By Christian

Here at ReVo, we’re no strangers to comic lore! Whether you’re a die-hard collector with every issue ever printed or a casual fan who’s content to take in a few flicks, almost all of us have crossed paths with a variety of heroes, villains, and sidekicks. But with so many properties now being adapted in so many ways, it can be difficult to judge what is – or isn’t – worth our time. Luckily, Christian’s here to help! In this issue, he takes a look at Netflix’s Iron Fist so we don’t have to – but that doesn’t mean you won’t still want to!

Be aware that this review contains minor spoilers for both the basic concepts of Iron Fist and some changes that were made for the show!

The original Netflix series Iron Fist is yet another part of the ever growing Marvel Television/Netflix projects. It’s been a month since it dropped, which has given me time to process all thirteen episodes and put words down on paper.

Of the four Netflix series produced by Marvel Television, Iron Fist would probably be labeled the most questionable and controversial. Usually every time a new Marvel Netflix series drops, some people want to see Marvel flop and deliver a dud, but even this time around it looks like Marvel has escaped that status for their latest series.

While it does have some problems, Iron Fist still wins the fight. From the announcement of the casting of Finn Jones there had been nothing but disdain from some critics about Marvel’s casting of the character being whitewashing. To this, we could say some rather harsh words to these people who obviously have never picked up a comic book. You won’t be bored with a lecture of how Finn’s character, Danny Rand, has always been a white American boy who learns Kung-Fu from – dare I say – another dimension; which brings us to the second recent complaint: That the series got Asian culture as a whole wrong. Being as Iron Fist was trained in a culture from another dimension described as one of the cities of Heaven, it would be easy to say that the culture could be whatever one wanted it to be, and not have to adhere to the stereotypical standards of what Hollywood or even reality have to say about Asian culture – because, let’s face it, Iron Fist doesn’t come from anywhere traditional.

More concerns about faults in the series are the story’s pacing and the choreography of the fight scenes. These might be the only truly valid points one can gripe about. However, to me, the pacing seemed good and steady from the get go. On the other hand, no one can fault people for complaining about the story of the series. One can imagine that when you hear about a series called ‘Iron Fist’, which is being billed as a martial arts adventure, one would expect something along the lines of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, but this was the opposite. The series isn’t about fighting – in fact, Danny barely uses the Iron Fist throughout the series, which is a good thing, as all problems aren’t solved with his powers.

If anything, this series serves as nothing more than a set up for Netflix’s next series, The Defenders, which will have all four series headliners being drawn together. For anyone paying attention, you can easily see the Hand has been a running theme through Daredevil, which links it to Iron Fist. There is the use of Rosario Dawson’s character, Claire Temple – also known as Night Nurse – which connects Iron Fist to Luke Cage. If you listen closely to the dialogue, we get a mention of Jessica Jones as, “A really good private investigator when she can stay sober,” and Carrie-Anne Moss once again plays the edgy attorney Jerri Hogarth, who was also in Jessica Jones. Iron Fist can easily be said to have served as a meeting ground for this televised universe to blossom. From the heroin cooked up by the Hand, first seen in Daredevil, to the precedent set by Luke Cage revealing his abilities to the whole of New York, we see all roads leading to this would-be Rome, with Madame Gao leading the way.

It’s easy to see how Iron Fist can rank #4 out of the four series so far. However, just because it may take last place doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Sure, the fight scenes are questionably done. They bring up memories of the Batman episode with Bruce Lee (as Kato) fighting Robin, and Lee having to hold back because of Burt Ward’s lack of fighting ability, which blatantly showed on camera. Obviously the two to four hours a day Finn spent training for the role wasn’t enough, but that doesn’t take the fun out of the fights.

Iron Fist is a fish out of water story on many levels. The first is a man who returns home only to slowly learn that that home isn’t what he imagined it was, as time has moved onward in those fifteen years he’d been away. But Danny was a fish in a strange pond during his time in the Heavenly dimensional city of K’un-Lun, too. This is something else that can justify Danny Rand being cast as a white man, but again, that casting doesn’t require any form of justification in the first place, as most critics don’t understand the source material being adapted when these shows are produced.

This brings us to another point: Adaption. Iron Fist is beautifully adapted from the source material of the comics. From the use of the Meachum Family, to the inclusion of Colleen Wing as the Daughter of the Dragon, right down to her love for white attire. In the comics, Harold and Ward Meachum are brothers. Joy Meachum is the daughter of Harold Meachum and the niece of Ward. The change of Ward becoming Harold’s son, along with Joy becoming his sister, made for a much better dynamic on screen. Harold was shaped into a far more superior villain than his crippled comic book counterpart – who only stuck around for four issues of Marvel Premiere before being killed off prior to the launch of Iron Fist’s first short lived solo series – could have ever hoped.

While Danny isn’t as strong a lead character as, say, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, or Luke Cage, what makes him hold his own are his surrounding plot lines. From the creation of a Hand splinter group through the villain Bakuto, to the heartfelt fight between himself and his best friend Davos, who we see at the end working his way to easily becoming the Steel Serpent (Davos’s comic book counterpart), these are just a few of the many Easter Eggs scattered throughout the series. (Anyone catch Stan Lee?)

In the end, Iron Fist was going to be a hard sell for Marvel. To begin with, the series had numerous script rewrites, and at one point, Marvel Television even stated they had no idea what direction to go in with the character. The 1970s haven’t been around for almost half a century now. Iron Fist is a bit late to the small screen, but that just adds to the whole “fish out water” theme. The series itself is a bit of the same, but the bottom line is Iron Fist does deliver: It was entertaining, it had balance between fighting and intrigue, and it gives us a great springboard for what is to come from the future of Marvel Television and Netflix. It proves once again that Marvel Television works wonders with what they have at their disposal.