IMO, The Defenders was the most unstable, fluid superhero team of all. I remember back in the '70s, the original Defenders were Dr. Strange, Hulk and Sub-Mariner. Later they added The Valkyrie, Luke Cage, and others. Heroes came and went. There was also an Avengers vs. Defenders storyline at one point.
In this new lineup, Luke Cage is the only one I recall as a Defender. Possibly Daredevil was at some point, but I’m not certain.
trailer teaser
Global launch August 18 2017
Fire up the buzz generator
Iron Fist was such a buzz kill that I don’t feel invested in this at all. But then I never finished any of the series. I’m just not that into comic book heroes.
JUNE 22, 2017 8:48am PT by Josh Wigler
Marvel’s Netflix Heroes Stand Strong In First ‘Defenders’ Key Art
Courtesy of Netflix
New York’s finest superheroes get together in an all-new look at the Netflix series.
Years ago, when Marvel first announced its television partnership with Netflix, diehard fans began wondering what it would look like when the expansive universe’s veritable street-level Avengers finally assembled.
Since that announcement, we’ve come a long way: two seasons of Daredevil, and one season a piece for Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. After so many hours spent with these characters, they’ve started to feel like old friends — and the official key art for Marvel’s The Defenders emphasizes that exact feeling, coming off more like a high school reunion than a superhero team-up.
Check out the image below.
Courtesy of Netflix
Marvel’s The Defenders is the culmination of several different seasons and series of television, featuring the likes of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) teaming for the first time. Oh, and Danny Rand (Finn Jones) is also in the mix. Did you know his name is Danny Rand? It’s possible that you didn’t. In any case, he’s definitely here as well, and he’s definitely Danny Rand.
What are the four heroes (including Danny) going up against? Details remain sketchy, though most signs point toward The Hand, the mysterious organization that’s haunted many of these characters, including Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), the professional superhero healer with unique individual ties to each of the Defenders. (Here’s hoping Claire doesn’t become the Marvel Netflix Universe’s answer to Agent Coulson — aka the beloved figure who gets killed off in order to bind the heroes together.) Speculation surrounding Sigourney Weaver’s unknown antagonist places her as the leader of the ancient order, but we won’t know for sure until the series drops Aug. 18.
I am simply hoping that they learned from all that was sub-par with Iron Fist and have fixed it.
One more mediocre outing and it may be the end for marvel netflix series.
Marvel’s The Defenders | Official Trailer 2 [HD] | Netflix
if it weren’t for that annoying Iron Fist
I think we all share Sheffield’s opinion on this one.
‘The Defenders’: Netflix’s Marvel Superhero Team-Up Is Three-Fourths Great
Rob Sheffield on why this urban-Avengers series would be a blast – if it weren’t for that annoying Iron Fist
Rob Sheffield on why ‘The Defenders,’ Netflix’s long-awaited superhero team-up series, is almost great – if not for the Iron Fist factor. Sarah Shatz/Netflix
By Rob Sheffield
2 days ago
Enter The Defenders – the long-awaited all-star team at the heart of the Netflix Marvel universe. Four superheroes, all loners with radically different powers and personalities. There’s blind lawyer Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox), who used to kick ass by night on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen as the vigilante Daredevil; now he’s trying to stick to his day job after hanging up the mask and retiring from the superhero racket. There’s Luke Cage (Mike Colter), the bulletproof Harlem avenger, and the hard-boiled private eye Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter). And then there’s the billionaire martial-arts master Danny Rand (Finn Jones), a.k.a. the Iron Fist, whose superpower is his ability to make everyone in the room cringe. No wonder they all have their doubts about the future of the superhero racket – as Jessica Jones hisses at one point, “Don’t say the H-word!”
