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daresplaining · 6 years

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Daredevil Countdown: 10 Days

A (Potential) Season 3 Reading Guide

Despite early indications that this season might draw heavily from the famous Miller/Mazzucchelli/Scheele “Born Again” storyline, showrunner Erik Oleson has made clear over the past week that this will be very much a new story, which will take inspiration from many sources without adhering too closely to any. Based on what we’ve heard/seen so far about the new season, here are some of the story arcs that might be referenced:

Daredevil vol. 1 #48-130: Elden Henson let slip this past weekend that MCU Foggy is going to run for office as the new D.A. (thanks, Elden)! There are three D.A. Foggy stories in the comics: one in which he is duped into a fake nomination by a supervillain (vol. 1 #10-11), one in which he actually runs for real and wins (vol. 1 #48-50), and one in which his re-election campaign is sabotaged by another supervillain (vol. 1 #124-130). It’s tough to say what stories they might pull from, if any, but from vol. 1 #50-130 Foggy becomes the sternest version of himself, gets shot once, and generally grapples with both the issues of crime in New York and his public stance on superheroes. Matt also works as his assistant for a while, thus presenting a fun new version of their dynamic.

Daredevil vol. 1 #56-57: We know we will finally be discovering Karen’s backstory this season. It’s likely that it will end up being something entirely new, but if they do look to the comics for inspiration, the only story that covers her family and past is the Death’s Head arc in volume 1. In this story, Karen returns to her hometown of Fagan Corners, Vermont, where she discovers that her paranoid engineer father has gotten involved in some dark deeds. This is also the story in which Matt tells Karen that he’s Daredevil.

Daredevil vol. 1 #166, 226: The trailer indicates that Melvin Potter may finally become the Gladiator! These two stories seem like good potential sources of inspiration, since both deal with Melvin’s humanity and struggle to be a good person.

Daredevil vol. 1 #169: Oleson mentioned at NYCC that there were things he couldn’t believe Marvel allowed him to do with Bullseye. The footage we’ve seen so far suggests Dex might possibly be suffering from some mental/personality challenges. DD 169 (“Devils”) is a bizarre story that delves into Bullseye’s psyche and his relationship with Matt, in which an undiagnosed brain tumor causes him to hallucinate Daredevil everywhere. Matt hunts him down to try and help him.

Daredevil vol. 1 #191: "Roulette” is a hugely famous issue centered around Matt and Bullseye, and while we haven’t seen any obvious references to it yet, we would be shocked if it didn’t receive at least a nod. Matt nearly kills Bullseye following Elektra’s death, and he ends up in the hospital, completely paralyzed. Matt visits him and runs through an internal monologue on the nature of heroism and the reason he is unable to actually kill Bullseye, framed by a silent, issue-long game of Russian roulette.

Daredevil vol. 1 #227-233: We are still confident that this season will draw a fair amount from “Born Again”, since that story arc includes: Maggie nursing Matt back to health, Matt battling the Kingpin after losing everything, an imposter dressed as Daredevil (whose costume is provided by Melvin Potter), and Matt spending a significant period of time out of the DD suit. It’s also noteworthy that during this arc, Foggy unknowingly takes a lucrative job working for the Kingpin. In the show, with Foggy possibly becoming the DA and Fisk looking to gather pawns and allies, it’s possible we may see something similar.

Daredevil vol. 1 #284-290 (not digitized): Matt returns to NYC from a literal trip to hell and develops amnesia. With Daredevil missing, Bullseye decides to try on the red suit, later receiving the Kingpin’s endorsement to go out and ruin DD’s reputation. By the end, both of their identities get scrambled when Matt regains his memories, puts on a Bullseye costume, and goes out to confront his enemy. We know Bullseye will be acting as Daredevil this season, likely at Fisk’s prompting, so we’re expecting major references to this story arc-- hopefully with the ensuing analysis of morality and identity.

Daredevil vol. 1 #297-300 (not digitized): In many ways, D.G. Chichester’s “Last Rites” is the real ending to “Born Again”. It is also one of the greatest Daredevil/Kingpin stories ever told, and is criminally underrated. In this arc, Fisk attempts to solidify his power by forming “legitimate” business connections and purchasing broadcasting properties, through which he might further influence the minds of New York’s citizens. Having recovered from his own destruction at Fisk’s hands, Matt decides that he needs to take his old enemy down once and for all. The ensuing story is a chess match, in which Matt schemes behind the scenes to topple the Kingpin, just as the Kingpin once toppled him. We’re including this story on this list more out of wishful thinking than anything, in the hopes that it might be referenced. Either way, it’s a story everyone should read. The span of 50-ish issues afterward, which chronicle Fisk’s slow-yet-steady progress from the pits of the underworld back to his seat of power, are also filled with sources of inspiration. Since the process is so long and so slow, it’s tough to pick any one part to recommend.

Daredevil vol. 2 #1-8: “Guardian Devil” is my least favorite Daredevil arc, but they are definitely going to be referencing it. At the very least, we already have this significant panel recreation (from #5). It also digs into Matt’s relationship with Maggie, and is the main reason people think Matt is religious, so it has already had a huge influence on the Netflix show. Bullseye in the church is a “Guardian Devil” reference (and also a movie reference!). In this case, we’re hoping most of the references will be reversals, since a major plot point in this arc is Bullseye killing Karen.

Daredevil vol. 2 #26-31: The first story arc of Bendis’s main run (following “Wake Up”) details the Kingpin’s near-fatal stabbing at the hands of his son and several of his subordinates. And maybe that part will be referenced, but we’re mainly including it on this list because of Vanessa. During this arc, Vanessa Fisk takes her first steps away from the image of innocence and goodness that she represented in previous stories. With her husband out of commission, she seizes control of his resources and uses them to enact lethal vengeance on his attackers. In Season 1, we were treated to a touching exploration of Vanessa and Wilson’s developing romance, and also saw glimpses of Vanessa’s potential ruthlessness. This season, we’re hoping we might see her take on a more active role in Fisk’s enterprises as he rises to power once more.

Daredevil vol. 2 #76-81: This season, Fisk is going to be doing a whole lot of messing with the FBI, starting with bargaining his way out of prison. This has strong “Murdock Papers” vibes, in which Fisk attempts to secure his freedom by offering up proof to the FBI that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. There’s been a lot of speculation that the trademark Murdock Secret Identity Struggles(TM) might finally make their way into the show this season, and that Fisk might figure out/discover that vital information. This is another “Born Again” plot point, and is something we saw him looking into at the end of Season 2. There have been a lot of story arcs dealing with this issue, but the primary ones are: vol. 1 #320-325 and vol. 2 #32-37 (two times in which the press learns Matt’s secret identity and attempts to use it), vol. 3 #35-36 (in which Matt publicly outs himself), and vol. 1 #25-41 (the Mike Murdock Saga, of course).

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1-5: This is Miller’s alternate version of the origin story, and is the source of the black bandanna look, so it was heavily referenced in Season 1. However, since Matt is going to be back in black this season, brutally beating on people (MWF is a notably bloody version of Matt’s origin), we wouldn’t be surprised if there were some more visual/tonal references. In this same vein, Daredevil: Reborn features post-“Shadowland” Matt trying to find himself and wearing the same black bandanna look, so we might even get some references to that story...

Daredevil vol. 4 #6-7: We heard Maggie’s voice in Season 1 and glimpsed her in Season 2, but she is finally being introduced in a meaningful way in Season 3. If, indeed, she is Matt’s mom in this universe, we hope they took inspiration from this arc in volume 4. Not only is this the only story to provide a comprehensive overview of Maggie’s motivations for leaving, it also presents a much more compelling and powerful explanation (post-partum depression) than the vague religious guilt implied in previous runs.

#Daredevil #DD Countdown #Recommendations List #Whew! This ended up longer than expected...

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amandajoyce118 · 6 years

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Daredevil Season 3 Easter Eggs And References

I somehow managed to watch the full season in about a week. Probably because I actually had a day off of work in there. These season of Daredevil borrows heavily from two very famous comic book arcs, “Born Again,” and “Guardian Devil.” If you’re familiar with the comics, you probably saw a few things coming. That being said, there aren’t a huge amount of Easter eggs in the season.

As usual, the Easter eggs are broken down by episode so if you want to read as you go without being spoiled for future episodes, you can. This is spoiler-heavy though, so if you’re trying to steer clear and haven’t watched the season yet, look away. I’ll understand.

I didn’t spend a lot of time explaining who people are if they’ve appeared in the show before, maybe just a reminder here and there in case they didn’t make a huge impression on you.

So, onto the Easter eggs!

S3E01 “Resurrection”

Father Lantom

I’m sure we all remember him from earlier seasons, but this is just a reminder of his role in the comics. In the comics, he also provides a place of refuge for Cloak And Dagger as well as the Runaways. Taking in heroes with sad backstories is kind of his thing.

St. Agnes

Again, sure everyone recognizes it, but also just a reminder that on Agents of SHIELD, the orphanage where Daisy Johnson AKA Skye AKA Mary Sue Poots spent her youth was also called St. Agnes. I’d still love a connection.

The Timeline

Despite Matt waking up and seemingly thinking he just made it out of a collapsed building, it’s actually been “several weeks,” which probably puts this happening right around the same time as the events of the most recent season of Luke Cage or Iron Fist. More episodes will likely clear this up.

Sister Maggie

She is a comic book character, plucked from the pages of the “Born Again” story arc. There’s likely a big reveal coming with Sister Maggie, so I won’t spoil that for you. She also features prominently in the “Guardian Devil” story arc.

Ben Donovan

This lawyer certainly gets around. Taking care of Wilson Fisk still even though he was devoting so much time to Mariah Dillard over on Luke Cage.

Fisk And The Wall

After he gets bad news, he stares at the white wall of his prison cell. You’ll remember in season one, he liked “White Rabbit In A Snowstorm” because it helped him think. It’s also how he was forced to deal with his father abusing his mother.

Rymon Cable

The van that has bad guys Matt decides to test himself against? It’s full of clothes even though it has the Rymon Cable logo on it. There’s no comic book connection to Rymon, but Holly S. Rymon is a “production executive” on the series. She’s also worked on Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher over the last two years.

S3E02 “Please”

Fisk’s Deal

This deal isn’t unlike ones he’s made in the comics to further his own ends. During “Civil War” he actually passes information about Captain America to Iron Man, which briefly makes him a target for other criminals. He tries to get his stature back by putting a hit out on Spider-Man and his family, which backfires when Spider-Man shows up in prison and beats him to a pulp.

Karen’s Backstory

In the comics, she’s an only child, but she does have darker and darker side stories. She becomes a drug addict and a prostitute at one point, so I’m curious to see how much the writers reveal of her dark backstory here.

Blackout Cripples NY

This headline appears on a new newspaper clipping on the wall in Karen’s Bulletin office. Now, all of the other clippings were there before the office belonged to her, courtesy of Ben Urich. That means this new headline is likely one of her stories. That story is likely in response to the blackouts that happened all over the world in Agents of SHIELD season four when a hate group was making a statement about Inhumans.

Blake Tower

You all remember Blake Tower, right? He’s been showing up on multiple shows, just like Ben Donovan, Claire Temple, and Turk Barrett.

“Hell’s Kitchen is ground zero for vigilantes…”

Foggy’s not wrong. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage have all been around in the last few years. Iron Fist promised to protect Hell’s Kitchen, but the events of his last season changed things up a bit.

