Earlier last week it was announced that Disney’s Marvel have plans to collaborate with Netflix to produce a collection of Marvel based superhero programming. Each series is said to focus on a specific character: Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. This will supposedly lead to a Defenders miniseries featuring all of the characters.
With the majority of Marvel’s staple names being established on the silver screen already, it seems only natural that Marvel would venture into some of the lesser known characters of their universe. Although well known to us comic book fans, the characters included have not seen much exposure to general media, with only Daredevil having a live-action appearance amongst the cast.
As such, I thought it might be necessary to take a look at the characters included, for people unfamiliar or those wishing to have their minds refreshed.
Let us start with perhaps the least known:
Jessica Jones
Jessica and her family were on their way to Disneyland when her father accidentally drove into an army truck. The radioactive contents of the truck released and spilled itself onto Jessica. Jessica was the only survivor of the crash, but was left in a coma. Despite a bad prognosis, Jessica woke up during a power surge in the hospital after being comatose for six months. She soon discovered that the exposure to the radiation from the truck had granted her superhuman strength. After various stints as a super-heroine and developing distaste for generic superhero aesthetics like the costume, Jessica becomes a private investigator opening up her own agency named Alias.
Jessica Jones debuted in Alias #1. Alias was the first comic series to be published under Marvel’s MAX imprint. The MAX imprint was unique in the fact that it could produce explicit content within its comics. This resulted in a darker, more mature collection of comics, involving violence, foul language, and sexual material. Alias ran for three years producing 28 issues, winning multiple awards and resulted in a follow up series named The Pulse.
Jessica Jones is a highly relatable character. Due to Marvel’s MAX imprint, a more tangible approach was given in Alias to Jessica. The car accident left her with subsequent trauma, which reveals itself throughout Jessica’s image and personality. Themes of depression regularly surface in Jessica’s demeanor, causing her to doubt herself even with her supernatural abilities. It has almost become trivial, that some form of trauma includes itself within the origins of a superhero, yet the longevity and ongoing influence of these themes in some instances are lacking and unbelievable.
Jessica is a most salient exception. Her attributes do not overshadow her past in any sense. Her response to the supernatural is a lot more human. Despite Jessica’s inner demons, she is still eager to make something of herself and is drawn to the world of heroism, opening up her own private investigation agency. Jessica Jones’ extensive and gritty personality is much better suited to television as opposed to film in my opinion. Her perspective can be explored to a much further degree of detail with over 13 hours of screen time as opposed to around 2 in cinema, regardless of whether or not she is a feature character.
Netflix’s current programming and cinematic style is somewhat reminiscent of Alias to begin with. I think Jessica Jones’ will be highly compatible with her transition to television.
Iron Fist
Daniel Rand is the son of businessman Wendell Rand. When Daniel was nine years old, his family, along with Wendell’s business partner Harold Meachum, went on a mountaineering expedition in search of the mystical city of K’un L’un. Wendell had discovered K’un L’un as a boy, and wished to revisit the fabled city which is said to materialize itself in the Himalayas once every decade. Unfortunately a storm arose during the expedition causing Daniel and his mother to fall from a cliff. Despite landing safely on a ledge, they were separated from Wendell, who dangled helplessly from the cliff. Meachum, seeing this as an opportunity to seize Wendell’s business, refused to help Wendell, letting him to fall to his death Scar-style instead. Proclaiming his love Daniel’s mother, he offered to assist the two but they hastily refused choosing to venture into the storm to find escape. The two, becoming lost in the storm, attracted the attention of a pack of wolves. Daniel’s mother opted to sacrifice herself in hopes that Daniel could escape, dying in the process. After what seems to be only a journey filled with despair, Daniel eventually is found by the citizens of K’un L’un and is taken into their hospitality. Daniel trains in K’un L’un for ten years, practicing their native martial arts. Daniel then leaves K’un L’un to exact revenge on Meachum.
Daniel “Danny” Rand is Iron Fist; one of the more prominent characters to arrive during a pop culture trend in the 1970’s martial art based heroes. Iron Fist quickly became a fan favourite, establishing his name in a solo comic self titled “Iron Fist” almost immediately after debuting in Marvel Premiere #15-25 and returning as a feature character within Marvel in many publications to date.
