Yay we made it to the third chapter! And they actually killed someone last time lol.
Okay we are still kind of early into the story so talking about other background details may be difficult without spoilers…
Oh well Danny died so we can talk about him a bit. A lot of these characters are actually an amalgamation of their comic and screen personalities with dashes of my own characterization so don’t try to double think if a character does something they didn’t use to. Of course, even different writers should stay consistent though because someone like Spider-Man actually stands for something. He can be a douche but he’s not a total brat. So the character of Iron Fist is very interesting when I try to adapt him here.
Now he doesn’t last long so you don’t even get to analyze him strongly. Bleh! Anyways, I was first introduced to him in Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD back in like 2012 or whenever that show came out. But that show was weird. I was introduced to Spider-Man years before by the Spectacular show and he was serious there. Even as a kid, I saw that version of Spider-Man being a inspiration for other cartoon heroes like Danny Phantom, Kim Possible, and Randy Cunningham. These kids were happy and faithful to their mission but always had some melancholy snark about whatever situation they found themselves in. Ultimate SM did not present this way. He was super extroverted, sarcastic, but also well hated by the community. Like, not just Jameson but everyone on the team. Yeah so USM came out like after Avengers 1 (I was not into the MCU at this time) so they had good old Samuel L Jackson at the head of Shield recruiting Parker to be on his own super team in a world where a different Avengers already exist. As a kid, I considered this universe ‘adjacent’ and designated it as 616-B to be simple.
Now I didn’t mind Drake Bell as Pete Parker but lets discuss the rest of the team. Firstly, they are all high schoolers, something that would already annoy kid me. They are Luke Cage, Danny Rand, the White Tiger girl, and Nova from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Actually, Nova was the most interesting character because in the show, he has a backstory with the Guardians (after the 2014 film was released I think) but he just seemingly stays on Earth. White Tiger was ass, they made a latina boring. Luke was kind of the jock of the group and the writers most definitely wanted him to be perceived as Cyborg (from Teen Titans on Cartoon Network) among the audience. This is the first I had seen the character as well (oh including the others lol). Now Danny was a calm and quiet individual, if I were to give him to teenage clique, it would be hippie. He didn’t do anything. In fact, besides Nova, the other teammates barely had episodes worth their existence. The worst part (which turned me off the show) is that they actually all hated Peter Parker. Nova was the worst but that was kind of in his personality plus he was the Beast Boy so he was the butt of many jokes as well. But EVERYONE found Parker stupid, irrational, irresponsible…they all rooted against him, Nick had no respect for him. Flash wasn’t even the bully, freaking Harry could throw cheap shots during his 1 minute long screen time. Jameson was barely able to excel above the others on Spider-hate, they all wanted him to die. It was just frustrating to watch.
I’m going deep. The only thing that carried the show was cameos from Loki to Hulk to Wolverine. They’d spend an episode or two maybe spoofing off an old comic or switching bodies with Spider-Man. I think Cloak and Dagger shared an episode with Doctor Strange. Loki and Thor actually get different episodes. Guardians I think had two episodes. I don’t think Blade or Daredevil made it in, fairly. It was a Disney show. Now these cameo episodes only featured Spider-Man and the cameo so it begs the question of even having the team. They go to the same school but there’s barely any school drama or even scenes. Like MJ, Harry, and Gwen don’t exist in my memory of this show. Crazy.
My favorite single episode was one where Parker basically spectates Deadpool vs Taskmaster. No literally, he just plays catch up as Taskmaster visits the school to test the kids or something and then Deadpool pops up later to “unalive” Taskmaster. Parker just watches this basically. Now I had already met Deadpool via Death Battles on YouTube but this was a decent child friendly adaption. This Wade didn’t even test the waters with swearing but did have dumb jokes like laughing at booby traps (the traps part). In the show, Peter also does freeze frame narrations with a chibi character similar to Lizzie McGuire and Wade spends the episode interrupting this. Taskmaster was also very cool (this was my introduction) with a colder serious tone in the show which contrasts to straight man Peter (in this episode) and goofy Wade. Thing is, I’ve only seen the episode twice because not a single episode in this show feels rewatchable which is the first rule of children’s cartoons. You have to make the reruns worth it!
Besides that, I’ve seen the Iron Fist in the show I watched last year; Iron Fist (2015). So I watched both seasons of that originally Netflix show and it was good. But now I want to take the time to describe some missing beats from the show.