S3E03 “No Good Deed”

Kingpin’s White/Grey/Lavender Penthouse

The color scheme for Wilson Fisk’s room is very reminiscent of his clothing choices in the comics.

The Presidential Hotel

Was it just me who noticed the hotel, combined with the “Lock Fisk up,” the fake news comments, and the fact that the owner was convicted of fraud? I think those are a lot of real world shoutouts right there, and I appreciate every single one of them.

Fisk’s White Suit

Matt might be hallucinating Fisk, but this is Kingpin’s comic book look. It’s perfect.

Millar

I couldn’t make out the second name of the electrical/plumbing company Matt sneaks into the hotel with, but the first in the logo is definitely Millar. Frank Miller is typically the name associated with Daredevil, but I feel like Millar is a shoutout to comic book creator Mark Millar. He’s better known for the Kick-Ass franchise and his work for DC, but he’s also written on some X-Men books, some Fantastic Four, and some Spider-Man, as well as the “Civil War” arc.

Vanessa Hiding In Spain

Vanessa frequently has to hide out in the comics to escape the wrath of Wilson’s enemies. Spain isn’t usually a big spot for her, but Wilson lived there for about a year in the comics before Lady Bullseye caught up with him and sent a bunch of Hand ninjas after him.

Agent Poindexter

He seems to like the nickname Dex and he has a great skillset - never missing his mark. Benjamin Poindexter is the main alias of a villain named Bullseye in the comics, and I don’t think that’s spoiling anything for you since casting rumors and trailers should have done that already. He’s probably Daredevil’s biggest enemy, not Kingpin. So, that’s going to be fun to watch develop.

Matt’s Clothes

Not his vigilante ensemble, which is a callback to him first starting out in season one. His walking around clothes. It looks a lot like how Stick used to dress when he was in New York, huh? Guess Matt is taking cues from his former sensei.

Matt Picking Foggy’s Pocket

Okay, so I realize this is just a means to an end for Matt, but I like to think of it as another connection between Matt and Daisy. Both orphans at St. Agnes (possibly the same one), both steal the ID of someone who meets with them in order to get more info. (In Daisy AKA Skye’s case, it was Mike Peterson in the Agents of SHIELD pilot.)

S3E04 “Blindsided”

District Attorney Foggy Nelson

Foggy was District Attorney of New York City for a while in the comics. He also became Chief of Staff for the mayor for a while too.

The Prison Fight Sequence

Less an Easter egg and more a reminder that Daredevil is known for doing a spectacular single take fight sequence every season. This one, where the cameraman literally just followed Charlie Cox from room to room lasted nearly a crazy 15 minutes. No cuts. That’s impressive.

“We were just being friendly.”

And Karen pulls a gun on some guys up to no good. I feel like she and Jessica Jones need to hang out more. They could just intimidate skeevey guys in alleys for laughs.

Trucks Full Of Chemicals

The FBI agent’s story about her dad hauling chemicals, I think, made a nice nod to the fact that both Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones got their abilities from trucks full of chemicals hitting them in the comics.

Felix Manning

“Felix” has been the name of the person in charge of Vanessa’s location, so I’m going to wager they’re one in the same. He also appears in a whopping two comic books - Daredevil issues 230 and 231. He wanted Melvin Potter, who appeared early in the Netflix series, to make him a duplicate of the Daredevil costume. He was actually killed by a Daredevil imposter. Foreshadowing? We’ll see.

A Taxi To The Water

A version of this happened in “Born Again.” It didn’t get rid of Matt, but it did make him a little more loopy.

S3E05 “The Perfect Game”

Fisk Giving Matt’s Name

There is a story in the comics where Fisk implicates Matt as a vigilante and gets him arrested. The FBI, however, decides not to take the deal with him, and they put Fisk in prison for numerous crimes as well. This clearly isn’t playing out exactly the same way, but, when Matt and Fisk try to break out of prison during a riot, it’s Bullseye who has to save them. I can’t help but wonder if there was a little inspiration there.

Felix Threatens Karen

Again, a little hint of her backstory here. In the comics, she’s also from the New England area. Her father, Paxton Page, who gets namechecked in the threat, actually became a villain named Death’s Head in the comics.

Baseball And Bullseye

Cute that little Dex has a bullseye on his baseball cap in his childhood. Funnily enough, comic book villain Bullseye claims to have attempted to become a major league baseball player, but he got bored pitching a no hitter and threw the ball at the final hitter to kill him in a minor league game. Killing his coach when he pulls him from the game is a bit of a twist on that.

S3E06 “The Devil You Know”

Matt Doesn’t Take Karen’s Coffee

Luke Cage’s “coffee” has ruined he drink for everyone. Karen offering Matt a cup when he comes to her for help, and Matt refusing could be a sign that anything romantic between them is officially over. Or it means nothing. Who knows?

Karen Is Way Too Comfortable In A Drug Den

Karen is around drugs a lot this season. A lot. And it all seems to give a nod to her comic book story, but I feel like we’re inching toward more of her family backstory with just how comfortable she is buying drugs and making her way around other addicts.

“Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll lock me up next to Fisk.”

This did actually happen in the comics, as I’ve mentioned before. It’s a nice nod.

Felix Manning Getting Dex The Suit

Likewise, I also mentioned Felix being the one to get a copy of a Daredevil suit in the comics. Looks like his appearance was some foreshadowing after all.

Dex As Daredevil

Bullseye has actually dressed up as Daredevil in the comics as well. He’s not the only one. So has Foggy.

Karen Between Bullseye And A Victim

If Karen stepping between Dex and the witness gave you pause, it’s probably because you know how she loses her life in the comics. She gets between Bullseye and Matt in a fight, taking a lethal blow to save Matt’s life. This imagery is not going to be fun for Karen fans.

Side note: I’ve never really been a Karen Page fan because the comics put her firmly in the slot of victim. She never really outgrows that no matter who writes for her. But I love her this season. Maybe it’s because we got to see more of Karen being Karen than of trying to fill someone else’s shoes.

S3E07 “Aftermath”

The Hidden Room

Kingpin officially has a supervillain lair. Less of an Easter egg here and more of it being about time.

WJPBTV, WNEX, WHiH, etc

All of the news networks Fisk sees the Bulletin carnage on exist within the MCU already. WJPB is the news station most often seen in Luke Cage. WNEX is the station that aired Trish Talk. WHiH is the one most often seen in the movies. You get the idea.

Melvin Potter

AKA Gladiator in the comics is something of a gentle giant. He kind of fell into a life of crime, which is largely what Daredevil has done with him in the show as well. The shirt he’s wearing when Matt confronts him is a nod to his comic book costume. So are the saw blades. His girlfriend Betsy was, I believe, a social worker in the comics, not a parole officer. (BTW, the comic that features Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye breaking out of prison during a riot? Melvin’s in prison at the same time as well. Matt advises him to stay in his cell so he doesn’t get hurt.)

S3E08 “Upstairs/Downstairs”

Keys

As Karen nears the front door of her apartment, there’s a piece of paper from a legal pad that says “KEYS.” I love that she’s so focused on her work that she has likely forgotten to take her keys with her enough that it warrants a giant reminder.

Fisk’s Plan

His plan, of putting himself in charge of the criminal groups, is essentially what he wanted in season 2 as well when he gave Frank Castle a means to escape prison.

The Maggia

This is the first time the Italian-American version of the mafia has been mentioned in the present day in the MCU. I say present day because it did have its fingers in Agent Carter season two. In the comics, the Maggia gets the ire of quite a few heroes and antiheroes, but most often, the Punisher.

Sister Maggie

Unless you never read anything related to Daredevil at all, you were probably spoiled at some point that Sister Maggie was really Matt’s mom. People started speculating about the reveal being imminent as soon as there was a “get Maggie” at the end of The Defenders. In the comics, the reveal is a little different as Matt already suspected she was his mother before he found out for sure.

Apartment 131

Dex lives in apartment 131. What comic book did Bullseye make his debut in? Daredevil #131.

S3E09 “Revelations”

Kingpin

Wilson Fisk finally officially gets his codename. I like that we’re back to the season one idea of his lackeys not wanting to name him because someone is always watching/listening.

Karen’s Running

In the comics, Karen basically runs whenever things get hard. I’m kind of surprised she stuck things out this long on the show.

Rosalie Carbone

The woman we see Nadeem take in was last spotted in season two of Luke Cage making a play for Harlem. She’s the one with the Maggia connection. The other names we get are Hammond and Star. The only Hammond I know of in Marvel Comics was the original Human Torch. I’ve got nothing for Star, but the other names could have been picked at random. I don’t recognize the other two people at the table either.

S3E10 “Karen”

Karen Selling Drugs

At least this explains why she’s so comfortable in drug dens. I like that this gives us a nod to her comic book tragedy, but here she’s the seller instead of the addict.

Fagan Corners, Vermont

This is where Karen’s from in the comics as well. The name of the fictional town is an homage to Tom Rutland. Rutland organized an annual Halloween parade in Vermont themed around superheroes. He was actually written into Avengers comics in the 1970s.

Penny’s Place

Named for Karen’s mom in the comics, Penelope.

“... two lines away from doing blow jobs on the street for heroin…”

Maybe this isn’t true on the Netflix show, but yes, this happened in the comics.

Bullseye And Daredevil In The Church

Their in-church fight actually happened in the comics when Matt and Karen were hiding a baby in the church. The big difference here is that when Bullseye aimed a fatal blow at Daredevil with his own billy club, Karen got between them and died from her injury. Father Lantom takes the hit for Karen here.

S3E11 “Reunion”

Custos Diaboli

This is inscribed above the gate to get to the basement where Matt and Karen hide out. From the Latin, in translates to Guardian Devil, one of the comic book arcs the series draws from.

KTTA And ZCN

These are two of the networks I could make out on the mics in front of Fisk when he has a press conference outside of the hotel. KTTA is a television station from the comics that frequently reported on the Thunderbolts. ZCN already exists in the Netflix universe. They offered Trish Walker a job in the second season of Jessica Jones.

Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys At Law

Leave it to Foggy to formally name them as they were named in the comics (and the first season of the show).

Side note: I love the Holocaust survivor standing up to Fisk and refusing to give him her family’s painting. It very much reminds me of the scene in The Avengers when Loki demands everyone kneel, but one man reminds the crowd, “there are always men like you,” and refuses. It’s a great reminder that so many comic book creators, during an era when comics flourished, were Jewish, and their relatives were being persecuted and killed half a world away.

S3E12 “One Last Shot”

Vanessa Embracing The Kingpin

Not a lot of Easter eggs in this episode that I noticed, but I thought it was important to point out that in the normal timeline of the comics, Vanessa isn’t a part of Wilson’s criminal undertakings. In alternate timelines though, she’s the Kingpin herself. Her embracing his work and wanting to be a part of it feels like the writers are trying to find some middle ground there.

Side note: Some fans pointed out on twitter that the Morales vs Parker poster in Fogwell’s Gym is a nod to the Spider-Man characters of Marvel Comics. I find that unlikely only because there are plenty of boxers who have shared those names. It’s more likely a coincidence, especially since most of the names in previous seasons were nod to production team members and writers.

S3E13 “A New Napkin”

The Rose

Interesting that Vanessa specifies Fisk should pick the rose. Why? In the comics, Fisk’s son Richard became a vigilante who used the name the Rose. In fact, he wanted to overthrow his father at one point. His mother was the one who killed him. Will Vanessa become the Rose instead? It would be a nice touch.