The Defenders thrives on the conflicts in this crew – their differences end up being a lot more fascinating than their similarities. What brings them together is an epic battle against the forces of evil, courtesy of none other than Sigourney Weaver, who rules in slinky dominatrix mode as Alexandra, the evil queenpin with ties to the elusive criminal empire known as the Hand. Daredevil, who has been mourning the death of his lover Elektra (Elodie Yung), finds that she’s come back to life. Only she’s now under the spell of the Hand, and each of these four different h-words get pulled into the fight. Hence, figures from the complete quartet of the streaming juggernaut’s Marvel franchises show up here – including Rosario Dawson as the nurse Claire Temple, who seems to function as a symbolic guardian angel for the whole crew.
Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have their own personal connection as exes – we first saw him on her show, as they teamed up to wreck her bed in a bout of cathartic superhero sex. But if anything unites this fight club, it’s that the other three can agree that the Iron Fist is a royal douche. Cage, Jones and Murdock all seem like haunted adults who’ve endured some serious ****; they have apparently let their barista tag along as part of his gap-year Outward Bound course for aspiring alienated kung-fu masters. It could have been titled Three and a Half Superheroes, though that would be too kind. As the mentor of Daredevil, Scott Glenn’s Stick says, “The Immortal Iron Fist, protector of the sacred realm, is still a thundering *******.”
Like most Netflix series, the show gets off to a mighty slow start – the foursome don’t get together until the end of the third episode, for a fight scene. And it’s only in the fourth that they sit down over some Chinese food and agree to join forces. As Jones, Krysten Ritter is the only one who knows her way around the business end of a one-liner, so she handles most of the banter burden when it comes to quips. All four of these Netflix Marvel shows had deeply different tones and styles, but since Daredevil was the one that came first – and the only one that’s completed a second season so far – it makes sense that it’s the template for The Defenders, especially since it has the same showrunners, Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez.
Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, the best of these series, thrived on mood, personality and atmosphere rather than story – both seemed to run out of plot before the debut season was up. But both characters remain credible full-fledged humans here. Ritter and Colter carry themselves with a protective emotional armor over their private grief and trauma; in his quieter, moodier way, so does Cox as Murdock. They’ve survived crippling pain – that’s what makes them dangerous.
The weak link: Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, is just tragically devoid of charisma. His elevator just doesn’t seem to reach the upper floors. (If this guy’s a “major” superhero, who are the minor ones?) Jessica Henwick returns as his partner and dojo-mate Colleen Wing, but she’d be a far more intriguing character if she had something to do besides shake her head at her twit of a boyfriend– if only they’d cast her as the Fist. The series tries to make the most of Danny’s limitations by making him the butt of everyone else’s scorn. That isn’t quite enough to make you glad when he shows up in a scene, but at least it’s useful for Luke Cage to have a dim-bulb rich white kid to snarl at. The Defenders is not exactly a team of equals, to say the least. But it goes three for four – and with these three different compelling superheroes in the mix, it’s a squad worth rooting for.
All that I hoped would not be the case…
I don’t understand why the writers of making IF to be such a waste of space.
What is desperately needed…
Greetings,
We need a national COMICON intervention on behalf of the MARVEL archetypes we know way better than the people writing the storylines. The people attending those events represents an untapped source of creativity and understanding.
I recently saw X-Men Apocalypse and Dr Strange to see the same basic plot. Enough already! Let the real fans assist.
mickey
[QUOTE=mickey;1304279]Greetings,
We need a national COMICON intervention on behalf of the MARVEL archetypes we know way better than the people writing the storylines. The people attending those events represents an untapped source of creativity and understanding.
I recently saw X-Men Apocalypse and Dr Strange to see the same basic plot. Enough already! Let the real fans assist.
mickey[/QUOTE]
You may be on to something.
Heck I don’t even ask for super original plots ( saw Atomic Blonde yesterday and I couldn’t believe they were using the old “undercover agent list” from the first mission impossible), just actually writing the characters and their powers inline with the comics would be nice.
[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1304289]just actually writing the characters and their powers inline with the comics would be nice.[/QUOTE]
Yes, most definitely so.
mickey
Marvel’s The Defenders | Official Trailer 3 [HD] | Netflix
So. Anyone watch this?
