Marvel's "Iron Fist" seemed guaranteed to make us want more, and that it did. For many fans, they wanted more fight sequences, not the backstory we ended up with. The series began with Danny Rand returning from his hiatus of over a decade, only to find that his position in the family business has been deemed irrelevant and his cousins have been granted all of the money and power.
Instead of making this a side-note, the producers had decided to focus on the family business, making the superhero portion feel like it was added in to keep the fight junkies hooked.
It works as a story, but not as an action series.
By the end, it seemed all that made "Iron Fist" a part of the "Defenders" lineup was the inclusion of Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple, who is basically the equivalent of the "Avengers"' Nick Fury.
Danny Rand didn't feel like a superhero
Much to many fans' disappointment, the Iron Fist wasn't the martial arts master they'd come to expect from over a decade of grueling training. He seemed more like a confused boy who didn't know what he was doing, says YouTube channel "Looper." Some might say it was the culture shock of having been missing from Earth all that time making him so confused. They even claim that any time a character asked Danny why he'd abandoned his responsibilities in Kunlun, he couldn't come up with an answer.
It seemed like the story was a rush job, not entirely thought through, and the intro sequence had more effort put into it. With the black ink character pulling off masterful moves and leaving a trail, fans had expected something more like a Bruce Lee movie and less like a humorless episode of "Night Court."
The Iron Fist may have been miscast
Considering his physical prowess and almost underwhelming physique, Finn Jones didn't have the look of the character fans expected.
Colleen Wing, portrayed by Jessica Henwick, seemed more fit for the role than he was, and many wondered why Danny was teaching Colleen when she was obviously more of a natural.
In today's social climate, it might have been better to simply swap the roles and give the fans what they'd wanted, to begin with. Many had been calling for an Asian Iron Fist, changing the heritage of the character from Marvel's source material, and having the character as a female might have been a shock at first, but it could have made the series stronger.
For the sake of the series, it might be worth it to have Danny killed off by The Hand and have Colleen turn out to be the true successor.
Do you agree with "Looper" that "Iron Fist" was just poorly written and badly cast?