The Crystals Bounce Off Fisk’s Suit Jacket

In the comics, Fisk actually wears kevlar under his suits to prevent any of his enemies from surprising him with bullets or knives. In the first season, his body armor that he was wearing were designed by Melvin Potter and he wore them under his suits. It seems he might have gotten an upgrade as everything just bounces off of it instead of tearing it, and he gives his jacket to Vanessa to prevent her being hit by anything.

Karen’s More Stable Than Jessica Jones

There are probably a lot of people more stable than Jessica Jones, Matt, jeez. That doesn’t mean she’s not a great detective.

Dex’s Injury And Cognium

In the comics, Bullseye did some time paralyzed. Of course, like all comic book characters, it didn’t last forever. Something else Dex had in the comics? A spine laced with adamantium. Yep, the same stuff on Wolverine’s bones. It’s what made him so indestructible. The MCU probably can’t use it since it’s reserved for the X-Men movies. At least not until everything about the Disney-FOX deal is official.

Dr. Oyama

This doc goes by another name in the comics. Kenji Oyama is Lord Dark Wind. This is the comic book doctor who found a way to make adamantium bond to bone. Wolverine and Bullseye have him to think for their bone structure.

Dex’s Eye

That final shot of Dex’s eye makes what we’ve all been waiting for clear. Dex is definitely officially Bullseye now.

Side note: The milk crates in the freezer with the bodies that have ice all over them? Must have been there for years. I’ve got milk crates used to store product in my freezer at work, and they never build up frost. And our freezer is kept far below zero. Also? I love how much Rosalie Carbone appreciates theatrics. And how Vanessa just wanders around in the background after Fisk repeatedly tells her to leave while there’s a huge fight going on. That’s all.

#daredevil #daredevil season 3 #daredevil spoilers #easter eggs #marvel comics

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briangroth27 · 7 years

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Marvel’s Defenders Season 1 Review

Full Spoilers…

Marvel’s Defenders was enjoyable and is definitely worth watching, but I’m not sure it did all it could have. The chemistry between Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Kristen Ritter), and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) worked very well, but Iron Fist (Finn Jones) was the weak link. He had a few good moments, but Defenders still couldn’t redeem him for me. I was impressed by the inclusion of nearly every major supporting character from the four previous Netflix series, even if they weren’t used to their fullest potential. The Hand didn’t reach the heights I was hoping as the ultimate bad guys in the Netflix corner of the MCU (so far), but I was genuinely entertained and feel that their arc has come to a mostly satisfying conclusion.

Matt Murdock/Daredevil Matt’s one of my favorite comic characters and I’ve loved Charlie Cox’s interpretation of the character over three seasons now. I was surprised to find him retired from superheroics, but it was great to see him relating to and comforting a recently paralyzed teen (Gabe White) in his opening scenes; I’d definitely like more glimpses at how Matt’s powers and his blindness shape his worldview, so things like this—a way to save a kid without being Daredevil—are very cool. So much of Matt’s arc over the course of his series has been about how best to be a hero and what the line between hero and villain even is, so it was nice to see him mulling over whether he’d done the right thing in stepping down as Daredevil. When he did finally return to the suit, it was awesome! Murdock was hands-down the best fighter in the show, which hurt the credibility of these other martial arts masters a bit. His flippy and highly acrobatic style is always fun to watch, and Defenders was no exception. Matt’s casual parkour to travel the city (and evade Jessica) got a good workout here and I hope it pops up even more in Season 3, as that’s a comic book element I wish they’d show more of in Daredevil. Elektra (Elodie Yung) was the only character who matched his fighting prowess—Colleen (Jessica Henwick) was close, but didn’t get to do as much hand-to-hand as the others—and Iron Fist and the Hand looked lackluster in comparison.

Speaking of Elektra, I loved how dedicated (and possibly deluded) Matt was into thinking he could save her. Executive Producer Marco Ramirez said he felt Matt believed Elektra was a problem he had to deal with himself and I get that, but I think that drive could’ve had bigger implications for the team. It threatens to destabilize them at one point, but when Matt figures out Elektra’s been in his apartment, he lies about what he’s found to Jessica (almost directly after promising her he won’t keep anything back) and he’s never caught. I understand why he wouldn’t come clean—he was the only one who thought she could be redeemed and Stick was liable to have her killed like the last Black Sky (Bonale Fambrini)—and I wish he hadn’t lied, but if they were going to include that action it should’ve had a consequence.

While Luke informed Danny of his white privilege, I thought Matt’s was more striking. Matt was found at the scene of a homicide covered in blood—the cops even took his shirt to test it—yet the idea that he could be involved in Stick’s (Scott Glenn) death didn’t even occur to anyone at the precinct. At first I brushed this off as “who would suspect the blind guy?” but Misty (Simone Missick) didn’t have a reason to think Luke was a killer either and he was still under suspicion. Just because Matt was Luke and Jessica’s lawyer, he must be innocent? The cops barely questioned him about what happened. When he breaks out of the police station with them later, the cops assume he’s been kidnapped?

I loved that so many story threads from Daredevil wrapped up here; it felt like an unofficial Season 3. Not only did we finally find out what the Hand wanted with that specific plot of land, but we learned what wall Stick was referencing in Daredevil Season 1 and what the pit from Season 2 was for. I also liked that Matt’s past with Stick and his old mentor’s way of doing things got in the way of rejoining the war. That was a smart, organic way of giving Matt pause about joining up instead of just being bull-headed (even though he was that too; as Cox pointed out about Season 2—and was just as true here, part of Matt’s arc was learning to ask for help). Murdock feeling nervous about unmasking in front of the others was a great moment of vulnerability for him; even if it was partially about protecting his loved ones, I think it also connected back to his lack of certainty about suiting up again. Taking the scarf off meant declaring that he was Daredevil. I do wish they’d taken a moment for Matt to confront Stick about Nobu’s (Peter Shinkoda) death: one of the very few issues I had with Season 2 was that he threw Nobu off a building and never said whether he knew he could survive the fall or not. If he didn’t, then he definitely tried to kill Nobu, which could’ve been a reason for his retirement (he’d failed at being an upstanding hero, even if Stick was the one who actually finished Nobu off). That’s something that could’ve brought more context to where we found him at the start of Defenders. That said, the rest of his arc was great and I loved that it concluded with Matt saying he was glad Luke and Jessica were with him before they went into the pit at Midland Circle.

I’m glad they didn’t leave any question about whether Matt survived or not and that they’ve already confirmed Daredevil Season 3! I’m excited to meet Maggie Murdock and to see how they handle Born Again, which seems to be where they’re headed; I don’t want to see Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) dragged through the mud like in the comic, though. Whatever the next story is, I hope that after upping the challenges from gangsters to undead ninjas, Matt gets to face off with supervillains next!

Jessica Jones While Matt and Danny’s arcs segued into the miniseries’ plot most cleanly, I was impressed Jessica and Luke’s investigations brought them into the Hand hijinks just as naturally. In fact, the confluence of these four heroes at Midland Circle felt more natural than an outside force recruiting random superpeople to join the Avengers. I liked how thorough Jessica was with her investigation into the Hand’s building and that they took the time to show it. It would’ve been easy, particularly in a condensed miniseries, to just have her show up and explain the work she’d done, so showing it was a great bit of characterization instead.

While Jessica’s general disdain for heroics can be fun—particularly when interacting with Matt and Danny—it is beginning to become one-note. She isn’t new to these powers and even if she doesn’t want to dress up in a costume (or even want her abilities), I’d like to see her at least more willing to help people, even if it’s just to pay her bills. If nothing else, her powers make her job easier than it would be for most people, so why hate them so much? Speaking of her powers, they absolutely need to determine some limits to what she can and can’t do; vaguely strong and maybe able to fly isn’t good enough. Still, Ritter found a good balance between her disdain for her powers and being overwhelmed at all the magic going on without coming off as coldly unwilling to help. I do think they could’ve dug into her discomfort with magic and resurrections by bringing up Purple Man at least for a moment. It would’ve been great to force her to confront the idea of resurrections with the possibility—however remote—of Killgrave also coming back and what that would mean for her. If snapping his neck herself wasn’t enough, could she ever find peace? Particularly since David Tennant is back in some form in Season 2, this would’ve been a great moment to tease that she’s still dealing with lingering doubts about her success in getting rid of her abuser.

I loved that there wasn’t much (if any) angst between Jessica and Luke once they met for the first time since Jones’ first season. They’d both moved on and that growth was fine by me. I didn’t like the implication of Jessica asking Luke out for coffee (even if I can’t quite remember if it had the connotation in her show that it did in Luke Cage), so I was glad he shot her down. I know they’re married in the comics, but just being friends works for the MCU in my opinion. If she’s going to have a relationship with a superhero, I really liked her interactions with Matt here. They had some really fun banter, so I’d be open to seeing where they might go. Perhaps Jessica and Matt could strike up a romantic/heroic partnership like he did with Black Widow in the comics. They worked well together when they visited the Raymond home and it was nice to see Jessica connect with Lexi Raymond (Chloe Levine) through what she’d learned about Matt’s dad, showing she understood him as well.

Regardless of who she ends up with (not that she needs to end up with anyone), I’m glad Jessica’s arc took her to a place where she could open up again. Starting to experience and engage with the wider world of powers was a cool metaphor for getting back into the business of living her life as well. It would’ve been good to see how Malcolm (Eka Darville) fits into her detective agency a bit more, though. That’s not where she was yet, but we could’ve gotten some tease about how they’d work together at the end. On the other hand, Trish’s (Rachael Taylor) radio talk show reporting on the earthquakes in New York felt like a classic superhero/journalist connection for Jessica and I hope they play that up in Season 2. If she could act as an early warning source of information for Jessica, it’d be great! I’m also very ready for Jessica to face an enemy who isn’t Killgrave; she was perfectly out of her element with the Hand and I’m eager to see her face completely new challenges in her second season!

Luke Cage Luke was a big surprise for me when I watched his series; I knew almost nothing about his character and came out of his first season a huge fan. Colter portrayed him as something of a soulful Captain America just trying to do right by his neighborhood and it was perfect (I’d love for him and Steve to meet and just hang out some day!). I was surprised Defenders got him out of prison right away and I liked that fresh start. I thought his past crimes would continue looming over him, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him out so soon and an even better one to see that he’d truly moved on from his past. Of all of the heroes, Luke seems to have put his demons behind him completely at the start of this miniseries; with his time served, his personal history is settled.

I love Luke and Claire (Rosario Dawson) together and their post-prison sex session was a long time coming! I’m glad they wasted no time and I hope this relationship grows a lot in Luke’s second season. Also wasting no time was Misty Knight, who immediately got Luke back into the business of crime fighting (by the way, I like that Luke is effortlessly able to remain friends with not one but two of his exes). I love that he’s still so dedicated to his community and his personal bonds with the people within it are perfect, not only for his character but as a contrast to how the other heroes interact with the civilians around them. Matt may connect with people as Murdock, but Daredevil is meant to be scary and stealthy. Luke seems like he’d stop and talk about life with someone he’d just saved (assuming the villain was down), and continue checking in for weeks after the rescue. That’s not something we normally see from heroes and it’s something I’d love to see more of. His concern over both Cole (J. Mallory McCree) because of his job working for the Hand and Cole’s mom Dolores (Debbi Morgan) because of her family’s tragedies were excellent, even if he couldn’t save the day.

