#So…beating him. But it’s not like Danny wanted to fight so…he edited the ritual a TINY bit. Card games are good. Much less painful too.

[kizzer55555]

DP x DC: The Most Dangerous Card Game

Ok so Danny has essentially claimed earth as his. And he is fully aware that there are constant threats to the planet. Now he can’t stop a threat that originates on earth (that’s something he’ll leave to the Justice league) but he can do something about outside threats. Doing some research on ancient spells, rituals, and artifacts, he cast a world wide barrier on the planet to protect it from hostile threats so they cannot enter. This will prevent another Pariah Dark incident. However, barriers like this come at a price. You see, there are two ways to make a barrier. Either make one powered up by your own energy and power (which would be constantly draining) or set up a barrier with rules. The way magic works is that nothing can be absolutely indestructible. It must have a weakness. The most powerful barriers weren’t the ones reinforced with layer after layer of protective charms and buffed up with power. Those could eventually be destroyed either by being overpowered, wearing them down, or by cutting off the original power source. No, the most powerful barriers were the ones with a deliberate weakness. A barrier indestructible except for one spot. A cage that can only be opened from the outside. Or that can only be passed with a key or by solving a riddle. So Danny chooses this type of barrier and does the necessary ritual and pours in enough power to make it. And he adds his condition for anyone to enter. 

Now the Justice league? Find out about the barrier when Trigon attempts to attack, they were preparing after he threatened what he would do once he got to earth. How he would destroy them. The Justice league tried to take the fight to him first but were utterly destroyed, so they retreated home to tend to their injuries, and fortify earth for one. Last. Stand. Only when Trigon makes his big entrance…he’s stopped.

The Justice league watch in awe as this thin see-through barrier with beautiful green swirls and speckled white lights like stars apears blocking Trigon and his army’s advance. The barrier looks so thin and fragile yet no matter how hard the warlord hits, none of his attacks can get through and neither can he damage said barrier. That’s when Constantine and Zatanna recognizes what this barrier is. Something only a powerful entity could create. For a moment, the league is filled with hope that Trigon can’t get through yet Constantine also explains that it’s not impenetrable. And clearly Trigon knows this too for he calls out a challenge. 

And that’s when, in a flash of light, a tiny glowing teenager appears. He looked absolutly minuscule compared to Trigon and yet practically glowed with power (this isn’t a King Danny AU though).

And that is when the conditions for passing the barrier are revealed. And the Justice realize that the only thing stopping Trigon and his army from decimating earth. The only way he can get through….is by beating this glowing teenager in a card game. 

Not just any card game though. The most convoluted game Sam, Danny, and Tucker invented themselves. It’s like the infinite realms version of magic the gathering, combined with Pokémon, and chess. And Danny is the master. So sit down Trigon and let’s play.

(The most intense card game of the Justice league’s life).

After Danny wins, this happens a few more times with outer word beings and possibly even demons attempting to invade earth, yet none have been able to beat the mysterious teenager in a card game. Constantine might even take a crack at it and try to figure out how to play. He’s really bad though. Every time this happens, the Justice league worry that this might be the time the teenager looses. Yet every time, he wins (even if only barely). 

Meanwhile, Danny, Sam, and Tucker have gotten addicted to the game and play it almost daily. Some teachers might seem them playing the game are are like ‘awww how cute’ not realizing this game is literally saving the world. Jazz is just happy they aren’t spending as much time on their screens playing Doomed.

[daresplaining]

Iron Fist Season 2 Trailer Analysis

    We are just over two weeks away from the second season of Iron Fist, and we hope we won’t lose our Daredevil blogging license if we say we’re currently more excited about this than about DD Season 3. Season 1 set up some amazing stories that look like they’re going to be every inch as awesome as we’d hoped! Let’s take a look at this sucker punch of a trailer.

    Showrunner Raven Metzner has mentioned that one of his goals was to bring the action out onto the streets of New York (specifically, Chinatown). The trailer starts with a standard-issue nighttime criminal beatdown that’s likely from the first episode. And we’ve seen in the earlier promos that Danny has taken Matt’s “last” words to heart. He has fashioned himself a new purpose as the Iron Fist on Earth: stopping crime in his new city. And Danny certainly does this in the comics too, since he spends most of his time on Earth. What’s interesting here is Colleen’s comment, because it suggests a take on this narrative that has never really been part of Danny’s story before. A lot of street-level heroes run themselves ragged to the concern of the civilians in their lives. Matt Murdock is a prime example-- bringing the negative effects of his superheroics into the lives of his non-superhero loved ones is one of his primary modi operandi (love ya, Matt...). But we’ve never really seen this with Danny because 1. he doesn’t really have a civilian life to come home to, and 2. he doesn’t tend to surround himself with civilians. If he’s out all the time being a superhero, that’s cool, because so is his girlfriend (in most cases) and all of his friends. And he usually has a pretty good handle on it. He doesn’t tend to beat himself into the ground fighting crime the way Matt does-- partly because Danny has some degree of super-stamina going on, but also because most Iron Fist stories don’t tend to focus on that sort of thing. But clearly, this one will, and it’s a neat way of exploring Danny making the shift to being an Actual Superhero(TM).  

