I’ve
spent a few Wednesdays now complaining about Iron Fist, but as I’ve said, the series does have its bright
points. Some came from elsewhere in
Marvel’s Netflix show universe – like the always-awesome Claire Temple, who I’ve
already written about – while others made their debut appearance in this
show. Today is my first post discussing
what I do like about Iron Fist (a few Colleen-related
spoilers.)
Within
moments of meeting Colleen, you can tell she’s probably destined to be “the
long-suffering Colleen,” since her first meeting with Danny involves what
appears to be a shoeless homeless guy with boundary issues presuming she speaks
Mandarin and asking for a job at her dojo.
As she begins getting to know him and his actual identity as Danny Rand,
long-lost heir-apparent of Rand Industries, their interactions are marked with
him repeatedly doing what she’s told him not to do. “Don’t come back to my dojo.” “Don’t mess with my students.” “Don’t pay my rent for me.” “Don’t dive headlong into dangerous
situations without a game plan.” And
yet, though this dynamic plays out numerous times, Colleen and Danny continue
to grow closer – needless to say, it’s a frustrating relationship.
Which is
a shame, because Colleen, by and large, is pretty great. She runs her own (struggling) dojo in
Chinatown, dedicated to her craft but regrettably light on funds since she’s
focused on finding students who are serious about martial arts instead of
disinterested hobbyists looking for a fad.
She also works mostly with teens and young adults from low-income
families and rough neighborhoods, looking to give them training that betters
their lives. Not just a physical
activity to burn off energy and keep them out of trouble, but a philosophy to
ground and guide them.
Colleen’s
ideals are important to her, but her devotion to them isn’t as absolute as she’d
like it to be. One of the most
interesting threads of the season for me is the minor plot of her beginning to
take part in cagematch fights for money.
Though she chastises one of her students early on for cage fighting,
telling him that fighting for profit and personal glory is against the Bushido
Code, she finds herself at the cages one night, where she starts the evening with
everyone assuming she’s roadkill waiting to happen and ends it with a new
badass title: Daughter of the
Dragon. It’s hard to say for sure what
draws her to the fights and what makes her stay. At first, the money is at least somewhat a
factor, a last-ditch means of keeping the lights on at the dojo, but it’s more
than that. An outlet for her
frustrations? An ego boost? A way to feel powerful and dangerous when she
doesn’t like being made to feel defenseless?
The show unfortunately drops the plot soon after it begins, so we don’t
delve into it as much as I would like, but I enjoy this storyline and the
questions it makes Colleen have about herself.
It also
just makes for good TV watching, because Colleen is pretty legit. It’s cool to watch her in these brutal cage
matches, taking on guys much bigger than her in a way that feels realistic –
rather than the tiny women easily wailing on them, she fights hard for every
victory she gets and relies on superior skill and smart tactics instead of pure
strength. And once she starts getting
involved in Danny’s extracurricular superhero activities, she’s no slouch
there, either. Her hand-to-hand martial
arts game is fairly on point, but for me, she’s probably most entertaining when
she’s got a katana in her hands. Is she
Sunny or the Widow from Into the Badlands? No, but I still love watching her swordfight.
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