I tuned in to see my cast mate from Man at Arms: Art of War Marko Zaror’s scene. Didn’t have to wait long at all for that. Iron Fist annoyed me right away with his bent wrist punch. I don’t care how much chi you pack into your fist, keep your **** wrist locked. Then on the recommendation of a friend, I skipped to ep 3 when they all unite, which was amusing enough for me to watch ep 4 too, but then I bailed. I like Jessica now. I didn’t watch any of her series but I’m finding her to be the most amusing of the quartet. Her acerbic comments are hilarious.
RHETT ALLAIN
SCIENCE
08.22.1712:30 PM
THE DEFENDERS COULD PUNCH BETTER IF THEY LEARNED SOME PHYSICS
SARAH SHATZ/NETFLIX
I haven’t seen The Defenders yet, but it’s high on my list of things to watch. I am super excited about it, and why not? It brings Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil, and Jessica Jones together to save … oh, never mind. No spoilers!
That said, I consider trailers fair game, and this one from Netflix features an amazing scene in which the four Defenders fight a horde of bad guys in a hallway.
Of these four superheroes, all but Daredevil can throw a superhuman punch. I considered analyzing this scene to determine who hits the hardest, but I’m not going to do that. Not yet, anyway. Instead, I thought of another question: What is the best way to punch someone if you possess superhuman strength?
I hear you saying, “I am a superhero! I will punch villains in whatever way looks coolest.” You might have a small problem with that. I like to call it “physics, and the nature of forces.” Suppose that I, a mere mortal, punch my brother on the arm. Sure, I might exert a force of 100 newtons or so, but that same force also is exerted on me. The one thing you ought to know about forces: They are an interaction between two objects. If object A (my fist) pushes on object B (my brother’s arm), object B pushes back on A with an equal and opposite force. This explains why Thor punching the Hulk in mid-air might not turn out the way he likes.
Pause. Yes, I just pressed the blog pause button. Now is the appropriate time to say I don’t hate superhero movies. In fact, I love them. I think they are awesome. And it doesn’t bother me in the slightest that they sometimes get the physics wrong. The No. 1 goal of any movie is to tell a story. If that means the science is squishy, so be it. If Hollywood made completely realistic superhero movies, they’d all be about first grade teachers and sanitation workers (because both groups put up with serious stuff for lousy pay.)
OK. Back to the physics.
Let’s see what happens with a superhero punch. This was easier in my analysis of Thor and The Hulk because they threw their punches while leaping toward each other. The only forces acting on them were the punch force and the downward gravitational force. But what happens if a superhero is standing on the ground? Two more forces act on him or her: The force of the ground pushing up (we call this the normal force), and a frictional force. This means four forces (or more, if you count both feet) act on our hero. The sum of these forces changes the hero’s momentum, with momentum being the product of her mass and velocity.
Finding the change in momentum isn’t too terribly difficult. However, you also must deal with rotational motion. Each force that acts on the superhero also exerts a torque. In essence, torque is like the “rotational force” in that it changes how an object rotates. The torque that a force causes depends upon its magnitude, direction, and location. A quick example: Open a door by pushing on the handle. Now try pushing near the hinge. Much harder, right? Pushing near the hinge requires a much larger force to get the same torque as pushing on the handle.
I bet you never realized so many forces act on a superhero throwing a punch. Now let’s take a look at two different kinds of punches.
Straight Punch
First, we’ll look at what I call a straight punch. It’s like a jab, but with much greater force than a normal human. We can assume the guy on the receiving end will go flying into a wall or something, so we’ll focus on the motion of the hero. This diagram shows all the forces:
With so much going on here, I identified the forces by color. Gravitational force pulls down (the red arrow). That seems fairly straightforward. You also have the force of the punch (green arrow), which exerts a force on the bad guy and on the hero. And don’t forget the force of the ground on the hero. There’s actually two parts to that. First, a force perpendicular to the ground pushes up against the superhero. We call this the normal force, and it is whatever force might be necessary to keep the hero from moving through the ground. Without it, he’d sink. And then there’s the frictional force parallel to the surface. It is proportional to the normal force such that it increases as the hero is pushed into the ground.