    It’s also interesting to hear this from Colleen, for the reasons mentioned above. Colleen is a crimefighter too. You’d think she’d be out there with him. But Jessica Henwick has mentioned that since so much of Colleen’s training was facilitated by the Hand, the whole experience has become somewhat tainted for her. Fighting brings back memories of that bad experience, from which she has still far from recovered, and so it seems that she will be trying to avoid it. While this certainly doesn’t make her a straight-up civilian, it clearly will give her enough perspective to see that Danny is going too far. 

    It’s usually pointless to try and analyze out-of-context dialogue in trailers because it is often misleading/edited beyond recognition/etc. But we have to say something about this line because it worries us. The process by which Iron Fist candidates are selected in this universe was left vague last season in order to add power to the conflict between Danny and Davos. We know it’s going to be clarified this season, and it seems that-- like in the comics-- it will involve ritual combat of some type. In the comics, all boys of a certain age are eligible, and according to the most recent continuity, they fight in a big tournament in which participation is... probably not optional. However, Danny wanting the Iron Fist is a major part of his early narrative in the comics. It’s this desire that, in part, empowers him to win it. He has the passion and drive, and also the skills to back it up (unlike Davos, who mostly just had the former). Removing that desire and pride in the legacy weakens Danny’s entire character. He needs to feel honored to be the Iron Fist. He needs to be confident in his ability to be a good Iron Fist. Otherwise, when Davos challenges him for the position this season, Danny won’t have a leg to stand on. We always come back to this line from Immortal Iron Fist when thinking about the Danny/Davos dynamic: 

Danny: “That’s the difference between us, Davos. You want eternal life... You want unlimited power... The Iron Fist wants only honor in death.”

Immortal Iron Fist #6 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth

    Davos wants the chi of Shou-Lao for his own selfish reasons-- to serve his ego, to soothe his father issues, to feel tough and invincible-- whereas Danny comes to understand the responsibility and the legacy and the significance of the position itself. And we fully support adding complexity to Davos’s motivations; we loved Davos’s humanization last season and are looking forward to more of it this season. But this shouldn’t come with a weakening of Danny’s motivations. Making a characterization choice like that would make no sense. Heck-- Danny flat-out stated last season that he wanted to be the Iron Fist and actively worked toward that goal. But again-- this line may end up being perfectly logical in-context, and we trust that Raven Metzner is a big enough Iron Fist fan to be aware of the above-mentioned concerns. 

    This is very mysterious. They also released a promotional still featuring these women, possibly from a different fight (or maybe Colleen just takes her jacket off):

    This fight came up at various points during interviews at SDCC, and the amount of verbal tiptoeing that took place during those conversations implied that these are comics characters. But so far we have no idea who they could be, and given the integration of Typhoid Mary (a DD antagonist) into the show... they’re not necessarily Iron Fist characters. They could be just about anybody. The scene from the trailer seems to take place in a tattoo parlor, which may end up being significant. Either way, we’re excited to find out who these guys are, and of course, to watch them get their butts kicked by Colleen and Misty.  

    It’s Davos, looking fancy and trying to channel Danny from Immortal Iron Fist! 

Danny: “Davos. You and I have some family business to resolve...”

Immortal Iron Fist #6 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, David Aja, and Matt Hollingsworth

    (A weak attempt, Davos...)

    Based on Danny’s nicely charred outfit here (which we saw last season too), this is a flashback to shortly after he acquired the chi of Shou-Lao. We are massively excited about all of these flashbacks and the ways they will dig into Danny’s psyche, his dynamic with Davos, and the K’un-Lun worldbuilding in general-- all of which are priorities for us this season.

    This setting is in the trailer a lot, and it seems to be some kind of home base/training center for Davos and Joy. We don’t know what it is, but it is visually awesome, and clearly very significant. And of course... we’ve also been on the edge of our collective seat since Season 1 waiting to see the Joy/Davos team-up will get adapted, so we’re psyched! In the comics, Davos offers up his services to the Meachums once he discovers they want Danny dead too. The Meachums finance him-- and Joy has him do a few jobs for her on the side-- and in return he gets a shot at the Iron Fist. In the show we’re expecting more nuance. This has always been an unusual team-up, and we’re really excited to see how their dynamic plays out, and to see how this version of Joy handles her revenge quest.  

    AAAAAH!

    This is concrete confirmation of one of our big hopes for this season: further exploration of the Iron Fist legacy. Not only is the legacy really interesting and fun, but learning more about his predecessors helps comics Danny to place his career in a broader context and thereby empowers him-- and we’re hoping for the same in the MCU. This is also a really nice look at the mask, and confirmation that even though Danny and Davos we both wearing these during their fight, the official Iron Fist mask also looks like that. (Which we could have guessed, obviously, but confirmation is nice). And of course, the big question is: Who is this?! 

