I expressed this before, but I feel like we’re getting to the point where some of these comics-to-other-media productions need to take a really hard look at the origin of the hero they’re trying to translate. A lot of these are coming from a time when comics weren’t investing a lot resources in writing and “rich guy gets superpowers and learns humility” was okay for every other character. It was a simple way to explain why Captain Stupendous didn’t have to work, could afford fantastic tech, and still adhere to the power fantasy template while giving the writers a bit of meat to chew on. Sometimes they mixed up the order of events, but they tended to hit very similar notes.
Setting aside the whole Asian appropriation argument, Iron Fist would’ve been a good candidate for breaking away from the comic origin story. Does anyone give a shit that Danny is the inheritor of the Rand Corp? Do any of his powers come from that? Batman and Iron Man both need their riches to fund their hero gadgets so they get a pass, but Iron Fist doesn’t need it. He punches things, right? With zen magic or something?
I want to dismiss these reviews as tainted by SJW nonsense, and many certainly are infested with that misguided silliness, but the reviews are so relentlessly negative that their sentiments are likely correct.
Everything about this series seems to have been tepid workmanship motivated solely by desire to complete Neflix’s undertaking rather than inspired design - from appointing a showrunner most known for producing the despised final seasons of Dexter, to poor casting, especially wimpy Loras (which apparently makes the fight scenes look more silly than usual - a shame since that was a strength of the other Marvel Netflix shows, particularly Daredevil), to delays in production and never even bothering to incorporate an identifiable, interesting villain. They really should have just dropped the idea in favour of the Punisher, which obviously people seemed to be more excited by after an effective portrayal of the character in season 2 of Daredevil.
I guess we’ll know soon enough, but right now it seems like its main contribution will be allowing us to move forward to the Defenders.
His being the heir to Rand corp is relevant for one single part of the Brubaker/Fraction run as I recall. And then it’s just because Hogarth is kidnapped and blackmailed and Rand Corp tech or resources or something are leveraged in an attempted to destroy Kun-Lun (or, maybe it was just significantly wreck it I can’t recall offhand). Point being that, in fact, they could have skipped it since you could just as easily replace this with some other plot point. The person doing this isn’t tied to Rand corp (they’ve just been manipulating Hogarth), and there are lots of different ways to build a big enough bomb to do whatever it is you want to a mystical city.
Granted, that run isn’t the entire character. Except this series was always going to hinge on how much that run was embraced because the run is fucking awesome. It’s got plenty of terrific villains, a great heel-face turn for a classic Iron Fist villain, an entire revolution in Kun-Lun (which Danny helps but is decidedly not the centerpiece of), all seven Immortal Weapons, a great (if halted) tournament, mysteries, an awesome new Thunderer, and Swift Motherfucking Cobra.
Fuck, I wanted this to be good. Like @Desslock, I was prepared to consider the idea that the negative reviews were overly focused on a trope that doesn’t even really apply to Danny Rand. Yes, westerner becoming awesome at Asia is a trope itself but Danny is not a “white savior”. He’s not Tom Cruise helping to lead (really lead) the Samurai against the trained wester troops or Dances With Wolves or a fake blue alien that’s really white in Avatar. Honestly that it trips the tired lesser trope doesn’t bother me. There are bigger issues with whitewashings and the fact that not only are Asians under-represented in supers comics, but most of them are either martial arts based or wielding katanas.
But the reviews are harping on a bunch of other things (plot, pace, dialog, acting, etc) being bland or bad or outright terrible. This was the series to go grab some amazing choreographer and up the ante on the action scenes. And we really should have seen Donnie Yen as Davos. Sigh.
Well, this sounds like a miss. Iron Fist was always an iffy character from the view of cultural misappropration anyway, and it sounds like the series is pretty dreadful.
I’ll watch it anyway for the sake of completion. My main issue with these Marvel series is that they all seem just a couple of episodes too long, and the writers don’t seem to know what to do with all of those episodes. Almost all of them seem to lose their way 2/3 into the series and flail around a bit until some crazy cinematic last episode.
I would agree with Jones and Luke Cage. Both should have been 10 episodes. I felt both seasons of Daredevil held up good though. The second season was helped allot by having the Punisher.
I certainly didn’t mean to trigger anyone, though I still think Iron Fist is a C-list character with a shitty origin story that contains really unfortunate appropriation issues that were still OK in the 70s, but just aren’t by modern standards.
It’s not going to ruin my day or anything, though.
What do ya know man, some of us have managed to crawl out of the racist dreck of the past and attain a little worldly enlightenment! Don’t worry, you might manage it, someday. We’re all cheering for you! :)
You really haven’t. You manufacture racist dreck and then wallow in it, trying to hurl chunks of it at people walking by who have no interest in joining your septic pool, and then prattle vilely at anyone who dares advise that you act rationally instead of wading through that crap.
I don’t specifically have an issue with Iron Fist, but as an Asian guy I can say that some shit was a little gross back in the day. The 1970’s and 80’s had a lot of “mystic oriental” bullshit in movies and TV. White guy learning martial arts from magic chinamen was almost a genre by itself.
On one hand, it’s a healthy and normal part of one culture being exposed to another. Initially, the “other” is going to be seen as exotic and magical, then eventually, stuff normalizes.
On the other hand, growing up during that time kind of sucked because all that ignorant crap builds up after a while. I can’t even count how many times in school I was asked to demonstrate kung fu or “Bruce Lee shit” because I’m Asian.
