Okay, before we get started, we
need to have two moments of silence. One for Mrs. Joan Lee, wife of Marvel’s
Stan Lee. While she was never directly tied to the company, we can pretty much
thank her for all of the characters and stories that have sprung forth from
them. As she was the one who encouraged Stan to make heroes and stories on his
terms, rather than fall in line with his editor who wanted DC style characters.
She was a classy lady, by all accounts, and will be missed.
…
The second is on a more personal note, as on
7/7/17, my family had to put down our beloved dog Harley. He was fourteen,
nearly blind, stone deaf, and seemed to have some kind of arthritis. Despite all
this, seeing him get put to sleep was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had
to do. It sucks when what you know is the right thing makes your heart and soul
ache, doesn’t it?
…
 |
| Iron Fist is Iron Pissed. |
Okay, now that we’ve gotten the
somber stuff out of the way, let’s talk
Iron
Fist. I’ll start by saying that I have no idea what the director or editor
were thinking when they filmed this episode. I don’t know the technical stuff
that goes into shooting a scene or anything, but I can say that when the scene
is so dark that I can’t even see the characters in places, it’s too damn dark. The
only reason I can think of as to why they’d do this is to make it easier to
slip in Finn Jones’ stunt double for the fighting. Not a good reason, if that’s
the case. Let’s get to it.
The episode opens to Danny
meditating. Again. At the same time, a number of assassins are given some sort
of summons from the Hand. Each smile and mention that it is ‘finally time.’
Danny ends his mediation by reciting a line from his master, “Doubt leads to
Death.”
Ward watches the video again, the
one where Danny apologizes for the Rand chemicals giving a woman’s son cancer.
He reaches for his pills, but is interrupted by Joy. Joy reveals she had called
a team that specializes in crisis response. To help minimize the damage that
Danny caused. Joy convinces Ward to dump his pills. He goes to get Danny. Danny
has, meanwhile, discovered several warehouses that might hold the Chemist’s
daughter. Ward tries to convince Danny to put it off in favor of the crisis
response meeting, but Danny won’t listen. Ward goes along in the hope he could
force Danny to come back.
They go through four warehouses
before they find the trailer that Danny smashed though. Rather than the Heroin
that he’d expected, they find the severed head of the goon that failed to stop
Danny. In his mouth is another summons this one for Danny. Danny blows off the
meeting to accept the challenge. He talks to Colleen and Claire, who are
looking after the Chemist. He explains that if he fights and defeats the Hands
top assassins, they have to listen to his demands. Claire thinks it’s a bad
idea, but can’t think of what else to do. Like calling a hero that she knows,
who has had dealings with the Hand. Did she lose Matt Murdock’s number since
last year?
 |
His first mistake was thinking a tournament that started
with a 2 v 1 fight would be honorable. |
Danny meets Gao at the area the Hand
has prepared. His terms, if he wins, the Hand will hand over the Chemist’s
daughter and leave Rand Enterprises alone. Madam Gao’s terms are, if he were to
lose but live, he’ll have to keep his nose out of the Hand’s business. His
first fight is against a pair of knife wielding weirdos. They slash their hands
and form a circle of blood. If Danny falls out of the ring, he loses. Danny
fights and defeats them. The next round is against a woman with a spider
tattoo. She plays mind games with him, and sticks him with several acupuncture needles
tipped with Singing Spider venom. This disorientates him for a moment, but he
regains his senses and defeats her too.
The final round is against a guy
with a dozen weapons line around the room. They duel, with Danny once again
getting the upper hand. But, before he can defeat the fighter, Madam Gao comes
back with the Chemist’s daughter. She orders that Danny forfeit or she’ll kill
the girl. Despite his own reservations, Danny does the morally right thing by forfeiting.
Before leaving, Danny learns that Madam Gao has gone up against a previous Iron
Fist, and knew Danny’s father Wendel Rand. He tries to get info from her, but
she smacks him around with telekinesis… or something. He leaves the arena, his
spirit clearly broken.
 |
Claire, stop acting like the only thing you can do is make
the situation worse and call Matt Murdock. |
Meanwhile, Ward is going through
serious withdrawal. He keeps seeing the severed head of the goon he saw earlier.
He abruptly leaves the meeting and tries to get new pills. He stops at an
Urgent Care and none to subtlety demands more pills. Joy saves him from embarrassing
himself.
Colleen and Claire are looking after
the Chemist. When his condition worsens, they’re forced him to take to an
actual hospital. Unfortunately, the Hand learns about it, and steal him away
despite their best efforts. Not good.
Hm… I have to say, I really wish
this first season had taken place in K’un-Lun. We could have seen Danny’s
training, the hellish and deeply psychologically damaging events that he had to
go through to become the Iron Fist. We could’ve seen the trials, the
tribulations, the spirit breaking moments he must have gone through to be this
supreme warrior. Instead, we just get Danny spouting snippets of philosophy and
have darkly lit Kung Fu fights. Lame. I am also not a fan of how we really only
see Finn Jones clearly during the closeups and really easy Kung Fu moves. If I
am wrong and Finn Jones actually did all of his stunt work, and that the
unclear fight scenes were 100% on the director and other crew, then I am truly
sorry. Iron Fist has been difficult
to get through, I’m not going to lie. I will thankfully get a small reprieve
when I review Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Have a good night everybody.
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Twitter:
@BasicsSuperhero
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