Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Thirty-Nine: Journey of the Iron Fist

Journey of the Iron Fist

First Aired: June 16th, 2013

Synopsis: Spider-Man and Iron Fist are training on the Brooklyn Bridge when a ninja shows up and attacks them. During the fight Iron Fist is scratched by the ninja's kunai before Spider-Man manages to get rid of him by webbing him to a truck. An old man appears before them and Iron Fist tells Spider-Man that he must return home, thanking Spider-Man for all he's done for him. Spider-Man is naturally confused, and follows them to the airport, jumping on the plane they take which eventually lands in K'un L'un. Spider-Man is immediately attacked by Scorpion, a warrior of K'un L'un and spiritual brother of Iron Fist, but Danny stops him, saying that Spider-Man is here as his guest. Danny then explains to Spider-Man that he's going to become the king of K'un L'un, but had a year in the outside world to say his farewells - and that year is up. As he explains, Danny starts falling sick due to some poison from the kunai scratch, which means that he can't enter the trial to prove that he can be king.

As a result of this Scorpion should become the king by default, but Danny nominates Spider-Man to be his champion and fight in the trial in his stead. Spider-Man accepts, and as he and Scorpion race up a mountain to reach a crown first, Scorpion attacks him. Spider-Man realises that Scorpion was the ninja who attacked him and Danny, and that he did so to try and sabotage Danny's chance of being king. Scorpion ends up reaching the crown, but he then falls victim to an illusion, resulting in Spider-Man having to save him. The elder of K'un L'un reveals that since Spider-Man saved Scorpion, that means that Danny won, as the contest was never about physical skill, and all about honour. Scorpion is outraged and attacks Danny, who manages to manifest two iron fists to defeat him. The elder exiles Scorpion, and Danny hugs Spider-Man, grateful for the time they've had together. The elder then says that if more people in the outside world are like Spider-Man, there's nothing wrong with Danny spending one more year there to learn some more from them, for which Danny is grateful.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• At the start of the episode, when Spider-Man and Iron Fist are fighting the ninja, they're knocked off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man's taken off his web-shooters for the training, so how do they get out of this dire situation? Iron Fist punches the water, which somehow causes an explosion powerful enough to rocket them back up to the bridge. Yeah, it didn't really make sense to me either.
• What does this episode have in common with The Bride of Dracula? Both episodes think it's perfectly normal to cling to the outside of a plane as it travels across continents and that you won't run into any issues doing so.
• While in K'un L'un, some of the background characters wear garb similar to Iron Fist's, only red instead of green. In the comics, there was indeed a period where he wore a red version of his costume.
  

Review: I've had plenty of issues with this show so far, but I swear that I'm not predisposed to hating it. Case in point: if more episodes were like this, I think this would be a pretty solid series. Let's see - we've got an episode focusing on one of Spider-Man's teammates and his past, a cool reinterpretation of a classic villain, and a plot that doesn't rely on wonky logic to work. The reinterpretation of Scorpion in particular is excellent - as much as I like the character, there's always some hoops to jump through when introducing him: having to throw him into an experiment, give him a cybernetic tail, and so on. Making him a K'un L'un warrior with an excellent design and scythe-like weapon is as elegant as he is arrogant.

The biggest issue I have with the episode is the idea that Danny is going to become the king of K'un L'un. For a supposedly spiritual city, that feels like a very Western and material concept, and it's obviously been added in because the target audience will think that becoming a king is a cool reward. Iron Fist's origin has been accused of racism over the past few years, and having the episode go, "Oh, yeah, you're totally destined to be the best king ever," right after explicitly mentioning that Iron Fist left Rand Industries to do this isn't a great look. Also, why is he going to be king? Who's currently ruling K'un L'un, and why can't they keep doing it?

The trial itself has some flaws - if it's about honour, what would they have done if Scorpion hadn't entered? Was he forced to participate, and just being used to test Danny? If Danny's already defeated Shou Lao the Undying, why does he now have to do another trial? That being said, unlike most episodes, I can ignore these flaws, because the trial works fairly well within the context of the episode. K'un L'un has some weird rules, and that's enough to justify it for me. So as mentioned, this episode ends up being pretty good overall - and bonus points for putting Scorpion in a place where he can be a recurring villain if necessary.