Spoilers ahead
Three superheroes of MCU Netflixland got their second outing this year: Jessica Jones and Luke Cage being the first two but the one I was most looking forward to was the Immortal Iron First aka Danny Rand aka Protecter of K’un-Lun aka Let’s Stop Because This Season Was Actually Alright.
No seriously, Iron Fist Season 2 was a vast improvement. The bar was low I admit and you won’t find compelling themes that we’ve seen in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. What Iron Fist did was take the good things about the first season and put them in the spotlight, primarily the supporting characters.
There are so many awesome character arcs. Ward starts off the season pretty low with his family torn apart and addiction issues. In the end he is still pretty lost but hopeful to redeem himself, and along the way provides some deadpan comic relief. Colleen continued to be badass but also really cares about helping her community so it was very satisfying to see that she was able to attain the Fist. Oh yeah, the Fist is transferable now.
On to the villains. Oh boy. Davos, poor deluded Davos. His escapades were very reminiscent of Frank Castle from Daredevil. The story delved into Davos and Danny growing up in K’un-Lun showing that Davos has had the goal of holding the Fist all his life and was ready to die trying. After being forced to yield in the fight for the Fist and then eventually stealing the Fist from Danny, he proceeds with Light Yagami-ing all criminals with two red fists. He’s going about bringing peace the wrong way, but considering all the pain and torment he ‘s been through, I kind of want to hug him and point him in the direction of the nearest therapist’s office.
Then there is Mary, a character with disassociation identity disorder. We see two of her personalities, a timid artist and a trained solider hired to follow and capture Danny. She had some very tense action scenes but there’s a lot more to unravel about her, including a third alter who did some crazy stuff in Sokovia.
Unfortunately the main character doesn’t get any kind of interesting development. The conflict trying to be conveyed is that Danny is consumed by the power of Fist. I just don’t buy it, maybe because this has already been explored better in Daredevil and Luke Cage. It was similar with Joy, her motivations for trying to take down Danny felt weak and she was a total fool to work with Davos who was clearly unstable but I guess the red flag was only apparent when literally his fists lit up red.
The last ten minutes of the episode 10 showed lots of exciting things, including a team up of Danny and Ward travelling across Asia to uncover more Iron Fists and possibly Colleen and Misty will also be taking on crime together in New York.
While things seem on the up, it is only inevitable that another fist will strike it’s devastating power.
At My Desk 