And then just like that, Iron Fist remembers that it’s supposed to be a superhero show…
Despite now being on it’s fifth episode, if there’s one aspect of the character that show has neglected more than any other – and lord knows that it’s neglecting quite a lot – it’s the fact that Danny Rand is supposed to be out there stopping crime wherever he finds it. I’m not saying that he should have been Iron fisting purse snatchers from moment one, but the fact that the show seems to be introducing every aspect of the character one episode at a time means that the progression of the Iron Fist has been unbelievably slow.
Still, while the hope of a yellow cowl and a huge, turned-up collar gets more remote every day, we’re finally seeing our hero lock horns with the nebulous ninja threat known as the Hand. The only problem is, haven’t we already seen all this before during Daredevil…?
A new form of heroin has hit the streets which provides a “cleaner” high without all that need for spoons and syringes, and after his deal with the Yakuza, Danny gets wind of this new narcotic as it’s apparently being distributed by the Hand. Realising that he can finally realise his calling by finally engaging the hated enemies of K’un-Lun in combat, Rand puts his board member business on hold – but not before accidently setting some fires on the way out. While Ward is already pissed that Danny’s come into his office ranting about heroin, ninjas and the fact that they’re using the pier that Rand Industries supplied them to ship the drugs, the fact that he fucks up a court case about a Rand chemical plant causing cancer by taking responsibility on camera means that the company has a huge pile of shit on its hands.
However, while Ward turns to the synthetic heroin that Danny left on his desk to ease the pressures of big business, Danny tries to clumsily woo Colleen Wing by ordering a lush meal sent to her dojo. While it seems like a romantic gesture (and it sort of is), Danny actually wants Colleen’s help staking out the pier and beating on some goons if it becomes necessary – however as the self defence lesson she’s currently engaged in is with none other than Claire Temple, they get a bit more context about the Hand for no extra charge.
That night, Danny and Colleen go to the pier to try and catch the drugs as they’re being shipped, but after the trucks seem to simply contain regular deliveries, the man who regularly calls himself the Iron Fist goes down for a closer look, only to discover that one of the vehicles has a hidden compartment that contains two men. One is Radovan Bernvig, the chemist who has been forced by the Hand to create the synthetic heroin in the first place, and the other is his hulking bodyguard, but after a fight, Danny managed to rescue an accidently stabbed Bernvig and deliver him to Temple, who does her usual, on-the-fly patch job. But if the Iron Fist has drawn first blood against the Hand, how will the cult of murder-ninjas respond?
Despite the fact that Iron Fist has finally moved into the realms of rolling his sleeves up and actually fighting crime, there’s something of a glaring issue that manages to take the sheen off the character’s newfound desire for brawling with injustice. Watching him stake out the Hand from the top of a shipment container is all very good, but we’ve already seen Daredevil do practically the exact same thing in both his first and second season. It’s something of a cruel irony that Iron Fist finally gets a central villain to fight and it’s one we’ve already seen twice already and considering that we have also the Defenders miniseries looming in the rear view, chances are Danny won’t actually be fully successful in his quest either. It’s with this revelation that I’m actually starting to feel sorry for the fourth hero brought to life by the Marvel/Netflix merger as he really seems to be left with the scraps of the other shows to play with – something that weirdly isn’t helped by the presence of Claire Temple.
Now, while I’d never dream of referring to the magnificent Rosario Dawson as “scraps”, the inevitable shoehorning of Claire into this season is somehow the most blatantly egregious of them all. Sure, technically Claire randomly showing up in every season to date is starting to get a little suspect (at least Nick Fury has a reason to show up on your doorstep), but it’s all been part of the fun – however, just randomly having her take self defence lessons with Colleen Wing while Danny Rand just so happens to wander in blabbing about the Hand is pushing it. Could we not have had a tiny scene of her showing up and requesting lessons at the end of the previous episode to bridge it a little better than literally dumping her in a scene? Additionally, while the return of Wai Ching Ho’s gloriously unnerving Madame Gao is similarly cool, it’s a little worrying that once again, Iron Fist is having to deal with Daredevil’s run-off when it comes to foes and friends.
Still, at least the show is finally moving now and even if this all feels annoyingly familiar, at least Danny and Colleen are getting to fully engage in that strangely sweet chemistry. The supremely awkward meal he organises goes back to displaying that fish-out-of-water feel the show started him with and in many ways, giving Danny a partner offsets some of the white savior issues the season was leading with. OK, so Danny is still only using his Iron Fist once per episode (nerf alert) and even then, he’s mostly using it to punch through doors – like he does here – but those fight scenes are starting to get a little better even if none of those ninjas have actually shown up yet…
Of course, this means that the business aspects of the show now have to find other ways to keep themselves busy while Danny is engaged elsewhere, and while his empathy about the cancer spewing chemical plant gives the folks at Rand Industries a sizable stress headache to maintain, it’s weird that Ward has fully (and suddenly) lurched into taking heroin to alleviate his anxiety. While Joy tries to stem the various arising issues, there’s a sense that now that Danny’s finally on the superhero trail, the company stuff will start to take a backseat. Whether it’ll become a hinderance will solely hinge on how good the crimefighting is I suppose, but already suspicious by his absence is Harold Meachum, who sits this episode out. But while the connections to the greater, Defenders universe is now fully in play, there’s now a sense that factors such as the Hand, Madame Gao and Claire Temple are more on loan than existing fully in this space.
While it’s starting to get perversely fascinating while watching how gradually the show is trying to pivot into embracing the character (I’m currently counting one aspect per episode), even a sizable, further link to the larger universe can’t seem to get Iron Fist out of his season one funk. Worse yet, rather than having it’s own identity, the show now seems to be the Netflix/Marvel version of Iron Man 2 – stuck between cementing what came before while teasing what’s coming next without being able to focus properly on itself.
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