Defenders Season 1 Overview: Fighting Ninjas To Save New York City

Marvel's "Defenders" unites Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil (Matt Murdock) and Iron Fist (Danny Rand). All have at least one season currently available on NetFlix. Each member brings their unique superpowers to the team. Daredevil is blind but his other senses are extremely enhanced (plus he's a karate expert). Iron Fist has a yellow glowy fist that can cause major damage. He's the least superheroely of the four. Both Jessica and Luke are super strong. Luke is also indestructible. They had a brief relationship but remain cordial. The four join forces to save New York from some mysterious organization that we learn more about as the season progresses.

A very strong supporting cast is back from all four shows. They include: Colleen Wing, Trish Walker, Karen Page, Misty Knight, Foggy Nelson, Malcolm Durcasse and Jeri Hogarth. Scott Glenn reprises the role of Stick from Daredevil. Claire Temple (Rosario Lawson) also appears as she did in each of the stand alone series.

Sigourney Weaver plays a mysterious women named Alexandra Reid. She turns out to be one of the five fingers of the Hand. The Hand is an organization of immortal ninjas that were cast out of the city of K'un Lun many years ago. The other fingers include Madame Gao, Sowande (White Hat), Murakimi , and Bakuto. Alexandra wants Danny to join them but he refuses.

Elektra Natchios is resurrected by Alexandria. Having no memory of her previous life with Daredevil, she now goes by "Black Sky" as is used as a tool of the Hand. Alexandria is eventually killed by Elektra who takes over leadership of the group. Too bad. I wish Sigourney Weaver had more to do on this series. Elekra also offs Stick. Don't mess with that girl!

A series of earth quakes rocks New York. It turns out the Hand is excavating beneath the city to uncover the body of a dragon. Say what??? It is the dragon's remnants that give the fingers their immortality. Long story short, there's a big fight. Daredevil stays behind to fight/play smack face with Elektra. The rest escape. The building blows up. Everyone below is presumed dead. In the final scene we see Matt wake up with a nun by his side. No surprise there. We knew Daredevil wouldnt be killed.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). An OK premiere but it didnt knock my socks off. Fortunately season 1 is just eight episodes so it's a vert quick watch. I just didnt find the Hand story line compelling enough to hold my attention. The interaction among the four leads was fun to watch (although I continue to find Iron Fist irritating). Jessica Jones gets the best snarky lines. One of my favorites is "Look, I dont give a shit what you guys are doing down here in your secret cave-thing".

There are some fun fight scenes-- with the extending underground fight in the finale being the best. A few of the head chopping scenes were fun as well. Misty also loses an arm. And Stick lost a hand but was killed by Elecktra later anyway. If there is a session two I hope they get a better story and create a little more drama for the leads. Yes, I'd like some actual story with my fights. In the meantime, I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Punisher.