Amid theglowing fists,yellow masks, and Danny Rand’s continued tendency to throw punches like he’s in a dream, there is one part ofIron Fistseason 2 that has usunreasonablyhyped:Alice Eve’s arrival as classic Marvel villain Typhoid Mary. Today, the Netflix series' official Instagram released two dueling images of the character along with the extremely appropriate caption: “You never really know someone until you see both sides.”
Created by writer Ann Nocenti and artist John Romita Jr., Typhoid Mary has primarily been both a nemesis and love interest of Matt Murdock’s Daredevil since 1988. A mutant, an assassin,anda psychic with the ability to set things ablaze with her mind, the character is usually portrayed as having three distinct personalities: the meek “Mary”, the outgoing, lustful “Typhoid”, and the sadistic “Bloody Mary”.
Although it has strived to be the most grounded of the superhero playgrounds, Netflix’s Marvel Universe hasn’t shied away from the supernatural either—I believe we’re supposed to accept thatFinn Jonespunched an actual dragon one time—so it’s unclear just how much of Mary’s comic book backgroundIron Fistis going to adapt. Whatisclear, however, is that Mary absolutely needs to serve as a solid season-long villain. Iron Fist’s first arc has capital letterIssues—for more on that, let’s throw it over toJeph Loebin a martial arts outfit—but much of it boiled down to The Hand as an uninteresting antagonist. There are not many more concepts more boring or broad than “shadowy, unexplainable cult”, and that’s before the show introduced the sect led by Bakuto (Ramón Rodríguez), which was less an all-powerful organization and more a summer camp for wayward ninjas. Alice Eve is a treasure, and here’s to hoping her Typhoid Mary can at least give Danny Rand something interest to flail at.
Check out the photos below.Iron Fistseason 2—which also starsJessica Henwick,Sacha Dawan,Tom Pelphrey, andJessica Stroup—debuts on Netflix Friday, September 7.
