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After seeing them kick ass in their solo outings, we finally get to see Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist team up as The Defenders and burst into action and it was well worth the wait.
Treating us with eight episodes worth of awesome fight scenes and villains that we can love to hate.
The first episode is spent establishing what our heroes have been up to since we last saw them and it was interesting to see how they are dealing with their identities as heroes. Jessica Jones is reluctant to embrace her newfound heroism and victory over Kilgrave, whereas Luke Cage is using his newfound recognition as a hero to make Harlem a better place, in the same way his old friend Pop did for the city.
Matt Murdock is trying to put his vigilante days behind him but is conflicted over the death of his former lover Elektra and the thrill of being Daredevil, whilst Iron Fist and Colleen are both trying to hunt down people who are connected to The Hand.
Much like The Avengers, it was exciting to see our heroes come together after their solo TV shows which served as their introduction to us. Their individual goals and approach to dealing with bad guys are very different which definitely shows during their initial meet, especially seeing how Matt and Jessica seem the most reluctant at first to get involved in the fight against The Hand.
As the series progressed, their purposes all seemed to weave together and managed to work well with their combined strengths and combat skills, which created some awesome action scenes and in particular their climactic battle between them and The Hand.
After Iron Fist disappointed in his own show, you’d think that the writers would try to improve the character for The Defenders, especially in the presence of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage who are all so badass and cool. Unfortunately they’ve made him even more whiny and annoying than he was before, especially when he keeps going on about his chi. Even his fellow Defenders seem to think he acts like a bratty kid.
Credit to Finn Jones for at least trying his best with what little he has been given, and he does perform his fight scenes well, so at least not everything about the character was ruined. Whilst Claire, Colleen and Misty are given rather prominent secondary roles throughout the series, the appearances of Foggy, Karen, Trish and Malcolm seem more like cameos which is a little disappointing seeing as they are some of the most interesting supporting characters.
Sigourney Weaver was a perfect fit to play our main villain Alexandra, who has that commanding presence whenever she’s in a scene and doesn’t need to raise her voice or attack someone to come across as a threat. Whilst she didn’t exactly reach the same standard as Wilson Fisk, Kilgrave or The Punisher, her performance is still enjoyable to watch.
The Defenders was well worth the wait and hopefully this won’t be the last we will see of this awesome team-up.
Purple Revolver Rating: 4/5 – non-stop action and thrills