having super armor makes it interesting.  While it doesn't have startup armor, it does have armor on through until it is active.  It's particularly good if you can train your opponent into attempting punishes after a second Rekka and following up with a late cancel S Rekka.

Chi	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Chi L	1	29	--	--	--
Chi M	1	29	--	--	--
Chi H	1	29	--	--	--

Not much to see here except that each of these have a point of super armor from frames 5-20 and last 300 frames (which is 5 seconds).

Backward Rekka (Kicks)	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Back Rekka L	13	3	25	-2	-4
Back Rekka M	21	5	33	--	-14
Back Rekka H	15	3(3)4	36	--	-16
Back Rekka S	20	10	33	--	-19

There are two Rekkas to look at here, which are L and S once again.

L Rekka is Iron Fist's third low attack and in this case is probably one of his better tools for high/low mixups.  It is safe on block to any non-XF character, but the forward (punch) version of the L Rekka is a better option for ending blocked strings.

The S Rekka on this end is has an interesting property in that it eats medium and low priority projectiles, but the angle on it and the fact that you need to do 2 Rekkas beforehand make it hard to use as a general projectile punishment tool.  It is also horribly unsafe on block.

Assists	Startup	Active	Recovery	Recovery (Other)
Dragon's Touch	34	2	125	95
Crescent Heel	45	5	119	89
Rising Fang	34	10	122	92

Dragon's Touch, as an assist, is functionally the same as its Rekka counterpart (Forward M Rekka) but is likely only good as a combo utility.

Crescent Heel is a little slow and the range makes it difficult OTG assist for some characters, but the overhead functionality makes it useful for unblockable setups.

Rising Fang is functionally the same as the Rekka, which makes it a better assist thanks to the relatively fast startup and projectile cancelling ability.  However, it does wall bounce so make sure you either use a character that doesn't use one or modify your combos to accommodate.

Hypers	Startup	Active	Recovery	On Hit	On Block
Iron Rage*	3+3	46	34	--	-14
Volcanic Roar	9+1	90	38	-17	-35
Dragon's Prey**	10+10	21	38	--	-35

*Frames 1-11 invincible.

**Frames 1-30 invincible.

Iron Rage's invincible frames mean that it is great for countering certain specials and hypers on reaction at close range.  Frames 1-11 covers the startup completely and slightly into the active frames so you're assured a punish if used correctly.

Volcanic Roar is actually a big beam.  It eats practically all other projectiles but shouldn't be used primarily for that.  As an interesting note, even though you are negative on hit with this hyper you do have time to jump up for an air throw after it finishes.

Dragon's Prey is your typical invincible level 3.  Frames 1-30 ensures solid punishes at close range, but the startup is a little slow.  All this means is that moves with more invincibility or an XF cancel can save someone from being hit by it, so be careful.

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In summation IF is a safe close range character.  The things you would want to look out for is making sure your hitconfirms end in St.H or Punch Rekka L for best results.  The vast majority of his other moves go from being reasonably safe on block to being horrendously punishable, so stick to poking around with St.M and H and using kara canceled Rekkas into Punch L's if blocked.

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As always, feedback is welcome and my contact information can be found in my profile on the sidebar and you can catch me around the UMvC3 Gamefaqs message board as well as SRK (occasionally).  Thank you for your time and look for more articles in the future.