The Marvel Netflix Universe Really Misses Wilson Fisk

On paper, Marvel’s The Defenders has everything. Four popular Marvel superheroes finally meet, squad up, and take down an evil force that is so monstrous only their combined powers can defeat it. What’s not to love?

Kind of a lot, actually, especially if you don’t give those heroes a worthwhile adversary (or two) to battle.

By far, the weakest part of The Defenders is its villains. Despite her constant string of amazing outfits and over the top threats, Alexandra and her assorted Hand minions are generally bland and uninteresting. Their motivations and ultimate goals are murky, at best, and downright nonsensical at worst.

Who are these people? What do they want?

[Insert shrug emoji here.]

If we’re honest, mystical ninja group The Hand just isn’t a strong or even particularly interesting adversary for our Netflix heroes, no matter what series they’re in. They’re the worst part of Iron Fist and the second season of Daredevil, too. But after watching their evil goals and dastardly plans build up on two different series, it’s natural we expect that these villains to finally become a true threat here.

Sadly, The Hand did not live up to its own hype. And in doing so, they left the entire series floundering.

The failure of the villains in The Defenders is particularly concerning because, historically speaking, the Marvel Netflix universe actually does a pretty good job getting their bad guys right. Unlike their cousins in the big-screen MCU, the TV series all actively devote considerable screen time to fleshing out their villains. And they’re better for it.

Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk represents Marvel’s first great success in this area, a villain whose story is as fully realized as that of hero Matt Murdock. Fisk is complicated and layered, managing to be both terrifying and sympathetic in turns. He is capable of stunning brutality, yet struggles with anxiety and loneliness.

His awkward courtship of art dealer Vanessa is incredibly endearing, and his love for her is as genuine as any of the protagonists’ relationships. And most importantly, he believes in his vision of a better Hell’s Kitchen. It’s not just a line he uses.

Fisk actually believes he can make his corner of New York better and is willing to embrace violence as a means to that end. And when he tells Matt that he doesn’t enjoy using such tactics, it feels like the truth. His internal conflict is a real one, and his ultimate justification that the ends justify the means isn’t that different from Murdock’s.

Whether you believe Fisk’s tortured personal rhetoric or think it’s just an excuse to justify his evil deeds, as a character he gets to display a depth often denied to bad guys in superhero stories. And at times, it’s possible to find him more compelling and sympathetic than Matt is. Or, at the very least, easier to understand.

Generally, the same holds true for many of the other villains in the Marvel Netflix universe.

Sure, Jessica Jones’ Purple Man is the physical manifestation of every woman’s worst nightmare, but the series still manages to make Kilgrave a character with recognizable goals and motivations. And though Luke Cage’s Cornell Stokes and Mariah Dillard are distinctly bad people, their behavior and desires are both specifically rooted in their shared history and Harlem community.

These people are all monsters, to varying degrees. But they’re also three-dimensional characters who are presented as more than just a lurking Big Bad. They’re people you might recognize or even possibly like, on a good day.

The introduction of Alexandra in The Defenders doesn’t initially feel that different from her predecessors. An extremely well dressed art enthusiast with a penchant for cryptic speeches and a tragic personal loss in her past is the sort of villain set-up that Netflix and Marvel have spun into gold in the past. (See also: Wilson Fisk, Cornell Stokes.)

Unfortunately, her character doesn’t really go much beyond that description. As the leader of an at least partially immortal global criminal syndicate, she should rightly be terrifying, a menacing force capable of keeping Madame Gao and the other fingers of The Hand in check.

After all, we’ve waited through four other series to meet her and to finally learn the group’s true evil plan.

The only problem is that Alexandra doesn’t seem to actually have one. In fact, the leader of The Hand seems primarily concerned with nebulous, unconnected issues like creating more of “the substance” that grants eternal life, returning to the mystical city of K’un Lun, and resurrecting the Black Sky, apparently just because Elektra is an amazing fighter.

Who is Alexandra? And what is The Hand’s ultimate purpose, really?? Apparently, we’re never meant to know.

Even after Elektra takes over both The Hand and the series’ primary villain role, things don’t get any clearer. And, somehow, despite the fact that she is a character we already know, Elektra’s motivations and goals aren’t any more defined than Alexandra’s were.

The question of what Elektra really wants — immortality, forgiveness, freedom, love — is never fully addressed. And The Defenders displays almost zero interest in her inner life, counting on her previous appearance in Daredevil and existing relationship with Matt to do a whole lot of emotional lifting for viewers.

It’s a narrative laziness that’s pretty hard to forgive, particularly when we’ve seen that these series can do so much better.

Luke Cage’s Diamondback and Iron Fist’s Harold Meachum suffer from a similar cheesy vagueness as The Hand does here, and their stories are equally one-note. (And just as generally unsatisfying.)

Because in the shared universe these shows are building, we’ve seen time and again that the villains are not only as important to the story as the heroes, they can — and should — be just as complex and compelling.

Hopefully The Hand’s uninspired appearance on The Defenders will underline just how poorly this sort of bland, connect-the-evil-tropes type of bad guy fits into the world that the Marvel Netflix shows are trying to create. Because it’s one that desperately needs more Fisks and a lot fewer Alexandras.

What do you think? Was The Hand a worthwhile adversary or a total dud? Let’s discuss.

The Defenders is currently streaming on Netflix.

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