I think it’s fair to say that the first episode of Marvel’s televisual team-up, The Defenders, hardly exploded out of the blocks with it’s first episode. A slow, measured installment that prioritised in making damn certain we knew who everyone in the supporting cast is and who they belong to, the four main leads essentially went through a superhero day-in-the-life-of with virtually zero threat.
On the other hand, seeing as The Defenders has eight whole episodes to play with compared to the two plus hours your average Avengers movie gets to fit everything in, maybe I shouldn’t fault it by pulling off in second gear and embrace the breathing room this team adventure has to work in.
With that being said, it would be great if something could actually happen at some point, but at least episode two at does us the service of having two of the members actually meet for a change. Can The Defenders manage to pick up the pace in their second episode, or will their shared superpower continue to be procrastination?
After her search for a missing husband led her to an apartment full of stashed C4, Jessica Jones makes the acquaintance of Detective Misty Knight, who isn’t best pleased when the private investigator leaves the scene with stolen evidence so she can continue her own private investigation. However, that’s small change compared to the fact that noticable earthquake rattled the denizens of Hell’s Kitchen, and in the immediate aftermath, Matt Murdock finds himself out, stopping business owners from shooting looting kids by getting carried away with his fists. While it’s the exact opposite of the life he’s trying to cultivate, it suggests that he’s dangerously close to slipping back into the horns, but he’s surprised when his estranged friend, Foggy Nelson pops up for dome moral support.
Of course these days, Foggy works for shark-like uber lawyer, Jeri Hogarth, who currently has Jones working for her on the down low, but after he has been given the order to keep the super strong P.I. on a leash, he transfers some of his load over to Murdock in an attempt to keep him off the streets. Meanwhile, Luke Cage is determined to get to the bottom of the matter of disappearing youths in the area of Harlem, however, when he manages to track one of them down, he finds that they’re working for a mysterious faction that he isn’t even aware of – but before he can question it any further, he runs into Danny Rand who was chasing the kid because he was performing body disposal on a murdered group of people who apparently were standing against evil, ninja clan, the Hand. Like all first meetings between Marvel heroes, they fight, but as they do, the woman in charge of this conspiracy, the mysterious Alexandra, has nabbed herself a valuable hostage: Murdock’s mentor, Stick.
It seems like once again we have another details crammed episode of this mass team up that once again seems to be going out of its way to avoid any actual teaming up. Oh some of these guys meet, sure; and in one instance they actually fight (more on that later), but the main issue I seem to have with The Defenders right now is that it’s taking an awfully long time to set up an opponent that we’ve already dealt with. Now, by that, I obviously don’t mean Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra, who now not only has a name, but who also has been alive for an abnormally long time thanks to the various, immortality granting, mystical whim wham provided by the Hand. The fact that the entire second half of Daredevil’s second season was dedicated to setting up the Hand meant that it affected it’s ability to push it’s own story along, so The fact that we’re now going over the same old stuff once again (the Hand, Stick, something mystical buried beneath Hell’s Kitchen) is a little disheartening. Also, the show seems dead set on only including everyone until they stumble upon the issue in their own way, rather than speeding things along a little. For example, by the end of the second episode, Danny Rand is still the only one who knows the Hand is still active and Jones and Cage don’t even know who they are, but instead are slowly catching on as they come at this threat from their own ends, be it a crazed, missing architect who wishes to destroy something threatening, or Harlem youths being hired to clear up the Hand’s messes. On paper it sounds fucking fantastic – or at least it would if we didn’t already know where this was all going thanks to Daredevil season two (and maybe a little bit of Iron Fist season one), but because we’ve been ahead of our heroes for a good year already, I’m getting more than a little antsy waiting for these guys to catch up. However, aside from some choice moments where we either mix and match the heroes to the supporting cast (Misty and Jessica) and old plot points being addressed (nice to see Matt and Foggy being all buddy in Josie’s Bar once again), the best moments are when the central team up actually gets fully teased.
It’s rather amusing to me that it seems to be Danny Rand who is the main character who is calling out for a team up as his entire arc is all about realising that tackling the Hand isn’t just his sole responsibility, especially when you consider that his solo show was by far the weakest of the bunch. However, it does mean that we get the first taste of a full blown Heroes For Hire moment when Luke Cage and Danny face off in a classic comic book style misunderstanding. OK, the fight between them isn’t as visually polished as something you’d get in a movie (the whole quick vs strong thing has been done better elsewhere), but it does gift The Defenders its first genuine “fuck yeah” moment when Iron Fist meets unbreakable jaw which probably also counts as Danny Rand’s greatest on screen moment of all time.
Elsewhere, the show throws together Matt and Jessica at the zero hour as he comes barreling into Misty Knight’s interrogation room in order to become Jessica’s legal representation and tie more of the quartet together. However, now that Stick has reentered the chat (it was probably the remainder of the Chaste that Danny discovered all sliced up), all the ancient war stuff between the Hand and the Chaste, the Black Sky back story (Elektra is still not much more than a mute henchman at this point) and presumably a whole shitload of ninjas on the way will no doubt get re-heated. However, as we’ve already covered all this before, it all feels a little reductive in a way having the Avengers fight Loki wasn’t.
Still, now that the four do-gooders are finally assembling, hopefully The Defenders can finally display some inter-team chemistry that will inject a bit more urgency onto matters, but until then, a crowded slow burn is still the name of the game and no amount of Iron Fists to the face seem to be changing that.
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