The Defenders has arrived on Netflix, finally making good on the superhero crossover that was teased at the beginning of the Netflix/Marvel alliance. But these eight episodes raised as many questions as they answered, leading us to wonder how carefully this shared universe was planned out at the start.
Here are our six biggest WTF questions after watching the entire season. Spoilers ahead, obviously!
The season ended with Danny Rand choosing to honor Matt Murdock's final request and defend New York City in his absence. But what will that entail, exactly? Will Iron Fist become the city's new preeminent hero, or is Danny intent on literally becoming the new Daredevil? Will Iron Fist: Season 2 essentially be Daredevil: Season 3?
It may sound like a silly idea, but there's a precedent in the comics for Danny taking over the DD mantle while Matt is incapacitated. And you could argue that Daredevil has a much stronger symbolic importance to the residents of Hell's Kitchen than relative no-name Iron Fist. It's not like Danny has even bothered to come up with a proper costume of his own yet. Besides, given the fairly widespread backlash to Iron Fist: Season 1, maybe Marvel is better off giving Danny a new costumed identity.
We don't blame the Defenders for assuming Daredevil is dead, given that he had a giant building blow up and crash down on top of him. We're still waiting to find out how Matt survived that one. Sure, Matt's real super-power is his ability to take a beating and keep on fighting, but there's a difference between Kingpin's fists and thousands of tons of rubble. For that matter, how did Matt manage to crawl his way into the welcoming arms of the convent?
Obviously, the real reason is because Daredevil has plot armor too thick for even the heaviest of buildings to crush. Marvel isn't going to kill off its most popular Netflix hero before he's even had a chance to fight Bullseye. We assume these questions will be addressed when Daredevil: Season 3 finally rolls around. But until then, we can't help but wonder how Matt cheated death this time.
Sigourney Weaver was a pretty major get for this series, bringing an extra touch of star power to the table just in time for the big Defenders team-up. And while Weaver didn't disappoint in the role of immortal Hand leader Alexandra Reid, it was surprising to see her abruptly written out of the picture ahead of the season's big showdown between the Hand and the Defenders. Alexandra simply wasn't the all-encompassing threat we were expecting given Weaver's Hollywood pedigree. Why cast her at all if her character is less an overarching villain than a means to an end?
In many ways, Alexandra's unceremonious departure highlights a growing problem with Netflix's Marvel shows and the way they handle their villains. These shows have been home to some of the best and most well-developed villains in the MCU, including Wilson Fisk and the Purple Man. But more and more often, there's a sense that the best villains aren't being used to their full potential. Luke Cage: Season 1 had the exact same problem when Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes was unceremoniously killed off and replaced by the far less memorable Diamondback. Why do these shows seem incapable of recognizing when they have a good thing going?
The final episode did a real number on the Hand's leadership, with heroes and villains alike being trapped under the weight of a collapsing building. It certainly looked like Murakami died in the final implosion, but what about the ever-present Madame Gao? She was last seen seconds before the timer counted down, telling Murakami that the end had arrived and then vanishing. Did she somehow escape the building's implosion? Will she be back to rebuild the Hand, or are her days as a shadowy ninja leader and drug kingpin finished?
We'll probably get answers to these questions sooner or later in a future Netflix series. That said, it seems like a lot of fans are pretty sick of ninjas at this point, and we wouldn't blame Marvel for keeping Gao and the Hand off the table for a while.
Danny Rand's nemesis Bakuto was killed at the end of Iron Fist: Season 1, but thanks to the magic of the Hand's resurrection spells, he was brought back in order to help his fellow ninja carry out their plans at Midland Circle. The problem is that the timing of Bakuto's resurrection simply doesn't add up.
Here's what we know: Elektra was resurrected by the Hand at the end of Daredevil: Season 2. Bakuto was killed at the end of Iron Fist: Season 1, which takes place months later. But in The Defenders, we learn that the other fingers of the Hand resent Alexandra for using the last of the organization's resurrection elixir to revive Elektra. So how did they bring back Bakuto if there was no elixir left by that point?
It's possible there's an explanation for this. Maybe the various fingers have their own separate stashes of elixir they're not telling anyone else about. But more likely this is just a continuity flub. Marvel may have had a basic idea of how the four solo shows would eventually lead into The Defenders, but we don't get the impression there was a very detailed road map early on.
The Defenders kept one long-running Marvel Netflix tradition alive by only obliquely referencing the characters and events of the MCU movies. Even after all this time, fans are lucky to get more than the occasional mention of "The Incident" in these shows. As for a full-fledged team-up between the Defenders and Avengers? Don't hold your breath.
We understand that there are various behind-the-scenes reasons why there isn't more direct interplay between the MCU films and TV series. They may all exist in the same, shared universe, but that connection usually operates as a one-way street. The shows reflect the big developments in the movies, but the movies are generally content to ignore the events of the shows. Plus, it's not exactly easy (or cheap) to bring actors like Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Evans in for a quick small screen cameo.
That all being said, the Avengers are starting to become very conspicuous in their absence. The bigger the scope of the Netflix series, the more bizarre it is that heroes like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Iron Man don't seem to notice the massive ninja battles and giant building implosions happening right under their noses. At the very least, what has Frank Castle been up to that he can't be bothered to lend a hand with the ninja-slaying? Going forward, these shows may need to find a more elegant way of explaining why the Defenders seem to exist in their own, segregated little bubble.
Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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