I would’ve loved to see Luke take down Sowande (Babs Olusanmokun), but his reappearance with the Hand leader in tow was still a great moment. I do think his hopefulness could’ve been tested by Sowande and the Hand’s apparent ability to completely demoralize their enemy; that’s a failing of the Hand’s characterization here and a missed opportunity to test for chinks in Luke’s armor. I enjoyed that Luke remained the most moral of the heroes, not wanting to blow up a building, and I wonder if that moment in particular was partially because he knew how easily the system can turn against you even if you’re doing the right thing. That said, I think he (if not Matt too) should’ve had a problem with leaving the Hand ninjas to die in the explosion; they agreed no one would get hurt and that seemed to go out the window once the bombs were activated. Regardless, his morality and sense of calm played well off of Matt’s obsessive crusade, Jessica’s apathy, and Danny’s unrefined enthusiasm. In fact, the scenes of Luke bonding with Danny, informing him of his white male privilege, and commiserating about how much gaining their superpowers hurt were the one area I saw a glimmer of hope for Rand. I don’t need them to team up here like in the comics by any means—Luke has a vibrant and fertile corner of the MCU without needing Danny to make it more interesting—but it’s good to know that if they do become best friends like in the comics, Luke can pull some likability out of Danny.

I think they definitely need to work on creating distinctive fighting styles for both Luke and Jessica. Both of them seemed to just barrel through ninjas and throw them around, but they could be doing more (though “barreling through” could work as Luke’s preferred style, since he doesn’t have to worry about gunshots or getting hit). On a story level, I’d really like to see Luke move faster into helping people in addition to getting involved with one person at a time. I wish they would’ve ended the season with him opening up his hero for hire business, possibly in the old barbershop. Misty started the season prodding him to become more of a helper and I would’ve liked to see how he decided to do that in a bookend scene at the end of the miniseries.

Danny Rand/Iron Fist I don’t want to keep harping on Rand—who looks for things to hate?—but even with his slight improvement here, he’s still the weak link of the Netflix MCU. While they smartly ignored the contradictory bits of his mythos (how can he defeat the Hand if he’s not allowed to leave K’un-Lun and why didn’t he know his greatest enemies still existed?), he still came off as brash and green (not in terms of his super-suit, though; he apparently still can’t have that). Danny trained to be one of the world’s greatest warriors for 15 years and there’s no excuse for him to still appear so fresh-faced. Even if they wanted to play a “training isn’t the same thing as war” arc with him, he’s been written as being so inept that it seems like he wasn’t trained at all. I’ve read that the idea behind Danny in this miniseries was to look up to the others as experienced heroes he could trust and seek out a partnership with them, but that didn’t really come through. Sure he’s enthusiastic about a team-up, but as soon as Danny doesn’t get his way, he’s off to do some stupid thing. I will say that while the other Defenders get to take verbal shots at him, Finn Jones played Danny in a way that didn’t feel like he couldn’t take their barbs; a definite improvement over his temper tantrums in his first season. And again, his bonding scenes with Luke were the most relaxed and natural Jones has felt in the role, so I’m glad they found the touchstone of that bond.

Defenders does undo a few of the questionable aspects of Iron Fist, though. Claire not calling Matt in for help against the Hand made a bit more sense now that we know he was retired, even if I’m convinced Matt would’ve suited up to help her anyway. The Hand not using the creepy-cool ninjas from Daredevil’s second season in Iron Fist’s first also makes sense if Elektra got the last of the resurrection substance (though where the undead ninjas went during Iron Fist remains a question. Even if Danny didn’t know much about the Hand, at least Defenders opened with him and Colleen running around hitting the Hand’s bases. This miniseries also finally made use of Danny’s white privilege after his own series ignored it; nothing against Jones, but casting a white actor added nothing to his character there, despite the internet’s insistence that he stay a white guy like in the comics. I liked that while Jessica had to do actual detective work to find Midland Circle, Danny was able to stroll into his company and ask someone else to look it up for him. This could’ve been played up more—and like I said earlier, Matt’s privilege was a much bigger example that seems to have flown under the radar—but I’m glad they finally touched on it and hope for more in Danny’s next season.

As many problems as they solved (at least partially), however, there were still some questions. How does Danny still know so little about his arch-enemies that they need Stick to provide all the exposition on the Hand? I wish Stick and the Chaste had appeared in Iron Fist to connect the dots a little better, but Danny being so clueless makes no sense. His fight choreography was still at the level of his first season, which made him immediately pale in comparison to Matt’s even though he’s supposed to be the much more experienced fighter. Danny bouncing off Luke looked silly more than anything; I was as annoyed with him as Luke looked. I wish the miniseries had ended with Danny getting his costume instead of the track suit-looking outfit he was wearing; it even looks like Matt’s from Daredevil Season 1, only in green and yellow, which would’ve been a perfect way for him to honor Matt’s request that they continue protecting the city. Now that the Hand is gone, I’m somewhat interested in seeing if defending Hell’s Kitchen is enough of a purpose to fulfill Danny, but he’s seemed so lost as it is that I’m not convinced it’ll feel very different.

Claire Temple I’ve really enjoyed Rosario Dawson’s Claire evolving over the course of five previous seasons! Her meetings with each hero felt completely organic and her appearances in each show are always a highlight. Since she’d gotten involved with each of the heroes so naturally, it didn’t feel contrived that Luke would get in a fight with someone else she knew; it just felt like another thread coming together like it was supposed to. I really liked that Colleen pointed out Claire is the foundation of this team of heroes and her reaction to that affirmation was great. While Luke is a steady source of hope, Claire is a great breath of fresh air and a perfect, practical wake-up call to these heroes.

That said, while Claire got the most screentime out of the supporting cast members (perhaps besides Colleen), I’m surprised she didn’t have more to do. As natural as facilitating the introductions was, it felt like she stepped away after that. When she’d appear in the individual series (minus Jessica Jones), she became an integral part as soon as she was involved in the action and I was hoping for more of that here. True she was involved in the final assault on Midland Circle, but nothing she did there had to be done by her specifically. I’m definitely interested to see what role she plays in the future of the Netflix MCU. Will she just remain their “Night Nurse,” patching them up and giving them advice? Or does she have a greater destiny? I don’t need or really want her to become a superhero herself (though she did take to combat pretty naturally in Iron Fist), but I would’ve liked an indication of where she’s going now. It’d be cool if they came up with a completely new role for her that wasn’t a now-common trope like the central information hub or something.

Allies Along with Claire, Colleen Wing was my favorite aspect of Iron Fist. Willingly being part of the Hand and then finding out just how evil they were was a fantastic arc and her reveal as a member was the biggest shock in the series for me. It was great to see her back for this and I’m glad she was right in the thick of the action almost the whole way through. However, I wish her history with the Hand had been more relevant to the events of Defenders. True, she finally got even with Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez) and I was glad to see that, but what about all the Hand operatives she trained? Her righteous fury at being used and lied to was great, but a moment to consider the criminals she’d primed for service would’ve been better. How many secret ninjas are out there doing harm because she trained them? Even better, instead of facing Bakuto again and reaching the same resolution they did in their battle in Iron Fist, what if Colleen had been faced with her former pupils?

I really dug Misty Knight in Luke Cage and I was happy to see her here. Reaching out to Luke to get him to contribute more was a nice beat, but I would’ve liked less skepticism about the vigilantes from her. She walked a tightrope over the need for vigilantes vs. the rule of law before, and it seemed like the end of Luke’s first season felt like she was opening up to the idea of vigilantism, even wearing her comic book outfit. If I’m remembering that correctly, she’s the only character who felt like she took a major step back at the start of Defenders. Others have pointed out the significant mention that she’s in a Rand-owned hospital after getting her arm cut off, so it’ll probably be a Rand-developed cyborg arm that she gets. I’m interested to see how that goes with this version of Misty. I’d also like to know if she’ll face any consequences in the fallout from Midland Circle. While the Defenders seem to have gotten off without any trouble, she’s a cop and helped them. Will there be repercussions that lead her to life as a vigilante?

I like Scott Glenn’s Stick and have truly enjoyed his antagonistic mentor/fatherly relationship with Matt, but by Defenders I was ready to see him go. It just felt right for him to pass the torch on to the next generation in this war or, more fittingly, for the war’s last soldier to go out helping to end it. Cutting his own arm off to escape Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) and Elektra was badass (even if his severed arm was less than convincing) and I was impressed by how capable he still was even after losing the hand and who knows how much blood! His no-nonsense attitude played well against the Defenders, even if it drove them away at times (true to their characters). I chuckled at him low-key wanting to kill Danny when the others were trying to convince Rand to lay low and I was pleased the writers actually let him try to do it. My distaste for Iron Fist aside, it wouldn’t have felt right if the Defenders were able to talk him down from trying to solve the problem the only way he knows how; just like the first Black Sky we met, Stick felt he had to kill Danny. It was also cool that Stick figured out a new weakness of Luke’s with his knockout gas; going forward, I hope the Luke Cage writers continue to explore other ways of attacking him besides bullets. It was tragic Matt didn’t make it back in time to say anything to Stick when he died; I would’ve liked one last bit of resolution to their disagreements, but sometimes you don’t get that in life.

It was good (and a little surprising) to see so many of the supporting characters show up here. That said, I wish there was more for them to do, even if it was just cool that they got time to interact with each other (something I wasn’t expecting at all). Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen fared the best, with their concern over Matt becoming Daredevil again giving them some good material to dig into. It would’ve been nice to see more about how Karen felt about Matt being Daredevil since she only found out in the last moments of the Season 2 finale, but their talks here felt right. I liked that she was annoyed that his Daredevil life interrupted hers by making her a target again. Thinking about it now, I hope Matt’s presumed death isn’t what pushes Karen back into whatever darkness has been hinted at in her past, which could tie into her arc in Born Again. Foggy giving Matt his suit felt like a big step for him and I’m definitely interested to see how he handles Matt’s “death.” Trish and Malcolm’s attempts to get Jessica back into the world were good, but they didn’t really work (her camaraderie with the Defenders did), so I would’ve enjoyed them having some effect on the outcome of the series or our main characters. Maybe Trish knowing what went down at Midland Circle could’ve twisted the police’s arm into covering it up and letting the Defenders go, under threat of her show revealing there was a massive infrastructure takeover by the Hand (that she’d have proof of in this scenario) and the PD were completely powerless—and maybe even infiltrated by—to stop. That would’ve connected nicely to her bosses cutting off the call to her show about the earthquakes not being normal early on in the miniseries.

Alexandra Reid I thought Alexandra was a great leader of the Hand and I wish she hadn’t died. Even if she had to go, I think we should’ve known her (and the Hand’s) further plans beyond eternal life and returning to K’un-Lun. I’m bored of businesspeople as villains, but the Hand’s corporate front felt thin enough that she didn’t really resemble one to me too much. Alexandra seemed more like an independently wealthy individual who expected her power to allow her to continue with her routine, no matter how many people she had to crush along the way. She was likable and an imposing villain with unexpected depth from her motherly relationship with Elektra, but ultimately I thought she’d be a bigger threat or have a larger plan than her own survival. While personal and relatable, I originally didn’t feel that type of plan needed four heroes to stop, but as I’ll discuss later, it may be the perfect evil scheme for the Defenders. I didn’t think she’d physically fight the heroes, but I would’ve liked to see a bigger confrontation between them. I liked that she was somewhat amused by the Defenders standing up to her and I would’ve enjoyed seeing her fully unleashed against them (why was Gao the only one with a special power?), even if just once. Her wardrobe was definitely distinctive and felt appropriately of another era, as was Weaver’s air of superiority that effused from her in nearly every scene. I also really liked that none of the Hand leaders were tired of immortality; that’s a tired trope and, even if all they wanted was to maintain the status quo, it was cool to see immortals who didn’t want to stop living.