To examine the motion of the superhero during this punch, I must look at the total forces and the total torque. Now, it should be clear that the vertical forces are boring. If the superhero punches horizontally, you won’t see any significant vertical motion. Ah, but you could see a problem in the horizontal direction: If the punch force exceeds the frictional force, the hero will increase in velocity to the right. In other words, the hero will be pushed backward by hitting someone (or something) too hard.
Torque presents a bigger problem. Using the example I diagrammed above, a large punching force by itself would cause the hero to increase in rotational velocity in a clockwise direction. The frictional forces also would cause a clockwise rotation. Even if the normal forces have a counterclockwise effect, the total will clearly be a clockwise rotation. So, a significant super-powered punch would make the hero slide back and tip over. It’s hard to look cool when you are falling over.
Upper Punch
Now consider a case in which the hero swings a fist with a force that pushes up (and to the side). This punch throws the villain back and up, as you might expect. Meanwhile, the hero moves down and to the right. Here is a diagram:
The upward punch exerts downward (and still somewhat horizontal) force on the hero. Two things keep the superhero from sliding backward. First, a small horizontal component to this punching force means you don’t need much friction to stop a slide. Second, the increased normal force leads to greater frictional force.
But what about the rotational motion of the superhero? Again, it won’t be as severe as what you see with a horizontal punch. Since the punch force is downward and aiming toward the center of mass, it won’t result in a large torque. If you have trouble picturing that, try this: Place a pencil on a table. Push it near the center and notice that it doesn’t rotate. Try pushing it at some other point so the force is aimed toward the center. It might rotate a little, but not as much as if you pushed on the pencil eraser with a force perpendicular to the shaft. The same holds true for this punch force.
So, punching upward might be the only way to knock a baddie back a good ways. A horizontal punch just won’t work nearly as well—unless you ignore physics, which is OK with me.
I wouldn’t make a very good superhero, but might make a pretty good superhero coach. Too bad I don’t know any superheroes.
Haven’t watched it yet and, to be honest, it isn’t on my list right now.
Why?
Iron Fist.
It pains me to watch him fight. Physical and Emotional pain.
Spoiler alert
[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1304481]
Iron Fist.
It pains me to watch him fight. Physical and Emotional pain.[/QUOTE] That pain is real. It gets worse. I’m almost accepting Finn as an entitled brat, but I’m with ya s_r, the fighting is a deal breaker.
The article below is a spoiler, but it’s early in the series. And y’all must’ve seen this coming.
Actually, there are several spoilers. Don’t read any further if you hate spoilers.
AUGUST 23, 2017 9:00am PT by Josh Wigler
‘The Defenders’: Elodie Yung on Elektra’s Shocking Comeback
Courtesy of Netflix
‘The Defenders’
The ‘Daredevil’ star talks about embracing the darker side of Elektra on the Marvel series.
[Warning: This story contains full spoilers for Marvel’s The Defenders.]
The Hand has been after the Black Sky ever since Marvel and Netflix launched their partnership with Daredevil, and the ancient organization finally got their wish in the form of Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung). But it’s as the old saying goes: Be careful what you wish for.
Over the course of Marvel’s The Defenders, Elektra evolves from a singularly focused killing machine into an even deadlier version of the assassin who fell in love with Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. In the sixth episode of the event series, Elektra makes her independence known through two brutal acts: first killing Stick (Scott Glenn), the man who raised her like a daughter for much of her life, and later killing Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), the woman who raised her from the dead. From there, Elektra wields her role as the prophesied leader of the Hand in unexpected ways, pursuing the secrets to immortality as a means of staying alive forever with her precious “Matthew.”
At the end of the series, the world believes both Matt and Elektra are dead, crushed underneath the destroyed Midland Circle tower. But the final scene of the series reveals that Matt is still alive, healing his wounds in some unknown location. So what about Elektra? She already cheated death once. Is it possible that she’s been born again, again? For more on that possibility and the rest of her arc over the course of the series, The Hollywood Reporter turned to Yung.
