One of the biggest martial art series premieres in recent history follows a privileged American spend several years in Asia, train extensively in Chinese fighting styles and return to put their newfound skills to good use in the defense of their hometown while being menaced by a sinister, mystical organization. This is the basic overarching premise behind The CW’s reboot of Kung Fu but also Netflix’s Iron Fist. And two episodes in, it’s already clear that Kung Fu has corrected and avoided some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s martial arts series’ issues altogether.
Kung Fu has Chinese American Harvard Law School student Nicky Shen spend three years training in martial arts at a remote monastery in China after dropping out in the face of overbearing, micro-managed pressure from her mother. After the monastery is razed by a mysterious woman at the head of a ninja sect for its mystical weapons, Nicky returns home to San Francisco to reconcile with her family and defend the city from a crime wave while searching for the woman who murdered her mentor.
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Premiering on Netflix in 2017, Iron Fist adapted the Marvel Comics’ character of the same name created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. After his private plane crashes in the Himalayas, billionaire orphan Danny Rand trains at the mythical city of K’un-L’un for years before returning home to Manhattan as an adult. Able to harness his chi following the slaying of an ancient dragon, Danny assumes the superhero mantle of Iron Fist as he defends his city from an evil cult of ninjas known as The Hand.
Critically, Kung Fu boasts a higher professional critics’ score on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes over Iron Fist by a considerable margin. Kung Fu has a score of 80 percent, whereas Iron Fist holds an average score of 37 percent between its two seasons. Not to mention the action set pieces in Kung Fu are generally more competently choreographed and executed. The plot is more straightforward and easy-to-follow in comparison to Iron Fist‘s convoluted subplots involving K’un-L’un and the Rand family’s business partners, the Meachums, and especially awkward, stilted fights throughout the first season.
Then, of course, there’s the matter of Iron Fist‘s more problematic elements. The character of Iron Fist is certainly the product of his time, introduced in 1974 when superheroes tended to be a bit more homogenous in appearance, including race. The idea of Caucasian Danny Rand being the one worthy of traveling to China and wielding the power of Iron Fist — whereas many of its native inhabitants could not — personifies the white savior trope; the idea that an indigenous population needs a Caucasian hero to save them from themselves and show them the way. Boasting a predominantly Asian cast, Kung Fu sidesteps this dated trope entirely and provides some much-needed representation on a major television network series. Nicky is still an outsider of sorts in China but Kung Fu is the story of a woman reclaiming her ancestral heritage.
Kung Fu continues to gain momentum as Olivia Liang leads an appealing cast and brings the martial arts action. Iron Fist was working towards steady improvement, which may have become even more visible in a planned third season. However, it was hamstrung coming out the gate with aspects of its casting that it never quite got the chance to rebound from. At any rate, Kung Fu more than fills the void left by Iron Fist‘s cancellation and provides a clear example of how a thematically similar premise can be more deftly presented, in all its high-kicking glory.
Executive produced by Christina M. Kim, Martin Gero, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Warner Bros. TV, Kung Fu stars Olivia Liang, Tzi Ma, Kheng Hua Tan, Tony Chung, Jon Prasida, Shannon Dang, Eddie Liu and Vanessa Kai. The new episodes air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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