Elektra Natchios I loved Elektra’s arc in this series, from confused “blank slate” Black Sky to Hand assassin to master of her own destiny. Though her resurrection and training scenes were solid, I wish we’d learned more about what the Black Sky was exactly and why she was different from the other undead Hand ninjas. I’m assuming it means that she was supposed to be resurrected as a complete blank slate rather than one who can regain her memory completely (in addition to being able to take down the Iron Fist), but we should’ve gotten some clarification on that point. Still, Yung did a great job of slowly investigating and recapturing flashes of her former life! I also loved her mother/daughter relationship with Alexandra; it was just “off” enough to work really well. I didn’t see her killing Alexandra coming at all! I read that Marco Ramirez said the intention of that moment was for Elektra to take hold of her life and determine who she was for herself. I’d say that worked—and I realized later that she also killed her other mentor, Stick, which is a nice signifier that she won’t be returning to either of her lives—I just wish we’d seen what she wanted with leadership of the Hand. Apparently she wanted to stay immortal too, but did she have any other plans? Was she going to lead the Hand in a new direction? If so, what was it and were the other leaders only helping her to get their hands on the substance? If she was just going to keep things the same, then killing Alexandra loses a bit of impact (at least plotwise, because the emotional statement of the action is definitely there), I think.

If Elektra was the one to drag Matt out of the pit, then I’m definitely excited to see them meet again sometime in the future. Despite saying the fight with Matt and leadership of the Hand was what she wanted, if she saved him then he wasn’t completely wrong about her. I’d definitely be interested in seeing who she chooses to become now and how she gets there. Perhaps there’s still hope for her after all…

The Hand I liked Alexandra, Elektra, Gao (Wai Ching Ho), and Sowande quite a bit. The supernatural element the Hand brought to the MCU worked well for me, even in the grounded Defenders corner, and I liked them as a step up from gangsters. However, I do feel they’ve run their course and don’t need to see them in this form again; the next level of bad guys should be supervillains. It would’ve been nice if each of the Hand’s Fingers had their own individual goals and plans for their renewed immortality, but I understand why such limited screentime would keep them (mostly) united in their purpose. Though Gao rapidly became one of my favorite MCU villains, if she survived the destruction of the tower I’m not sure where she goes after this. Perhaps a Gao who’s lost everything would be an interesting adversary. I totally missed that her drugs in Daredevil’s first season were made from powdered dragon bones; it was cool she was able to diversify herself and that was a clever way to tie things together. I don’t need to see her again immediately, but I wouldn’t be opposed to her popping up sometime later. Sowande employing neighborhood kids to clean up Hand business was a cool operation and a neat way to tie in Luke Cage. I hadn’t considered that they’d need a clean-up crew and thought that was a smart way to flesh out their support structure. However, I was sorry to see Sowande die so easily: he had excellent presence and it felt like he deserved more. I don’t find Bakuto imposing, so he didn’t leave much impact on me here; his battle with Colleen felt like a retread of Iron Fist. The Hand seemed like enough of a threat before he was revealed to be alive and it didn’t seem like they got more dangerous with him around. Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi) was similarly underwhelming and didn’t seem like a fitting step up from Nobu. He was billed as some great warrior—Nobu’s boss, even—but it felt like he was consistently taken down first whenever he fought. Any character can be redeemed, but it doesn’t seem like there was enough to his character to justify a return (and that’s if the debris didn’t decapitate him).

I wish every Finger of the Hand had a supernatural specialty; that would’ve provided the heroes with a wider range of threats than a constant onslaught of ninjas. Gao’s telekinesis was cool, but why didn’t the others develop some sort of power? Perhaps Sowande’s could’ve been the ability to increase paranoia and fear in those around him, just like the people who’d captured him in his story were afraid of the Hand barricade around their base. He could’ve been the MCU version of Mr. Fear, perhaps. If that had been the case, while it would’ve been a little too similar to Avengers and Loki’s scepter, at least a Danny whose fears and paranoia had been spiked wouldn’t have looked like an idiot for trying to fight the others when they just wanted him to lay low. An enemy with a power like that would’ve also been a great, distinct challenge from the physical threats the team faced as well as a way to look at the heroes’ deepest fears. Regardless of having power or not, Sowande’s story was truly imposing, so I wish we’d seen it come to fruition in some manner. Alexandra pointed out that they didn’t even try to rescue him and while I thought that was a funny acceptance of how that plot petered out, I was left to wonder why they didn’t try.

I’m not the first to say it, but I wish the Hand had attacked the police station everyone’s loved ones were staying in, forcing the Defenders to rush to save them. I really wish Sowande’s threat against the heroes’ friends had come to fruition even while they were in police custody; the Hand’s attempt to rescue him could have easily been kidnapping everyone the heroes cared about and offering a trade (as well as a way for his story to come true for our heroes). Misty, Colleen, Claire, Trish, and Karen protecting Foggy and Malcolm while holding off the Hand as best they could until help arrived could’ve been a great, tense sequence! In terms of character, it could’ve acted as a callback to Karen killing Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore) and potentially needing to take Hand lives to protect the people she cared about could’ve given us an idea of where her opinion on Punisher’s methods had landed. Trish dipping back into Nuke’s (Wil Traval) super-drugs—maybe she’d kept a few because she didn’t feel safe—would’ve been another cool callback and potentially a hint towards her heroic Hellcat persona. An attack also would’ve been a smarter use of Colleen’s past with the Hand—since she’d know their methods and plans of attack (and even individual ninjas!)—than Bakuto trying to recruit her again was. It would’ve paid off Claire’s self-defense training as well. A decimated police force would’ve taken the cops out of the Midland Circle bombing scene too, answering a few questions about why they were so willing to cover it up. They could’ve also played with the Hand agents who’d infiltrated New York’s infrastructure here, with some of the cops turning on the heroes’ friends and threatening them from inside the station as well. Aside from upping the stakes dramatically, that would’ve helped push Misty towards vigilantism even more.

I wish Alexandra would’ve utilized the secret Hand agents positioned throughout New York to manipulate the city against the Defenders. Unless they were the masked cannon fodder ninjas (and if they were, what happened to the undead ones Matt couldn’t sense?), where were they? Part of this wish is me thinking a more immediate doomsday plot than the city falling due to excavating the dragon bones would’ve upped the stakes in the final battle. Elaboration on what the Hand wanted after securing their immortality and returning to K’un-Lun once more (and what Elektra was going to do differently as leader) would’ve helped in that area too. However, writing this review led me to realize that the real doomsday threat was nothing changing. I think, in addition to wanting to go back to K’un-Lun, the Hand were looking to maintain the status quo, because it gives them their power. If that’s the case, I think it’s kind of impressive that they are so unconcerned with time that they’ll spend all this effort to infiltrate New York’s infrastructure just to secure their plan to destroy it in the excavation of the dragon bones; the city itself doesn’t matter at all, it’s their lives. And once New York is gone, they’ll just move on to the next city and infiltrate it to feed their power.

And really, what better enemy for heroes who represent the downtrodden is there than the system itself? The hidden Hand agents would’ve been the perfect way to dramatize the status quo being held in stasis by Alexandra and Co., so I think not utilizing them was the biggest misstep of the show. True, Winter Soldier and Agents of SHIELD already played this card with Hydra, but Iron Fist introduced a similar situation and it should’ve been utilized instead of ignored. Given the Defenders are civilians, the impact of the upper class keeping the lower classes down would’ve been much more relevant than the similar reveal in the lives of super-spies. For one thing, they could’ve personally threatened the heroes’ lives: Luke could’ve faced getting sent back to jail, the suspicion around Jessica over John Raymond’s murder could’ve become a full-blown frame, Matt could’ve been threatened with being disbarred, and Danny could’ve faced losing his seat on the Rand board of directors (which would’ve erased a fair chunk of his privilege). All of these factors could’ve pushed the heroes to their limits as they struggled with how far they’d go to preserve the lives they’d built, and what they’d do if those lives fell apart. This miniseries should’ve been an all-out war between the Defenders and the Hand’s operatives so that they could ultimately clear the deck—and the city—of Hand agents. At first, I didn’t think Defenders felt as relevant as the individual series have—Daredevil dealt with gentrification, Jessica Jones with sexism and abuse, and Luke Cage with racial inequality and injustice—and making the Hand’s larger goal of maintaining the status quo clearer would’ve been a solid way to make the show feel more timely. Those in power trying to retain their control over the system and the Defenders—just so they could extend their own lives at the cost of millions of innocent civilians, no less—would’ve perfectly contrasted with Elektra’s attempt to define herself and the heroes’ attempt to cast off that power and forge new lives for themselves.

General Notes Ultimately, I liked Defenders and I can’t wait for more, but it felt too short. It mostly worked as one 8-hour story, but I wish they’d had another five episodes to flesh things out more. The miniseries did a great job of introducing each main character and providing enough information that viewers could’ve missed any of the previous series and not felt lost, while at the same time not feeling repetitive for those of us who’ve seen everything. The establishing bits we got of the heroes felt fresh because they were at least half-steps into their new lives rather than retreads of their entire history. I liked that Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb had each of the individual series’ creators go over the Defenders scripts to make sure their characters were consistent with what they were doing outside the miniseries. It’s nice to know the heroes’ main series are the driving force behind this corner of the MCU, not the crossovers or universe-wide plots.

I liked S.J. Clarkson’s direction in the first two episodes; everyone was filmed through gates and other obscuring scenery, giving the impression that they were physically walled off from each other. The color palettes for each character also helped sell the idea that they all came from different corners of the world (and Twitter commenters pointed out that their colors converge in the sign for the Chinese restaurant where they have their first real conversation!). I wish Avengers had leaned more into the disparate tones and textures of each hero’s background like Defenders did, rather than going for a glossy one-size-fits-all feel. The more contrast in each character’s background, the better the clash will be when they finally meet. At the same time, Clarkson included transitions like one character flipping up a hoodie while the next flips theirs down; that was a neat way to transition between storylines that subconsciously builds to the team-up. Likewise, John Paseno’s score blended each hero’s music quite well. The one musical moment I wasn’t a big fan of was the Wu Tang Clan used over the climactic fight; used anywhere else in the series, it would’ve been fine, but it didn’t give the epic impression that fight should’ve had. I wish they’d gone with an orchestral Defenders theme for that moment. I also loved the opening titles: they brought back the cityscape idea from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage that made Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem feel like characters unto themselves. Depicting New York in each hero’s color was another great way to display their differences while emphasizing that they all had a common stake in this city.

Moments like Foggy getting Luke out of prison and Luke and Danny running into each other on a case were really natural, simple connections between shows. When Foggy was told to keep Jones out of Hogarth’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) firm’s business, the handoff to Matt—who then became Jessica’s lawyer—was smooth and part of a nice, continual build of connections before the team finally converged on Midland Circle. The Defenders’ casual conversation in the Chinese restaurant worked really well to bond them into a single unit, even if Danny remained the odd one out. It’s probably more a function of the plot than his character, since Jones’ ribs at Daredevil’s costume aren’t much different from everyone discounting Rand’s experience with the supernatural, but it felt like Matt, Luke, and Jessica formed a stronger bond with each other than they did with Danny. He’s also removed from the team, so the rest of them have more time to bond without him. I wish the Hand had utilized more of the supernatural—that’s the one area Defenders seemed to back off from when blending tones early on—and it probably would’ve helped Danny come into the team’s good graces faster if they could see examples of the supernatural happening around them. It also could’ve made him the team’s supernatural expert, giving him a specific role to play besides “brash new guy.” Otherwise, the series blended the tones of its forebears very well.