    It’s Mary! Earlier in the trailer we see her seemingly teaming up with Danny, and now she’s kicking his butt. We’re going to write a post about Typhoid Mary for our countdown, but for anyone unfamiliar, she is a Daredevil antagonist in the comics, and has multiple personalities. One of these personalities is very docile and kind. The others are varying degrees of extremely violent. Thus, Mary spends a lot of time battling herself as the different personalities fight for control. As if this didn’t make her dangerous enough, she also has telepathy, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis… though we don’t know yet whether that’s true of her in this universe.

    The Iron Fist Twitter account also just posted this image, which might be a note Mary has left for herself: 

    Davos is actually using the Steel Serpent symbol! This was far from guaranteed, considering how much the symbol has been repurposed already in this universe. Steel Serpent was introduced as a type of heroin all the way back in Daredevil Season 1. We’re curious to see how they reconcile that with Davos’s claiming of the symbol, but also really happy that he’s using it at all, because dammit, that’s his. In the comics, he loses the right to face the dragon to Danny’s father Wendell (who ends up chickening out at the last minute). Feeling bitter and petulant about the whole thing, Davos sneaks out and illegally tries to fight Shou-Lao anyway. He almost dies, and is left with a partial brand and a whole lot of psychological scarring. Clearly, that’s not the case here, and we’re eager to see how and why he ends up claiming that symbol in this context. 

    Also... who’s that?

    It also seems that Davos has the chi of Shou-Lao! Or at the very least, something that mimics it. Since becoming the Iron Fist is Davos’s big life goal, this happens a whole bunch of times in the comics, and it’s exciting that MCU Davos will be doing the same. In the comics this kind of story has taken several different forms. In a few cases Davos has managed to tap into other sources of chi that have given him powers analogous to that of an actual Iron Fist. And there are also a few times he has actually stolen Danny’s chi. This has never really worked out for him. In one instance, Danny simply challenges him to ritual combat and wins his powers back. And in the other, Davos loses control of the chi, causing him to spontaneously combust (don’t worry, he uh, comes back to life eventually...). 

    The contents of the trailer seem to suggest that this might be a case of actual chi theft, which is the most exciting option, because it also means that Danny will spend part of the season powerless— which is always a compelling superhero narrative (at least, in our opinion). And since this power is tied directly to Danny’s identity as the Iron Fist, fighting to get it back will allow Danny to fully analyze what that part of his identity means to him, how much he wants it, and by fighting for it, to thus own all of that. This is really exciting, and makes sense as a logical next step in the journey he has been taking in these shows. 

    In the comics, stealing chi in this way involves what we've dubbed “Extreme Hugging”: 

Davos: “Step into my arms, young fool!”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #15 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and B. Patterson    

Danny: “Come... embrace me.”

Iron Fist vol. 2 #2 by James Felder, Robert Brown, and Mike Thomas

    We hope the same is true in the show, because we cherish this heartwarming worldbuilding detail.

    MISTYYY! Misty Misty Misty MistyMistyMistyMisty!

    Oh, right. Analysis.

    Misty is coming home! Her debut issue was Marvel Premiere #21 (an Iron Fist comic), she was a major Iron Fist character for a huge chunk of her career, she and Danny dated on-and-off for thirty years as Marvel’s first interracial couple, she and Colleen have been business partners and best friends for nearly their entire comics existence, and it’s about dang time she made her way onto this show! All of the information we have so far suggests that Misty’s police work will take her to Chinatown, where she will end up working with Danny and Colleen. We’re dying to see this, because she has yet to even speak to Danny on-screen(?!!?!), her friendship with Colleen was beautifully set up in Luke Cage Season 2, and we cannot wait to see how she reacts to all of the trademark Iron Fist shenanigans.         

    (Woooo!)

    It goes without saying that all of the fight scenes look awesome. If we took the time to go through and point out every cool fight, this post would be way too long. Here’s another one: 

    (There are a whole bunch of kitchen fight clips in this trailer. Can’t wait! You can’t go wrong with a kitchen fight.)

    And one more: 

    But just watch the trailer. This season is going to have some amazing action-- which, as an Iron Fist show, it should. 

    Once again, amid all of the supernatural shenanigans we have the poor Meachum siblings. For us, most of what made Ward interesting died with Harold, so we’re curious to see how he’ll fit into this season. On the other hand, Joy is going to be right in the thick of things, and so watching how that impacts their relationship should be fascinating. Whose side will Ward take? Will he finally get a vacation?  

    We also know, as mentioned above, that Danny and Colleen are still dating, and have in fact moved in together. (They were already essentially living together, so this isn’t that surprising.) Based on the little promos the Twitter account has been putting out, this season is clearly going to emphasize this relationship, and all of the struggles and complications inherent in this degree of intimacy. We don’t find romance all that interesting, though have been impressed by how well the writers and actors involved have crafted this relationship. And of course, we love Danny and Colleen and are happy to see them in any context. 

    T-minus sixteen days to go!