They did have to tie the Hand to K’un Lun? I mean it was the only true way to make the Defenders crossover necessary as both Daredevil and Iron Fist would be important (Luke is in a cool third place while Jessica is just unhappy to be included). But just the way they did it kind of sucked. There this video where Nando details how they could’ve improved the connection and I strongly agree with him. But I feel like Defenders goes out of its way to make the Hand as non Japanese as possible, which is a different gripe I have. I think simply, the master of the Hand could’ve discovered K’un Lun (instead of coming from it) and then start an organization to break it, they get defeated the first time by an Iron Fist. Then the Hand turns to conquer the rest of the world to gather as many weapons/allies needed to truly demolish K’un Lun the second time. The Midland Circle plotline could still fit in but now Danny can be justified in leaving the city because he wants to actually hunt them down as they killed his parents. Secretly though, I would have the Thunderer (master of K’un Lun) further justify Danny by the end of the first season but reassuring him that the reason he let an outsider of the city leave with the Fist is because only an outsider would be knowledgeable enough of the world to end the Hand. Generations of Iron Fists coming from an isolationist city can only be defensive of course but that shouldn’t be the point of a war against people the Thunderer knows will conquer and burn the world all just for their treasure. He’d die happy thinking Danny is doing the right thing. I’d also change Danny’s aesthitic, he comes in episode one with hobo clothes but he should have the Iron Fist gi on him, to be honest. With the yellow badass mask. He wouldn’t be a super hero yet but as he starts fighting Hatchets and Hand in the holy robe, New Yorkers could recognize him as a hero like they do the other defenders. Because for all the shenanigans Matt, Frank, Jessica, and Luke get up to, Danny is the only one able to walk away completely unnoticed and that’s despite the fact that his powers are the loudest. I would altos make his relationship with Collen more professional at first and Joy the love interest of season 1. Not that it would be achieved cause of what happens to her dad. Ward is the most interesting character in the series since he has his own side story of madness, I leave it untouched. In the crossover then, Danny’s stakes are still about taking down the Hand and trying his best to lead the team. He’d have his “silly” costume like Matt as well but be more proud of it to the point hat even Luke has to give respect. He’d still get captured and since Murakami wants to do the transfer ritual with him to get the Fist. Also, for other members, the only one I’m replacing is Alexandra or at least reducing her role. Murakami and Bakuto could successfully coup her before Elektra does her shit. Blah blah blah in season 2, Danny would be spending time balancing the corporate role and secret identity of popular superhero Iron Fist. Meanwhile, Davos can still do the alliance with Joy and later Mary. He’d have a red gi and attacking the company either tangentially or directly. At the same time, the Hatchets come to fight the Golden Tigers who eventually side with the Steel Serpent (Davos) who successfully steels the Fist. Then we’d have a whole episode for Mary’s flashback where she can even just talk to Matt to clear her head (they’d meet randomly). Mary can then turn on Davos, stunting him while Danny recovers from his loss in faith (while falling head over heels for Colleen). I’d actually have them live apart for the whole season and Danny only focus on dating her after losing his powers (which would cause her to be suspicious). Colleen and misty would be involved in the gang war which Danny will be the last on to finally learn about. During the final episode, I’d have mentally disabled Ward approach Joy about sabotaging the company, Mary blasting Davos, Danny chasing the both of them, Colleen and Misty defeating the White Tiger (leader of the Golden Tigers), Danny regaining his powers, Mary getting detained, and finally a rematch between the golden Iron Fist and crimson Steel Serpent. Final scene, Mary talks with Matt about representing her while Danny buries his iron brother.
Another problem with the show, it kind of had no vibe. Like, it was not carried by the action technically but it was the only thing it rode on. Jessica Jones and Daredevil were both different modes of noir with her show being very personal and melancholic while Matt has the magic of friendship, organized crime, and killer civilians. Luke Cage delivers at least one Harlem song every episode while never leaving the exaggerated swagger of the black experience even in scenes between white people. Punisher is super gritty and it’s got country guitars, unbelievable gore, deadpan humor between all characters, horrifyingly real trauma, and Americans that bleed red white and blue. But again, Iron Fist kind of just had martial arts. All of them had it, his wasn’t even uniquely interesting. Okay I do like Danny and some of the fights but I wish they tried to replicate the Karate Kid to the campiest point. Put some 80s yoga music, some Linkin Park, do more than that scene in the elevator. I haven’t seen any Jet Li or Jackie Chan fighting but they should’ve mimicked a fight or two. The comic character was born of that era. Why is Kickin It a better representation of Daniel Russo than Danny Rand?
I do really kind of like Danny’s character. He’s young, arrogant as hell, but still calm at times, not educated or socially aware, innocently honest and a happy spirit. So that’s what I kind of adapted here in the short screen time he gets. There was some moments in the show where I thought, “oh cool, he kind of feels like kid Goku here” meaning I recognized eastern optimism in the character. That’s something that’s always struck good with Shonen protags, fi they are happy people, they just charm everyone else. I liked the actor too, especially with the curly hair. Unfortunate they couldn’t write him as well as the other four.
With that, enjoy today’s chapter.
tdwriter 