Warning: SPOILERS for Iron Fist ahead
-
With Netflix’s Iron Fist now available for public consumption, many fans have looked into their tea leaves to try and figure out where the Marvel TV landscape will go. The response of fans and critics to Jon Bernthal’s performance as Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher prompted Marvel to begin developing a solo series for the character, which is set to be released later this year. And while the general response to Iron Fist has been mixed at best, the fan and critic feedback makes a strong case for Marvel to consider a Daughters of the Dragon series.
Daughters of the Dragon is the name of the team up between Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. First introduced as a team in 1977 in Marvel Team Up #64, the duo has been featured in several comics pertaining to Iron Fist and Luke Cage, particularly in the Heroes for Hire arc. The duo, played by Simone Missick and Jessica Henwick, are among the few things nearly everyone can agree on being done well in their respective series. Pairing them together seems like a logical choice and would not only be enjoyable for fans, but it would also give Marvel it’s third exclusively female-driven property (Agent Carter and Jessica Jones being the other two).
More than simply being a team up of two well-realized characters, a Daughters of the Dragon series would allow Marvel to address some of the plot and story points that have plagued two of the four main series. One of the biggest problems with Daredevil’s second season and this first season of Iron Fist has been how the heroes (and the shows themselves) have handled the threat of The Hand. While Matt Murdock’s approach was stealthier, he ended up having to face off against an army of ninjas and got the love of his life killed. Danny Rand, meanwhile, charged into his battle with The Hand with incredible naïveté and by the series’ end had only barely managed to rid his own company of their influence.
The Hand, run by the possible Crane Mother and preternaturally devious Madam Gao, has infiltrated every aspect of society so thoroughly and completely that it has even been able to survive having multiple factions within it: a “bad” Hand run by Gao, and a “good” Hand run by Bakuto. Marvel has shown audiences just how expansive of a force The Hand is, and it is going to take more than one person punching their way past a leader or taking down Madam Gao. This need for a more systematic and organized takedown is where a Daughters of the Dragon series would make complete sense within the universe.
Colleen Wing, as was revealed in Iron Fist, is a (now former) member of the Hand and, given her close relationship to Bakuto, a member of great value. She taught most of the younger students how to fight and indoctrinated them into The Hand, and her knowledge of how the organization works could be essential in putting a stop to their machinations. There’s great drama to be had with her trying to stop an organization that’s so much a part of her, and we saw in Iron Fist just a taste of how that conflict affected her. Also, Colleen, having now stabbed her own sensei, become a cage fighting champion, and been ready and willing to cut Harold Meachum's head off, is free from the normal morality of her Bushido code. She knows how to kill someone in The Hand permanently, which would make her one compelling half of a crime fighting duo.
The other half of this team, Misty Knight, has already faced down the corruption in her department, with her former partner Scarfe being under the employ of Cottonmouth, and has the weight of a department that is tasked with keeping citizens safe. Also, as shown in Luke Cage, she has a mind for crime like no other, being able to find clues by envisioning herself in the crime scene. Given all of the drama that surrounded her time at the NYPD, it wouldn’t be a stretch that she’d team up with someone trying to root out corruption within an institution.
Beyond just focusing on The Hand, there are many ways this series could go with them becoming crime fighters or stories about what it means to be a super human rather than a superhuman with powers. Colleen and Misty also make a good pairing due to their shared trauma of being in organizations that they ended up turning on/turned on them, their close relations with their male superhero in their lives, and a shared love of sport (basketball for Misty and martial arts for Colleen). It could also be a way of involving them with Jessica Jones in the investigation business, since we already know Misty has interactions with her and that Colleen will also be on the series.
Finally, as shown so far with characters like Jeri Hogarth and Claire Temple, being able to work with other people in key civilian roles (lawyer and nurse respectively) can make lives much easier. Mixing in “regular” problems in with those of a supernatural nature can be extremely compelling television, and hopefully Marvel will see fit to get on this idea sooner rather than later.