As much as the miniseries seemed to back off of the supernatural outside of resurrections and the Iron Fist, I loved that there was an actual, literal dragon skeleton under the city! I assume the dragons were buried, domed over, and had cities built on top of them to obscure their locations, but it would’ve been nice to get confirmation of that. An extensive excavation of the dragon skeleton as the cause of New York’s “fall” wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but I didn’t mind it. Perhaps there should’ve been a more epic cause of the city’s destruction than a sink hole, like the monks of K’un-Lun had blessed the cities to stand eternally over the dragons and if the dome were breached the city would be cursed by its imminent destruction or something. Still, in hindsight I think the normal, logical result of removing the dragon’s skeleton is a little underwhelming, but not disappointing.

The Netflix series have an issue with connecting to the larger MCU, but there’s one area that I think really should’ve been touched on here. As I saw pointed out in an IGN comment section, Luke, Jessica, and Danny should’ve had to sign the Sokovia Accords as part of the Midland Circle cover-up. I liked that breaking the law was a legitimate concern for these street level, civilian heroes, and slapping them with the Accords would’ve been a good way to re-emphasize that status. It would’ve been particularly clever if even after the Hand’s hidden agents were routed from their positions throughout the city, the heroes still had to sign the Accords because of a different status quo. Once Matt returns, his unregistered status could add increasing pressure to Daredevil as he goes forward, while the others could be forced to operate within the constraints of the Accords.

All in all, Marvel’s Defenders is definitely worth watching, even if it falls short of the epic final confrontation with the Hand it could’ve been. Even so, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s solidly good. The heroes’ bond—particularly between Matt, Luke, and Jessica (with hints of good material between Luke and Danny to be mined in the future)—was the show’s biggest strength and always a lot of fun. Defenders doesn’t function like a standalone crossover and that’s a great thing: the heroes come out of this changed and I can’t wait to see where they go as their shows continue! Until then, if you’re not following the show’s Twitter accounts I highly suggest it; they’re written in-character and they interact with each other, busting each other’s chops just like on the show!

I’m definitely ready for another Defenders miniseries!

#marvel #defenders #daredevil #matt murdock #charlie cox #jessica jones #kristen ritter #luke cage #mike colter #the hand #alexandra reid #elektra natchios #elodie yung #stick #scott glenn #claire temple #rosario dawson #madame gao #wai ching ho

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rate-out-of-10 · 7 years

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THE DEFENDERS REVIEW

After three independent shows, with a total of four seasons in all, we finally see Netflix’s MCU heroes come together in the team-up series The Defenders. It’s an ambitious undertaking, even after the lackluster last series before the team-up, Iron Fist, and this show had to fire on all cylinders, and while it didn’t hit every mark, it gave you plenty to enjoy.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

CHARACTERS / PERFORMANCES

The stars from their respective series return in The Defenders. Charlie Cox (Daredevil) continues to impress as the “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”. Matt Murdock is a character that we’ve seen the most of compared to the others, so it makes sense that he’s one of the more well-rounded people on screen. Season 2 of Daredevil brought out some of Matt’s worst fears and his inner turmoil between the two lives he lives. In The Defenders we see him making real strides to be an example good guy, without the red suit and horns. But of course, The Hand comes back around and throws him down the same hole he’s been trying to claw out of. Charlie Cox puts on an impeccable performance throughout this series. After not seeing her for a while, Krysten Ritter returns as Jessica Jones. The hard-headed PI with super strength and a drinking problem. Krysten puts on a good performance as Jessica, however her persona feels a bit tried here. Much of her dialogue feels so cheesy, and like she says the same thing like twenty times throughout the show. I was also a bit sad for a time that her ability was never properly showcased. I felt as though she was just there to throw in some aggressive comic relief and be the one in disbelief through the entire series. She did have some shining moments throughout though, like her kicking that SUV into the Chinese restaurant, toppling Elektra. Mike Colter (Luke Cage) was a standout performance in this series, and he needed to be. Some of the criticisms of his series was the stoic acting from the cast and the cheesy “tough guy” dialogue throughout. Of course, there was more of the same here with Luke, however Colter felt more comfortable in his role especially around the other main heroes. The last to join the Netflix crew, Finn Jones as Iron Fist redeems himself in this series. Iron Fist had its flaws but by the end there was some content to be excited about and I think Finn rode those coattails into The Defenders rather well. He’s still somewhat stubborn, but his personality is fleshed out a bit more around these other characters, and he became much more likable, compared to his solo series’ first season.

The connector to every series, Claire Temple played by Rosario Dawson, makes her appearance, however she never feels needed. For a good while she’s treated as Luke Cage’s baggage, especially since the writers made the strides to rekindle Luke and Jessica’s relationship. Rosario just felt a bit lost to me, and I felt disappointed by her interactions with everyone. There wasn’t anything there between her and Matt Murdock. I was excited for her to play a bigger role in connecting everyone, but sadly she wasn’t as needed as I felt she was. Simone Missick returns as Detective Misty Knight from Luke Cage. Misty felt utterly behind and clueless throughout the show. She always has a strong presence on screen (props to Simone), however she was portrayed as somewhat arrogant, even when she’s right. It wasn’t until the finale that she isn’t as glanced over. Jessica Henwick returns as Colleen Wing, one of the few saving graces from Iron Fist. In The Defenders however, she is barely given anything to do. Until the finale she’s on the sidelines, and I felt so bad for her, and not in a good way. She should’ve been given more to do, it felt way too inorganic for her to be as sidelined as she was. I’m glad to see her struggle with Bakuto finally resolved, but she wasn’t used properly as a whole. Then there’s Stick played by Scott Glenn. He’s as stoic as ever in this appearance, but leads our heroes down the right path, despite his controversial means. He’s not any more likable than his past appearances, but he stays true to what he’s always been. There are a bunch more familiar faces in this show, but that’s generally all that they are. The likes of Foggy, Karen Page, Jeri Hogarth, Malcolm, and Trish all take a back seat. They have small arcs, I guess, but none truly integral to the series. Just the familiar faces we know from separate series finally making it into the same room.

The Defenders did an admirable job bringing together all five fingers of The Hand. And it was interesting to watch their dynamic playout on screen with everyone there: Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez), Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi), and Sowande (Babs Olusanmokun). To see the in-fighting between them, their clash of personality, and their individual goals kept me interested in their side of the story very well. Weaver specifically put on a great show. She approached the character with grounded-ness and with a realistic worldview. I enjoyed seeing her play out on screen. I was happy to see them all portrayed as formidable opponents as well, however it was whenever necessary. Much of their arcs felt cut short or flat, plus some deaths felt inept for people of their stature, Sowande’s and Murakami’s for instance. Too quick, too easy. Elodie Young returns as Elektra Natchios, or the Black Sky as we’re lead to believe. She had an interesting role to play, however predictable it was (the whole getting memories back because of the love she has for Matt). I enjoyed her performance overall though. By the end, she turned villain again and I just couldn’t put my finger on why it all played out that way. It felt all too much for the sake of plot.

WRITING / DIRECTION

Bringing these characters together is a tough game to play, but Marvel has made good on team-ups so far. Bringing these heroes together to fight The Hand, the enemies that only Daredevil and Iron Fist seemed to concern themselves with was the natural direction to go in and I was excited to see it all unfold. The series only being eight episodes felt a little disappointing upon hearing of it. However, the Daredevil series was the only one that could competently handle a thirteen episode arc. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist all could have benefited greatly from shorter seasons, ten episodes maybe. Especially Iron Fist. The Defenders felt competent enough with the eight episode season. It allowed the show to endorse itself and not push too much. I hate a prolonged storyline, filler episodes and scenes, I think they’re garbage. I’m glad to see the series take off running as fast as they could, and bring these characters together in the simplest of ways, and have it be entertaining throughout.

There were a lot of great action pieces, plenty to catch your eye, but some felt all to cliché and disingenuous. Some characters were overpowering one minute, the next they could barely stand their ground. I understand that they were facing highly skilled and trained people, like Elektra, or The Hand leaders, but I don’t see how Luke Cage can be knocked out by a basic roundhouse. In Jessica Jones we saw he couldn’t be stopped until Jessica shot him point blank in the temple with a shotgun. Some character capabilities were simply at the mercy of where the plot needed to go, and that’s a shame to misuse these characters like that. But even still, there was a lot of action to marvel at, it was badass much of the time. Dialogue was a hurdle yet again. I never felt like the dialogue in the Daredevil series was as close to as horrendous as Iron Fist was, and throughout Luke Cage. The Defenders isn’t the worst offenders, but there were cringe-worthy lines that felt all too “tough”, some too “comic-book”, and others were just annoying or irrelevant. These pieces just clash with the entire feel of the world we’re meant to be immersed in.

As a general note, the writing and direction did do a good job keeping the pace strong with the plot. The show didn’t feel like it dragged too long, not too much filler, or slower boring pieces. And that’s great. It was clearly the eight episode mark that benefitted the show. There were definitely parts that could’ve been delved into more, and with more episodes I’m sure we would’ve seen those things, but it would’ve ultimately detracted from the main point of the series. I was happy to see the show take a definitive direction and stuck with it throughout.

FINAL RATING: 8/10 – Good Marvel Fun.

It’s not groundbreaking, as Daredevil was, but it does its job very competently. It gets you excited for the team up and I think it delivers on its promises. Would I have liked to see more? Definitely, but not if it would just convolute and detract from the story unfolding. There were some underwhelming bits like the dialogue and some over-looked characters, as well as non-character driven events and decisions that hurt the overall fluidity and enticing nature of the show. But The Defenders is a good show. We see our Netflix Marvel group come together, we watch them kick ass and save the day. Sometimes it does need to be as simple as that.

#marvel #mcu #netflix #the defenders #defenders #luke cage #daredevil #jessica jones #iron fist #television #tv #comic book #comics #review #film review #movie review

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starstuffandalotofcoffee · 7 years

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Defenders Write-up

It was a super busy week so here’s my write-up at last.

Overall: good! I like these characters a lot (Iron Fist excepted) and even when I’ve been frustrated with the plot (DD S2, the back half of Luke Cage) I’ve wanted more - my frustration has been “why can’t this awesome character get better writing and more of a story” and not “why can’t this end sooner.”

Pacing was still definitely a problem; if you have 8 episodes taking the better part of 3 to get together is kind of a drag. Setting it over a very short timeline was a good idea but it took too long to start and then the last two episodes could have used more time to breathe.

So...overall, let’s talk good, bad, and meh. Spoilers, obviously.

Good:

Nice job reintroducing us to the characters, especially Jessica and Luke who we last saw over a year ago. I’m hoping this also means we’ll get more crossover in their shows. I know it’s probably a mess for scheduling but the fact is one of the fundamental great things about comics universes is that heroes pop in and out of each other’s lives all the time and if you aren’t using that you should have stuck with standalone. Even an ADR-ed phone call or two would be fine. But: I feel this did a good job with bringing in the side characters and later setting up some known comics team-ups (Misty and Colleen specifically).

