Well folks, here we are. Iron Fist is the last installment of the solo Marvel Netflix series before The Defenders team up. In my opinion (at least of the first six episodes), it was a missed opportunity to make the boldest series yet. But mostly, it didn't seem to learn from the mistakes of its Marvel brethren Daredevil, Luke Cage, and to a lesser extent Jessica Jones. Danny Rand (Finn Jones) is a tricky character, one who brings in a hugely mystical aspect of the comic story to this otherwise fairly grounded world (when talking about superheroes, anyway), but it wasn't handled in the best way. The show also faltered a bit in its balance of martial arts and, y' know, corporate tax strategies, which aren't an easy pair ...

There's also the issue of the villains, be it the Meachums or the Hand, as well as the fact that Netflix not only forces its Marvel series to be 13 episodes, but they also don't cross over in a meaningful way, to the point of being ludicrous. (More on that coming tomorrow). And I haven't even mentioned yet the pacing issue all of these series face. Though The Defenders will be a shorter run, the opposite should be true -- in a perfect world, the solo series should be 6-8 episodes, and The Defenders should be 13 or more (at least I'm hoping I still feel that way once we see it).

But for now, it is not to be. The critics mostly panned the first half of Iron Fist, but did it pull a reverse Luke Cage and get better in the back half of the season? (As of writing this I'm still only 6 episodes in). Is it really as bad as everyone complained about it in early reviews? Let us know what you think in the comments, and be sure to look out for a full week's worth of Iron Fist coverage coming your way on the site starting Monday, including a villain explainer, what Marvel's TV shows can learn from DC, questions we have after Iron Fist, and much more.

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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix
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Image via Netflix