top of page

The Immortal Iron Fist

gamespot iron fist.jpg

Photo by Gamespot

Raul Garcia, Contributing Writer

9-25-2018

Netflix’s "Iron Fist" was notorious for having a shaky first season. As a result, it has become one of Marvel’s most overlooked Netflix shows. All of Marvel’s other Netflix franchises are successful and have compelling plots. For example, "Luke Cage" takes the audience to Harlem’s crime-infested areas and tells the tale of a bullet-proof man fixing his community, while "Jessica Jones" tells the story of an super-powered, alcoholic investigator with a troubled past. Despite its bad reputation, "Iron Fist" has shown lot of promise, consisting of several memorable moments. The show’s use of martial arts is well-choreographed and adrenalizing; the cultural inspirations from several Asian mythologies, including Chinese and Indian myths, spark further curiosity for the ancient tales that the show draws inspiration from.

​

Many critics felt that the main character, Daniel "Danny" Rand, had no real motivations for his actions, other than that they furthered the plot. The first season essentially consisted of a guy doing Kung-Fu with a glowing fist, beating up a malevolent secret society. In the second season, all of that changes. Marvel took the events of the first season and made them some of the driving points of its current season. Old feuds are brought back into the plot, and Daniel Rand is finally given a purposeful internal drive towards a goal. In the first season, Danny’s goal was bit superficial: to make it back to New York from the Mythical city of K’un-Lun to claim his family’s wealth, which created a plethora of troubles. However, in this season, Danny goes down a path of discovery and attempts to discover what the Iron Fist is and what it means to be him.

​

Should you watch this show? It depends. If you want to see some really cool fights, then yes, but if you’re looking for some deep mind-blowing plot then you’ll find the show to be quite mediocre. Unfortunately, to fully appreciate the quality of all the plot developments in the second season, you’ll have to bear through the first season. That means sitting around and watching some thirty-year-old-man run around beating criminals in Chinatown while he develops his plan to regain his family wealth.

​

Even with that being said, the first season does provide information concerning the plots of other Marvel shows airing on Netflix; you get subplot for "Daredevil” and the exposition for "The Defenders." This season is no exception to Marvel’s tradition of creating new stories from old ones. In keeping with this, the second season of "Iron Fist" leaves us with more questions than answers, and the season finale hints that there may be two new series that branch off from this show.

bottom of page