How much did you know about what was in store for Elektra on The Defenders when you wrapped the second season of Daredevil?
Not much, not when we wrapped. Pretty soon after, I knew that I was going to be a part of The Defenders, and I wasn’t surprised. They’re very secretive and they never want to tell you anything, but I knew pretty soon that she was going to do everything she ended up doing.
What was your reaction when you learned Elektra would emerge as the primary antagonist of the story, rather than just operating as an instrument of the Hand?
It just made sense to me. Elektra is quite a free spirit. That’s kind of her quest. She has to gain this aspect back over the course of the series. She’s brought back to life by Alexandra, and then she kills her. She kills her dad, she kills Stick. She makes the Hand work for her. But what she really wants is to be with Matthew.
When we reach these final two episodes, how much is this the Elektra we used to know versus the Black Sky she was destined to become?
I think she’s Elektra. She says it. “My name is Elektra Natchios, and you guys are going to work for me.” To me, she is Elektra. She’s back. But she has maybe new abilities. I’m not sure exactly how being brought back to life changed her. Is she completely human? Is she not? Can she die? I don’t know anything like that. It’s still obscure to me. My understanding, and the way I played her, is that it just kicked in: “I know who I am, and don’t mess with Matthew.” She uses them to get to her goal, which is 1) being free, and 2) being with Matthew. She wants to be with him forever, in a very weird and romantic way.
You see that as her ultimate goal — Elektra doesn’t want to find the substance purely for her own immortality, but also for Matthew’s immortality?
I think so. She says it to him in the way she says, “This is what living feels like.” I think she wants to share that with him. It’s like Romeo and Juliet. Let’s die together and maybe live forever, or let’s die together and you’ll finally see what living feels like. It’s what I’m feeling right now. I was dead, and now maybe you can live forever with me. This is what I understand. I thought it was quite beautiful and romantic.
How shocked were you when you read the end of episode six, in which Elektra kills Alexandra? What was your reaction when you learned you would be killing a character played by the legendary Sigourney Weaver?
I knew all of that from the start. I knew the arc. I knew everything. So from day one, I could not wait to kill her character. (Laughs.) And she couldn’t wait to be killed by me! We were like two kids. “Yay, we get to do this scene!” It was very fun. It was really good. The camera was right in front of her, and I was hiding behind her, then poof! We had to do it a few times. She was falling on the floor, and the blood was just flowing. We really enjoyed that moment. It’s a big twist in the story. I think it surprised the audience. We both enjoyed it a lot.
Alexandra doesn’t live long enough to wallow in the betrayal, but she viewed Elektra as a daughter of sorts. Does Elektra have any fondness toward Alexandra at all, or not really?
It’s a good question. I’ll leave it to people’s interpretations. What I enjoyed was being ambiguous the whole time. Hopefully people think sometimes that she was considering her as a mother, but maybe she was playing her. Maybe she was giving her the attention she wanted. Maybe she’s just playing the daughter to the mother because she knew she had no other options. I wanted to leave it to the audience. Up to this point, anything can be imagined about this relationship. Maybe Elektra from day one knew: “Okay, my name is Elektra, I know who I am, but where the heck am I? Who is this person?” Maybe she’s observing. Or maybe she really doesn’t remember who she is, and then she suddenly comes back on the day she kills Alexandra. I wanted to leave it open. I know what I played, but I think you can imagine anything.
continued next post
continued from previous post
Courtesy of Netflix
How about in terms of killing Stick? This man was her father figure for so long. Was there any emotion to it?
There was not. Elektra is kind of a sociopath. Maybe she just wanted to cut the ties. She just wanted to be free above anything. On the day, I didn’t play it as, “Oh, it’s hard for me.” No. I just killed the guy. She wants to be by herself. She’s a free spirit. She’s always been. And then she got caught in this war. I think what she wants most is to be free and with Matthew.
