Maybe I’ve been a little harsh on The Defenders over the last few episodes, but I figure that if you’re going to deliver a brand new superhero team to the masses, it might be a good idea if you actually give them something to do first. To be fair, the way the show has been introducing and utilising its quartet of street level heroes by having them each figure out that there’s bad things going down in their own, personal has made full narrative sense, but it’s also been frustratingly slow too. The result has been the first two episodes each feeling like it’s almost ashamed to be a team-up show and while other, similar ventures (cough* The Avengers*cough) have felt they were eagerly sprinting towards that goal, The Defenders has thus far felt annoyingly hesitant.
However, all that is about to change as that moment where we get the full line up of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist us finally upon us. But after such protracted beginings, will the pay off be finally worth it?
While our batch of superhuman have yet to gather en masse, fate has managed to form the future group known as the Defenders into compact little teams of two – however in true superhero fashion, no one has been able to hit things off just yet. Well, I mean, there’s been some actually hitting, especially when Luke Cage got an unbreakable face full of an iron fist, but nothing yet suggests that these guys could even pay for a meal together, let alone save the city.
However, after their little misunderstanding, Claire Temple manages to smooth things out as she knows both of them, but while their chat stats out amicably, their social backgrounds (white rich kid, black ex con) means soon have them feuding again and they each storm off in a superpowered huff. Meanwhile, Matt Murdock gets a similarly frosty reception from Jessica Jones after stepping in to be her lawyer, but after he probes a little deeper about any details she may know about any unusual happenings, she storms out, leaving Matt to follow her.
While the Defenders defiantly resist assembling, we’re treated to a flashback of how the formaly deceased Elektra was resurrected into becoming Black Sky by Alexandra and how she’s now a mindless killing machine. However, in the present day, matters have even gotten grimmer for the good guts when it’s revealed that Stick, Matt and Elektra’s legendarily sharp tongued mentor, is now a prisoner of the Hand and that he and Alexandra are not only well aquainted, but are seasoned enemies too. Of course, his interrogation is cut short when he manages to escape his bonds by relieving himself of one of his hands, but this only puts the Hand on high alert.
This would be the perfect time for Danny Rand, Luke Cage, Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones to all suddenly converge upon the shell company that the Hand is using as a front at the same time and start laying down some hurt, but will their first, impromptu team-up manage to defend, or offend?
Me printing the words ABOUT DAMN TIME in all capitals to express how I feel about the Defenders finally amassing to bust some heads may seem a little childish, but it’s how I genuinely feel at this point. Maybe I’m still hurt from the memory of watching a decade of Smallville only to barely witness Clark wear the suit, but if you’re going to hinge a show in a super team up, that’s what I’m here to see. The age of the MCU has done so much towards streamlining superhero cinema, be it dropping the whole secret identity thing with Iron Man, to getting the Avengers to bad temperedly schmooze way before the action kicks in, but while I appreciate The Defenders striving to integrate its heroes in admirably organic ways that stay true to their original series’, it ultimately hasn’t proved to be particularly exciting.
However, with Worst Behaviour, that now all seems likely to change as this single single episode gives us more than the previous two combined – and it all kicks off by cluing us in to exactly how Elektra is bad from the dead and kicking ass for the bad guys. But not only does it give us a more comic accurate suit for the crimson clad assassin and finally straighten up all that Daredevil season 2 stuff about the mystery machine that the Hand coveted so much, but it manages to tie Sigourney Weaver’s villain more directly into proceedings by have her be the one to retrain Elektra to fulfill her murderous destiny.
The whole Hand/war/resurrection thing is also brought more sharply into focus with the return of Scott Glen’s grumbling Stick – but while it only increases that gnawing rage in by body that they blew the entire second half of Daredevil’s sophmore season just to set this stuff up, I also can’t help by be relieved that plot points that have been laid down as early as 2015 are now all being made relevant.
Of course, all this is well and good, but the lead here is that after all working their way to the Hand’s front corporation individually, it’s finally time that the Defenders share the screen together. The set up is pretty good with Luke Cage’s desire to stand up for the little man clashing with Danny Rand’s rich kid from a fantasy realm making far more thematic sense than Jessica’s mistrust of authority butting heads with Matt’s adherence of the law (although him borrowing her scarf as a makeshift mask is a nice touch) – but it sets us up nicely for them to come together by chance and let all hell break loose in a big, climactic action sequence that *gasp* looks like it’s been done in one single shot! Obviously, “oners” are hardly a new thing ,especially when Daredevil is involved now that he’s sort of the unofficial poster boy for fake one take fights. Of course, the Defenders allow Alexandra to make her point first – she needs the Iron Fist for undisclosed reasons – but then it kicks off, and by God, it’s actually worth the protracted wait.
Ok, maybe it doesn’t carry the sheer punch of unmitigated joy when the camera swirls around the team in The Avengers, or it doesn’t have the gritty cool of the onesie, corridor fights from the previous seasons of Daredevil, watching them all (almost) working as a single unit – in a fight against Elektra no less – is still a triumphant moment. Jessica and Luke’s augmented strength sends thugs flying with single punches, while Danny and Matt do their ninja shit and deliver flying kicks while running off walls and stuff and for an almost-perfect few minutes, the Netflix show realises that it doesn’t always have to over compensate with the overwhelming grit and nihilism and that it’s ok to embrace the carefree thrills that can come with a comic book adaptation.
After dragging its super-heels for its opening episodes, The Defenders finally lives up to its promise of throwing together yet another Marvel team, but the real test still lay ahead – having them brawl together is one thing, but are they going to all gel in an entertaining way when it comes to some less physical scenes? I guess we’ll find out soon enough, but for now the Defenders haven’t just saved the day; they’ve saved their series – if only for one episode.
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