Iron Fist is unconventional in the sense that he did not gain his superhuman attributes innately or through sporadic circumstance. Instead, he had to train himself in the teachings of K’un L’un for many years. Iron Fist utilises and displays a distinctive blend of character; he carries classic martial art ethos portraying an honourable and natured attitude, yet is most unfamiliar with contemporary society as a result of spending his younger years in the other worldly city of K’un-L’un. Despite his heightened mental and spiritual state, this contrast in persona fluctuates in Iron Fist’s personality, and he often questions his adequacy as a hero.
Iron Fist harbours disparate themes and qualities, and Netflix could take him in a number of directions. Most of Iron Fist’s doubts are interestingly not met with angst or depression, but due to his zen like mentality he rather views them as philosophical indifferences. However it will be interesting to see how Netflix injects its gritty reputation into Iron Fist’s chi. His extensive back story will be well suited for television, and with the right choreographic input the Young Dragon’s live action debut could easily be a success.
Luke Cage
Carl Lucas grew up in the streets of Harlem and worked closely with his friend and street partner Willis Stryker. Stryker however, ended up framing Lucas, planting drugs on him after an argument over a woman. The woman, Reva Connors was killed shortly after the ordeal during a mob hit that was intended for Stryker. Lucas, learning of Connors’ death and being sentenced to prison, becomes enraged and gathers notorious fame for his violent tendencies in prison. As a result he was sent to a higher security prison, where experimental procedures were offered in exchange to reduce prisoners’ sentences. Lucas was intended to be given immunity to all illness, but security guards who had felt Lucas’s wrath beforehand decided to intervene with the experiment, inadvertently causing Lucas to gain superhuman strength and steel-hard skin. Lucas broke out of prison and adopted the name Luke Cage. Deciding to use his new found power for mercenary work, he sets up Heroes for Hire, an agency where, as the name implies, one can hire a superhero.
Luke Cage (otherwise known as Power Man) was one of the first African American superheroes to star in his own ongoing comic book series. Originally the series had debuted as Luke Cage, Hero For Hire, but later renamed Power Man. Cage has featured in many publications to date including Alias, Secret War, The Pulse, Daredevil, The New Avengers and having his own joint comic; Power Man And Iron Fist.
The evolution of Luke Cage is fairly intricate and forever flowing. In the early days of Power Man his reeking confidence was established, and displays itself in a constant thread no matter what the publication. His strength and downright “badassery” is undeniable. But it is rather his experiences which take to the tone of the character, bending it and causing themes to transmute. Luke Cage has come a long way from his days embodying a vintage street hustler; he has had several relationships, a marriage, and a child. Whether or not Netflix choose to depict Luke Cage as Power Man or to explore his relationship with Jessica Jones, or both, they have a character of varied potential on their hands.
Daredevil
As a young boy living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood of New York, Matt Murdock was injured trying to save a blind man from oncoming traffic. A radioactive substance fell off the vehicle, causing Matt to ironically become blind himself. However, Matt soon found that his remaining senses were heightened to a superhuman state. Shortly after the accident, Matt’s father, a boxer trying to contribute to Matt’s college funding, was killed when he refused to throw a fight. Matt, with his newly augmented sense of perception, vowed revenge and became the masked vigilante Daredevil.
The man without fear has had substantial influence of the Marvel universe, remaining one of their biggest names to date. Daredevil debuted in the self titled Daredevil #1.The debut propelled the character into a series lasting over 30 years. Daredevil has since appeared in an array of media including a feature length film and various animated series.
Daredevil’s principles ride heavily on his upbringing; living in Hell’s Kitchen for the majority of his life has seen the Guardian Devil familiarise himself with a profound sense of justice. Approaching the unjust as an attorney as well as a vigilante makes for interestingly dynamic individual; his double life creates an influx of dramatic circumstance and emotion. Tragedy has surrounded the hero in a constant wave of anguish from his debut; he was raised alone by his loving but somewhat dysfunctional father who was murdered. And although the character has been subject to change over the years, it is the emotional integrity of the character which makes his original swashbuckling incarnation display itself in small bursts, even with his darker more recent adaptations. I find it likely that Netflix will choose to stay true to Frank Miller’s adaptation of Daredevil, where he is an anti-hero of sorts and protruding themes of guilt and sacrifice are most common.
Which of the four characters are you looking forward to seeing most? Do you think they’ll work well together as the Defenders? Sound off below or send us your thoughts on Twitter!