The villains. Moving away from random ninjas to the actual five players was a nice parallel for the team-up of the Defenders, and, frankly, one of the few things Iron First did right with Bakuto. I wish we’d had more time with The Hand (I really would have liked them to have either added another episode or maybe cut down the first two episodes for a flashback episode into their life over the years) but Alexandra was awesome and Madam Gao DEFINITELY survived, right?

The boardroom was the only fight that had that ‘hallway scene’/Crispus Attucks vibe (Jessica Jones was never about fight choreography, and Iron Fist wasn’t, you know, good) but it was a lot of fun and having it in a bright corporate setting instead of a dingy building was pretty great.

The character chemistry was better than I’d thought. Jessica is great with everyone, and somehow Luke and Danny worked which is weird since Iron Fist was pretty universally criticized, and Mike Coulter caught a little flak as Luke for being somewhat overly stoic (I felt it worked personally and Luke Cage’s issues were more the backstory arc). Matt and Luke are wary of each other in a way that makes sense (namely, Matt lied his ass off about both Elektra and Stick and then proceeded to sort of take charge; also as the only anonymous one he’s asking for some special treatment; Luke is in many ways a better leader for the group but isn’t as invested in a broad sense of justice but rather helping individuals).

Dialogue was also surprisingly good - the shows themselves were again uneven, with some great stuff and some cheesy stuff (highlights: basically all of Jessica Jones, DD season 1′s Nelson v. Murdock and Foggy and Matt in general, every damn word out of Mahershala Ali’s mouth in Luke Cage; lowlights: some of Luke and Reva’s stuff, a lot of DD season 2 especially with the Stick and Elektra stuff which is weird because Matt and Elektra work pretty well together but their dialogue is terrible, a lot of Iron Fist). Everything between Alexandra and basically anyone was pure fucking gold, but really almost all the conversations worked. Standouts include Luke’s contempt for Danny’s privilege and anything Misty or Jessica said.

The whole plot coming together initially was pretty great if it hadn’t taken 3 FUCKING EPISODES OUT OF AN 8 EPISODE SERIES.

The hooks for the next seasons of the show are all pretty strong, even for Danny for whom I don’t particularly want an s2 at all. In particular, as someone who read Waid’s run on Daredevil I’m excited; Luke seems to actually have his life reasonably together and I want him to win this time (that’s the other thing - Daredevil and Jessica got to win against the enemy in their season 1s and Luke went to jail, which is probably accurate social commentary but I just want him to get a win against Mariah); Jessica is still a mess but slowly making progress (also: more Malcolm please).

Bad

Pacing oh my god why is this so hard

The fact that the next show in this world is Punisher which I do not want. I mean, he was good in season 2 of Daredevil but I like that this world’s heroes are refreshingly devoid of that particular sort of toxic masculinity. All are genuinely interested in community service, even Danny the thundering dumbass.

That’s really the only thing that was egregiously bad honestly.

Meh

(lots of meh)

The death scene led to a great reveal but speaking for myself...I didn’t buy it. It’s comics.

There wasn’t enough time for side characters other than Misty, Claire, and Colleen, who to be fair are basically the best side characters (also, Stick, who I always found really annoying but was supposed to be). I get that there wouldn’t be, but Trish and Malcolm are some of my favorite characters, we didn’t even get to see other Luke Cage minor characters like Bobby Fish though he got a shout out, Hogarth was minimally involved despite having direct ties to two characters and indirect ties to a third, and while Karen I’m sure will show up in The Punisher I do want to see more of Foggy.

I still don’t entirely get what the fuck a Black Sky is which seems like a problem. I mean...just a good fighter, right? Also why other than drama reasons would Murakami refer to a Black Sky as such and not the translation of the words in Japanese? See, this is why we needed a Hand flashback.

I’ve given up my fight on overhead trains at this point since a. the 125th street 1 train is in Harlem near the water so I could see Luke ending up there; b. Jessica goes all over in her investigations so maybe she’s not in Manhattan, and c. Chinatown is near the bridges. However, the scene in which the heroes were on the subway was 100% on the PATH train to Jersey, and as I mentioned, Season 1 of fucking Mr. Robot, a tiny show no one knew about at the time and which I still need to catch up on, managed to film on a real-ass subway so I don’t know what the problem was here.

I also feel like we never got a great feel of the cosmic Hand vs. Chaste battle, since Iron Fist wasn’t very good nor was the Hand part of S2 Daredevil. Kind of a bad place to drop the ball, kids. However, as mentioned, the villains were sufficiently well-played to carry it and I’m pretty glad the Hand is no longer the threat since the local fights were way more interesting anyway.

#defenders #defenders spoilers #comics

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daresplaining · 6 years

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Daredevil Countdown: 8 Days

Trailer #1 Analysis

We barely had time to recover from Iron Fist Season 2 before Netflix started dumping Daredevil content on us, and it’s been tough to keep up! We were away minding our own business at NYCC when this trailer dropped, and we’ve only just started to pick through it. There are some major revelations in this thing, which I’m very excited about. There are also a few scenes excerpted here that we saw in their entirety at NYCC, so while I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, expect some minor ones.

Is it geeky to get a kick out of Matt saying this? Because this makes me really happy. He has spent so much time struggling with his superhero identity that just hearing him call himself Daredevil is thrilling. Also, the background seems to suggest that he’s in the church, and may therefore be saying this to Maggie... which is good, because in one of the scenes we saw at NYCC, she called him “the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” and I nearly pitched a fit.

We saw this scene, so I won’t go into details... beyond saying that it kicks off what sounds like will be an interesting (read: upsetting) relationship between Fisk and the FBI, and as well as Fisk’s manipulation of the justice system and the city as a whole this season. He is getting out of prison and aiming to reclaim his throne, and this trailer gives us hints of some of the pawns he will be using to make that happen.

Hey look, it’s Rosalie Carbone!

And we’ve mentioned it before, because it’s been in a bunch of the promos, but it’s great to finally have Fisk in his comics-accurate white suit! He looks great.

We’re also finally getting Sister Maggie! In the comics, of course, Maggie is Matt’s long-lost mother. In the show, we know that she works at the orphanage where Matt ended up after Jack’s death, and that she will be providing him some degree of emotional support (not to mention medical help...) following his near-death experience under Midland Circle. Their relationship is very strange, and in the comics they’ve spent a long time trying to negotiate their dynamic. They go back and forth on their degree of emotional closeness (depending on the writer), and while they will likely never have a parent/child relationship in the traditional sense, they do hold deep significance in each other’s lives. Whether that will become true in the show remains to be seen, but at the very least, Maggie will clearly act as a confidante for Matt during this difficult time.

This is one of several highly intriguing interactions between Matt and Fisk in this trailer. The surveillance is particularly interesting. It ties into the suggestion later in the trailer that Fisk will develop some control over media surveillance (in the comics he buys his own radio station during Chichester’s run). It also gives me a small amount of hope that we might get expert media manipulator Jonathan Powers (AKA the Jester) in the show, because that would be really cool. But why is Matt in a doctor’s office in a suit? The framing of this scene is great, and I really need to know what’s going on here.

Matt channeling that Stick vibe is something I never knew I needed. And this is another intriguing interaction between these two. What is the context here? For now, I love how cocky Matt sounds in this clip. Clearly, his spirit has not been broken (yet?) by this point.

At NYCC, there was some mention of a scene that would rival the hallway scene from Season 1. This may be it. I’m already pumped about this, because I love when Matt fights in civvies! If I were to guess what was going on here, I’d assume these are prisoners in Fisk’s pocket who have been instructed to take Matt out. This has serious “Devil in Cell Block D” (a story arc in which Matt is sent to prison) vibes, and that is very exciting. Whether or not the actual story draws from that arc, just a reference to the tone or basic concept would be awesome.

After two full seasons of teasing, we’re finally getting a Gladiator origin! Back in our Season 2 countdown, I wrote a post detailing Melvin Potter’s story in the comics, hoping that it would be adapted soon. The show has already laid down several key elements of his character: his vulnerability (particularly in regards to being manipulated by the people around him) and the tug-of-war between his gentle nature and his capacity for violence. In the comics, many of Melvin’s most compelling stories cover this struggle, as Matt and Betsy Beatty (Melvin’s social worker-turned-girlfriend) attempt to help him suppress the dangerous, out-of-control side of himself. As we see later in the trailer, Fisk is going to start using Melvin for his own ends again this season, thus pushing him to protect himself and Betsy by becoming the Gladiator.

Yet another oddly candid moment between Matt and Fisk. This is so uncanny that I almost wonder if it’s a hallucination. It’s also worth noting Matt’s lack of sunglasses in these scenes. In both the comics and the show, the glasses serve Matt as a type of mask, and his scenes are given an added layer of intimacy and exposure when he takes them off. Regardless of context, it’s clear that Fisk will be seeing Matt this season at his most vulnerable, with all facades and pretext removed. Which brings us to that quote...

Get excited, because it looks like we’re finally getting some big deal Daredevil Secret Identity Shenanigans(TM)! Matt having his secret identity exposed is a longtime Daredevil tradition; such a pervasive plot point that even Matt has begun joking about it.

Daredevil vol. 3 #7 by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Javier Rodriguez

Going all the way back to the Mike Murdock Saga in the 60s, Matt has struggled with keeping his double life hidden-- a surprisingly challenging task for a blind guy without outwardly obvious superpowers. Ben Urich figured it out through research and deduction, and while he has remained loyal in keeping Matt’s secret, a fellow reporter once nearly stole his notes and made them public. In “Born Again”, the Kingpin found out and used the information to ruin his life. Later, one of the Kingpin’s underlings sold the information to the FBI, which then made its way into the newspapers. Recently, with his secrets being used as blackmail, Matt decided to make his identity public. He has gone to extreme lengths over the years-- faking his death, lying under oath, creating various alternate personalities-- to protect his dual identity, and the thought of seeing him finally faced with this same challenge in the show is very exciting.

Melvin: “I don’t like it. I know who you work for, Felix. And the Kingpin is never up to anything good.”

Felix: “What is there not to like, Potter? You construct costumes. I am heretowith commissioning from yourself a costume. Said costume being one you are infinitely familiar with-- during such time frame as before you did renunciate your status as a prominent member of the criminal class to open this shop within which we now converse. Speaking of this most neatly custodiated establishment, we will summarily execute its premature demolition-- not to mention the removement [sic] of your most valued body parts-- should you perchance fail to render unto us a perfect duplicate of the uniform of a certain Man Without Fear.”

Daredevil vol. 1 #230 by Frank Miller, David Mazzucchelli, and Christie Scheele

As we know, that’s going to be Bullseye’s costume. This is a combination of two plot points: one from “Born Again” (above) in which Fisk commissions a DD suit from Melvin to give to a convicted murderer, who he sends to kill Foggy, and one from Nocenti’s run in which Bullseye himself runs around causing chaos as Daredevil.

As indicated above (and just like he attempted in Season 1), Fisk is out to ruin Daredevil (and maaaaybe also Matt Murdock?)’s reputation, even more than Matt might manage all on his own.

This is a terrifying image, because it brings to mind Karen’s funeral in “Guardian Devil”. But a bunch of the people in the audience are smiling, so hopefully not...

...Unfortunately, they’re still screwed. Bullseye in the church is both a “Guardian Devil” reference and (even better) a movie reference!

