10 Things We Want From Marvel’s The Defenders

After four individual superhero shows and several years of waiting, Marvel’s The Defenders is here at last.

Finally, we’ll get the chance to see Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand join forces to fight against evil in New York City. As something close to a small-screen version of The Avengers, expectations for what the show can do are pretty high, and fans expect the show to cover a lot of ground.

But what do we most want to see in The Defenders? Let’s have a look.

1. Better Pacing

Every Marvel Netflix series so far has been 13 episodes in length. And every Marvel Netflix series so far has honestly been just a bit too long. While they’re all fun to watch, each series in the line-up drags in the middle. (Particularly from the second season of Daredevil onward.)

Sometimes the plots take too long to set up. Occasionally, the arc changes direction in the middle of things for unclear reasons. And often, we get straight up filler episodes that don’t move the plot of the main story forward at all.

This isn’t to say that any of these shows are bad – far from it. But they are often guilty of really unfortunate pacing, which can derail even the best of stories. (Or, worse, make viewers tune out entirely before they get to the good part.)

The Defenders is only eight episodes long. And it has a very specific mission. Get our heroes together. Save the world.

Hopefully, that means the show won’t have time to get bogged down in subplots or spend too much time on anything that isn’t actually important. Every episode is going to have to be tighter, faster and more focused. There’s no space for filler. And, in this instance, that will hopefully be a great thing. This universe could use a little more focus.

2. A Simpler Story

The Defenders is the television version of a superhero team-up movie. And, as such, fans are probably looking for different things than in individual seasons of Daredevil or Luke Cage. And that’s a good thing – each of these shows has worked hard to establish its own feel and point of view.

Trying to smash them all into The Defenders doesn’t exactly work. And it shouldn’t – the goal of a team-up series isn’t really to delve into the tortured soul of Matt Murdock. He’s got his own show for that.

Like The Avengers before it, this is really an opportunity for us to watch our favorite Netflix heroes meet each other, crack some jokes and kick a lot of butt in the process.

Each hero will obviously come into this team-up series with their own baggage and outstanding storylines. But it’s okay for the show to let most of that stuff sit for a bit. A simple, streamlined story that pits our scrappy team of good guys against a legit threat that only they can stop is all we really want here.

As long as it gives the Defenders plenty of opportunities to get to know each and fight a bad guy in a hallway or three, we’ll be set. This might be wishful thinking, given how many dangling plot threads involving mysterious group The Hand are still out there, but here’s hoping.

3. An Improved Danny Rand

It seems fair to say that fans have…mixed opinions about Danny Rand. And this is probably because Iron Fist is generally the weakest link in the Marvel Netflix universe. This is due to a lot of reasons: Its sluggish plot, its focus on corporate intrigue, its messy handling of the story of The Hand in general.

But Danny, on his own, has plenty of characterization problems, which we can only hope a stint on The Defenders can improve. In his own series, Danny did come across as whiny, petulant or oblivious many times, and completely lacked any sort of humor or nuance. (Though honestly, the poor writing didn’t help much in this regard.)

The Defenders is a chance for a fresh start for Danny. So here’s hoping the show handles him a little differently than the inaugural season of Iron Fist. Perhaps his new relationship with Luke – his eventual crime fighting partner in the comics – will help Danny shed some of that immature attitude.

Maybe Jessica Jones will manage to disabuse him of his penchant for mansplaining things to the women around him. And maybe he’ll learn to not take himself – and his literal glowy, magical hand quite so seriously?

Out of all the Defenders, you’d think that Danny Rand, mystical ninja who actually talks about his chi all the time, would know how to laugh, at least. I want to like Danny – and many other fans probably do too. Give us something to work with, show.

4. A Compelling Main Villain

The Marvel Netflix series definitely have some great villains. If we’re honest, Wilson Fisk from Daredevil and Kilgrave from Jessica Jones are probably the best bad guys in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the villains in the other two series were much less interesting, on the whole, and the shows suffered for it.

Luke Cage actually killed off its best bad guy halfway through its first season, and replaced him with an awful caricature who wasn’t nearly as interesting. And almost nothing about the different, competing versions of The Hand and its assorted minions in Iron Fist made much sense.

In The Defenders the evil threat has to be big and bad enough that it brings all four of our heroes together for the first time. But it also has to be interesting – which, given that the series’ storyline looks to involve The Hand again, isn’t a guarantee. Enter Sigourney Weaver.

The iconic actress is playing a mysterious woman named Alexandra, who appears to be running this whole evil show. Or, at least, loves giving monologues about her goals for world domination. But, since they sound like Fisk monologues and not the knockoff Harold Meachum version, I’m looking forward to seeing what she can do.

Plus, in a male-heavy universe like Marvel? More female characters — particularly female villains — are always welcome.

5. Claire as a Hero in Her Own Right

Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple is pretty much the glue that holds The Defenders universe together.

She’s appeared in every Marvel Netflix series so far, serving as a sort of physical and emotional emergency services for our heroes. She’s patched up their injuries, listened to their problems and even been a love interest for a couple of them. But now that the group team-up is finally here, maybe she can finally get her chance to really shine.

As the Netflix series have gone on, Claire’s held her own in every show, despite her lack of superpowers. Her role has expanded, and she’s slowly been getting more to do in her own right. On Iron Fist, Claire started training with Colleen Wing, and even joined the team on their trip to stop the Hand. It’d be great to see her take that to the next level on The Defenders.

It seems obvious that Claire has evolved past the “Night Nurse” comic role her character was originally based on. So why not just go ahead and make that official?

Claire’s smart, brave and enormously capable. She can clearly do more than bandage up various team members when they get hurt. So why not make her a hero in her own right? She certainly deserves to graduate out of the “supporting” category.

Next Page