“At this point, we’re all pretty familiar with the heroes of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Already, we’ve seen three Iron Man films, two Captain Americas, two Avengers, and standalone movies for Thor, Ant-Man, and The Incredible Hulk. The next generation of heroes is on the horizon, but for the most part we know who all the major players are. Things aren’t quite so defined though in terms of Marvel’s TV universe we first got a peek into with Daredevil. The heroes in that world lack the same name recognition as their cinematic counterparts, and in many ways this is exactly what Marvel needs.
The future for Marvel’s Netflix shows is slated to feature individual series for each of Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, before they all join forces with Daredevil for The Defenders, acting as a different brand of superhero team. For all intents and purposes, these characters will largely stay out of Marvel’s movies, while still functioning in the same universe. It creates an intriguing dynamic, and has the potential to be the perfect yin to the MCU’s yang. Why you ask?
1. The heroes of the Defenders will provide us with more grounded storylines;
The conflicts of heroes in the MCU largely consist of universe-level stakes. It’s all building up to the two-part Infinity War, in a story that will decide the fate of reality itself. As we saw in Daredevil though, lowering the stakes doesn’t have to equal a lesser product. Throughout its first season, we watched as our titular hero dismantled a local crime ring piece by piece, leading into a climactic battle with the Kingpin. Our main villain’s priorities were decidedly small in comparison to that of contemporaries like Ultron, and yet still the excitement and tension ran high.
Most every description we’ve seen of the Defenders tells us they’ll be focused mainly on street level crime, acting as the more grounded and realistic counterparts to the bigger picture Avengers. It’ll function as an ideal break from the “universe is going to explode unless we stop it”-level stakes the MCU specializes in, honing in on character development and smaller scale stories instead…”
iLLUMiNA MAGAZiNE 