Whatever else she is, Elektra does not seem like the type of person who would respond well to being used as an instrument in some larger plan, or being told that she has a destiny that’s not of her own choosing.
No. Screw that. Not at all. Not into that at all. (Laughs.) She says that in Daredevil, when they tell her that she’s the Black Sky. They use the pronoun “it,” and she says, “Call me ‘it’ again. Call me an object again. I’ll chop you in half.” Something like that. That’s who she is: “Don’t even think of using me. I’m not your friend. I’m not your object. I’m not your daughter. I’m none of that. I’m just Elektra. Back off, and let me be.”
What do you remember about filming the scenes at the start of episode three, where we see Elektra come back to life, covered in the substance? It looked pretty nasty.
They offered me not to do it, because it really was disgusting to do. But to me, it was important to be put in the sarcophagus and just have the opportunity to be born again. I wanted to go through that. So I did it! And yes, it was very sticky and warm. It was sweet, like corn syrup. It’s disgusting. It goes everywhere. You do not want to do it. (Laughs.) I’ve done it now. If ever Elektra has to do it again, or any other part where I have to do it again, maybe I’ll pass it next time. Been there! But for me, for this storyline, it was so important to feel this. To be put through a birth again. This is it. It’s like an animal being born. I wanted to go through the pain of it. I’m glad. It’s where she’s at at the beginning. She’s a brand-new person or animal at first. It was not fun to do, but it was worth doing it.
You were involved in so many fight scenes this season. Does one stick out to you as particularly memorable?
There were so many scenes. I just wanted to be on top of everything this year. I knew from day one that Elektra would be stronger than last year and I would have to have more fight scenes. To me as an actress, it was important to train a lot. The whole shoot was fine, not too hard, but it was all about constant focus and training throughout the whole thing. In every episode, she’s sent to fight. The one with Charlie at the end was very epic. It took us I don’t know how many days to do it. It was a long sequence and it was very hard. It was emotional, for both of us. We wanted to make it right, because this particular one wasn’t just a fight for a fight. It’s love and fighting. What do you feel when you have to go through this with the person you’ve lost and the person you’ve loved and still love? That one was very hard.
We don’t know what happened to Elektra at the end of this show. We know Matt is alive, but no update on Elektra. Will we see her again in the future?
I hope so! I really like Elektra. It just feels unfinished. She’s done all of that, and now what? Where is she? And he’s alive. So I’m hoping their paths will cross again. I want to know where she lives and what she does and if she’s enjoying life and all of that. (Laughs.) But I don’t know what’s next for her yet — or if it’s the end.
There’s no way that’s the end.
I hope not! She’s such a great female character. She’s so crazy and strong and she has so many flaws. You kind of feel for her. I do feel for her. It’s not easy to be who she is. There’s humanity in there. It would be interesting to explore that again, especially after what just happened. But we’ll have to see what Marvel will do with her. I have no clue.
So far, I’ve not been into her as Elektra either, no more than I was into Jennifer Garner in the role, and I loved Alias.
She is Ok.
Nor sure if my issues with her as Electra are her or how the character is written here.
Her skill is better than Garners of course but I was thinking that Carano would have been a better fit.
Saw the whole season.
Not bad at all.
IF is, of course, the weak link but they also wrote him that way ( for whatever reason) so I can’t put the blame on Finn for that.
It had some good moments, especially Luke and Jessica.
The very emotional moment when a mother cries in Luke’s arms that all her babies are dead ( She list bother her sons and her daughter to the life of crime in Harlem) was well done and struck a cord.
Luke reaming Danny because he is white and rick seemed VERY forced and kind of silly, as if the writes wanted to make a “white privilege” statement ( Which is weird considering the Danny’s history).
Misty was good, Collen was alright.
Daredevil was, IMO, the true story. His relationship with Elektra was…well I won’t give too much away suffice to say I liked it and it was very much in character.
Stick was awesome.
The origins of The Hand was silly.
All in all it would give it a B+.
If only they could have found a young Gary Daniels, ala fist of the North Star, do to the role of Iron Fist.