6) The Ringmaster
In episode 3, Colleen starts participating in cage fights, and the announcer of these fights is listed as Ringmaster in the credits. We could be overthinking it, but this might be a nod to little-known Spider-Man villain the Ringmaster. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character was the leader of The Circus of Crime. The only connection with the guy in Iron Fist though is that they both have colourful fashion senses.
Also, one of Colleen’s sparring partners is a thug named Jimmy Pierce. This has to be a nod to the character of the same name in the comics. He began as a low-level criminal and graduated into a new version of The Punisher, once Frank Castle was assumed to be dead.
Staying with Spider-Man comics, Danny Rand’s fake passport bears the name John Anderson. As the name is a fairly common one, this could just be a coincidence, but we would be failing in our duty if we didn’t direct you to the comic book character John Anderson. This one was Peter Parker’s neighbour from New Zealand and appeared in 2003’s The Spectacular Spider-Man series. He definitely wasn’t Iron Fist in disguise, though.
5) Monsters Unleashed!
When Danny gets his dad’s old office in episode 4, one of the first things he does is jump under the desk to inspect the monster stickers he put there as a child. Eagle-eyed old-school Marvel fans will notice that the stickers depict monsters created by comic book legend Jack Kirby.
It’s tough to make them all out, but we can definitely see Mangog (above Danny’s thumb), Orrgo (with the large yellow eyes), Vandoom’s Monster (by Danny’s fingers) and Xemnu the Titan (to the right of the dragon). Â We may not ever get to see Marvel’s monsters brought to life on screen with impeccable CGI, but at least the studio got them into the MCU in some form.