We were shown this scene at NYCC, and it is awesome! I can’t wait for everyone to see it, so that I can talk about what makes it so great. It’s an absolutely killer fight scene that emphasizes just how intense Bullseye is as an opponent when handled well. And I’m not going to spoil this moment in particular... All I’ll say is that it’s something we’ve all been waiting for for two damn seasons, and when it happened at the panel, the whole room screamed.

*Cough* Don’t worry, that’s not Bullseye.

Also, there is not nearly enough Foggy and Karen in this trailer.

Bullseye: “Yup! I’m Daredevil now. I wonder-- it’s been easy to play the bad guy-- maybe too easy. Be kinda fun to play the hero. After all, I am Daredevil!”

Daredevil vol. 1 #290 by Ann Nocenti, Kieron Dwyer, and Steve Buccellato

As mentioned above, Bullseye will be prompted by Fisk to run around as Daredevil, ruining Matt’s reputation. Both actors have talked a little bit about Fisk’s manipulation of Dex, and the fact that this will play a large part in the latter’s turn to villainy. In the final arc of her run, Ann Nocenti penned a story in which Bullseye and Daredevil switched costumes, resulting in an intense exploration of villainy and heroism, and of their bizarre relationship as nemeses. In the show, it should be fun-- and probably a little horrifying too-- to see how this jumbling of identities affects how Matt and Dex see themselves and each other.

T-minus one week!

#Daredevil spoilers #Netflix Daredevil #Daredevil #Commentary #DD Countdown #Sorry this is so late! Busy day.

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daresplaining · 6 years

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Some Thoughts on Daredevil #600

Here’s to 600 issues of Daredevil (not counting mini-series, annuals, etc.)! As usually happens at these landmark moments, Marvel and the DD creative team celebrated with a longer-than-normal issue, which sparked far-reaching changes to Matt Murdock’s world.

The situation set up by this story arc is a grim one. Wilson Fisk has been elected mayor of NYC. Matt has been keeping an eye on him (and vice versa) as Fisk’s deputy, but has struggled in his every attempt to sabotage him. However, he has recently discovered a crack in Fisk’s law-abiding facade: a meeting that he has planned with the city’s prominent street-level villains. Matt, as Daredevil, gathers together a gang of heroes to crash the party.

Matt: “We protect this city, we fight in its streets, we are New York. And now we’ll take it back from Wilson Fisk. Mayor or not, he has to go down. We agree on that.”

Colorist Matt Milla still hasn’t quite gotten the hair color memo, because poor Jessica has lost her brown hair. It also would have been nice to see Colleen in this team-up, since Misty is there. But these are minor complaints. In a series that restored Matt’s secret identity and thus symbolically isolated him from many of his friends, it’s a powerful gesture, in this climactic issue, to see him engaged in this kind of a team-up... even if most of the people involved still don’t know who he is. It’s especially nice to see Maya (Echo) here, back in action alongside her former friends. Since her resurrection early in the run she has had a few really touching moments of reconnecting with Matt, and we hope to see more of her as the series continues.

Matt has pulled off similar plans in the past, and he has taken down Wilson Fisk in some thoroughly delicious ways, but in this instance, it ends up not being that easy. And we like that-- Fisk has been one step ahead of Matt for this whole arc, and it would have felt anticlimactic for such a simple, faulty plan to bring that to an end. Rather than catching Fisk red-handed, the Kingpin doesn’t show. The collected villains turn on each other, the heroes swoop in to prevent any unnecessary deaths... and then the cops arrive.

Matt: “Damn. Damn. So much for the plan. Need to get down there, before someone gets-- Wait. NYPD. But that’s... Oh, no.”

This scene, as exciting as it is, features a reappearance of the less-than-stellar Garney/Milla radar sense, which we’ve complained about before.

There has always been inconsistency, but generally, modern depictions of the radar sense don’t allow it to pierce solid objects. Here, we see Matt tracking the activity in the restaurant from outside, a blatant break with tradition that we’re not huge fans of. What makes even less sense is the arbitrary use of multiple colors. Since the radar depiction is a visual stand-in for non-visual perception, the different colors must represent something... but what? Texture? And in the panel where Matt notices the cops, his radar seems to be picking up on flat images and uniform details that he should have no way of perceiving. It’s a nonsensical, misleading approach to the radar sense, and a tragic departure from Paolo Rivera’s crosshatching design, which was used to great effect in volumes 3 and 4. We understand each creative team wanting to put their unique stamp on the comic, but come on... if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The police swoop in and grab the heroes and villains alike. We learn-- in a neat twist that, again, fits with Fisk’s behavior in the issues leading up to this climax-- that the proposed meeting was a trap, designed to round up the city’s crime bosses and get them arrested. As Matt has done again and again in this arc, he assumed nefariousness on Fisk’s part, and ended up shooting himself in the foot. While we know that Fisk is still a bad guy, and probably has all sorts of things up his sleeve, it’s always fun to see him play the good guy, just to see how cleverly he constructs the facade. And even more compellingly, Matt’s failure to accurately read his nemesis backfires on his friends.

Wesley: “There were heroes there, too. Jessica Jones, Danny Rand, Maya Lopez, Luke Cage, Misty Knight and Marc Spector. Even Spider-Man.”

Fisk: “Spider-Man... and what is his name? Who is he?”

Wesley: “We don’t know. Just before the cops grabbed him, he sprayed that webbing of his around his neck. Sealed it up tight, like glue. They can’t get his mask off.”

(Oh, Peter. He’s so... experienced at this secret identity thing.)

It will be interesting to see how long they actually end up in jail, given the events of the rest of the issue. Hopefully, someone is babysitting Dani...

One of our favorite moments in this issue is a little reversal. While Matt has failed again and again to properly read his opponent, Fisk knows exactly how Daredevil works, and where to find him. It’s a level of familiarity between hero and arch-nemesis that is highly compelling to us. It’s these kinds of details that make for the best hero/villain relationships. It also gives Matt a chance to do a badass pose on Fisk’s roof, which is always a plus.

Fisk: “It’d be just like him. Come along, Wesley. Let’s go up and say hello.”

Matt: “Fisk.”

There have been so many iconic fights between these two over the years that it’s increasingly difficult to do anything new with them. This fight is certainly a good one... but then, they all are, and this tussle probably won’t go down in DD history as one of their memorable battles. But it’s still highly enjoyable, and is enhanced by Soule’s excellent dialogue, which highlights the core of their conflict, and emphasizes just how long they’ve been having these fights.

Fisk: “If my name weren’t Wilson Fisk, you wouldn’t have batted an eye. You’d be cheering that the mayor had found a way to get Owlsley and the others off the streets.”

Matt: “But you are Wilson Fisk. You are the Kingpin. And you’re the enemy of everything that matters about this city.”

Fisk: “No. I’m not. But I’m sick of trying to explain that to you.”

But as was foreshadowed throughout this arc, Matt isn’t allowed a clean win. Fisk hits him with a sledgehammer so hard that it’s amazing he’s able to stand afterward, and then goes off to tell a crowd of adoring supporters how great he is. Again, we are given a look at Fisk’s faked (probably?) duality, as Soule is exploring it-- the idea of him playing the hero while still being a villain. This isn’t a new Kingpin concept, of course, but it remains a good one, and an engaging way of playing with the character’s complexity.

Partway through the speech, the Hand arrive and shoot Fisk full of arrows, thus kickstarting the next story arc. The Hand are really neat when used well, so we’re excited to see where Soule takes them, particularly given their new connection to Blindspot. However, they are not this issue’s big surprise. We learn, as Matt is carted away by the cops, that with Fisk now out of the picture, the mayorship falls to his deputy...

Steve: “Matt Murdock is the mayor of New York City.”

(Heck yeah!)

This is really exciting, not only because of its implications for Matt’s life, but also because it has been a long time coming. Kesel wanted to do it back in the 90s, but the idea was shot down by editorial. Bendis teased the possibility, but it never actually happened, thanks to the events of the rest of his run.

Guy: “They’re going to ask you to be the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City.”

Matt: “Huh.”

Daredevil vol. 2 #56 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev

And Waid’s speculative story in the 50th anniversary issue suggested that Matt had been/will become the mayor of San Francisco at some point, but we don’t get to actually see him in action.

Foggy: “They remembered him from his original tour of duty here, when he and the Black Widow made the scene. [...] So when he came back, they had your pop running for office in no time. Busy boy, he was. Made lots of enemies.”

Daredevil vol. 4 #1.5, “The King in Red” by Mark Waid and Javier Rodriguez

But we are finally getting Mayor Matt Murdock, and we cannot wait to see how that works out for him.

The issue’s secondary plot thread is possibly even more interesting than the Matt/Fisk shenanigans, because it’s all new. This thread follows Sam’s final battle with Muse... who is essentially a Blindspot rogue now, rather than a DD one. Their relationship is fascinating, with Sam’s quest to understand the nature of his own heroism/lack thereof paired with Muse’s frenetic lack of morality. They are both raw, emotional characters, and their interactions in this issue are stunning. We’re gonna miss Muse.

Sam: “I need to understand, Muse. I need this to make sense. Why do you do what you do? Why do you hurt people? Why do you kill? Why?”

Muse: “You know why, Blindspot. It’s the same reason you want to kill me right now. It makes you better it makes you strong it shows them your power it says something it means something it solves your problems it gives you control you’re big they’re small it’s art it’s art IT’S ART!”

This fight also hints that Sam’s connection with the Hand is far from over... and provides a glimpse at how his time training with them may have changed him.

Beast: “You know my power. The power of the Beast. I will give it to you once again. Just reach out... and take it.”

While Sam refuses to kill for the Beast, this relationship will likely continue into the next arc-- which appears to be Hand-centric. Sam’s continuing evolution has been full of surprises, and we’re eager to see where this story takes him. All-in-all, this issue didn’t stand out as one of the most earth-shattering Daredevil stories ever told, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable, and did a great job of setting up some very exciting things in the future.

As an extra treat, the issue also includes a short, Foggy-centric story called “They Also Serve” by Christos Gage, Mike Perkins, and Andy Troy. This is merely the latest in a long line of Foggy-centric stories that celebrate his relationship with Matt. And there’s not a dang thing wrong with that, because they never get old. Matt and Foggy’s friendship exists at the very core of the comic, and its power and poignancy only increases as the years go by. Give us all of the Foggy-centric retrospectives. We will get misty-eyed every time.

We have only one complaint about this story, which is that Foggy... doesn’t really sound like Foggy for parts of it.

Foggy: “This is gonna be so great! You have no idea how lucky you are, Murdock, ‘cause Foggy Nelson just happens to be the finest wingman in the history of wingmen. You just stand there looking handsome, strong, stoic... with a hint of tragedy, while I draw ‘em in with my oratorical virtuosity. Between my silver tongue, your looks, and the whole blind thing, you’re gonna need that cane to ward off the babes.”

(Who... who are you, and what did you do with the real Foggy?!)

In fact, he sounds just like MCU Foggy. Which maybe shouldn’t have surprised us, because Christos Gage was also a writer for the first season of the Netflix show.

Despite this bit of weirdness, the issue is a nice look back at moments in Matt and Foggy’s friendship. It’s a trip down continuity lane, emphasizing just how long they’ve known each other and how much they’ve been through together.

All told, it’s a pleasant way to close out the issue, particularly given the rocky state of Matt and Foggy’s friendship throughout this run.

#Daredevil vol. 5 #Daredevil #Matt Murdock #Kingpin #Wilson Fisk #Blindspot #Sam Chung #Muse #Commentary

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