I definitely think that the Defenders partially redeemed Netflix Iron Fist. At the very least, it showed how good choreography could make the Iron Fist character work. Indeed, for me, the main reason why I was a little soured on Iron Fist season 1 was because of the fight choreography. I said it before, I'll say it again, the best fight that occurred on that show was the intro. Considering how Danny ranks among the martial artists in the Marvel Universe, I was expecting Yuen Woo Ping, Jackie Chan, and Donnie Yen level choreography. What we got was certainly less than that (Thus, I'm glad to see that there's been a lot of lead time for Finn to prepare for the new season.)
However, I still dug Iron Fist season 1. Was Danny too self-centered, oblivious to the real world events around him? Was he too angry? Yeah, but that does fit with Danny's characterization in the comics. Plus, there were some great surprises there. I didn't expect to see Ward Meachum become such an intriguing character!
I very much agree with this. It was infuriating to see all of these articles published by certain individuals who focused on Danny being the white savior by JUST looking at his origin story from the 1970s. It pissed me off to see that none of these critics seemed to catch up on the progressive and recent developments of the character, like his relationships with Luke Cage and Misty Knight, the arrival of Pei, or the fall of the repressive patriarchy in K'un Lun. So when Danny told Divine Wolf in Iron Fist #5 that the title of Iron Fist was given to him, but that rather he earned it, that was big catharsis.
In any case, speaking about the final issue of Brisson's run, I'll say that I was very pleased. It was just a straight up, by the numbers Brisson issue, meaning that it had great action and the occasional plot twist. It was a perfect way to end the series
.