More Like It, But Not Yet Enough - Iron Fist Season 2, Reviewed

A quick recap then: no one liked season 1 of Iron Fist.

The show was not without its moments, but they were few and far between, and almost none of them related to the titular character or his spectacular background (i.e. raised in a Shaolin-style monastery in an extra-dimensional city, and trained in martial arts until he can best the mighty dragon Shou-Lao and take his power to become...the Immortal Iron Fist!).

The biggest problem with season 1 were the fights. There weren't enough of them, they didn't look very awesome, and the least convincing combatant was the star, Finn Jones. His character, Danny Rand, was also not written to be particularly likable, despite this being, you know, his show.

Enter season two earlier this month, with a new showrunner, improved fights, and a stated intentionality to lean into the things in the comics that made the character great. Your first clue that they have been listening to the clamour of the fans is that in the opening scene, Danny sidesteps an armored truck being rob by Chinatown gangsters, and straight-up punches the engine block out of it with his fist "like unto a thing of iron!"

For the record, I'm still a little choked they have yet to say this out loud on the show, but this single display convinced me that this Raven Metzner guy has a far better sense of what the character should be about. He spins up a story about triads warring in New York's Chinatown, and of machinations by both Danny's half-brother Davos (Steel Serpent in the comics), and his childhood friend Joy Meachum. Joy's brother Ward, one of the highlights of season 1, is back as well, and even though his story runs largely parallel to the main one until way in the latter half, it's still enjoyable.

Best of all, they compressed season 2 to a lean 10 episodes, something all the Netflix shows should consider. Not one of these shows so far has needed 13 episodes to get its business done, and they have all suffered for it (with the possible exception of Jessica Jones). The fight scenes have improved significantly, and there are even a couple of scenes with Danny appearing in a mask, although it is no where close to as cool as his comic version (and to be fair, they work that one into a flashback pretty well too). The fights still don't approach the magnificence of what we've seen in Daredevil thus far, but that is a pretty high bar to clear - I'm just happy they are narrowing the gap.

In addition to a proper maks showing up a couple of times this season, they also do a fairly decent adaptation of the Crane Sisters, which I am hoping will lead to appearances by characters like Dog Brother #1, Bride of Nine Spiders, and Fat Cobra.

The female supporting characters though, are the highlights for this season. Colleen Wing (Jessica Henswick) and Misty Knight (Simone Missick) kick gratuitous amounts of ass with grace and humor, and display tremendous chemistry while doing it. At this point, I would love Marvel to re-title Luke Cage as Heroes For Hire, teaming Danny with his comics bestie Power Man, and then use the vacant Iron Fist slot for a Daughters of the Dragon series pairing Colleen and Misty up as private investigators, something they teased in an offhand conversation this season. C'mon, Knightwing Restorations has a nice ring to it, right?

I also can't say enough good things about Alice Eve and her take on established Daredevil foil Typhoid Mary. Playing her as one side of a person with dissociative identity disorder was an interesting way to make her a bit more accessible, and you are never quite sure if she is the villain, a heavy, an anti-hero or something in between.

I can' help but wonder if I would enjoy Iron Fist more if it was broadcast on network television. like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is. AoS is a show which has improved tremendously the last couple of seasons, and has maintained a level of wonder and comics-inspired fun while not succumbing to trite silliness. The Netflix stable has a constant evocation of grimdark, in keeping with their roots on the Marvel Knights mature readers imprint, I suppose.

For all that though, much of this season is also evocative of Big Trouble in Little China, and the final episode gives hints to the larger Iron Fist mythos established by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction on their groundbreaking comics run... ohmigod, a decade ago now? Ugh.

The redemption of Danny Rand (and the Iron Fist show) continues apace, and this season and its disregard for the status quo has left me in a state of heightened anticipation for the next one, which is honestly more than I could have hoped for. A nice recovery, to be sure!